GOD’S WORD
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 14, 2002
1 TIMOTHY 3:10-4:8
Ronald Reagan was president of the United States from 1981 to 1989, and it was January of 1983 when Ronald Reagan declared for the United States of America the “Year of the Bible.” And this declaration was approved by the Senate, largely because of the work and the effort of former Senator Bill Armstrong, who was a member of this church, along with his wife Ellen, who is an elder here at the church. And this declaration of the Year of the Bible was also approved in the House of Representatives, primarily because of the labor of former Congressman Carlos Moorehead, who is a member of Glendale Presbyterian Church in Glendale, California, where I grew up, where my oldest brother serves today in the ministry, and where my mom is a member.
But even though this declaration by President Reagan concerning the Bible was approved in the Senate and in the house, nevertheless the ACLU—the American Civil Liberties Union—became incensed. They brought forth charges saying that there had taken place a violation of constitutional laws regarding the separation of church and state. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against the ACLU, saying that President Reagan’s declaration of the year of the Bible was in keeping with past declarations by past presidents. Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled this declaration did not force anyone to read the Bible. People were still free to read the Bible or free to not read the Bible, free to make a choice. And of course, that remains so. It remains true today. We’re still free. You’re free to read the Bible and you’re free not to read the Bible; you’re free to make a choice. But as a pastor, my concern, my fear, is that some of you might choose to not read the Bible or that you might choose to read the Bible but not apply it to your life.
In these upcoming months, for the remainder of this year and into next year, we are going to have a special focus on the Bible, seeking to help each of you grow in your knowledge and application of the Word of God. In these upcoming months, we’re going to be offering special classes, special seminars, and special opportunities for you to grow in your knowledge of holy scripture. And here in this congregation, we’re declaring a kind of Year of the Bible, and we want you to be part of it.
Now, we’re doing this for three reasons, and these comprise our three teachings this morning. First of all, we want you to be biblically literate. We want each of you and all of you to be biblically literate. And of course, we live in a culture and in a nation that is increasingly illiterate regard to the Bible.
More and more people know less and less of scripture. Now, in the Middle Ages, Bibles were sometimes called cantunatum. Across Europe, this ancient word, cantunatum, was used as a title for the Bible. And this word cantunatum means “chained.” Now, why were Bibles called cantunatum? Why were they described as chained? But we need to understand that in the Middle Ages there were very few Bibles, and in fact, prior to Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, there were very few books, and what books there were hand printed. There was no mass production of books. Furthermore, most people in the civilized world were unable to read. They were not literate, and of course, did not need to be, since books were not readily available.
Now, most institutions in the academic world were controlled by ecclesiastical entities. They were controlled by the church. And the people who were most educated were the people of the clergy. They were also the people who tended to have books and tended to have Bibles, and then also the very, very rich and also members of royal houses had books. These were those who had books, and these were those who had Bibles. Their Bibles were all handwritten with fine penmanship, and their Bibles were adorned with art. And the most famous artists in the world shared their art on the pages of scripture, and their artwork adorned the pages of most Bibles.
Furthermore, many Bibles had covers that were inlaid with gold. Their covers were sometimes covered with gold leaf, sometimes inlaid with precious stones and jewels. Bibles were considered treasures and common people did not have them. So, what Bibles that did exist were found chained inside of churches so they could not be stolen or chained inside of mansions of the rich where they could not be stolen or chained inside of palaces for the royal families where, again, they could not be stolen. Cantunatum—chained, rare.
Now of course, today Bibles are common. Bibles are mass produced and they are marketed all over the world. And Christian bookstores and secular bookstores sell massive numbers of Bibles. The Bible is the largest selling book in the history of the world. It remains a bestseller today, and every year there are new translations, new interpretations, new versions of the Bibles available. Most of you have multiple copies of the Bible at home, but you see, Bibles might as well still be chained. They might as well still be cantunatum because most people do not read them. Most people do not read the Bible, and we are a culture that is becoming increasingly illiterate with regard to scripture.
Now, children sometimes get the Bible confused and they say cute things about Bible passages, and sometimes they, they misunderstand biblical statements and stories. I have here a list of some statements that were written by children regarding the Bible. And these statements have not been retouched and they’ve not been corrected, and they include the incorrect spellings. I wanted to read a couple of them to you.
Here’s one: “The Egyptians were all drowned in the desert, and afterwards Moses went up on Mount Sinai to get the 10 amendments. Of course, they were commandments. And even though those commandments might seem poisonous to some, it was Mount Sinai, not Mount Cyanide. Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.” Of course, Moses was seeking the land of Canaan, not the land of Canada. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. It was Lawrence Welk who fought the battle of Geritol.
“The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.” Of course, it wasn’t his son, it was the sun, S-U-N, and that was one of the miracles of scripture.
“Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.” He might’ve been better off if they were porcupines, but of course they were concubines.
“Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.” Of course, it was an immaculate conception, and though most Christians don’t know this, the Roman Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception does not refer to the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus was the virgin birth. The immaculate conception refers to the birth of Mary by Anna and Joachim, and according to the doctrine of the immaculate conception held by the Catholic Church, Mary was born without the taint of original sin. So it was an immaculate conception.
Here’s another statement: “The people who followed the Lord were called decibels.” Of course, it was disciples.
“The epistles were the wives of the Apostles.” That’s kind of creative.
“Christians have only one spouse. This is called monotony.” But of course, it’s really monogamy.”
Well, it is kind of cute when kids get it all wrong. It’s kind of cute when children don’t know the Bible. It’s not so cute when as adults we’re ignorant with regard to holy scripture, I was reading recently of a secular university in New England where they’re offering a new class on the Bible as literature. And the professor of that class tests the incoming students regarding their Bible knowledge at the beginning of the school year, and then at the end of the class he tests them again to see if there’s any progress. And he asked on the test this question: he “Who or what is Golgotha in the Bible?” And one student wrote this answer on the test: “Golgotha is the name of the giant that slew the Apostle David.” Now of course, Golgotha is the name of the hill upon which Christ was crucified, and Goliath was the name of the giant that David encountered. And of course, Goliath didn’t slay David, but it was the other way around. And of course, David was not an apostle.
But the professor of this Bible as lit course said that the student who wrote that answer, a female student, was actually very brilliant. And she graduated with highest honors. Though there was much wrong in her answer, she actually knew more than most of the other students because at least she knew that there was an individual in the Old Testament named David and he had an encounter with a giant. Now, you might find it hard to believe that people could have such a minimal knowledge of the Bible, but they really do.
I can tell you that more and more, after 28 years in ministry, with every passing year I see greater biblical illiteracy. People will come into my office that are new to the church and they will ask questions that show that many times they don’t even understand the basics of the gospel and have little knowledge of who Jesus Christ even is. Studies show that most people in America cannot identify more than one or two of the 10 Commandments. Studies show that most people in America cannot identify more than one or two of the 12 disciples. Most people in the United States of America do not know the four names of the four Gospels. Most people in the United States of America do not know the number of books in the Bible. They do not know the names of the biblical books and many of the books of the Bible they’ve never even heard of them.
They have no concept of a Bible outline. They have no concept of a biblical timeline. They do not have knowledge regarding biblical content or structure. This is the situation in which we find ourselves in, and we want to change that. We recognize that in this congregation there are varying degrees of Bible knowledge, but we want you all to come to a significant measure of biblical knowledge. And so, we’re going to be offering classes that help you understand biblical outlines and biblical timelines. We’re going to be offering classes that help you rightly interpret the scripture. We’re going to be offering classes that are designed to give you a basic knowledge of the Bible as a whole and biblical content.
I’m going to be starting a new series on the 10 commandments called Rules for the Road Less Traveled. And we’re going to be dealing with each of the 10 Commandments individually. And just as the Sermon on the Mount reflects the core of New Testament morality, so the 10 Commandments, the decalogue, reflects the core of Old Testament morality. And the two are related. We’re going to be going through each of the 10 Commandments. And then following that we’re gonna start a new series on Sunday morning where I’m going to be taking us through all the major characters of the Bible, all the men and women of Scripture. And we’re going to be focusing on these people one by one, going through the Old Testament and the New Testament.
We’re going to take a look at all the major characters of scripture, the heroes and the villains, and what we can learn from their lives—the examples that we can find, the errors that we can avoid, how their lives can speak to us today and speak to the way we live today. And hopefully this series will give us a greater knowledge of all the scriptures and the people in the scriptures. But we wanna encourage you to be part of this because it’s really going to be an important and an exciting time in the life of our church.
Well, we want you not only to attain biblical literacy, but to understand biblical inspiration. And that is our second goal. But you might understand how the Bible is inspired. The Bible says all scripture is God breathed—”theopneustos.” All scripture is inspired of God.
I know many of you have heard of Francois Maria-Arouet. You probably don’t know him by that name. You know him by his pen name because his pen name was Voltaire. Voltaire was a French philosopher and writer and one of the leaders of the European Enlightenment, which was called the Age of Reason. He was a brilliant man and he has greatly influenced the thinking of many, and he hated the Bible.
The year was 1753 when Voltaire made his great boast wherein he said, “In 25 years, I will completely destroy the credibility of the Bible. By the end of 25 years, the Bible will no longer be considered credible; I will have destroyed it.” He said that in 1753, and it was exactly 25 years later, in 1778, that Voltaire died. And 50 years after that, in 1818, his home was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society. And it is ironic but true that from his home Bibles were then distributed all over Europe. And you’re reminded of the scripture which says, “All flesh is like grass and all of its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls but the word of the Lord abides forever.”
And yet the Bible is still under attack today. The Bible is being attacked today by modernists because the Bible claims to be divine revelation, the revealed word of God. Most modernists cannot embrace the concept of divine revelation. Their epistemology, their method of knowing the truth, tends to be centered on the scientific method. It was the same epistemology of the European Enlightenment. It was really based on the epistemology of the Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Socrates. It was the epistemology that says we come to a knowledge of the truth through sensory observation—the accumulation of data from sensory observation combined with inductive and deductive reasoning.
And of course, there’s nothing wrong with a scientific method. It’s very useful. But you see, the scientific method will never take you to an awareness of ultimate truth. It’ll never bring you to absolute truth. It’s useful, but it can’t deal with absolute truth. Absolute truth must come through divine revelation and modernists struggle with that concept.
The Bible’s also being attacked by postmodernists simply because the Bible claims to be absolute truth, and most postmodernists do not believe in absolute truth. They embrace in some measure the concept of divine revelation and they find the scientific method useful, but they don’t trust either of these epistemologies. They don’t trust either of them as a source of absolute truth. In fact, most postmodernists kind of view truth as cultural and relative. Each culture has its own truth and we should respect each culture. But no culture—no subculture, no people, no ethnic group—can claim to have absolute truth. And so, postmodernism attacks the credibility of the Bible.
But there are good reasons for you to believe that this book is inspired of God—that it is theopneustos, that it is God breathed. There are logical, rational reasons for you to believe in the inspiration of holy scripture.
Archeology is confirming more and more as time goes by the historicity of scripture. In fact, there are more and more books even written by secular authors from the academic world confirming the historicity of the Bible through archeological evidence. Of all the books of antiquity, there is no book more historically reliable than the Bible. And even secular historians acknowledge this. Furthermore, the inspiration of scripture is demonstrated through fulfilled prophecy. Did you know there are thousands of prophecies in the Bible? Most of them have already been fulfilled. Some are yet to be fulfilled. Some are in the midst of being fulfilled even as we are sitting in this room this morning. But there is so much biblical prophecy already fulfilled that scripture is demonstrated to be inspired of God.
Jesus Christ pronounced judgment on the city of Jerusalem. He said that in a matter of years, the city would be destroyed and the temple would be torn down and not one stone would be left lying on another. And sure enough, just a few decades later, in 70 AD, Titus and his Roman legion swept over the city of Jerusalem and destroyed it. They destroyed the temple on the temple mount and not one stone was left lying on another in fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the prophecies of Christ. Jesus prophesied the ruin of the cities of Chorazin and Capernaum and the ruin of the city of Bethsaida Julius. He said that those cities would be destroyed and they would never be built again because of their unbelief. Archeological evidence confirms this is exactly what has happened. They have just recently unearthed the cities of Bethsaida Julius and Chorazin, and they unearthed Capernaum years ago, and they remain in ruins to this day in fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
You can look to Israel today and you can see prophecy being fulfilled right in our time, because the Bible prophesies again and again and very clearly that as we approach the consummation of the world the Jewish people would return to Israel and they would establish a nation again. Nobody believed it was possible, even though the Bible said it would happen. And the Bible says this in countless passages, and indeed it has happened. 1948 was a miracle as Israel became a nation again and the Jews returned to Palestine. 1967 was a miracle as the Jews reoccupied the city of Jerusalem once again. And the very existence of the nation of Israel today is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
The Bible prophesies that in the consummation of the world, the nations of the earth will focus on this newborn nation of Israel. The Bible tells us that the nations of the earth will polarize themselves with regard to this newborn nation of Israel, and that it will lead to global conflict and ultimately to a battle called Armageddon.
I don’t know how anybody could take a look at what is happening on the stage of history today and deny the authority of holy scripture and the fulfillment of biblical prophecies. So we see that the scripture is true for many, many reasons. We see the logic of scripture, the logic of the Bible theologically. I mean, the teachings of scripture in terms of theology makes sense. It makes sense to believe that this creation has a creator. That’s logical. It makes sense to view humanity as the crown of God’s creation. Even evolutionists acknowledge that human life forms are the supreme example of life on the earth. And of course, it makes sense to view humanity as sinful and fallen, as the Bible tells us, because that is observable. I mean, we see it in the lives of others and in our own lives that we are sinners and we are fallen, and it is logical.
Therefore, to deduce that we need a savior the theology of the Bible is logical. The morality of the Bible is logical. And when we defy the morality of the Bible, there are logical consequences—not simply in the life to come, but in this life because the guidelines that God gives us in scripture are given lovingly and for our good. They make sense.
The inspiration of the Bible is also demonstrated through the testimonies of countless men and women whose lives have been changed through the power of the word of God. The inspiration of scripture is made evident whenever scripture is preached and the Holy Spirit attends the gospel and bears witness with our spirit that this is indeed the word of God.
We’re hoping and praying that in the months ahead through various courses and apologetics, through varying means, we might help you better understand the authority of holy scripture and its inspiration. So our goal is that you might become more and more biblically literate and more and more appreciate the inspiration of holy scripture. All is for this final purpose of applying the Bible to our lives. The reason we’re so concerned that we all know the Bible and that we all respect and trust its authority is so we might begin to apply the Bible to the way we live. Our biggest concern is biblical application.
I want to talk a little bit about the upcoming movie Joshua. Joshua is a story of Christ in a contemporary setting. Joshua means Jesus. Now, of course, in the movie Joshua is Jesus, but most of the people, including most of the priests and the ministers, have not figured that out (although they begin to suspect it as the movie goes on). In one scene, you see a priest named Pat who’s disillusioned in his ability to live out the Bible and his ability to live in accordance with scripture and therefore to teach scripture. And in his frustration, he just throws his Bible away. You see Jesus, after Pat leaves, get up and start to walk out to the water. You think maybe at first He’s going to walk on the water, but no, He goes under the water and He gets the Bible. And then as that scene fades, you see Jesus holding the Bible.
I’m reminded of the words of Christ where He said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word will not pass away.” You might be frustrated in terms of applying the Bible to your life, but don’t throw it away. You might be frustrated, but don’t throw it away, because God understands that we’re fallen and that we are in the process of growth. And there’s mercy, grace, and love—love for us to grow. What He’s looking for is to see us day by day growing as we seek to apply the Bible to our lives.
We need to apply the Bible in many ways. We need to apply the Bible theologically to our life. I mean, where do you get your theology, if not from the Bible? How do you form doctrine if not from the Bible?
You know, we live in a crazy world. I read this last week about a guy named Crandall Stone who lives in the state of Vermont. And two years ago, he was gathered with some friends and they spent most of the night sipping and drinking brandy and brainstorming. And they thought they came up with an incredible idea for a new business venture. They contacted NASA and they asked NASA scientists where the big bang took place—when you look into the heavens, where was the pinpoint? Where did it begin? Where did the big bang take place? And the scientists at NASA explained that no one knows that for sure, but they believe that there’s a part of the universe that’s older than any other part. That system is called M13, and the likelihood is that the Big Bang took place somewhere near the vicinity of M13.
Well, then Crandall Stone and his friends invested all their money and purchased a powerful radio transmitter and they aimed it at M13. Then they opened a website and they invited people all over the nation and around the world to send prayers so they could transmit them on this powerful radio to M13—to the place of the big bang, the oldest section of the universe. Surely God is near the place where it all began. “We will transmit your prayers there.”
Now, it’s incredible to me that anybody would’ve even come up with this idea, but here’s what’s more incredible. What’s more incredible is that today they are receiving on the average 50,000 prayers a week. They are receiving 50,000 prayers a week and just projecting them to M13. What a crazy world. We live in a world where people form their theology from a night over a bottle of brandy instead of from the Bible.
I mean, it’s just a crazy world with crazy doctrine. Where do you get your theology of prayer? Where do you get your doctrine of prayer? Where do you get your understanding of the omnipresence of God? It’s in the Bible.
You know, I just finished reading a book by Dean Koontz, and I don’t normally read books by Dean Koontz. I don’t have anything against Dean Koontz, I just don’t normally read that particular genre of fiction. But I have a friend on the National Board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and he told me that he’s friends with Dean Koontz and that he thinks Dean Koontz is close to becoming a Christian. And I saw where this latest book by Dean Koontz is called A Door Away from Heaven. So I thought, well, I’ll read this. And I read this novel by Dean Koontz.
I have to admit, he’s a brilliant man. He’s a skilled writer and he is very clever and very creative. And there are certainly things in the book that I found insightful. He attacks the utilitarian philosophy that guides a lot of bioethics in the medical community today, the belief that the ends justify the means. And this is the philosophy that’s guiding a lot of bioethics. He condemns that. I agree with him. He also condemns a lot of the concepts that are celebrated in euthanasia. He finds the morality of euthanasia wanting, and I agree with him, but he has some real strange theology in this book. He has a kind of pantheistic view of God, and he views God as in everything. He refers to God as “the playful presence that that is in everything and surrounds everything.”
But he says that human beings cannot discern the playful presence. They’re not aware of the fact that God is all around them. They’re not aware because we’re not innocent. We’re not innocent, so we can’t sense the presence of God. But he points out that dogs are innocent. Dogs are innocent, he says, and that’s why dogs are so friendly, so loyal, and so happy. That’s why they wag their tails. And dogs are capable of discerning the playful presence. They sense the presence of God all the time. And in this book, he has an alien being who’s able to do a mind-meld with a dog. And through that mind-meld he discerns the playful presence of God and comes into contact with God. And he shares this ability with other people, and it’s a whole new world as people become aware of God’s presence through the canine connection.
Now, I don’t believe for a second that Dean Koontz believes in this canine connection, but I can tell you that the world is so crazy that there are people out there who will read a book like that and actually derive some theology from it. It’ll be an “Aha!” moment for some people instead of a “Haha!” moment. I mean, we live in a crazy world like this. And once you throw the Bible out, why not? It’s all up for grabs. Why not a canine connection? After all, dog is just God spelled backwards. But where do you get your doctrine? How is your theology shaped? It should come from the Bible applied to theology.
The Bible also needs to be applied to morality. Where do you get your morality? How do you decide what’s right and what’s wrong? You know, in the year 1799, a soldier in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte was in the Nile Delta in Egypt at Rashid near Rosetta, not too far from the city of Alexandria. It was there in 1799 that this soldier in the engineering corps of Napoleon made one of the greatest discoveries in archeological history. He discovered what today is called the Rosetta Stone, a massive slab. This slab may be seen today in the British Museum. It is an inscription celebrating the ascension to the throne of Ptolemy V Epiphanes in the year 203 BC, an inscription celebrating his ascension to the throne as Pharaoh of Egypt. The inscription is written in three languages. It’s written in hieroglyphics and then the same statement is written in the demotic text and in Greek.
Now, prior to 1799 and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, philologists and linguists were not able to interpret hieroglyphics. They just didn’t understand hieroglyphics; they couldn’t figure it out. But the Rosetta Stone became the key. By comparing the same statement in three languages, they were able to decipher the meaning of the characters in hieroglyphics. It was truly a revolutionary moment in philology.
Now, the world is puzzled with regard to morality. There are a lot of people in this world who just can’t figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. This has been true throughout history. But the Bible is the Rosetta Stone. It is the key. It’s how we understand what’s right and what’s wrong. There’s no need to have this mystery. There’s no need for ignorance.
In fact, Abraham Lincoln said that without the Bible we would not know right from wrong. But there are a lot of people in our culture today who do not know right from wrong because they do not know the Bible. Or, they know the Bible but they don’t believe in its inspiration. Or, they believe in its inspiration but they’re not willing to apply it to their life. Where do you get your morality? Where do you get your concept of what’s right and what’s wrong? It better come from the Bible applied.
The Bible needs to be applied not only to our theology and our morality, but to our behavior. This is the real problem, isn’t it? I mean, even Christian fundamentalists who spend so much time praising the authority of the Bible sometimes do not apply the Bible to their lives because there’s an absence of love sometimes amongst Christian fundamentalists.
Love is the supreme virtue and value in the Bible. Sometimes fundamentalists are not loving, not compassionate, not forgiving, not merciful. The Bible’s not being applied. Sometimes Christian fundamentalists are judgmental and even filled with hatred for people. The Bible is not being applied. And how are we doing as evangelical believers? Are we applying the Bible to our behavior?
Jesus gave us the great commission. He told us to go out into the world and share the gospel. He told us to tell people about Him. Are we doing that? Are you sharing Christ and His love with other people? Are you telling people about Jesus? Is that part of your theology of morality, but you don’t apply it to your behavior? I think that’s the problem, isn’t it? That’s the problem. And of course, we know what the Bible says about giving in stewardship and tithing, and yet so few of us are really willing to apply biblical teaching to our financial lives.
The giving of the church of Jesus Christ nationally is woeful. That’s why the ministry of the church of Jesus Christ in America is somewhat inept today. People will not apply the Bible to their finances. But how about you? I shared just a month and a half ago how financially this church was entering into a crisis. And if we didn’t give better, we were going to wind up losing staff and losing ministries. We’re doing better. I mean, we’re doing better, but we’re not out of the woods. And the next three months, which brings us to the end of our fiscal year, are absolutely critical if we wanna have a ministry that remains strong at Cherry Hills Community Church. But it’s not really about Cherry Hills Community Church. It’s about whether or not we as Christians are willing to apply the Bible to our behavior—not just to our theology and our morality, but to our actual behavior—and then ultimately to our thoughts, our attitudes, our moods, our feelings, and our motives.
See, we want the Bible to be applied to every area of life. That’s why we’ve created this special focus in these upcoming months and we’re going to be offering all these classes and seminars and special programs. We hope you want to be part of it and that you have a desire to grow in your knowledge of the Bible to more fully appreciate the inspiration of scripture and to apply the Bible to your theology, morality, behavior, and even your thoughts and feelings and motives. Let’s close with a word of prayer.