Does the Bible Have Errors?

"Not everything in the Bible actually happened."

Some people think that. 

Some people think that God didn't really say what's in the Bible, but some humans made it up.  Or at least, people added stuff to jazz it up.

A)  If the Bible isn't entirely true, then how do we know which parts are and aren't true?  If the part about miracles were iffy, then how would I know whether the Bible is right when it says "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"?

B)  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  How could the One who is truth give us His en-scripturated word with errors?  That would mean He wasn't the truth.

C)  Who was it that suggested in the Garden of Eden, "Did God really say ...?" 

The Opposite Problem

When Herod wanted to know where to find this interloper, this baby that the Magi were wanting to worship, he asked the dudes who knew the Scriptures.  Pastor pointed out in class today that, even though he didn't believe, Herod knew that the Bible would tell him the correct answer to what he wanted to know.

That happens again and again.  Balak didn't believe in the Lord, but he paid off one of the Lord's prophets to curse the Lord's people.  The people of Jericho didn't believe in the Lord, but they knew what the Lord had been doing on behalf of His people.   There are many other examples of unbelievers who knew the Bible to be a reliable source of historic information.

But look at what is rampant in the Church today.  Today we have Christians (who presumably do believe in the Lord) who don't believe the Scriptures to be reliable information.  "Did God really say...?"  They don't believe that Jesus did miracles.  They don't believe that Jonah was swallowed by the large fish.  They don't believe in a six-day creation.  They don't believe the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea in the miraculous way described in Exodus. 

Isn't it weird that even unbelievers used to know the veracity of the Scriptures, and today even the believers do not believe them?  The devil is surely pattin' himself on the back over this one.

Sojourners

As we were studying 1 Peter this morning, we came upon the verse (2:11) where Peter refers to us as sojourners and pilgrims.

This week, Pastor has been stressing that point that we are children of God.

So, what do all sojourning children say? What's the perennial refrain from the back seat of the car while you're on a trip? "Are we there yet? How much longer?"

How 'bout that?
It fits, doesn't it?
"Come, Lord Jesus."

King James Version

Amazing! Sitting here next to me, at my mom's house, is the Bible my aunt gave my mom when she was 18. No copyright page. No listing of what version it is. No publication date. No publisher listed. Just the Bible. Period.

It seems very weird today.
But there are some excellent things about having one version that everybody knew and shared!

Winepress

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. (John 15)

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53)

And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22)

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. (Leviticus 17)



By Thy baptism, fasting, and temptation;
by Thine agony and bloody sweat;
by Thy cross and passion;
help us, good Lord.

Bringing Peace

It struck me as odd that we sang the song of the angels on Sunday morning: "Glory be to God on high, and peace on earth, goodwill to men...." And then Pastor reads the Gospel where Jesus says, "Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth?" (Luke 12)

Well, actually, that is sorta what it sounded like the angels said a few decades earlier. These paradoxes drive me nuts.

Interestingly, though, a few verses later (12:53) we see examples of the division which Jesus brings. And the very first one listed was "father will be divided against son, son against father."

Col 1:19-20 For it pleased the Father
that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself,
whether things in earth or things in heaven,
having made peace
through the blood of His cross.

For Bible Study

Sometimes the following links come in mighty handy. And they don't have just the text, but you can do word searches too.

A Greek New Testament.

A Vulgate (Latin Bible).

The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament).

James 5:16

Confess your trespasses to one another,
and pray for one another,
that you may be healed.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.


"That you may be healed." This is kind of an amusing verse for the week when our church school was canceled for a day due to massive numbers of sick students & teachers.

Now to the non-silly stuff from chapel:

Pastor asked how prayer is "effective." The answer? When it is grounded in God's word and His promises. When we speak back to Him what He has first spoken to us. Isaiah 55 tells us that God's word accomplishes what He intends.

Pastor asked how prayer is "fervent." The answer? When we cling to Him in faith and let nothing get in the way, but keep our eyes only on Him (and not even on the blessings He gives).

And most importantly, Pastor asked what "avails much" means. The answer? Accomplishes what God intends. Hey! Wait a minute! I never heard that before! What God intends? I always heard this passage used to say that the prayer will accomplish what the one doing the praying intends. What God intends? That puts it in a whole different light!

For the Joy Set Before Him

Once upon a time, Pastor Wieting arranged an evangelism festival. He asked a Pastor Vetter to come speak. It was awesome! Not about what we should "do" to obey some command to "evangelize" people, but it was all about the Gospel promises to us and to our neighbors. One tidbit has stuck with me these past 20+ years since I heard Pr Vetter.

Some people wonder why God allows evil to continue in this world. "If there really were a God," they say, "He wouldn't have allowed evil to continue." Couldn't God have killed off Adam and Eve, and just started from scratch and gotten it right on His second try?

That's when Pr Vetter pointed out that, if God had done that, He wouldn't have had YOU.

We are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. If our parents had been wiped out, WE wouldn't BE. If there could have been perfect people on the world, they would have descended from somebody besides our first parents, and so WE would not exist at all.

Come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (from Hebrews 12:2)

Pr Vetter said that the Lenten verse tells us that WE are the joy set before Jesus, the reason He endured the cross. To have us as His own is His loving motivation.

Before the Foundation of the World

Tonight we watched the Star of Bethlehem movie. The lecturer begins with the question of whether the star was (zap!) a miraculous phenomenon that God zotted into existence when Jesus was born, or was it instead a naturally-occurring alignment of stars and planets that was part of nature? His conclusion is that the star was a naturally-occurring alignment that God built into the skies when He created the world, such that it would point to His Son's birth at the right time and place.

You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. (1 Peter 1)

If it is true that God built this into the stars, that means these signs (Genesis 1:14) were already planned before the creation of man. If that is true, then God knew from before the foundation of the world that Christ, the blameless Lamb, would shed His blood to redeem you.

Okay, I knew that. I knew that God wasn't [gasp!] caught by surprise when man sinned. God didn't have to come up with Plan B to unite His people to Himself.

But think about what that means. It means that He knew before He created man that He would save them. Not only does it mean He knew, but it means He created anyway. He knew what it would cost Him to save mankind from their rebellion and hatred of Him. But He didn't say "Phooey on this; who needs it?"

That is a love too big to comprehend.

The Tongue

Today's [three-year series] epistle is from James 3:
We all stumble in many things.
If anyone does not stumble in word,
he is a perfect man,
able also to bridle the whole body.
Then James goes on to talk about how animals can be tamed, but the tongue cannot. And how it is wrong for a mouth to spew forth cursing when it has been used to bless God. And how the evil tongue can defile the whole body.

Usually this passage is used to tell us how important it is to control our speech, to watch our language and choice of words, to not fly off the handle and say words that are unable to be taken back.

But today I'm wondering if maybe it has more to do with doctrine than it does profanity or angry outbursts.

Is the person who doesn't "stumble in word" the person who controls what he says or the person who confesses true doctrine?

Job 38

Last Sunday's Old Testament was from Job 38. I understood the obvious point that it meshed with the Gospel reading (Mark 4 -- Jesus' stilling the storm). But Pastor chose verses 4-6 as our verse for the week.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched out the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone?

And I thought, "WHAT???"

But you know what? It's kinda nifty.

Where else do we hear about the "line" being stretched out? In Psalm 19, where it's talking not just about the creation of the world and the sun and stars, but about the angels being created in the heavens too, and that they preach the Gospel and their voice goes out into all the world.

Where else do we hear about a cornerstone? Psalm 91 and Psalm 118 & Matthew 21.

Oh, and then in Ephesians 2 we hear about the household of God which is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.




What was Job's problem? Was it that he didn't believe God was powerful? Did Job think that God had somehow lost control of the world? Or was it that he was doubting whether God cared about him?

The disciples in the boat? Was their problem unbelief in God's raw power? Or was it also found in their doubt that Jesus cared whether they were perishing? They were wow-ed by the fact that the wind and sea obeyed Jesus, but not just that ...

He whom the sea and wind obey
doth come to serve the sinner in great meekness.
Thou, God's own Son, with us art one --
dost join us and our children in our weakness. (TLH 81)


So when Job sasses God and when the disciples holler that Jesus doesn't care about them, God's response in these verses is not Calvinistic. It's not just that God's the Big Cheese who's got all the power. The response is that Job didn't understand who this God is. Job and the disciples didn't understand His mercy. This God knew from the very beginning that His Son would save sinners, that the Gospel would be preached by the apostles, and that the angels would rejoice over the salvation of the lost. The foundation and cornerstone of the earth was laid when the angels shouted for joy ... which they did over the Lamb who was slain to rescue the lost sheep.

Would you sass back to a God who planned from before He made you that He would save you? Would you sass back to a God who took every one of your griefs and bore it for you? Would you sass back to a God who arranged for the means to draw you to Himself? If saving you took some pretty humongous pains on His part, maybe it's only our blindness to His suffering which makes us so quick to sass back when we get a little suffering like Job's or some storms like the disciples'. If God had said to Job -- if Jesus had said to the disciples -- "Hey, I'm in charge here and I have all the power" that wouldn't cause them to put their hands over their mouths and shut up as happened when the message (Mark 4:39 and Job 40:2) was rather "Hey, I'm in charge here and I have all the power and I'm using it for your good because I love you."

Angels Sing

Then, when the earth was first poised in mid space,
Then, when the planets first sped on their race,
Then, when were ended the six days employ,
Then all the sons of God shouted for joy. (TLH 255)


In last Sunday's [three-year-series] Old Testament (Job 38) we heard that the angels rejoiced when the foundations of the earth were fastened and its cornerstone laid.

The angels sang the Gloria in Excelsis when Jesus was born (Luke 2).

When Isaiah saw heaven (Isaiah 6), the angels were singing the Sanctus around the Lord who was high and lifted up.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells us that there is much rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.

In Revelation 7, John lets us know what the angels are singing as they join in the song of the elders and the saints.

When the Bible tells us about the angels' joy and their song, there seems to be a tightly unified theme.

Joel 3:5

... because you have taken My silver and My gold,
and have carried into your temples My prized possessions.

Roger pointed something out in Bible class today. This verse is in the past tense. It was recorded by Joel around 250 years prior to the time when Babylon came into Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carried off the gold and silver. But when God is speaking, it's in the past tense.

I find that fascinating. It fits so well with the understanding that Jesus' cross is the center of all the Bible, and that everything (before and after Him, in time) is affected by the pivotal event of all history ... because to God, it IS. God is not confined to seeing things as we do, always within the passage of time. For Him, there isn't some "waiting around" for things to happen.

2 Peter 3:8 With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Flooding

[The Lord] said to the sea, "This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!" Job 39:11

Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. Genesis 9:11

Pretend for a moment with me. Pretend that there is actually some bit of science somewhere that is consistent with the claims of the global-warming crowd.

How can any Christian worry that the ice-caps are going to melt and flood the world? God said it can't happen. Even IF the pseudo-scientists had some evidence to back up their beliefs, we still know it would never be able to actually pan out. You hear about those poor kids getting scared to death from the propaganda at school, and having nightmares, but yet it ain't gonna happen.

Portals of Prayer

I absolutely love Day By Day We Magnify Thee, and have also benefited from using Every Day Will I Bless Thee (available from CCA). But yesterday I was invited to take a peek at this month's Portals of Prayer.

Oh. My. Goodness. Pick one up from your church narthex and use it for July! (Or click on the link at the end of the preceding paragraph.) This month's lovely devotions show us that JESUS and His work to forgive our sins is God's message throughout the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Epistles. Wow! Not only that, but the July devotions are written on the appointed daily readings found in LSB and thus in many congregations' prayer guides. When I saw this month's daily meditations, I checked out the previous volume of "Portals of Prayer" and found June's devotions sweetly comforting too. Wow!

Safety

Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 5:16

Jesus is a righteous man -- the righteous man. He prayed fervently on the night in which He was betrayed: Father, I desire that those whom You gave me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me. John 17:24

If the Father will do whatever a righteous man asks, then surely He will grant Jesus His petition that we will be with Him in heaven.

Noah Saved

The end of 1 Peter 3 tells us that Noah and his family were "saved through water." This confused me for a long time. Okay, so the ark floated on the water, and so the water saved them from the devestation caused by the Flood. But if the Flood and its destruction hadn't happened in the first place, then the water that saved them wouldn't have been there. And thus no need to be saved.

But from different things said in Bible class and sermons over the last year or two, I've started to catch on to something else. (Maybe this is incredibly obvious to most people, but it sure wasn't to me!) The water that saved Noah wasn't saving him from the flood waters. The water that saved Noah was saving him from the evils of the society in which he lived, saving him from the false doctrine being preached everywhere around him, saving him from dangers greater than drowning.

Copycats and Inspiration

We know that there are lots of places in the New Testament where the Old Testament is quoted by Jesus or Paul or somebody else. Psalm 118:22 is quoted by Jesus during Holy Week (Matthew 21:42-44), but is also referred to indirectly in Matthew 16:18 (by Jesus in response to the Confession of St Peter). And then Paul picks up on it later in Ephesians 2:19-22.

But I've been finding it surprising (although I don't know why) that New Testament writers quoted other earlier New Testament writers, and Old Testament writers quoted earlier Scriptures.

For example, the canticle in the Service of Prayer and Preaching (LSB 261) is from Isaiah 12: "The Lord God is my Strength and my Song, and He has become my Salvation." But that is a quote of Psalm 118:14. And the psalm quotes the canticle sung centuries before on the east side of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:2).

John (Revelation 21:5) quotes Jesus' statement, "Behold, I am making all things new." Paul (who wrote before John) brings that up at the end of 2 Corinthians 5. That's why I like so much that Mel Gibson's movie put that quote in the mouth of Jesus on the way to the cross.

We know the words in the catechism from Mark 16:16 about baptism. But I just noticed recently that John includes that same statement when he records Jesus' catechesis on baptism (John 3:18, as He spoke to Nicodemus).

I knew Jesus would often apply OT Scriptures to Himself. But His preaching would also be based on OT Scripture. For example, in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) one of the things He says is based on Psalm 37's theme (vv 9-11) about the meek inheriting the earth.

When the Babylonian captives returned to Jerusalem, they prayed and confessed their sin and listened to the Bible readings. Their words (recorded in Nehemiah 9) included the confession (v 17) that God is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness" which is a quote from the prophet Joel (2:13) three centuries earlier. There are also lines in their confession which sound almost identical to phrases from Psalm 78, as well as the whole overall shape of Nehemiah 9 being very similar to Psalm 78.

Another example: Psalm 90 (written by Moses) is quoted in the Isaiah 40 passage about the grass withering and the flower fading. Then later Jesus refers to this in the Sermon on the Mount (end of Matthew 6).

These are just a few of the "copycat" examples I've noticed recently. I guess the reason I never saw these things before (and the reason I see so few now) is that I know so little of my Bible. But when I do notice these things, it's neat to see how the inspiration of Scripture is so much just the repetition of the words God has given before. And it underscores the importance of thoroughly knowing those words -- memorizing those words -- so that they become our own too.