The Old Book That Is Up to Date
IT has been roughly estimated that already 95 per cent of the earth’s inhabitants may be reached by the gospel in the language in which some portion of the Bible has been translated. This is the Book that speaks to all mankind. While the Bible was born in the East and is clothed very largely in Oriental form and imagery, still it walks in the ways of all the world with familiar feet. It enters land after land to find its own everywhere.
“It claims no climate, shuns no race
While centuries depart;
It finds a home in every place
And speaks to every heart.”While the Bible not only has reached every place and speaks to mankind in every land, it has also stood the test of every age. On the other hand, modern scientific discoveries have wrought havoc among the ancient systems of thought, and the errors of the pagan philosophers are made more manifest, as specialists in the various fields of science proceed with their investigations. The so-called scientific theories of the pagans of bygone days are being demolished by the discoveries of our modern age.
For instance, the ancients had many misconceptions in regard to the shape of the earth. Some of the illustrious Greeks thought that the earth was the shape of a table, while others maintained it was egg-shaped. The ancient Egyptians imagined the whole universe to be a large box with the earth forming the bottom of the box. The ancient Persians held that the earth was flat, shaped like a warrior’s shield, while in Central America they taught that the earth was a large square block. The ancient pagan peoples had also many strange ideas concerning the suspension of the earth.
For instance, in the Hindu mind it was supposed to be supported on the backs of four elephants, which in turn were supported on the back of a giant turtle which swam about within the celestial crystal sphere.
Some of the ancient astronomers of Greece taught that the earth stood on pillars, others said it rested on the shoulders of the famous giant, Atlas.
Some people have thought that the Holy Bible is merely the production of the combined wisdom of these ancient philosophers of paganism. But that couldn’t be so, for the Bible contains none of these notorious pagan blunders. While the ancients had many misconceptions with regard to the shape of the earth, the Bible plainly stated that the earth was round:
“It is He [God] that sits upon the circle of the earth.” Isaiah 40:22. Isaiah, 2,700 years ago, declared that the earth-was a circle or sphere. Solomon added his testimony by stating that God set a compass, or as the margin says, a circle, upon the face of the deep.
Long before the days of Columbus the Bible stated that the earth was round. When pagan philosophers were advancing all kinds of theories, the Bible stated truths that today science is confirming. Sir Isaac Newton is known as the discoverer of the law of gravitation; but 3,500 years ago the Bible declared that the earth was hung on nothing. “He [God] stretches out the north over the empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing.” Job 26: 7.
Paul has stated in Hebrews 1:2,3: “He made the worlds; . . . upholding all things by the word of His power.” The passing years have certainly not overthrown this precious old Bible of ours.
“Time’s finger cannot dim its page,
No foe can cloud its might.
The ages pass-from age to age
It shines more clear, more bright”Consider some of the wonders of science that are revealed in the Bible, wonders that were revealed thousands of years ago. One of the fundamental laws of modern science is that life comes only from the living; but this principle was announced in the Bible thousands of years ago. In the first and second chapters of Genesis, we have the record of creation, where it says that everything should reproduce after its kind. It took the living God to create life, and subsequent life comes only from life.
The Bible states a fact when it says that God created every living thing. (Genesis 1: 24, 25.) In Genesis 1: 27 we read that God created man in His own image. This was the origin of mankind. The Bible says: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.” Genesis 2: 7.’ Science says that the earth consists of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, phosphorus, calcium, and other elements.
Laboratory analysis has proved that man is composed of these very same elements which exist in the earth. The sun which brings light to the earth and makes life possible is used in the Bible as a symbol of Jesus Christ. In Malachi 4: 2, we read of the wonderful day when the Sun of righteousness will arise “with healing in His wings.” Modern science has proved that the sun is a source of health, that in its ultraviolet radiation there is healing, and that these rays are important to the physical life of man. Literally, the sun has healing in its beams. This was discovered by scientists about 100 years ago.
The circulation of the blood was not known until Sir William Harvey, the great English physician, discovered it in the year 1660. Up to that time it was believed that air was carried through the arteries of the body. That is why the name arteries or “air tubes” was given to them. But blood has been circulating through them since the creation of man. Three thousand years before Harvey’s discovery, Moses had written in Leviticus 17:14: “For it [the blood] is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof.” No cell can grow in the human body without blood.
Long ago, sterilization was mentioned in the Bible. “Everything that may abide the fire you shall make it go through the fire and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abides not the fire you shall make go through the water.” Numbers 31: 23. In other words, in order to be cleansed things had to go through fire or through water.
You see these principles of public health all through the Bible in the most startling way. Though the Bible originated in the East, one can travel through the East today and can see that these simple principles of sterilization and health are still unknown there. There is only one explanation as to where these sound principles and this wonderful knowledge came from, as recorded in the Bible: it came by divine inspiration. “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The Bible also pictures the earth as being stored with fire or heat. Away back in Job 28: 5 we read: “As for the earth, out of it comes bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.” The earth gets warmer as man digs into it at the rate of I degree Fahrenheit for every fifty-five feet of descent. In 2 Peter 3: 7, "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” The earth is stored with fire. This thought is impressed very vividly in one’s mind as one visits the great thermal regions in this earth or beholds the great volcanoes in action.
Above us, the starry heavens show the work of an Almighty hand, for: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Psalm 19:1. And, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33: 6. We see these things about us. We cannot deny them. The existence of the earth, of man, of the animal creation, of the heavens above, proves to us that there was and is a Creator.
The Bible is proved true; therefore, why should we not believe this great Book when it tells us of other things. When it tells us “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures”? 1 Corinthians 15: 3. Why should we not believe this? Why should we not also believe that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”? Why should we riot obey the Scriptures which tell us to repent and confess our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized and obey His Word?
The Bible was given, not that we should have arguments about its accuracy, but that we should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. “But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name.” John 20: 31.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
WHILE in Jerusalem I had the privilege of spending some time with the director of the Jerusalem Museum examining the Hebrew Bible scrolls that were discovered in caves near the Dead Sea. As I saw some of the archeological discoveries that either establish the reliability of the Bible text or furnish an historical background that is a great aid to a correct understanding of the events described in the Bible, I was impressed with the thought that unbelief or ignorance of its teachings is inexcusable.
I saw the jars that had held the original manuscripts and the linen which had been wrapped around these precious documents. I handled and examined fragments of the Bible manuscripts of Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah. These are carefully placed between two sheets of glass where they are fitted together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Some of these manuscripts date back to the fourth century BC. I especially remember handling an old manuscript in the Phoenician script that had been written some 400 years before Christ.
As the director of the Jerusalem Museum assured us that they had found manuscripts or fragments of all the books of the Old Testament, I asked him if there was any difference between these ancient manuscripts and our present Bible. He quickly answered, “There is virtually no difference. In practically all things they are exactly the same as the Authorized Version. (the KJV) You can take that for certain,” he assured me personally.
These manuscripts are coming from the Wilderness of Judea, and it is certain there are more to discover, as the district is full of caves. The discovery of these Biblical manuscripts has certainly turned the and Dead Sea region into an archeologist’s paradise.
An official report of the scientific excavations of the first cave was published recently. In this work 971 manuscript fragments are published, of which 964 are photographic reproductions. These fragments come from eleven Old Testament books and several non-Biblical Jewish writings. Though they do not provide much text material in point of quantity, they certainly give a good picture of the nature of the Bible text as it existed in the time when these manuscripts were written, in the last centuries before Christ and the first century of the Christian era.
It is interesting to note that in February, 1955, an official announcement was made by the Government of the State of Israel that four scrolls that had been the property of St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem and which had been stored in America ,since 1948, had been purchased by Israel. The price paid for the scrolls was £120,000. This shows clearly how valuable these documents are.
Since the discovery of the first cave in 1947, the manuscript material found in the Dead Sea region has increased greatly. Several more caves have been discovered, and many manuscript fragments have come to light. Cave Number Four has proved to be the most important so far discovered, for it has provided thousands of manuscripts belonging to more than a hundred Biblical and non-Biblical works, among which all the Old Testament books are represented. All this material is in the Archeological Museum in Jerusalem, where French, English, Polish, German, and American scholars are working hard deciphering, assembling, and preparing the fragments for publication.
Already it is possible to draw a number of conclusions from these discoveries. First and foremost I would say the most valuable finding is that the Old Testament text has experienced virtually no alteration during the past 2,000 years. The text of the Dead Sea scrolls is for all practical purposes identical with the Hebrew Bible on which all modern translations are based.
Here is an interesting statement made by Professor Frank M. Cross, who is a member of the permanent staff working on the Dead Sea scrolls. He says, “Not only in Isaiah, but in other prophetic books, indeed in the entire Old Testament, we must now assume that the Old Testament text was stabilized early, and that late recessional activities were only of slight effect. This conclusion, of course, powerfully supports textual scholars of conservative persuasion.” - The Christian Century, August 11, 1955, page 920.
This pronouncement coming from one who, has such an intimate knowledge of this mass of unpublished material, can be added to the statements concerning the reliability of the Bible text, which had been made by several scholars shortly after the discovery and publication of the Isaiah scroll.
It can safely be said that the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls has been one of the most important discoveries ever made in the field of Bible archeology. They therefore have great importance in strengthening the confidence of Bible readers in the integrity of the Old Testament.
These discoveries will also prove of value in other directions. For instance, many of the non-Biblical works shed very interesting light on the thinking of the Jews in the time of Christ and the apostles.
The result is that many of the scholars expect that the Dead Sea scrolls will exert an even more definite influence on the New Testament studies than on the Old Testament. Whether this will be the case or not, it is a little early to say. (See articles on the Dead Sea Scrolls)
During the past few years excavations have uncovered the location of the community which produced these priceless documents. Lying only a few miles south of Jericho, the ruins of this site have been known for many years, but have never been touched by the spade of the archeologist.
The excavations have now revealed that this site contains the ruins of the headquarters of the Essenes, a Jewish group living in the Dead Sea region. Although this sect is never mentioned in the Bible it played a great role in the religious thinking of the Jews at the time when Christianity was born.
I was very interested in some of the things discovered in these excavations. I have seen the old stone tables on which they wrote their manuscripts. I have also seen and handled the old bronze and baked clay inkpots that they used to hold their ink while writing these manuscripts, and one also sees the bowls that they probably used to wash their hands before they would write the word God, for so particular were the old Jewish scribes that they would never dare to write the word God without first washing their hands.
In a recent presidential address to the Victoria Institute, London, Sir Frederick G. Kenyon, who was at one time head of the manuscript department at the British Museum, gave a very heartening review of the manner in which, during the past half century or so, the critics and opponents of the Bible had been decisively defeated, while the authenticity and trustworthiness of the Scriptures have been triumphantly established.
I quote his words: “In the latter years of the nineteenth century the champions of Christianity were mainly on the defensive. Natural science was in the heyday of the progress which took its rise in the discoveries and doctrine of Darwin. At the same time within the sphere of religious study itself a school of thought asserted itself which questioned the authenticity and trustworthiness of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and applied the utmost freedom of skepticism to their narratives. Against this attitude the state of our knowledge of Biblical archeology did not supply arguments which could effectively convince those who did not wish to be convinced. The advocates of the Christian faith fought at a disadvantage and were on the defensive. Now all this is changed, and the point which I want to make is that we are no longer on the defensive. It is no longer the Christian scholar who is out of date. The up-to-date scholars are now those who recognize the authenticity and authority of the Christian literature. It is the critics who formerly claimed to be advanced, who are now belated and behind the times.”
We may rejoice in the great evidence that our God has given us in these last days, of the truthfulness of the Bible. We would do well to remember that if God thought it worth while to give us the Book, it is worth our while to seek to fathom its depths and to saturate our thinking with its truths. So, read the Bible to be wise, believe it to find satisfaction, and practice it to enjoy fullness of life.
