Chapter 2
Chapter 2
We do not expect men and women to believe in the Bible without looking into it or examining it. It is not natural for us to accept the things of God without question. If you are to always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15), you must first ask about it yourself. However, do not be a dishonest doubter, having your heart and mind set against the evidence before you even see it. Do not be a doubter because you think it is intellectual to doubt. Do not cling to your doubts without thinking them through. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe reportedly said, “Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.” Be like Thomas who did not accept Jesus’ offer to feel the nail prints in His hands and side; he saw the truth, and his heart was open to change.
Then He said to Thomas, Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God. (John 20:27-28)
If you are filled with the Word of God, you will not have any doubts about the Word of God. A lady said to me once, “Don’t you have any doubts?” No, I don’t have time for doubts; there is too much work to be done. Some people live on doubt. It is one of their main characteristics. I believe the reason there are so many Christians who do not show much evidence of walking with God, with whom you only see the Christian graces coming out every now and then, is that they do not take the Bible for doctrine, reproof, and instruction.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)
Someone might say to you, “I wish you would prove to me that the Bible is true.” The Book will prove itself if you will let it; there is living power in it.
For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
It does not need defending so much as it needs studying. It can defend itself. It is not a sick child who needs special care. A Christian man was once talking to a skeptic who said he did not believe the Bible. The man read certain passages to him, but the skeptic said again, “I don’t believe a word of it.” The man kept on reading, until finally the skeptic was convicted of his sin and of his need for Jesus.
The other man added, “When I have proved a good sword, I keep using it.” That is what we need today. It is not our work to make men believe; that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)
A man once sat down to read the Bible for an hour each evening with his wife. After a few evenings, he stopped in the middle of his reading and said, “Wife, if this Book is true, we are wrong.” He read on, and before long stopped again and said, “Wife, if this Book is true, we are lost.” Riveted to the Book and deeply concerned, he continued to read and soon exclaimed, “Wife, if this Book is true, we may be saved.” It was not many days after this that they were both converted. This is the one great end of the Book – to tell us of God’s great salvation. Think of it: a book that can lift our troubled spirits and recreate us in God’s image!
The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. (Psalm 19:7)
It is a serious responsibility to have God’s Word and yet neglect its warnings and reject its teachings. Following the Word of God results in life, but rejecting it results in death. What if God should take His Word away and say, “I will not trouble you with it anymore”?
How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. (Hebrews 2:3)
You might wonder what you should do when you come to a part of the Bible that you cannot understand. I thank God there is a height in that Book I do not know anything about, and a depth I have never been able to fathom, and it makes the Book all the more fascinating. If I could take that Book and read it as I can any other book and understand it in one reading, I would have lost faith in it years ago. It is one of the strongest proofs that the Book must have come from God, that the wisest men who have studied the Bible for fifty years have laid down their pens and said, “There is much more yet to learn from that Book.”
“No Scripture,” said Spurgeon, “is exhausted by a single explanation. The flowers of God’s garden bloom, not only double, but sevenfold; they are continually pouring forth fresh fragrance.”
A man came to me with a difficult passage some time ago and said, “Moody, what do you do with that?”
“I do not do anything with it.”
“How do you understand it?”
“I don’t understand it.”
“How do you explain it?”
“I do not explain it.”
“What do you do with it?”
“I do not do anything.”
“You do not believe it, do you?”
“Oh yes, I believe it.”
There are lots of things I do not understand, but I believe them. I do not know anything about higher mathematics, but I believe in them. I do not understand astronomy, but I believe in astronomy. Can you tell me why the same kind of food turns into flesh, fish, hair, feathers, hooves, or fingernails – depending upon which animal eats that food? A man told me a while ago he could not believe a thing he had never seen. I said, “Man, did you ever see your brain?”
Dr. Thomas Talmage tells the story that one day while he was bothering his theological professor with questions about the mysteries of the Bible, the latter turned on him and said, “Mr. Talmage, you will have to let God know some things you don’t.”
A man once said to an infidel, “The mysteries of the Bible don’t bother me. I read the Bible as I eat fish. When I am eating fish and come across a bone, I don’t try to swallow it; I lay it aside. And when I am reading the Bible and come across something I can’t understand, I say, ‘There is a bone,’ and I pass it by. But I don’t throw the fish away because of the bones in it; and I don’t throw my Bible away because of a few passages I can’t explain.”
Pascal said, “Human knowledge must be understood in order to be loved, but divine knowledge must be loved to be understood.” That marks the point of failure of most critics of the Bible. They do not make their brain the servant of their heart.
Did you ever notice that the things in the Bible that people object to the most are the very things to which Christ has set His seal? They say, “You don’t believe in the story of Noah and the flood, do you?” Well, if I give up that story, then I must give up the gospel; I must give up the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ believed in the story of Noah, and connected that with His return to earth. And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:26).
People say, “You don’t believe in the story of Lot and Sodom, do you?” Yes, I do, just as much as I believe the teachings of Jesus Christ. Likewise also as it was the same as happened in the days of Lot; It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:28a, 30).
Scoffers say, “You don’t believe in the story of Lot’s wife, do you?” Christ believed it. Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32).
“You don’t believe the story of Israel looking to a brass serpent for deliverance, do you?” Christ believed it and connected it with His own cross. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
They say, “You don’t believe the children of Israel were fed with manna in the desert, do you?” Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven (John 6:31-32).
People say, “Do you believe they drank water that came out of a rock?” Christ believed it. Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank (Numbers 20:11).
Scorners say, “You don’t believe in the story of Elijah being fed by the widow, do you?” Certainly. Christ said that many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, but Elijah was fed by only one widow (Luke 4:25-26). Christ referred to it Himself. He set His seal to it. The Son of God believed it, and will the disciple be above his master (Luke 6:40)?
They say, “Well, you don’t believe in the story of Jonah and the whale, do you?” I want to tell you I do believe it. A few years ago, there was a man who someone thought was a little unsound, and they didn’t want him to preach at our Northfield church. I said, “I will soon find out whether or not he is sound.”
I asked him, “Do you believe that the fish swallowed Jonah?”
“Yes,” he said, “I do.”
I said, “All right then. I want you to come and speak.” He came and gave a lecture on Jonah. In Matthew, Jesus was asked twice for a sign, and He said the only sign this generation would have would be the sign of Jonah in the fish’s belly (Matthew 12:39-40; 16:4).
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)
Jesus connected that with His resurrection, and I honestly believe that if we overthrow the one, we must overthrow the other. As you get along in life and have perhaps as many friends on the other side of the river as you have on this side, you will get about as much comfort out of the story of the resurrection as any other story in the Bible. Christ had no doubt about the story. He said His resurrection would be a sign like that given unto the Ninevites. It was the resurrected man, Jonah, who walked through the streets of Nineveh. The men of Nineveh had probably heard about Jonah being thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish.
I think it is a masterstroke of Satan to make us doubt the resurrection, but these modern philosophers have made a discovery. They say a whale’s throat is no larger than a man’s fist, and that it is a physical impossibility for a whale to swallow a man. The book of Jonah says that the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah (Jonah 1:17). Couldn’t God make a fish large enough to swallow Jonah? If God could create a world, and all the animals on it, I think He could create a fish large enough to swallow a million men. As one woman said, “Could He not, if He chose, prepare a man that could swallow a whale?”
But Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)
A couple of these modern philosophers were sailing to Europe some time ago, and a Scotch friend of mine was on board who knew his Bible pretty well. They began talking about the Bible, and one of them said, “I am a scientific man, and I have made some investigation of that Book, and I have looked at some of the statements in it, examined them, and I declare them to be false. There is a statement in the Bible that Balaam’s donkey spoke. I have taken pains to examine the mouth of a donkey, and it is so formed that it could not speak.”
My friend stood it as long as he could and then said, “Well, sir, you make the donkey, and I will make him speak.” The idea that God could not speak through the mouth of a donkey!
And the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times? Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground. (Numbers 22:28, 31)