God's Word Is Indestructible
By Rev Colin Wong
(Life B-P Church Weekly, 20 Jun 2004)

The Bible is God’s revelation to man. He speaks to man through his Word. It is the only book which reveals the Creator to the creatures he created. No other book that man has conceived can make that statement and support it with facts.

The Bible is unique in its claims, its teaching, and its survival. Today countless people are looking at books of life and death. And many of these books are products of Eastern religion or humanistic philosophy.

In his book "Evidence That Demands A Verdict," Josh McDowell quotes a former professor of Sanskrit who spent 42 years studying Eastern books and said this in comparing them with the Bible: "Pile them, if you will, on the left side of your study table; but place your own Holy Bible on the right side – all by itself, all alone – and with a wide gap between them. For, … there is a gulf between it and the so-called sacred books of the East which severs the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and forever … a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged over by any science of religious thought" ("Evidence That Demands A Verdict," CCC, 1972, p 17).

Skeptics have attacked the Bible and retreated in confusion. Agnostics have scoffed at its teaching, but are unable to produce an intellectually honest refutation. Atheists have denied its validity, but must surrender to its historical accuracy and archaeological verification. Thomas Paine once said, "I have gone through the Bible as a man would go through a forest with an axe to fell trees. I have cut down three after tree; here they lie. They will never grow again." He thought he had demolished the Bible, but since he crawled into a drunkard’s grave in 1809, the Bible has leaped forward as never before.

The Bible, the holy Word of God, has been philosophically persecuted since the time of Christ. The Bible, the inerrant and infallible Word of God, is not only a wonderful book; it is an indestructible Book.

Here are some reasons why the Bible is an indestructible Book.

The Bible is theopneustos (God-breathed). Paul says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16). What is inspiration? "Inspiration is the strong conscious inbreathing of God into men, qualifying them to give utterance to truth. It is God speaking through men" (William Evans). Peter says, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:20, 21). What Peter was saying is this: Holy men of God, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, wrote at his command; thus they were kept from all error as they recorded things known and unknown to them. The writers of the Bible spoke in many ways to indicate that God gave them their information. In the Old Testament alone, phrases like, "The Lord God called to the man;" The Lord God said to the woman;" "God spoke unto Israel;" "The Lord God said to Noah;" "The Lord spoke saying;" "Hear the words of the Lord" occur at least 3000 times. Therefore, "by inspiration we mean the supernatural control of God over the production of the Old and New Testament" (Robert Lee). The Bible is an inspired book, and thus it becomes an indestructible Book.

How do we know that the Bible is authentic? How do we know that the supposed authors actually wrote the Books of the Bible?

A. Authenticated by its Prophetic Accuracy (Isaiah 41:22, 23)

i) Prophecies dealing with Israel

a) She would become a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3)

b) She would spend 400 years in Egypt (Genesis 15:13)

c) She would suffer a civil war (1 Kings 11:31)

ii) Prophecies concerning the Lord’s Ministry

a) He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22, 23)

b) He would be rejected by his own (Isaiah 53:53:3; John 1:11; 7:5)

c) He would be resurrected from the dead (Psalm 16:10; Matthew 28:2-7)

B. Authenticated by Archaeology

i) The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Over two dozen ancient temple towers in Mesopotamia called ziggurats have been excavated.

ii) Moses’ birth (Exodus 2:10). The story of how the Egyptian princess, perhaps the famous Hatshepsut (1504-1482), found Moses in the ark of papyrus is paralleled by Sargon I of Akkad (c. 2350). Moses’ name is apparently Egyptian Mase ("child"), pronounced Mose after the 12th century BC.

Psalm 119:140 says, "Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it." What the psalmist meant is that there is no admixture of error or mistake in the Word. The Word of God has been tested for thousands of years in every possible way and it has always come out pure. Therefore, the Word is always pure in its sense, in its language, in its spirit and in its influence. No wonder the psalmist loved it so dearly.

Now how do we know that the writers of the Bible did not corrupt the truth in the process of recording it? The answer is found in 2 Peter 1:21. He tells us that holy men who wrote were "moved by the Holy Ghost."

"Moved" translates the word pheromenoi. Luke used this word in referring to a sailing vessel carried along by the wind (Acts 27:15, 17). The Scriptures’ human authors were controlled by the divine Author, the blessed Holy Spirit. In other words, they were carried along or driven along by the Holy Spirit. Yet they were consciously involved in the process; they were neither taking dictation nor writing in a state of ecstasy. The Holy Spirit, thus, became a co-author with each human writer of the Bible. And the production of the Holy Scriptures is indeed the very Word of God himself.

In the New Testament we see portions of the Old Testament which were written by various men are assigned to the Holy Spirit as the Author. The only way to account for this phenomenon is to recognize a dual authorship (Mark 12:36; Acts 1:16; 4:24, 25; cf. Psalm 110; 41:2; Hebrews 3:7; 10:15, 16). Commenting on the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, Thomas Watson said, "The two Testaments are the two lips by which God hath spoken to us." John Owen also has a very interesting comment on God’s revelation. He said, "If all the light of the heavenly luminaries had been contracted into one, it would have been destructive, not useful, to our sight…. So, if the whole revelation of the glory of Christ, and all that belongs to it, had been committed into one series and contexture of words, it would have overwhelmed our minds rather than enlightened us. Wherefore God has distributed the light of it through the whole firmament of the books of the Old and New Testament."

Dear Lifer, the Bible is God’s indestructible Word. We believe in the inerrant and infallible Word of God. God’s Word is very pure and it is forever settled in heaven. And this indestructible Word is able to build you up in the most holy faith (Acts 20:32). Therefore, may I strongly encourage you to read it, study it, memorize it and meditate on it every moment of the day.

In God’s providence, He has sent Dr David Allen of the Trinitarian Bible Society to give us five public addresses on the Bible. Please make every effort to come for these night lectures starting from tomorrow night at 7.30 pm at the church sanctuary. Invite your friends to come. Amen. —CW

"As the title set over the head of Christ crucified, was the same in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, so are the Scriptures the same, whether in the original, or other language into which they are faithfully translated. Yet, as the waters are most pure, and sweet in the fountain, so are all writings, Divine and human, in their original tongues" (John Robinson).