HOW THEN SHALL WE RECOVER OUR
BIBLICAL MIND
By
Jerry Falwell
INTRODUCTION
My good friend, Francis Schaeffer wrote a challenging book entitled How Then Shall We Live? which challenged us to ground our daily living in the Word of God. Schaeffer warned America that it was losing its Biblical foundation. What he predicted has come to pass. America has lost its Biblical moorings. Listen to what the Barna Research Group has said:
• 1 out of 4 Americans can correctly identify John 3:16.
• 1 out of 5 Americans can correctly define the Gospel.
• 1 out of 3 Americans read their Bible regularly.
• 1 out of 3 Americans believe in a literal Hell.
• 4 out of 10 Americans cannot name half of the 10 Commandments.
• 4 out of 10 Americans cannot name one of the four Gospels.
• Only 1 out of 10 Americans can identify the Great Commission.
• 4 out of 10 Americans believe that Jesus sinned.
These statistics are so discouraging, that many people want to give up teaching the Bible. But I would like to ask, “Shall we then give up?” If we then give up, we give in to the world, the flesh and the Devil. Christians seem to know much less knowledge about the Bible than in previous generations. The average man on the street knows less about the Bible than ever before. I have taken a page out of Francis Schaeffer’s book to call this sermon How Then Shall We Recover Our Biblical Mind?. Why do we need to recover? Because America has lost something it once had; America has lost its way of thinking Biblically.
Chuck Swindoll spoke at a recent Liberty graduation and said,
“The greatest need in our times is for God’s people to be Biblically literate.” I could not agree more.
AMERICA MUST RE-DISCOVER THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BIBLE
The problem with our churches is that we only give lip service to obeying the Scriptures.
Some pastors only teach Bible content, without applying Biblical principles of life. Some pastors only tell Bible stories without calling for repentance. Some pastors preach about the Bible, without influencing the life of hearers. Some pastors don’t even believe the Bible is the Word of God; I have no idea what they preach.
The Bible has been properly called the Greatest Book in the World. It is, at the same time, both the most read and most loved Book of all time, and it has become the most hated and most ridiculed Book of some.
• Cable Television’s czar, Ted Turner, mocks the Bible and calls Christians losers.
• The 18th century humanist Thomas Paine said that the Bible was more likely “the work of a demon” than the Word of God.
• The agnostic Robert Ingersoll claimed that only the ignorant could believe in the inspiration of this Book.
• Which rings me to the question I want to ask today: Is the Bible true?
Do you have to check your brains at the door to believe that the Bible is God’s Word? Can you be intellectually honest and believe that this Book, cover to cover, is the truth? Are its claims reliable? Can the Bible be trusted?
AMERICA MUST
RE-DISCOVER THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE
THE BIBLE CLAIMS FOR ITSELF DIVINE INSPIRATION
Its writers claim to have written for God. The word “scripture” refers to that which has been written down. That which is written is inspired, i.e., God breathed. The words on the pages of the Bible began with God. “All scripture” means that every word is inspired and that every word is equally inspired. There are no errors, no myths, no fallacies, no fact that can be debunked. There are no contradictions—every word agrees with every other word because they all come from the same source, i.e., the mind of God. That’s an impressive claim, but you would expect no less of a Book that claims to have a supernatural origin.
JESUS ACCEPTED THE BIBLE AS TRUTH.
He referred to the creation as a literal event. He spoke of the first man Adam as an historical figure. He spoke of the miracles of the Bible as fact.
FULFILLED PROPHECY IS EVIDENCE
Each Old and New Testament prophecy is either fulfilled or in the process of fulfillment. Not one prediction by God has ever failed to come to pass.
GOD HAS PRESERVED HIS WORD
God could have sent down the Bible, bound in black leather, with gilded edges, sewn with silk, with every word printed in indelible India ink. He chose instead to give it to us in a way that is so unique that it is, in itself, an outstanding evidence of its supernatural origin:
• 40 persons were used to record these words.
• They wrote over a period of 1500 years.
• They inscribed every word on sheepskin, goatskin, papyrus and parchment.
• It was written in different settings.
• The first five books were written in the desert wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.
• At least four letters of Paul were written while he was in prison.
• Daniel wrote from the courts of Babylon.
• Some of the psalms were written while David kept sheep in the hills of Judea.
THE BIBLE THEME IS CONSISTENT.
It was originally written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Yet, when you read the Bible as a whole, recorded over all those years by so many different writers, written under so many different conditions, you will find that it tells one story and follows one theme. It bears the mark of one author, i.e., God. And there are literally thousands of manuscripts spanning hundreds of years, preserving the complete text of the Bible intact and unaltered. These manuscripts demonstrate proving that the Bible we hold in our hands accurately preserves all that was written. That cannot be said of the writings of Shakespeare or any other book of antiquity.
INTERNAL PROOFS OF INSPIRATION
• The Bible is scientifically accurate. The Bible is not a textbook on science, but it is scientifically accurate.
• In the 10th century BC, Solomon wrote that God inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, that the face of the oceans is rounded, not flat. “When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth” (Proverbs 8:27).
• In the 8th century BC, Isaiah wrote that God is seated above the circle of the earth and that from space you see a rounded, or spherical earth, “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22).
• Job, the oldest book in the Bible, written about 2000 BC, stated that God hung the earth on nothing, “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7).
• Hindus taught that the earth was supported on the back of a giant elephant that stood on the back of a giant turtle and when the elephant wiggled, it caused an earthquake.
• Greek mythology taught that the earth was supported on the shoulders of Atlas.
• One of the evidences of the supernatural origin of this Bible is that there is not one single absurd myth or legend or fable found within its pages.
THE BIBLE IS CLEAR ON CREATION
• The Bible begins, without preamble, fanfare, or embellishment, that “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”
• Of course, the scientist, the professor, the teacher, and the filmmaker will tell you that the Biblical account of creation has been proven to be a myth. We have evolved through a series of “beneficial accidents,” mutations, A BIG BANG, etc.- that have resulted in all the different species we see today.
• As some poet has written: “Once I was a tadpole, beginning to begin; then I was a frog, with my tail tucked in. Then I was a monkey in a Banyan tree. Now, I am a professor with a Ph.D.”
• Neither reason nor scientific discovery supports the claims of the evolutionist.
THE BIBLE IS HISTORICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY ACCURATE.
• Is the Bible spiritually accurate?
• Many people will agree the Bible is a good book, but it’s more than that.
• Its reliability in every other area forces us to make a decision about what it says concerning “spiritual” truths.
• About our sinfulness
• About our inability to save ourselves.
• About the one way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
MOST ARE BIBLICALLY IGNORANT.
Chuck Swindoll spoke at Liberty’s graduation and said, “The greatest need in our times, is for God’s people to be biblically literate.” I could not agree more. Listen to what the Barna Research Group has said:
1 out of 4 Americans can correctly identify John 3:16.
1 out of 5 Americans can correctly define the Gospel.
1 out of 3 Americans read their Bible regularly.
1 out of 3 Americans believe in a literal Hell.
4 out of 10 Americans cannot name half of the 10 Commandments.
4 out of 10 Americans cannot name one of the four Gospels.
Only 1 out of 10 Americans can identify the Great Commission.
4 out of 10 Americans believe that Jesus sinned.
AMERICAN MUST RE-DISCOVER A BIBLICAL MIND
The following Scriptures should help us re-discover a biblical mind. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). This verse tells us that if we want our people to have more faith, we must get them into the Word of God.
“Desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby” (I Peter 2:2). This verse tells us that if we want our people to grow spiritually, we must get them into the Word of God. Why are so many Christians shallow? Because they’re not in the Bible. Why are so many Christians defeated by sin? Because they don’t think scripturally. Why are so many Christians living in sin? Because they don’t have a biblical mind.
“For the Word of God is full of living power, it is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we are” (Hebrews 4:12, Living Bible). This verse tells us why Christians today have little power to live for God. They have forgotten that the Bible is the power of God to change lives from the inside out.
What is the greatest power needed by the Church today? It is not the power of money from fund-raising, it is not the power of great crowds attracted by advertisement, it is not the power of excitement that comes from rhythm bands in the church. The greatest power is Divine activity that takes place in the heart of the person who opens himself to the Bible.
Why do I say people don’t know the power of God?
• Because so many people are slaves to habits.
• Because so many are slaves to making money.
• Because so many can’t say no to selfish desires.
• Because good people do wicked things.
We are addicted today because Satan is greater than any of us. Christians have forgotten the Bible promised: “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4).
WE NEED A SPIRITUAL BRAINWASHING.
The believer doesn’t have a chance to live for God, if he doesn’t have a biblical mind. That’s why I say there must be a re-discovery of the biblical mind. The believer gets a biblical mind when he hears the Word of God, meditates on the Word of God and allows the Word of God to control his mind so that the believer thinks according to Biblical principles.
PASTORS MUST RETURN TO BIBLE PREACHING.
There are many things that pastors do each week in ministry. They visit the sick, teach the Saints, give direction to workers; and of course, they marry and bury. In addition to this, a minister must be a soul-winner, just like every other person in the congregation.
But the greatest influence a pastor has each week is preaching the Word of God to his congregation. I believe there is no greater opportunity to change America than through the preaching of the Word of God to the people of God as they gather each week.
NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PREACHING.
The problem is, many ministers downplay the role of preaching. Some call it conversational preaching, some rely only on drama, some have substituted worship praise and other pastors just get up to give a friendly chat to the people, and of course liberals read book reports.
Then there is another problem. Some think that the Bible is best taught in small groups in the home or other places such as Sunday School classes, cells. All of these things are important, but the preaching of the Word by the man of God is the greatest leverage that God has to bring America back to a biblical mind.
PREACHING IS THE PRIORITY.
I want to call on pastors to make preaching their number one priority in 2002. Preaching should occupy the pastor’s time and energy more than anything he does. The study of the Word in preparation for preaching should be more important than watching television or anything else he does. What a pastor has learned in Bible college and seminary is not enough for next Sunday’s message.
If the pastor’s life is not being touched by the Word of God, he will not have a biblical mind. When George Barna surveyed Americans, he found that 80 percent believe that the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves” is found in the Bible,” I wonder why people are not embarrassed. Again, George Barna found that 10 percent of Americans believe that Noah’s wife was named Joan of Arc (Ark). I laugh at that, but it’s a sad commentary on where people are today.
First, the pastor must meet God daily in a quiet place. Second, the pastor must feed his soul from the Word of God, then with a heart aflame, the pastor must go into the presence of God to intercede for his needs, and the needs of his people.
Finally, the pastor must take his sermon into the presence of God, like Solomon bringing sacrifices for the dedication of the new Temple. Solomon had to wait for God’s fire to fall from heaven. Pastors, I challenge you . . . take your sermon into the presence of God and ask for fire from heaven. Then when you walk into the pulpit, God’s fire may kindle the hearts of those who listen to you.
A PASSION FOR THE WORD.
For the pastor to have a biblical mind, it is more than having a pure life . . . more than having a daily devotional time . . . more than caring for the flock . . . and more than reading the Bible. For the pastor to have a Biblical-mind, he must be enthusiastically hungry to devour the Word of God as a hungry man sits down to eat what’s on the table. That enthusiasm must carry over into the pulpit. The pastor must take his enthusiasm for the Bible into the pulpit and let it spill over to the people.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you.
For more information on the TRBC Pastor’s Bible Class, log on to the Internet for TRBC Home page at www.trbc.org/pbc.
