"All Scripture is inspired of God..."

Dear Christian Friend,

"All Scripture is inspired of God..."

Some stories are repeated a few years with only the people and places being changed. Back when Arizona was a territory, not yet a state, it had as Governor a brilliant young lawyer, Irving Wallace. As a talented speaker, he occasionally joined with well-known skeptics such as Bob Ingersoll, on the contradictions in the Bible and the stupidity of believers. Ingersoll wagered there would be no one seriously believing in God and the Bible in one more generation. He asked Wallace to collect all the evidence of the various skeptics and write an authoritative book on the subject. Wallace agreed, but said he would have to do a great deal of study first. He had talked against the Bible enough but had not actually read it, let alone really studied it. He found other skeptics in the same condition.

His first thought was that there was a big element of weakness on the side of the skeptics. So, before he wrote anything definite, he began to read the Bible. It was an amazing shock to his old ideas and prejudices. Wallace later wrote, "I, as a successful lawyer, have to recognize witnesses who are telling the truth from those who are lying. All the stories in the Bible have the ring of truth, talking of real people, showing their sins and errors as well as their righteousness." In contrast his skeptic acquaintances came out as prejudiced, and willfully blind. Christ was recognized to be such a powerful, wise, and good man. Why not believe His words then? He said He was the Messiah, sent of God and the Saviour. He was either all He claimed or a wicked liar and a trickster. There was no way to straddle the problem. Wallace decided to write his book, but on the side of proving the Bible. He wrote the famous, "Ben Hur, A Tale Of Christ."

While the Bible needs no weak human proof in one sense, Paul says we are to be well grounded, able to give reasons, exhort and prove it to the new or weak. I think parents, preachers, and everyone should study some science and the Bible in order to help young students, high school and college, to get a foundation, and realize the Bible and the believers have a lot more scientific evidences than any so called scientific theory like Evolution. Our greatest weakness is not in the Bible or our teaching Creation. It is in the limited interpretations of ideas of some Christians, based on a few words and their translations or interpretations.

Some scholarly authorities on old manuscripts and the Greek language, wrote that it was amazing. There were not any real originals. All of the manuscripts were copies of copies and there were differences of some words and passages. Still there was unity without controversy in the passages of which depended doctrinal fundamentals of Christian faith. In other words, we may not claim perfect inerrancy in every legality and word, but God's message therein is clearly inerrant and fully inspired. Obviously God does not want us to be legalistic Scribes and Pharisees, but New Testament living partakers of the true spiritual Word. The letter killeth, the Spirit brings life.

Orland Wolfram