Is the Bible All True? A Deeper Consideration—Part 2
January 16, 2006
Dear Friends
Last week we took a look at the portions of the Bible that are not true. This is not at all like the so-called Bible scholars who mock God’s word by suggesting that it is a collection of fables and myths, but places in the Scriptures where God by inspiration has given us contrasts to His truth. We began last week by giving the first two pointers for determining these passages. The first pointer is that the Bible tells us explicitly that the passage is not true. The second pointer is where the speaker is rebuked for what they have said. We can now continue with the third pointer.
Pointer #3—The men are of questionable character or uninspired. This is often hard to catch because sometimes bad men say correct things and sometimes good men say incorrect things. However, when you read a comment by someone of questionable character in the Bible, it always pays to examine what they say very closely. The best example of this is the advice given to the Sanhedrin by Gamaliel in Acts 5. What he says appears on the surface to be good and logical. However in my opinion, upon greater examination, Gamaliel’s advice was not correct and according to what God would have us do. We are clued to look closely at what Gamaliel says because he is a Pharisee who is participating in a trial on the Apostles. (For further examination of this incident, see the Thought for the Week 8/26/2001 in the archives.)
Pointer #4—The last pointer is that what is said is the truth, but not the whole truth. This is a little different than the others because what is said is true, but taken alone can be false. This means we have to take into account the whole counsel of God. Brother Len Richardson covers this in his excellent tome called Balancing the Book. In it he writes “A thing may be ‘true’, yet not be ‘the truth’. There is almost always the ‘Yes, but . . . ’ factor. Or as the celebrated Dr C E M Joad used to say, ‘It depends what you mean by…’â€
One quick example is where we started last week in the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not kill.†(Ex. 20:13) This statement is true enough in the context it is given, but it needs to be taken in the context of all of God’s word. It is not talking about animals or plants, but people. It is not talking about when God commanded Israel to kill because that was an exception to this general principle. The whole of Scripture must always be used because if we chose isolated verses we can prove virtually anything of our liking. So while “thou shalt not kill†is true, it really depends on what we mean when we say it. In other words, the Scripture is true, but how we use it can make it false.
It is important to note that we are not suggesting that we can pick and choose which verses we want to be true and want to be false. People often pick and choose which verses they believe based on human emotion. We are not at liberty to do this. Thomas Jefferson created his own Bible using this approach. He simply picked the verses he didn’t like (mostly the miracles of Jesus) and literally cut them out. For example, we may not like the fact that Jesus tells us to love our enemies, but that gives us no right to disregard it.
Truth can be discerned to those who diligently seek for it. I am still amused to this day by the gentleman who said he had read the Bible cover to cover once, but may need to do it once more before he had it all down. Pursuit of God’s truth is a lifetime pursuit. Daily, systematic reading of the Scriptures is a privilege that each and every disciple of Christ should engage in.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15 NAS)
We will pick up here next week with some more pointers.
Have a great week!
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