The Da Vinci Code: Can The Bible Be Trusted Series

Can Scripture Be Trusted

Series - The Da Vinci Code Faith, Fact or Fiction

Text: Luke 1:1-4

Leigh Tebing, Dan Brown’s fictional British Historian, had this to say about Holy Scripture:

“’The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven.’ The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times and it had evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book”.

Mr. Tebing may have considered himself a historian but defiantly not one in religious study. However, for those who know little or nothing about the Bible, comments such as this may seem credible.

In fact American youth seem just as interested in God and just as passionate about spiritual things as any other generation. The question is “how are they forming their views of God and what belief system are they adopting for themselves?

It might shock you, but I say it should scare you straight to your knees to learn that

• 63% do not believe Jesus is the Son of the One true God.

• 58% believe that all faiths teach equally valid truths

• 51% do not believe Jesus rose from the dead

• 65% do not believe Satan is a real entity

• 68% do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a real entity.

Shocking? Horrifying may be a better word. But why? How? How can people be so Spiritually thirsty yet so Theologically dry?

Penicillin is bitter but it sure does help you feel better.

A knife cut can be fatal, but in the hands of a skilled surgen, it can bring health and healing.

There was a time when the Word of God was so revered that countless men and women were asked to place their hand on it and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

There was a time when every home had a Family Bible, when every student was given a New Testament on their first day of school, when scripture reading would be part of homework assignments in our public schools. When men and woman would not think of or dare to come to church without the Word in their hands.

Now remote controls take the honored place on the coffee table and the Old Book collects dust under a lamp stand. Now students are threatened with suspension from school if they wear scripture printed on their tee-shirts. Today the projector screen has made it unnecessary for people to bring a Bible to church.

Can I let you in on a small fact? Scripture on the screen was introduced as an aid to visitors and unchurched. It was to help those unfamiliar with the Bible’s layout to see and read scriptures being addressed. I don’t think you would ever hear a preacher say that projectors were meant to take the place of bringing your own bible and using it!

No other single publication has ever had the world wide impact that the Word of God has had.

• It’s words of comfort are spoken it times of national and world wide morning.

• It’s statements of confidence and assurance are echoed by men of renown in times of uncertainty

• It’s passages and phrases are implanted in lyric, both Christian and secular.

• It has overcome tyranny as kings, empires, governments and dictators have tries to bury it, burn it, distort it and destroy it, but It lives on, long beyond their mortal years!

Well, it’s not time to preach! Like any fiction, there is some truth in Tebing’s error. The Bible did not come by fax from heaven. And, I suppose, the book itself, is a product of man…. But the agreement stops there.

You see, scripture claims to be completely divine and completely human. God joined with sinful humanity to produce the sinless Living Word (Jesus) and in a similar sense joined with sinful humanity to produce the inspired written word, the Bible.

The Aspostle Peter described it best in His letter to the Church of Jerusalem when he said “Men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. And yet the mystery of sacred scripture only starts there. The Apostle Paul wrote to the young preacher Timothy that all scripture is “God-breathed” that is – inspired by God”.

Tebing eludes to a proposition that the bible was the brain child of a single man, Constantine the Great a roman emperor who lived from AD 274 to 337, and that it was he who orchestrated its content, production and publication.

Tebing also states that the Bible was written as a historical record of “tumultuous times”. Again, that’s partially true, but not of the whole bible. Perhaps there are some things that Tebing, and his creator, Dan Brown, need to know about the scriptures.