The Eternal Word Series

Did you know that the Mary Magdalene was the mother of

Jesus? And that the New Testament book that records Paul's

conversion is Psalms? And that the last book of the Bible is

evolution? And that the first murderer in the Bible was Pilate? And

that Isaiah was the son of Solomon? These are some of the answers

given to a Bible knowledge test which was given to 357 incoming

freshman at a Christian college. Out of 25 fairly easy questions the

average number correct was 8. 75 who had been Sunday School

teachers got 11 right. All but 22 were members of a church, and

they had been in Sunday School since childhood, and yet they hardly

knew anything about the Bible.

Apparently we are becoming a nation of Bible dusters rather

than Bible diggers. The American people buy Bibles like hot cakes,

but apparently they read them like they read hot cakes also, which is

not at all. We can hardly blame the Supreme Court for the fact that

the Bible is taken out of our schools, for even one atheist woman

with enough conviction to fight as more influence than millions of

Bible dusters who don't know Paul from Adam. Masses of

professing Christians know more about Paul Bunyan, Bugs Bunny,

Lassie, and Yoggie Bear than they know about the Word of God.

With such a weak possession on the value and power of the Bible it

is no wonder that the forces of unbelief can gain such ground.

When the Bible is no longer our ultimate authority then only

weakness can follow. The strength of the past came from Bible

educated people. Theodore Roosevelt said, "Almost every man who

has by his life-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." William Gladstone, the great statesman and intellectual

giant of England said, "I have known ninety-five great men of the

world in my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the

Bible." Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "Nearly all of the great men of

our country have been well versed in the teachings of the Bible."

Why then are men so foolish to neglect it and reject it? It is

because of the devil's deception that says men do not need God.

Men are deceived into thinking that the Bible is old fashion. People

in earlier times of ignorance needed the Bible, but modern man has

grown beyond that need. God challenges this folly, and He says

through Peter that we are not to look to man's glory, for it is gone in

no time and withers away like a flower, but His Word endures

forever. The Bible is still our absolute authority for two reasons

that Peter gives us in verse 23. It is because the Word is-

I. A LIVING WORD.

It takes life to give life, and the Bible is a living and life giving

power, for as Peter says, they were born again by this Word. All

through history men have been discovering new life through the

Bible. Robert Ingersoll, the skeptic, urged General Lew Wallace to

write a book exposing the falsehood of Christianity. General

Wallace began to study the Bible in order to write such a book, but

he discovered that the Bible did not just lay there, for it was alive,

and it got a hold of his heart and changed his life. He wrote, instead

of his book of criticism, the classic about the beauty and the divinity

of the life of Christ called Ben Hur.

History is filled with amazing examples of the power of the Bible

on the lives of people. A colporteur distributing Bibles in Sicily was

traveling at night when he was held up. The bandit ordered him to

build a fire and burn all his Bibles. He asked if he could read a part

of each one before he threw them in, and his request was granted.

From the first he read the 23rd Psalm, and the bandit said, "That is

a good book, we will save it." The second he read the parable of the

Good Samaritan; the third from the Sermon on the Mount; the

fourth I Cor. 13, and in each case the bandit said, "Save that one."

It turned out that none were burned, and he took them with him,

and the transforming power of the Word worked in the life of this

bandit, and he became a minister of the Gospel.

John said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the

only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent." It is through

the Bible that we come to know Christ, and through Him to know