Years ago, most of the infidelity and unbelief were outside the professing church. If a man did not believe the Bible he was not looked upon as a Christian at all. He had his proper place outside the church and was recognised as an unbeliever.
In our day much of the unbelief is within the professing church. Men who are paid by their congregations to preach the Word of God, instead give out that which undermines it. Men who are paid to teach others how to become preachers of the gospel instead instill doubt and unbelief into the young minds committed to them. In no field is this more apparent than in current teaching concerning the inspiration of the Bible. Yet the Bible is either God’s Word or it is not. It’s claim is “Every scripture [is] divinely inspired” (2 Tim. 3: 16). The man who doubts God’s word in one place will soon doubt it in another. The man who refuses the Pentateuch as from God, soon doubts the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Doubts as to Moses soon lead to unbelief as to the incarnation, atonement and resurrection. As the Lord told the Jews, “if ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye do not believe his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5: 46, 47).
God has testified in His word that “Every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30: 5). There are no imperfections. The Lord Himself testified to the everlasting stability of every iota and tittle (see Matt. 5: 18), or, as we would say, ‘The dot of an i and the cross of a t’.
Time was when men, even if not true believers, were reverent in their handling of Holy Scripture. The general acknowledgement that the Bible was ‘The Word of God’ led to a corresponding respect and veneration for its contents. All such restraint has now been abandoned, and none more so than in that which professes the name of Christ. Where a tampering with Shakespeare would provoke an outcry, it is now open season on the very words of God. How sobering is the message that has come to us down the centuries: “If any one shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if any one take from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life” (Rev. 22: 18, 19). Yes this has particular reference to the book of Revelation - but is not God jealous of the integrity of the rest of His Word?
And if the teachers are astray, what of the taught? They are like sheep not having a shepherd, left with no aim, no purpose and no compass to guide them, groping and crawling in darkness. “Can a blind [man] lead a blind [man]? shall not both fall into [the] ditch?” (Luke 6: 39).
Brethren these are solemn times! The martyr’s blood gave the common man of England the Bible; Satan’s wiles are taking it away again. We need to pray that the Word may continue to come down to men in all its purity, so that they might be saved and built up in faith, and that God might be glorified.
