The Bible is superior in many ways to what is written by uninspired people whose books and articles fill libraries, magazines, and newspapers that the world may read. Since literary superiority is in some ways subjective, it is appropriate to note what some of the great figures and writers of history have to say about it. “Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French writer and skeptic, admitted: ‘I must confess to you that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me . . .’” (qtd. in Dickson 393). Charles Dickens said, “The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world” (qtd. in Halley 19). Daniel Webster said, “If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures” (Halley 18). In similar vein, John Ruskin wrote, “Whatever merit there is in anything that I have written is simply due to the fact that when I was a child my mother daily read me a part of the Bible and daily made me learn a part of it by heart” ( 18). John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary, “I have made it a practice for several years to read the Bible through in the course of every year” (September 26, 1810). Patrick Henry said of the Bible, “This is a Book worth all other books which were ever printed” (qtd. in Kimball 82). Robert E. Lee said, “The Bible is a book in comparison [to] which all others are of minor importance” (qtd. in Kimball 82). Woodrow Wilson wrote, “A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of this, a knowledge of the Bible” (83). And Sir William Jones said, “the Bible contains more true sensibility, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from other books in whatever age or language they may be written” (83).
Read More“…And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.” (Mark 16:17-20)
The above verses have been a textual and doctrinal battleground for centuries. Set in the context of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus (Mark 16:1-13), i.e. “after he was risen” (Mark 16:14), and connected with the assignment of the Great Commission (Mark 16:15-16), it should come as no surprise that the authenticity of this crucial text has often been challenged. In this article, the authenticity of this text, as a part of the sacred canon, is assumed. However, that these verses, and the others which compose the so-called “long ending” of Mark’s gospel account, are genuine, has been unequivocally proved to be the case. [See the following: Varner, W. Terry, “Is Mark 16:9-20 Fraudulent or Genuine?” 2001 West Virginia School Of Preaching Lectureship; Burgon, John W. The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to St. Mark. Reprint: Faith and Facts, n.d.; Warren-Ballard Debate on the Plan of Salvation. Jonesboro: National Christian, Printing 1979.]
Read MoreDown through the centuries since it has been written, there have been varied reactions to the Bible. Let us consider three basic attitudes toward the Bible. Some have hated it. Others have been indifferent to it. And still others have loved it and have tried diligently to live by its teaching.
First, some men have hated the Bible because it condemns their false teaching and their wicked lives. In the Bible itself is found the story of a king who so hated the Word of God that he both cut and burned it (Jeremiah 36:1-23). In later centuries, various men have paid with their lives for the hatred which others had for the Bible. Even today, in the [twenty-first] century, there are those who hate the Bible. They hate it, as did men of old, because of its condemnation of their wickedness and because of its demand that men submit themselves to the will of God (1 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Read MoreWhile researching some historical background concerning the initial publication of Thomas B. Warren’s book, A Sun and Shield, I discovered another book that was published the same year (1963). The discovered book has a connection with the original publication of A Sun and Shield and is titled Christ, Our Contemporary—The Pepperdine Bible Lectures of August 1962 and March 1963.
Read MoreWe can know some things:
1) . . . that I exist (Psalm 139:1-24)
2) . . . that external objects exist (Psalm 8:3-9)
3) . . . that other minds exist (Mark 2:6-8; Romans 14:3)
4) . . . that cause and effect occurs (Hebrews 3:4)
5) . . . that I can know some very crucial things (Luke 1:4; John 8:32)
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Most astute observers of the contemporary religious scene agree that Protestantism in general is losing most of its ability to greatly influence the lives of any appreciable number of people. The reason for this seems obvious (and this reason is being recognized by an increasing number of Protestants themselves). This reason is: Protestantism long ago quit really standing for anything. It has been overtaken and now seems about to be submerged by liberalism of various sorts.
Read MorePrior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, I read an extremely interesting article about the delivery of 50,000 free copies of the New Testament to the USSR. This mass distribution of the Scriptures included 10,000 copies made available at the Moscow Book Fair. People, standing in long lines, waited for as long as two hours to receive a free copy of the New Testament. When the people saw that only a couple thousand copies remained, the crowd went out of control. Policemen had to be utilized to settle the crowd. Finally, when all the New Testaments had been taken, and several thousand people were left standing without a copy, addresses of those people were requested. In two days, 26,000 addresses were submitted, and all received by mail their New Testament!
Read MoreSome Introductory Matters
The Bible teaches that men should “prove all things,” and “hold fast” to that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This means simply that men should draw only such conclusions as are warranted by the evidence which the Bible (the word of God, 2 Timothy 3:16-17) provides. This means that men’s conclusions must be the conclusions of sound arguments: that is, men should draw only such conclusions as are a part of arguments which are valid and have true premises.
There are a number of reasons why students of the Bible should recognize and honor the Law of Rationality: (1) the way the Bible is written demands that such be the case, (2) specific instances of Bible characters u sing the Law of Rationality demand that such be the case, and (3) the specific passages in the Bible (which teach in various ways) demand that such be the case.
Read MoreOn September 17, 1787, 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall stepped forward to put their signatures to a document they had framed during the preceding four months. This defining moment in the life of the new nation has drawn the interest of artists across the centuries who have depicted the scene with varying degrees of success.
Read MoreMost of us are familiar with the 40 days Jesus spent with His disciples before His ascension back to Heaven, to reside at the Father’s “right hand.” During this period of 40 days, He reportedly gave His disciples much in the way of additional evidence for His Deity, which was called many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3), and which was rendered “many convincing proofs” by the NASB, or simply “many proofs” by the ESV. In 1886, Arthur T. Pierson wrote a book (one of his 50 during his lifetime) entitled, Many Infallible Proofs (New York/Chicago: Revell 1886). The book focused on evidences for Christianity, from essentially the Scriptures and the character of Christ.
Read MoreThe above title was used at the head of a letter recently written to our daily newspaper by Lewis Maiden, . . . who is our Southeastern News Editor, and a professor at David Lipscomb College. We are sharing this letter to the Editor with the Advocate readers because we believe it is so timely. The letter states:
Read MoreIntroduction. I believe the Bible because it is the inspired revelation from the Creator of the universe to man (highest of creation besides angels). Notice the various components of this affirmation: (1) the Bible is inspired; (2) the Bible is revelation; (3) there is only one Creator; and (4) that Creator’s greatest concern is man, His highest creation. Furthermore, not only do I believe that the Bible is that one inspired communication from God to man, but that assertion is provable. The honest seeker of truth can logically come to this conclusion without having to take a “leap in the dark”; that is to say, one is not obligated to arrive at conclusions in the absence of sufficient evidence.
Read MoreIn two major literary publications separated by nearly 35 years, Kenneth L. Woodward, former longtime religion editor of Newsweek, implied the stark reality of the state of America’s culture concerning its present relationship with the Bible. Woodward, who contributed nearly 100 cover stories for Newsweek, wrote one of those stories in 1982 titled “The Bible in America.” More than three decades later (2016) Woodward’s book, Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama, was published. Both the Newsweek article and Getting Religion are about the influence of religion in America.
Read MoreAs human beings, men, women, boys, and girls face many kinds of problems. Some of these problems are very important indeed. We want and we need not merely an answer to some of these questions; we need the answer—God’s answer to them! And we can all be thankful to Him that He has given us His answer to every really important question we face.
Read MoreIt is a fact that America’s earliest colleges and universities were established with “the goal of educating students by using Scripture as the foundation for their intellectual and spiritual development” (Thomas, America’s Expiration Date 146).
William F. Buckley’s 1951 book, God and Man at Yale, is a classic critique of the anti-Bible agenda Buckley saw unfolding at Yale during his undergraduate years (1946-1950). The agenda included the subversion of the Bible and the Christian religion, as well as the subversion of economic individualism, all done in exchange for atheism, agnosticism, socialism, and communism.
Read MoreOn five consecutive Wednesday nights in the late Summer 1941, former British atheist turned theist, C. S. Lewis, delivered five memorable radio talks broadcast from London. The first talk was broadcast August 6. The last talk was delivered September 3. The fourth talk, delivered August 27, was originally titled, “What Can We Do About It?” It now appears in Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, under the title “We Have Cause to Be Uneasy.”
The times were dark. Hopelessness was increasing. Britain and France had declared war against Germany September 3, 1939. Large audiences tuned in weekly to hear Lewis’ talks
Read MoreLogic is the science of valid reasoning. It is not mere wishing. It is not mere thinking. It is not mere wrangling. Logic has to do with inference—that is, the inferring of what is implied by explicit statements. It raises the question, "Do the premises of this argument imply the conclusion of this argument?" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Some people think very seldom—if at all—specifically about logic; that is, they do not say such things as, "Let me show you the sound argument which proves that Proposition X is true." However, every one who is intelligent enough to be accountable for what he does is a logician. And most people are "pretty good" logicians, even though they have never formally studied logic in any college or university.
Read MoreFor the last 45 years, this writer has experienced an annual event with a rich history dating much longer than the time he has been influenced by it. For 71 years, since 1949, an annual used book sale has occurred every November in downtown Parkersburg, WV. Unfortunately, like numerous other events scheduled for this year, Trinity Used Book Sale has been cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic that originated in modern China governed by the atheistic Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
It is estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 books are sold annually during this used book sale. Personally, between one and two thousand volumes have been purchased during parts of five decades. Most of these purchased at very meager prices (i.e. 54 volume set of Great Books of the Western World at fifty cents per volume, et al.). Several articles could be written about the book treasures discovered these many years during the first full week of November.
Read More Inspiration guarantees the written records will carry out the purposes for which they were intended. The doctrine of inspiration provides an assurance that divine authority stands behind the words of Scripture. We should be careful that our understanding of inspiration accords with the characteristics of the documents accepted as inspired and does not impose a preconceived idea on them.
The book of Hebrews sets forth the divine chain of authority: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:1-2; NRSV).
The writer continues, “Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will” (Heb. 2:1-4).
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