Abraham Lincoln did not like a lot of things about Christians and
the church, but there are few great men in history who loved the
Bible more than this great leader of our land. In Fisk University
Library in Nashville, Tenn. is a copy of a Bible presented to Lincoln
with this inscription: "To Abraham Lincoln, president of the United
States, the Friend of Universal Freedom, from the Loyal Colored
People of Baltimore, 4th of July, 1864."
When this Bible was presented to Lincoln he responded, "In
regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has
given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was
communicated through this book..... All things most desirable for
man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.
To you I return my most sincere thanks for the elegant copy of the
great Book of God which you present." Lincoln was so immersed in
the Bible that his speeches were illustration of biblical language. He
was 10 years old when the first family Bible was purchased, but
before that he read the Bible in school where that was the only book
they had to read. As president he used biblical language and ideas
constantly, and once he gave a lecture on the Bible sponsored by the
Bible Society of Springfield.
Lincoln was greatly disturbed by preachers who used the Bible
to support their own political agenda, such as justifying slavery. He
had to be a student of the Word of God to fight against the abuse of
it. The Bible became the key source of power that first founded our
nation of freedom, and then restored it to freedom again. If you
take the Bible out of the history of our nation, you will have no
heritage to be proud of, for we would be a nation of tyranny and
bondage like so many nations of the world. All that we treasure as
Americans is due to the impact of the Bible on our leaders of the
past.
Theodore Roosevelt was one of our most brilliant and dynamic
presidents, and he said, "Almost every man who has by his life's
work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is
proud, of which our people are proud; almost every such man has
based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible."
Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II said, "Nearly all of the
great men of our country have been well versed in the teachings of
the Bible." All of the presidents of our nation were students of the
Bible, for one was not considered educated who did not know the
Bible.
William E. Gladstone, the great statesman and intellectual giant
of England said, "I have known 95 great men of the world in my
time, and of these 87 were followers of the Bible." We could go on to
quote many of those great men about their love for the Bible, but
these are sufficient to establish the fact that the Bible was a powerful
influence in the history of the Western world and of our nation. No
one can question our biblical heritage, but now we must face the
facts that the Bible is no longer the highest authority in our land. It
still sells like hot cakes, but apparently it is read as infrequently as
hot cakes as well, which is not at all. Studies of Christian youth
entering college reveal that they know little about the Bible. They
know more about movie stars and cartoon characters than they do
about Bible characters.
In many Christian homes the best place to hide money is in the
family Bible, for nobody is ever going to look there. A Catholic
author I read complained that only one priest in a hundred has ever
read the Bible from cover to cover, and the result is that most Catholics
do not take Bible reading seriously. Protestants and
Catholics alike have taken for granted that we are a Christian
nation, and they have assumed it would stay that way regardless the
place we give the Bible in our education. Now we are reaping what
we have sown, and that is a post-Christian era where leaders and
people alike are ignorant of the Bible.
No people can be great who neglect the best that God has given
to man, and no year is going to be great in which the Bible does not
play a major role in our lives. To encourage you to make Bible
reading apart of your life we want to look at the two characteristics
of the Word of God that Peter stressed in verse 23, where he writes
of the living and enduring Word of God.
I. THE LIVING WORD.
Life only comes from life. For a long time man thought life could
come from non-life by means of spontaneous generation. That
theory was destroyed by facts, and man learned that life can only
come from the living. This is true in the spiritual realm as well. If
you want abundant life, you will not get it from the world of dead
materialism. Jesus came to give us life abundant, and we get that
life from the Living Word of God. Peter says it is like a seed planted
in us, and then it bursts forth from the soil like a plant or flower,
and we are born anew. By means of the truth of the Bible we come
to know Jesus as our Savior. We may read the Gospel, or we may
hear it, but it has only one source, and that is the Bible. The Bible is
alive because the Spirit of God who inspired it uses its life-giving
truths to inspire those who read and hear it to give them new life.
Robert Ingersall, the great skeptic, urged General Lew Wallace
to write a book exposing the follies of Christianity. Wallace began
by studying the Bible. What he discovered was that the Bible was
alive. The truth of God got into his mind and changed his heart and
life. He wrote a book alright, but instead of it being one of criticism,
it was the classic on the beauty and power of the life of Christ. He
wrote the book Ben Hur. The Bible gave him life and through him it
was channeled to many others.
All of Christian history is the history of the Living Power of the
Word of God. A Bible distributor in Sicily was held up and the
bandit ordered him to build a fire and burn all of his Bibles. He
asked if he could read a part of each one before he threw it in the
fire. The request was granted, and so from the first he read the 23rd
Psalm. The bandit said that that was a good book and so that one he
could save. He then read the parable of the Good Samaritan out of
the next one, and the bandit liked that too, and spared it from the
flames. From the next one he read the Sermon on the Mount, and
from the next he read I Cor. 13, and in each case the bandit felt it
was worth saving. He also heard the Gospel in realized he was
worth saving and that Jesus died so he could be spared from the fire
of judgment. He repented and trusted Jesus as his Savior. He went
on to become a minister of the Gospel to others.
History is filled with stories like this that reveal the living power
of the Bible to transform lives. Every saved person on the planet is a
child of God because of the power of God's Word. There can be no
salvation unless the truth of the Bible is read or heard, and then
accepted. The Bible is the Living Word that gives us life in Christ.
It is the source of our nourishment that enables us to grow. The
milk of the Word helps us get the basics so we have a solid
foundation. But there is the meat of the Word that is for mature
living. The Bible has much that is hard to understand because it is
designed to be a challenge to the most brilliant and mature believers.
It is to be the source of life for all of life, and so it has to have food
for the newborn and also for the believer of ripe old age, who has
spent a lifetime studying it. You never get so wise that the Bible is
no longer a feast of new and exciting meals for the soul.
Like all living things the Bible changes with the times and the
circumstances. You can study the same book a few years after you
thought you had studied it thoroughly and it will speak new truths
and give you new insights that fit who you have become. You don't
ever pass up the Bible, for it stays with you because it is alive. As
you change and mature the Bible becomes more relevant to the
issues you face now that you never even thought of before. If you
think you can read the Bible and say you are done with it, you do
not know the potential of the Bible. You are never done, for it is a
living and life-giving power. You can no more get done needing it
than you can get done needing food.
You would think a person was very neurotic if you said, "have a
ham sandwich," and they said, "No thanks. I had one last year." It
is just as foolish to not read Hebrews again because you read it last
year. Your body needs food repeatedly, and so does you mind and
soul. We need to feed them on the Living Word that never gets old
or obsolete. It stays fresh and relevant to whatever stage of life you
have reached. A converted African cannibal was reading his Bible
when a European traveler passed by and said to him, "That book is
out of date in my country." The African responded, "If it was out of
date here, you would have been my supper." The greatest proof of
the relevance and power of the Bible is that it goes on changing lives
all over the world.
An unknown author sums up the value of the Bible like this:
"This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of
salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its
doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true,
and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be
safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food
to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map,
the pilgrim's staff, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter.
Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell
disclosed. Christ is its grand object, our good its design, and the
glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and
guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully. It is a
mind of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasures."
II. THE LASTING WORD.
The Bible is the living and enduring Word of God. Most living
things don't last. They wither and pass away like flowers, but Peter
says in verse 25 that the word of the Lord stands forever. The Bible
will be a part of eternity, for it is God's Word, and God's Word
never dies. It is alive with eternal life. Jesus said in Luke 21:23,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass
away." In Isaiah 40:8 we read, "The grass withers and the flowers
fall, but the Word of our God stands forever." To know the Bible is
to be getting an education that is eternal.
William Lyon Phelps, who was once professor and orator of
Yale University, and director of the Hall of Fame in New York City,
said, "Everyone who has a thorough knowledge of the Bible may
truly be called educated. I believe a knowledge of the Bible without
a college course is more valuable than a college course without the
Bible." He said that only one of Pilgrims who came over on the
Mayflower had a college education, but they were nevertheless an
educated people because they knew their Bible. This great educator
concludes, "No group of people can be rightly described as
uneducated who read and know their Bible.
Henry Van Dyke, who was once professor of English at
Princeton said, "No other book in the world has had such a strange
vitality, such an out going power of influence and inspiration. No
man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own." There
are thousands of great educators who would say amen to these
quotes. There is much education that will become obsolete in a few
years, and most all will pass away in time, but to know the Bible is to
be educated for eternity, for it will never pass away. When you
know the Bible you are always up to date on all that matters. To
know the mind of Christ is to have ultimate wisdom.
In 1951 at the meeting of the United Bible Societies, Dr. Gilbert
Darling of the American Bible Society told of how special measures
had been taken to preserve various translations of the Bible in case
of an all out atomic warfare. Copies of all important editions of the
Bible were placed in specially made vaults in Colorado, New
Hampshire, and New York City. If every book in the world would
go up in flames, the Word of God would still be preserved. Satan
knows the Bible is the greatest obstacle to his power in people's lives,
and that is why the history of Bible translation is a history of fire
against fire. When John Wycliff gave the common people the Bible
in their language he was so hated that after he was buried for 30
years his bones were dug up and burned, and then thrown into the
river Avon. John Hus was burned at the stake because he translated
the Bible into the Bohemian language. William Tyndale was burned
at the stake for translating the Bible into English.
Once people got the Word of God in their own language they
were no longer in the dark and in bondage to the forces of evil.
They were liberated by the light of the Gospel. Jesus said, "You
shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Once you are
free to know the will of God you can never be content with less than
liberty in Christ. That is why the Bible is so hated by those who
want to keep people in the dark and in bondage. Bible education
sets them free forever. The reason we are so blessed with a free
nation is because the founders of our nation were men who were
educated in the Bible.
George Washington said, "Above all, the pure and benign light
of Revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind, and
increase the blessings of society. It is impossible to rightly govern
the world without the Bible." Thomas Jefferson, who authored the
Declaration of Independence, and who was one of the greatest men
America has ever produced, said, "I have always said, and always
will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make
better citizens, and better fathers and better husbands...The Bible
makes the best people in the world." We have to prove this to
ourselves by giving the Bible a place of priority in our lives. There
can be no higher goal for the coming year than that of giving a
greater portion of our time to knowing the Living and Lasting Word
of God. May God help us all commit ourselves to being busy getting
an Everlasting Education.
