It has been Written...............

We are well aware that there is a lot that goes on in the name of Christianity that is far from our Biblically-based faith.  I spend a lot of time teaching in developing nations (some not developing), and it is amazing what passes for Christianity in some places.  For example, because of the systemic poverty that abounds in Africa, the prosperity gospel (PG) movement is alive and well.

The prosperity gospel, as it is commonly called, promises wealth to those who cannot even buy clothes for their children or send them to school.  The lies of this theology don't come near to what God teaches us in His Word about our stewardship of money and material things, and yet impoverished people will hold out with desperation that it just might work for them to bring them wealth.  It is truly one of life's saddest spectacles, not just for the victims, but for how the Scriptures are cheapened and misused in this process.

Jesus said “It is Written” on several occasions to those who had abused the truth of God's Word in His day.  When Paul instructed Timothy in Ephesus as to the sacred OT writings he said, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God".  Therefore when Jesus stated "It is Written" He was affirming the OT text as it had been written over the previous fifteen centuries.  He said "It is Written" directly to Satan who attempted to force the Bible to say things it didn't regarding God's promises.   He said as much to a young rich man in an attempt to deliver him from the grip of his wealth and make Him a child of God.  He said "it is written"to the Sadducees who rejected the resurrection.  He confirmed the Old Testament's authority when speaking of marriage, adultery, and murder as given by Moses.  Christ declared,

 “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Mk 22:31-32)

Christians are therefore, a people of the Book, not because we lack creativity or the capacity to think for ourselves, but rather because we have willingly placed ourselves under the authority of Scripture.  This authority of Scripture has historically been attacked on various grounds over the centuries.  It should bring Christians great comfort to know that Satan is the subtle and certain force behind this insidious questioning of Biblical authority.  

Whether it be the sheer denial of God's Word to Adam and Eve in the garden, the exploitation of God's promises in the temptation of Jesus, or the outright denial of Moses being the writer and recorder of the Torah, doubt of the Bible's veracity is the ultimate target of our ancient enemy.  

In perhaps the earliest known personal letter known after the completion of the NT, Clement wrote these words to the Christians of the Church at Rome asserting the Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the OT,

"After all, the blessed Moses, 'who was a faithful servant in all his house' (Numbers 13) recorded in the sacred books all the injunctions given to him to the laws that he enacted."  

Was Clement in error over two millennia ago in his affirmation that Moses himself recorded these words in Numbers 13?  Absolutely not.  So let us continue to resolutely refuse the lies, whether ancient of contemporary, that the Scripture is not as it has been written.

C.S. Lewis the incomparable apologist challenged us by stating,

We were made to be ruled.  

And the fact is, we will be ruled by something or someone!  But, we have a choice in the matter.  We can choose to follow the wide road of this world and end up at a desperately wrong destination.  Or we can choose to submit ourselves to the One who created us, communicated to us by way of an inspired text, and then came personally into our broken world to be broken for our brokeness in order to pay the awful consequences of our sin. 

 This is the narrow road, but it leads to wide and green open spaces now....... and then a secure place with Him later.  Yes, it is written, and we who know Jesus Christ have believed it and now know it.  

Do you know Him?  He is the One who said, It is Written! 




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