The Problems of the Bible
0N February 13, 1918, in the
closing phases of the first World War, Viscount Allemby, the commander of the
British Army in the Middle East, was outlining to his officers a plan of
frontal attack on the village of Michmash. One of his officers, Major Petrie,
felt sure that he had heard the name Michmash before, but could not remember
where or when. That night he could not sleep, for turning the word over in his
mind.
Michmash, Michmash he mused. At
last it occurred to him. Michmash was the name of a place mentioned in the
Bible. Quickly finding the passage in 1 Samuel 13 and 14, the major rushed to
his superior officer, roused him from sleep, and excitedly pointed out the
verses describing a battle in that very place 3,000 years before.
The Biblical account tells how
Jonathan and his armor bearer climbed up a steep path by two sharp rocks and
subdued the Philistines in their rocky stronghold. The general decided it was
worth investigating, and sent out scouts at once to check on the accuracy of
the Bible description. When the scouts located the sharp rocks and other
landmarks, they reported their findings.
The commander and major studied
the Bible account more carefully, and that night changed their plan of attack.
The next morning a small detachment of British soldiers followed Jonathan’s
route, surprised the Turks, and routed them with ease.
Just how often the Bible has
provided an exact plan for successful attack and victory on a literal
battlefield, I don’t know, but the Bible has certainly meant personal power
for victorious living. It has certainly meant peace of mind in the time of
trial, and strength to meet every crisis, and hope for the future.
And much more than all that, only
eternity will reveal how many times the Bible has made possible victory over
temptation and sin. There is power in the Book of God. We read that the gospel
“is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.” Romans
1:16.
Some time ago, a skeptic, speaking
of the Bible, said that it was quite impossible in these days to believe in
any book whose authority was unknown. A Christian asked him if the compiler of
the multiplication table was known. “Oh, no,” the skeptic answered. “Then,
of course, you wouldn’t believe in it.” “Oh, yes, I would,” said the
skeptic, “I believe in it because it works.” “And so does the Bible,”
replied the Christian.
The Apostle Paul declared, “I
can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” There
is also beauty in the Book of God, One writer has well said, “Any author
would give his right eye to have written those wonderful words in Psalm
139:9,10. “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall
hold me.”
“Let all the heathen writers
join
To form one perfect book.
Great God, if once compared with
Yours,
How mean their writings look!
“Not the most perfect rules they
gave,
Would show one sin forgiven;
Nor lead one step beyond the
grave,
But Yours conducts to heaven.”
There are too many people
concerned about the things in the Bible they cannot understand. They become so
disturbed over these things that they are unable to obtain the blessings found
in the easily understood truths that God has revealed. Remember, Christian
experience and Bible knowledge are progressive, like the growth of a
child.
How little a child knows when he
first starts to go to school! There is so much to learn that he would soon
become confused if he were too much concerned about the things that he didn’t
know. He must first learn the simple facts of addition and subtraction before
he can grapple with multiplication and division. He must first master these
and then other knowledge will be mastered in turn. Similarly, while the
Christian should continually seek for advancement in the knowledge of
spiritual truths, his mind should be intent upon those things that he already
knows. He should be more concerned about living up to the things he knows and
understands than about the things that he does not know, and probably never
will know in this life.
Not all that is in the Bible is
perfectly understandable. It is a Book that rewards earnest thought and deep
study. Its truths do not all lie on the surface. Nevertheless there are truths
that can be understood by simple minds. You remember Christ intimated that
many things that He taught could be understood by babes, even though the
worldly wise passed them off as mysteries. There are difficulties in the
Bible, but since when is difficulty in comprehending a thing proof that it is
false? Should we, because we cannot fully comprehend the nature of electricity
conclude that to use electricity is folly, and therefore have it disconnected
from our houses?
Because no one can explain the
phenomena of sight, should we conclude that sight is of no value? Because the
process by which our bodies assimilate food has never been fully understood,
should we refuse to eat?
The Bible not only has
difficulties but recognizes its own difficulties, and even adds a caution in
regard to them-a caution much needed at this time. St. Peter declares that St.
Paul’s Epistles contain some things which are “hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest as they do also the
other Scriptures unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3: 16.
In the Bible there are things that
are hard to be understood, and when the infidel approaches us with
difficulties, we need not be either surprised or alarmed, for the Bible says
that they are there, and for us to say that they are not there would be to
deny the Bible. The only thing that concerns us is whether we “wrest them to
our own destruction.”
Let us always be on guard against
the conclusion that since we cannot solve certain difficulties, they are
therefore beyond solution. This inference savors so strongly of pride as to be
utterly repugnant to the spirit of true scholarship.
The Bible is a wonderful Book.
None other has been studied so much or called forth a tithe of the criticism
that this Book has engendered. No other book has ever stimulated intellectual
activity like the Bible. On the battlefield of truth, it has ever been around
this Book that the conflict has raged. In fact the very multitude of infidel
books attacking its veracity is a witness to its power to stimulate the
intellect.
Why should we not see the same
amount of intellectual activity challenging the other so-called holy books of
the East? Never a book spoke like the Bible. No other book comes home to the
heart and the conscience with light, power, and healing as does this wonderful
Book. It teaches men how to live; it gives them courage in the face of death.
A well-known infidel is said to
have exclaimed in his last moments, “I am about to take a leap in the dark.”
Cast the Bible aside, and every man at death takes a leap in the dark. In the
language of another writer: “Weary human nature lays its head on the Bible’s
breast, or it has nowhere to lay its head.”
Travelers on the brink of the dark
and terrible valley which parts the land of the living from the untried
hereafter, either take the Bible or they wander into gloom without hope. They
who look their last on the beloved dead listen to this voice of comfort and
hope and peace, or else death is no uplifting of everlasting doors and no
unfolding of everlasting arms, but only an enemy, a blackness of darkness for
ever.
Dr. H. A. Kelly has well said, “I
have never in my whole life met a man who really knows the Bible and who has
rejected it. The difficulty has always been an unwillingness to give it an
honest trial. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said: “You will not come unto
Me, that you might have life.”
Christ accepted the Bible in His
day without any comment or question; and Christians of this day need not fear
to accept the Bible that Jesus believed and taught.
When Columbus saw the South
American coast where the River Orinoco meets the sea, a member of his party
said to him that they had discovered a new island. Columbus replied, “No
such river as that flows from an island. That mighty torrent must drain the
waters of a continent. Just so, the Bible comes not from the empty hearts of
impostors, liars, and deceivers. It springs from the eternal depths of divine
wisdom, love, and grace. It certainly is the transcript of the divine mind,
the unfolding of the divine purpose, the revelation of the divine will.
The Moderator of the Presbyterian
Church, at the coronation, gave our Sovereign Queen Elizabeth the Word of God
saying, “Our gracious Queen, we present you with this Book, the most
valuable thing this world affords. Here is wisdom. This is the royal law.
These are the living oracles of God.” May God help us to receive it, to
believe it, and to be saved through Christ Jesus our Lord.
IT is interesting to discover that
the early history and folklore of most nations contain some reference to the
creation of this world, the garden of Eden, the fall of man, and the Flood. It
is also apparent that from the beginning, people have been looking forward to
a better land.
We all long for something better.
God planned a better world, but the realization of that plan has been hindered
by evil. We read in Revelation 21: 4 that ultimately “God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are
passed away.”
The time is coming when our God
will make all things new, including the world itself. Then it will be in truth
“the days of heaven upon the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:21. We really have
something wonderful to look forward to, for no matter how dark the things are
in this world, there is a bright, beautiful day coming.
If we could see that beautiful
land of tomorrow pictured on a television screen we would be thrilled. But if
we are faithful to Christ, we shall see it in reality. The Scriptures have a
great deal to say about the better land, especially about the city of the
skies, the capital of the wonderful world of tomorrow.
Some people read about it and say,
“Oh, it must be just spiritual or symbolic. It can’t be real.” But why
can’t it be real? The earth we live on now is real. We are real, are we not?
Of course it will be different, but we are never told in the Bible that it
will not be real. The earth was real in the beginning before sin entered. Why
will it not be real when sin is gone? Our Savior certainly was real after His
resurrection, and when He comes again we “shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is.” 1 John 3: 2.
We read in Revelation 21: 2-4 that
the city of the skies is the New Jerusalem, and that someday it will descend
to this earth. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I
heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God
Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
away.”
This earth, once the place of man’s
shameful fall, is to become the resting place of the city of God. This earth,
once bedewed with great drops of blood which fell from our Savior’s brow in
the dark garden of Gethsemane, will enjoy God’s presence, for it is said
that He will dwell among men.
There, “God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes.” He will do this by removing all cause for tears.
Lonely, weary, and often hungry, Christ walked the rough and thorny byways of
this world, but He holds something better in reserve for His blood-bought
people. If God had nothing better to offer the redeemed than this sin-stained
world then He would be ashamed to be called our God; but the Scripture says
“He hath prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:16.)
Down through the ages, men have
been building cities. They have been building palaces, but the hand of time
has ever been busy sweeping these away, until our world is strewn with the
wreckage of ruined cities and human habitations. But, there is to be revealed
a city whose Builder and Maker is God. Only the divine Architect can build an
enduring habitation.
That city is to be the capital of
the new world-the home of the redeemed. While ancient Babylon, unequalled in
wealth and magnificence, had walls of baked bricks, the city of God has walls
of jasper. Babylon had stone streets, but the city of our God has streets of
gold.
Babylon had gates of brass, but
the New Jerusalem has gates of luminous pearls. Babylon was built on a square
measuring fifteen miles on each side, but the capital of the new world will
stand on a square of at least 375 miles on each side.
Sickness and death have cast their
shadows over all earthly cities, but of the holy city, we read, “The
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.” Isaiah 33: 24. There the links of
friendship will never be broken, for the power of death, that cruel destroyer,
will never again be known. Eternity crowns all its glories and there will be
pleasures for evermore.
In all his works, man has vainly
endeavored to approach the eternal, but humanity’s monuments have crumbled
and all its gardens are withered. Its empire capitals and lordly mansions have
shared the ultimate fate of the humble cottage. In the year AD 79, Pompeii
went down in its mantle of burning dust; in 1755 Lisbon was shaken to pieces
by an earthquake. In 1789 Paris was painted red with fire and blood; in 1871
Chicago went down in a sheet of flame that swallowed up £100 million worth of
treasures. In more recent years, the destruction of modern cities by aerial
bombardment is too vividly remembered to need mention.
But what of the future? Men may
insure their palaces, but that insurance will not count with heaven. The
divine sentence of doom still reads: “The cities of the nations fell.”
Revelation 16: 19. Yes, the cities of the nations will fall, but the
jewel-founded city of God will never go down. Time cannot bring decay or rust
there; disease will find no place there; tears will be for ever wiped
away.
The hands of its immortal
inhabitants will be clasped in friendships that will never be broken. Their
hearts will respond to a joy that will never be lessened by sorrow, for it is
written: “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are
pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16: 11.
Now what about the city’s size?
Is it big enough? Will it accommodate the millions of the saved? Revelation
21: 15-18 states: “And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure
the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lies
foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the
city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and
forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the
angel. And the- building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was
pure gold, like unto clear glass.”
Twelve thousand furlongs! Think of
it, friends. Eight furlongs to a mile, that would equal 1,500 miles. If this
measurement is the entire circumference of the city, as some suggest, the New
Jerusalem would be 375 miles on each side. If we understand the 12,000
furlongs to be the length of one side of the city only, then the walls would
surround 2,250,000 square miles. From either standpoint, there is room for all
the people who ever lived on the earth, from the days of Adam to the present,
should every one of them be saved.
We read that the length and
breadth and height of the city are equal. This may properly be defined as “in
proportion.” It would be strange if, when the walls are only 144 cubits, or
264 feet in height, the city itself would actually be as high as it is long
and wide. However, someone has given us the following facts:
If the city is a square, 1,500
miles each way, it encloses 21 million square miles. Now allowing
threequarters of the city for its streets of gold, parks, the river of life,
the throne, and courts of God, there would still be plenty of room left. If
you allow 4,000 cubic feet to a room, there would be room enough for 50
million million people, which would be 50,000 times as many as have ever lived
on this earth. And so, according to this computation, if all the inhabitants
of the earth were saved, each could have a mansion of 50,000 rooms. Is there
room enough? Yes, indeed. Room enough for all the saved, for the angelic host,
and for those happy inhabitants of unfallen worlds who will visit the city not
built with hands.
We, however, should not picture
the redeemed merely as city dwellers. We are told that from the New Jerusalem
they will go forth on the face of the re-created earth where they shall build
houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of
them.” Isaiah 65: 21.
Theirs will largely be an outdoor
life amidst the beauties of nature, with endless opportunities for research
into the mysteries of natural science. The Scriptures say that “from one
Sabbath to another, and from one new Moon to another shall all flesh worship
Me said the Lord.” Isaiah 66: 23. It is upon such occasions that the
redeemed will occupy their city mansions.
The twelve foundations of this
city are of precious stones arranged like the spectrum of a rainbow, only more
complex. Upon these rest the walls of jasper, transparent to allow the
different colored rays of light to pass through.
The twelve mighty gates of pearl
must be wholly for beauty, because they are never shut. Like God’s grace and
mercy, they open towards all points of the compass, and they are open for
evermore; but no one will ever pass through those gates of pearl who has not
previously passed through the narrow gate of repentance. Only the obedient,
through Christ’s abundant grace, will enter there. We can say with the
Apostle John, as he saw the redeemed come home: “Blessed are they that do
His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter
in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14.
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