PRESERVATION AND INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE BIBLE
INTRODUCTION
1. Every age has had those who have hated God’s word
a. King Jehoiakim - Jer. 36:1-23
b. Killing of prophets - Acts 7:51-53
c. Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts THEM.
2. Yet the Bible ‘LIVES’ - it not only exists, it exists as the LIVING Word of God.
1. The Nature of the Bible renders it indestructible
a. It claims indestructibility -
1. John 10:35
2. Matt. 24:35
3. 1 Pet. 1:25
4. Ps. 119:89
5. Ps. 119:160
6. See also, Isa. 55:11; Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2; 2 Tim. 2:13; and Rom. 3:4
b. It claims to be the Word of God - the revelation of God to mankind.
1. 2500+ times - claims to be ‘God’s words’ - ‘The Lord said", "God spake,", "These are the words of the Lord," etc.
2. Jesus - Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God?" Matt. 22:31
3. 2 Tim. 3:16
4. 2 Pet. 1:21
5. 1 Thess. 2:13
NOTE: if true - cannot reject and be acceptable unto God… If false - then it is a falsehood and all of its writers are liars - standing self condemned.
c. It bears marks of divine origin
1. It’s unity -
a. Of teaching .
b. Of morals…
c. Of ‘purpose’ - the Christ.
2. It’s character
3. It’s fulfilled prophecy - the Word of prophecy made more sure… 2 Pet. 1:19f
YET - Man has attempted to destroy the book…
a. Satan in Gen. 3:4 - perverted the word
b. King Manasseh of Judah (697-642) destroyed all the copies of the law he could find (2Chr. 34-35)
c. King Jehoikim’s pen knife - Jer. 36:32
d. Atiochus Epiphanes, destroyed all the copies of the law he could find - died 3 yrs. Later in disgrace.
e. The emperor Diocletian - 303 AD.
1. destroyed church property and burned as many copies of the bible as he could find. 1000’s of believers perished during this persecution.
2. Within the decade he died (suicide ?) and Constantine reversed the effort - encouraged reading.
f. Pope Lucius III, 1184,
1. excommunicated the Waldenses -
g. 1229, Catholic synod in Toulouse
1. forbade people to have copies of the scripture (except the Psalms and a few verses contained in prayer books).
2. Particularly denounced ALL translations
3. Reformers who promoted bible reading paid with their lives…
a. John Huss - translated the Bible into Bohemian and declared: The Bible, not the church, is the Cristian’s sole authority."
1. first his books were burned -
2. Then Huss was burned alive by the officials of the Catholic church.
b. John Wycliffe - translated the Bible into English (from the Latin Vulgate). 1388
1. Catholic church so fierce in their opposition to having the scriptures in the common language of the people, dug up his bones (some 40 years after his death), had them burned and cast into the River Swift.
c. William Tyndale , 1525
1. translated into English from Greek -
2. Catholic church burned 1000’s of copies of work in a solemn ceremony at the cross of St. Paul’s - as a "burnt-offering most pleasing to Almighty God."
3. Later, burned him at the stake - his dying words: "Lord, open the King of England’s eyes."
h. Bloody Mary - queen of England - ca 1550.
1. ordered Bible printing and distribution to cease - on penalty of death -
2. ended after 5 years, sister Elizabeth reversed the order
i. Voltaire - 1694-1778 (age of Reason)
1. ‘One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker."
2. After his death, the printing press he printed his attacks on was used to print Bibles - and the very house becamse a Bible house for the Geneva Bible Society.
3. 200 years after him, his books sold for 11 cents - while the British government paid the Soviet government $500,000 for the Codex Sinaiticus - an ancient copy of the NT.
j. Thomas Paine - ca 1770
1. Came to America from England in 1774 - encouraged the colonists to declare their independance.
2. Wrote ‘The Age of Reason" - an attack on the Bible and orthodox religion.
3. Though confessed belief in God - his book became known as the ‘Atheist’s Bible)
4. Bragged that "In five years from now there will not be a Bible in America. I have gone through the Bible with an axe and cut down all its trees."
5. 10 years later - few people remembered Thomas Paine - though he was still alive!
6. His last years were as an outcast, and he said: "I would give worlds if I had them, had the Age of Reason never been written".
h. Ernest Renan (1823-1892)
1. led and attack against the Bible and the deity of Christ.
2. In his later years - he turned to the Bible and said: "O man of Galilee, Thou hast conquered, Henceforth no man shall distinguish between Thee and God!"
i. The communist of Europe -
J. The three great American enemies of the Bible would be:
1. The modernists who deny the inspiration and value of the text - (The Jesus Seminar, etc.)
2. The lukewarm Christians - who by their lives and hypocrisy destroy the effectiveness of the Word.
(adapted from Frank J. Dunn - in ‘The Holy Scriptures’, edited by Windell Winkler)