Americans love a good conspiracy! Tell me that someone (especially the government) is hiding something from me and my interest perks up. Further investigation, however, generally reveals that the advertisement is hoping to sell copies of Gnostic works or some of the apocryphal books from the period between the testaments.

However, it is certainly fair to ask these questions: Can we have confidence that the New Testament of our Bible contains all of the books that God intended? Are there any included books that don’t really belong?

Since the word canon is commonly used to describe authoritative writings, by definition God determined the canon (via inspiration) of the New Testament. Canonization is essentially the process by which men recognized the books that were inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16).

The Roman Catholic Church claims to have “given” the biblical canon to the religious world. One dictionary of the Catholic faith states, “The Canon of Holy Scripture is the list, made by the Church, of the inspired books which make up the Old and New Testament.” Although the early church (in a distributive sense) did pass judgment on the canon, there are at least two problems with that assertion. First, the Old and New Testament canons were recognized prior to the existence of the Roman Catholic Church with its distinctive characteristics, the claims of that church regarding Peter notwithstanding. Second, the various church councils (e.g., the synods of Hippo in A.D. 393 and Carthage in A.D. 397) that made declarations concerning the identity of the canon were merely stating what had already been widely accepted by Christians for some time. In summary, there doesn’t seem to be any historical evidence that the canon was determined by any universal (church) organization or any sub-group of the Lord’s church.

Nevertheless, the canon of the New Testament is not the result of a list of books dropped from the heavens. The recognition of that canon was certainly a process that spanned a number of years, one that began when the first books of the New Testament were written.

The churches/individuals who received correspondence from the apostles would have saved and copied such, recognizing the authority possessed by the writers. Of course, not all of the New Testament books were written by apostles, but apostolic authorship certainly provided prima facie evidence of inspiration (because of the Lord’s promise to the apostles of Holy Spirit guidance; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13) and thus a place in the canon. Peter gave Paul’s epistles equal status with the “rest of the Scriptures,” (2 Peter 3:15-16; it seems likely that Peter had in mind the Old Testament Scriptures).

There is also evidence that some inspired writings were being circulated (shared) fairly early in the history of the church. For instance, Paul gave instructions to his readers that they were to share their letters with other groups (Colossians 4:16). Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians was to be read “to all the holy brethren” (5:27). It is thought, with obvious reason (addressed to seven local churches in Asia Minor), that Revelation was intended as a “circular” letter.

There are several New Testament books whose widespread acceptance by early disciples required more time, primarily because of doubts concerning the identity of the author. Although early “canon lists” (e.g., Muratorian Canon [c. A.D. 170]) and citations of New Testament documents as “Scripture” by early church fathers are helpful in understanding the overall process of recognizing the canon, we should probably be cautious about making broad assumptions regarding the exact timing of the conclusion of that process.

God LOST Some Books?

The Mormons and the Muslims make a similar claim about the New Testament. They each affirm that the sacred book peculiar to their faith has been preserved without error, while at the same time claiming that contradictions with the Bible are caused by the corruption of the Scriptures. In other words, the same God who supposedly preserved The Book of Mormon and the Quran in flawless condition was unable, however, to do the same with the New Testament! Such claims impugn the omnipotence of the God of heaven.

Is our God sufficiently powerful to cause His word to be recognized and preserved? If God could not, through His providence, cause the correct books to be recognized as canonical, was Peter accurate when he described the gospel as “the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23)? I believe that we can have confidence in the canon of the New Testament.

Some animals migrate annually, some over the course of several years. Some will travel across a continent, some across an ocean, and some across the world. Some migrate in response to weather or seasons. Most follow the same route year after year.

I have noticed that many Christians have their own migratory patterns. They travel from church to church, rarely settling in one place for any appreciable length of time. Like other animals, these creatures have several observable migratory patterns.

Snowbirdus Locus. Like authentic snowbirds who seasonally migrate to a different climate and region altogether, this is a more localized phenomenon. During the winter months, these Christians disappear altogether. It should not be confused with hibernation, wherein all activity ceases — they still go to malls, restaurants, work and Target. When they go to church it is usually only on Sundays, and they often take a shorter route to a more nearby church.

Summerus Shortcutus. This heat-seeking species loads its schedule with all manner of summertime fun. Consequently, it spends a fair amount of time at the church nearest its activities. Thus it neglects the needs of the church that relies upon it for support and work.

Seekus Megachurchus. This critter likes big churches. It prefers much activity, big budgets, lots of programs and choices. It seldom participates in them, but it likes them available. It is prone to periodic relocation in pursuit of bigger and better. It never considers small churches, except when it’s running late.

Don’t Like-us the Preacherus. These birds are often fairly active in the local church. Often they do many good things. But when a species of preacher alights whom they strongly dislike, they relocate their nest to another church. There they will be happy, hard-working, and productive — at least until a new preacher arrives.

Unhappyus Anyplace-us. This species of Christian is particular. It is picky about singing, parking, preaching, classes, elders, location, meeting times, architecture, people who speak to them, people who don’t speak to them, commitment, lack of commitment, gospel meeting preachers, Bible translations, song books, class material, gospel meetings, how preachers shake hands, where preachers stand when they shake hands, elders and deacons who are too old, elders and deacons who are too young, too much excitement, too little excitement, etc.

Problematicus Memberus. These critters never met a Christian they didn’t dislike. They cause trouble in business meetings. They cause trouble in small groups. They cause trouble in Bible classes. They cause trouble for elders, teachers, preachers, and other members. They have burned bridges at virtually every congregation in a 60-mile radius. Their only hope is for another church to form, and very soon.

Findus Myselfus. This bird is disoriented. It doesn’t know what it wants. It doesn’t know what it doesn’t want. It will try everything, but isn’t excited about anything. It feels the need to attend church, but doesn’t feel the need to participate. It wants to be around other Christians, but doesn’t want to be involved with them. It likes church, but hesitates to be too thrilled about it. It wants to be used, but not too much. It wants to be courted, but wants to look around. It wants to be wooed, but thinks the grass may be greener on the other side of town. It knows it should be working more, but also feels it deserves a break.

Noncommitus Genericus. This variety of Christian simply cannot be expected to commit. They enjoy variety, so they go from place to place. They like different preachers. They like different classes. They like different singing styles. They like different types of building. They have friends everywhere. By hopping from place to place, it relieves them from having to deal with distasteful and distressing problems at this place or that. It appears that, although we should be cautious about this conclusion, their only real commitment is to self.

Please note, however, that there is one critical difference between migratory animals and migratory Christians. Animals can’t help themselves. Their genes are encoded in such a way that they are merely acting upon instinct. A given species migrates in a certain way because that is how its Maker has so endowed it.

Migratory Christians have a choice. While the Bible says little about church-hopping, it says much about commitment. Hebrews 10.25 warns against “forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some.” In other words, habitual assembling and habitual absenteeism are both addressed here. The text ASSUMES that these Christians routinely met with one another. But the text is not primarily about attendance — it is about commitment to others. It exhorts us (v 24) to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good works…” and (v 25) “encourage one another.” The task was mutual exhortation. The method was regular participation in one another’s lives in their assemblies.

If you are predisposed to migration, perhaps it’s time for you to settle down.

These are challenging times for God’s children. Not politically, or economically, or in regard to worldly immorality. In fact, what makes this a challenging time is not about anything that has to do primarily with the world.  Often, the easiest situations are those that pit God’s people against the world and worldly influences. When disciples are committed to serving God, and determined to do so with due regard for the Almighty God and His word, following His instructions with a spirit of unity and mutual support, the world and all that is in it is no match for them. Indeed, under such circumstances, we are “more than conquerors,” successfully fighting the “good fight of faith.”

The source of these troubled times is internal. While with God’s help we can overcome the world outside, decay can set up from within and be the downfall of God’s people. This has always been the challenge. The likelihood of it is never far away, and we are seeing the current manifestation of it now. Reasonable people are drawn to the “strait and narrow way” because of its obvious advantages, but some cannot resist the temptation to do a “makeover” of that to which they were attracted initially. As in all cases, the root cause is a lack of confidence in God’s picture of the church, and a well-intentioned effort to improve on it. Ever since Cain favored his own judgment over God’s in the matter of sacrifice, and Abraham could not resist helping in the matter of his heir, this spirit has been seen.  As an old campaigner (I have been trying to preach the gospel “full time” for over 60 years!), I can say that our troubles are not new to anybody except those who instigate them. The parallel spirits of innovation and tolerance are again at work, and God’s people are once more the victims.

One of these “not new” problems has to do with two competing visions of the church of Jesus Christ. Untaught disciples view the church as a bridge to the people of the world, at least the religious world (although some are not shy to seek to imitate the secular world in dress and daily activities), and cast it as friendly to compromise and accommodation. Past efforts to establish a scriptural “structure” for God’s plan, and controversies which called into question the “sincere efforts” at modernizing the work and worship of the church are now framed as “misguided.”  These people see “sincerity” and “love” as the common ground for religious folk, and “minor” differences must be tolerated. Harmony and good will must overcome ideology, and we must concede that man=s imperfections make true Bible unity an unlikely prospect B let us settle for what we can get. In the minds of these people, community outreach and partnership in meeting the physical and material needs of all people should cross “denominational lines,” and we should tone down the rhetoric which insists on “abiding in the doctrine of Christ.

Needless to say, the above is NOT God’s picture of the church.

• To God, the church is the “body” of His Son, who is Head over it in all things (Ephesians 1:22-23).
• To God, saints are to “come out from among” those in the world (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
• To God, the church must do all and only according to His authority (Colossians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:21).
• To God, the church must abide in the doctrine of Christ. (2 John 1:9).
• To God, there is no toleration for the “commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9).
• To God, for saints to be “right” is more important than for them to be “one” (James 3:17).
• To God, what His inspired teachers taught and did is intended as a model for Christians now (Philippians 4:9).
• To God, perverting His gospel results in a “curse” upon those who do so (Galatians 1:6-9).
• To God, the church is to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3).
• To God, the church is to be a disruptive force in the world and toward those in error, not an “accommodator” (Acts 17:6; 28:22).
• To God, those in the church should remain loyal, even if it kills them (Revelation 2:10).

More perhaps could be included, but it is easy to see the contrast in these two visions.

The immediate future of God’s church is being determined now. Brethren should not be naive. Damage has been done, and continues to be done every day. There are no “civilians” in this fight, but with each Christian, God=s vision of the church should be burned in our hearts, and our lives must reflect its impact in our dealings with error and those in error.

When you look at the church, which vision do you see?

We know little of the prophet except for the book bearing his name and one other reference (2 Kings 14:23-25) in the reign of Jeroboam II, who ruled Israel from 793-753 B.C. Since Assyria is the target audience of Jonah’s mission, it is assumed that Assyria must have been in turmoil to so readily repent due to Jonah’s preaching. Had Assyria been at the height of her power, it is assumed that her arrogance would have precluded her from responding favorably to God’s message. A period of such Assyrian weakness matching Jeroboam II’s reign would date the book around 760 B.C. But precisely dating the book is only “educated guessing.”

While liberal scholars see the story of Jonah as “allegory” or “parabolic” teaching, there is nothing in the narrative to suggest it is to be understood figuratively. It appears the author intended his book as an historical record of actual events. Further, the Jews never hesitated to include Jonah in the canon of Old Testament Scripture. Why would they willingly accept a book that emphasized mercy to an inveterate enemy of both Israel and Judah, unless it was considered historically accurate? Even more to the point, Jesus likened Jonah’s “three days and three nights” in the belly of the great fish as being true of the Son of Man being “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). If Jonah’s incident was “fictional,” then, pray tell, why Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is not equally “fictional”? Jesus also stated that the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah (Matthew 12:41). If the citizens of Nineveh never repented because of Jonah’s preaching, Jesus’ statements regarding them are “untrue” and His reproach to His contemporaries based on Jonah’s story quite unfounded!

The account of a great fish swallowing Jonah alive, holding him within its gut for three days, and disgorging him onto land while not killing him in the process has led countless liberal scholars to explain it away by any means possible! Most of these scholars have adopted the allegorical/parabolic approach to the book. Others explain it by naturalistic means, citing references throughout history to men swallowed alive by whales and sharks and disgorged virtually unharmed. Jack P. Lewis has rightly stated: “The continuous debate over whether there are fish in the Mediterranean that could swallow a man is actually beside the point since it is said that the Lord prepared the fish” (The Minor Prophets, p. 40). If we will let God be God, then nothing is too hard for the Lord to do (Jeremiah 32:17).

The target audience of Jonah’s story is the Jews themselves. They would have shared his prejudice against the Gentiles, especially an enemy like Assyria. Even in New Testament days this “separation” from the Gentiles is clearly portrayed in Cornelius’ conversion and aftermath at Jerusalem in Acts 10-11, the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, and the hypocrisy of Peter and Barnabas in regard to not eating with their Gentile brethren in Galatians 2. If there is one overarching lesson from the book, it is this: “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16a), and “desires all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). Jonah’s story compellingly rebukes our parochial tendencies to only love “some” people (same color, nationality, or socio-economic standing). And we too often care only for what affects us personally (just like Jonah caring for the plant shielding him from the burning sun), while caring not at all for the teeming millions perishing in their sins!

The true and living God of the Bible is sovereign over all mankind – Assyrian, Israelite, or American. No one can run away from Him. And all men will give account of their deeds to Him one day (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:12).

I close with this statement from the article on “Jonah, Book of” in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (revised edition, 1982): “In its abrupt end, the reader is suddenly addressed by the word of God: it is no longer a simple story about Jonah, but one about the reader himself…In the final analysis, it is the prophet himself who is judged and, through him, those who read his story.”

Scripture records nothing of Joel’s life or character, but his writings reveal much about his genius and poetic skills as a spokesman of God. He wrote out of a vivid imagination in a graphic and picturesque style. He tells us much about the “day of the Lord” — a “great and terrible” day when Jehovah as God comes to tread down with vengeance and wrath the enemies of His people and provide a place of refuge and deliverance for all who call on His name (2:31-32).

Joel, as many Old Testament prophets, looks beyond the immediate judgment of Israel’s enemies and the deliverance of the nation from captivity. He foresees the pouring forth of God’s Spirit in the “last days” and the escape of a remnant of Israel in the Messianic kingdom at Mt. Zion in the Jerusalem that is from above (see Hebrews 12:22-29). He also speaks of Jehovah’s call of the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, where He will summon the nations for judgment. In that day He will, in vengeance, tread them down in the winepress of His wrath (2:28-3:20).

But Joel primarily writes to his generation about their immediate need of repentance. “Alas, for the day! For the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come” (1:15). This will manifest itself in a locust invasion that marches across the land as an invading army that never breaks rank, climbs the walls of the city, and enters houses like thieves. They have advanced in massive hordes and “laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree; he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.” He personifies the land as mourning because the “grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes” (1:7, 10).

The invasion of the locust is but a harbinger of the “great and very terrible” day of captivity when God will execute His wrath against this ungodly and evil nation. In the wake of the devastating invasion, God’s spokesman calls on the nation to repent. He summons all: the drunkards to weep at the loss of wine, the priests to mourn that the meal offerings and drink offerings are cut off, the husbandman to wail at the wasteland where wheat and vines once flourished, the bride and bridegroom to come forth from their chamber, and all the inhabitants of the land to tremble in anguish and fear (see 1:5, 9-13; 2:1, 15-17).

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain,” the prophet says. “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, and gather the people” — including the old men and the children. The nation should “lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth” who has just died (1:8).

But this is a time for genuine repentance. “Yet even now…turn ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning,” says Jehovah through the prophet (2:12). Joel precludes a mere show of repentance and calls on the nation to “rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord—for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and repents him of the evil” (2:13). This was no time to tear and rip garments in anguish, but the time as a nation to be cut to the heart. Jehovah’s message: “Turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting” (2:12). God Himself can be brought to repentance, Joel says. He is “gracious and merciful, is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness” and will turn from the evil He has purposed against His nation (2:13).

Joel’s message extends beyond his days to the “last days” and must not be lost on God’s people and nations today. Peter applies Joel’s prophesy to the age of the new covenant when God calls all men through the gospel to Jesus that they might be sanctified and cleansed by the “washing of water with the word” (see Ephesians 5:26). At Pentecost Peter said, “This is that which was which has spoken through the prophet Joel” that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:16, 21). He then preached Jesus and commanded sinners to “repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus unto the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). Saul of Tarsus learned this truth from an evangelist and was told to “arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16).

In view of a “great and terrible day” of the Lord, “rend your heart” and “turn ye unto me with all your heart” is still God’s message to His people and to the nations.

What made people “prophets”? The word “prophet” in various forms appears over six hundred times in Scripture. The prophets of the Old Testament were described with various relational terms. Three of the most common were: “man of God,” “seer,” and “servant.” One became a prophet by God’s calling Him to this task (cf. Isaiah 6; Jeremiah 1). Prophets were given, via God’s Spirit, the ability to speak truth regarding matters past, present and future, and the equipping power to communicate the revelation of God to people. Qualities of unselfishness, obedient submission to the voice of God, love, courage and patience were developed in the prophets.

Prophets were forthtellers¸ not just foretellers. Prophecy concerns the revelation of events which occurred in the past (cf. Moses wrote about events that occurred at the creation); it may deal with present circumstances (i.e., contemporary with the prophet), or it can look forward to the future.  Fundamentally the prophet served as a mouthpiece for God. Consider Exodus 4:16: “So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God” (NKJV). Later in Exodus 7:1-2, “So the LORD said to Moses: ‘See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.’” Moses’ experience as a prophet became a paradigm for later prophets (cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:18-22). Terms such as “send,” “go,” “speak,” and “I have commanded you” were commonly used by the Lord in speaking to the prophets. They would then challenge their audience with “hear” because “thus says the Lord.”

Prophets either spoke or wrote the “words of God” or both. Some of God’s prophets were non-literary, but spoke His will and we have record of some of their words and actions in other documents (cf. Elijah and Elisha in 1 and 2 Kings). These messengers of God largely employed Hebrew poetry. This style speaks powerfully to the will and emotion.

Most of the Old Testament prophetic written messages were addressed to the people of God who lived approximately between the years of 840 and 420 B.C. (excluding the Pentateuch). Two of the prophets addressed their prophecies to Nineveh (Jonah and Nahum), and one to Edom (Obadiah), but even then there were principles to be learned by those who laid claim to relationship with God.

Seventeen books of prophecy are in our English Bible. They were written by sixteen different prophets (Jeremiah wrote Lamentations). The books are classified by men as either “major” or “minor” primarily for their relative length. There is nothing minor about any message from God.  The Jews grouped these minor prophets as a unit in one scroll. They were known as the book (scroll) of the Twelve. These were recognized as letters from God just as the much larger writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The minor prophets as arranged in the Old Testament scroll are thought to be in their chronological order: (1) Pre-exilic – the books that came from the period of Assyrian power  (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah) (2) Exilic – those written about the time of the decline of Assyria  (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah) and (3) Postexilic – those dating from the return from captivity in Babylon (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).

Typically there were at least four aspects to each prophetic message: 1) Proper recognition of the greatness of God,  2) Warning and appeal to those living outside the will of God,  3) Comfort and encouragement to those trusting and obeying God, and  4) Prediction of God’s judgments upon those who rejected His will and salvation for those who obeyed and anticipated His coming in the person of His Son. Please do not miss the messianic message explicitly or implicitly stated in the writings of nearly every prophet. God’s servants the prophets pointed to “My Servant,” the Christ.

Do you remember this old song we used to sing: “As I journey here ‘mid the toil and tears, there’s a rainbow in the cloud; He will safely lead, I must have no fear, there’s a rainbow in the clouds.”

“Noah and the Ark” is one of the first Bible stories we all remember from our cradle classes in the church. God told Noah to build a huge boat and take into it every kind of animal. By doing so, Noah and his family would be saved from perishing in a flood that would take all other living beings on the earth. It was amazing !

But perhaps the most amazing part of the story is when the water recedes and God makes a covenant with man and every living creature on earth that He will never again destroy the earth by a flood like that. To confirm that promise, God established a sign, the rainbow, as a reminder.

I want to encourage you to think about God’s promise every time you see a rainbow. It is not just a pretty vision of blue, red, violet, green, and golden arches. You can see pretty rounded designs in front of McDonald’s, near the riverbank at St. Louis, or even on billboards advocating homosexuality. But you can see this vision of God’s great promise to man in multiple colors anywhere on earth when the storm clouds ease and the rain is passed, telling us that He will never destroy us all by flood again.

I want to encourage you to think about something else which should be a great blessing to you. Notice in the wonderful paragraph from which we are reading in Genesis, chapter nine, that God says in verse 14, that He too will look at the rainbow and remember. “It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you…” And again in verse 16, he says, “The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant…” This is saying that when we look at the rainbow and remember God’s promises, He is looking too!!!

Some of the oldest of Bible stories speak to our hearts today in ways that move us to want to be better people and to be more Godlike. They do so by reminding us not just of truths like the fact that God will not destroy us all in a flood. They do so by reminding us of the great character of God and of His love for us. Think about it:

Even when God sees the terrible sinfulness of man, He wants to save us. Even Noah was not a sinless man. Neither were his wife and sons and their wives. And yet, when the world hit bottom and God had to do something because “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” He offered an escape for humanity through this one family.

You know, God made another covenant (with Abraham), that he would save the world through his seed, and that came when He sent His Son to die for us. That covenant had two signs, circumcision and the Sabbath, in Old Testament days. But ultimately, the universal symbol we recognize of that covenant and the New Covenant is the cross! That is beheld each Lord’s Day when we partake of the Lord’s Supper. The cross is not just a piece of wood to us, but a symbol of God’s love and His promise to save those who have faith in His Son.

It is sad that people often see in God’s symbols only the material, physical elements intended to remind us of greater things. Like the woman in Paris in 1993, who paid $18,000 for two slivers of wood supposedly from the cross on which Jesus was crucified. With them she received two certificates from the Vatican issued in 1855 saying they were authentic.

I believe that God sees the cross in His mind’s eye and remembers His spiritual covenant with man in Jesus; just as he looks on the rainbow and remembers His physical covenant with all the creatures on the earth. He does that because of His love for us and His desire to save us from the consequences of our sins.

Do you see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? God has secured rich rewards for those who believe in Him and follow His Son along the pathway that leads to the blessings secured by His promises. All God’s promises are true. There’s a rainbow in the clouds!

The thing about mirrors is that they force us to be honest. Unless we are looking at one of those mirrors that have been intentionally bent to give a distorted look (remember those in the old amusement parks?), a regular mirror will reveal ourselves to ourselves without holding anything back. Now there are some things about our appearance that we cannot change (at least not without a good plastic surgeon and a ton of money), but we use mirrors to check on ourselves and to fix the things we can change about ourselves.

But here’s the “funny” part. We invent all kinds of ways to avoid the honesty that the mirror forces upon us. We will take a look at ourselves and see something that obviously needs our attention, but then we tell ourselves that the problem staring back at us in the mirror is really not all that bad, or that it is actually acceptable (because suddenly our standards are not as strict as they would normally be). Or we tell ourselves that even though we see a flaw, that we are not like that every day, that we’re just having a “bad hair day” (or whatever) on this particular day. Or we acknowledge the flaw we see, but we say, “Well, it’s just the way I am, and people are going to have to accept it.”

Yet the fact is that if we are not going to be honest about what we see in the mirror, there is no point in looking in the mirror at all. Why even bother with it if you are not going to do something about the problems you see in your reflection?

One of the most challenging passages in all the Bible must be James 1:23-25. “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

Most everything that is true of a mirror is true of the word of God. It is meant to be a way for us to consider and judge ourselves. God has provided it as, among other things, a way to get us to look at ourselves and see what is wrong with us. And like a physical mirror, the word of God forces us to be honest with ourselves.

In particular, James is making a point about the difference between a person who only hears the word of God (but does not obey it), and a person who both hears and obeys it. The person who hears God word but does not put it into practice is like a person who has looked in the mirror and has done nothing about the problems he sees in his reflection. But the person who both hears and obeys is like a person who looks in the mirror and, with honesty, says, “There are some things I need to change!” He makes the changes in his life to conform himself to the will of God, and James says such a person is blessed.

Just as we do with physical mirrors, I fear we also play little games with ourselves when it comes to looking into the spiritual mirror of God’s word. The word reveals to us the spiritual and moral changes that we need to make; it shows us what is wrong with us. And like a mirror, the word of God does not deceive us. It tells us the truth. But we do not always like the truth, especially when it means that we have not measured up as we should. We don’t like the guilt that comes from having to be honest with ourselves, so we tell ourselves that even though we are not perfect, no one is, or that at least we are not as bad as others. Or we tell ourselves that we cannot change who we are, and God should understand that.

Friends, if we are not going to be honest with what we see of ourselves and our flaws in the mirror of God’s word, then why pick up a Bible in the first place? Why claim to be obedient children of God if we are not going to correct our flaws when God reveals them to us? We become the people who hear, but do not do the word of God, and the word of God actually does us no good.

The reason for buying a mirror is to use it, and reason for picking up a Bible is to obey it. It requires honesty, and we ignore it only to our peril.

The GPS unit, however, has taken away some of the fun associated with those long drives. Who wouldn’t miss the frantic consultation of the atlas as we zoom past the required exit? “Wait a minute! The map doesn’t show that road.” “Well, there IS a road there and we just passed it – was that the turn we were supposed to take?” Oh, for the good ole days!

Some of the excitement generated in our “atlas days” was due to the fact that we were too cheap to buy an up-to-date atlas. Streets get closed, re-numbered or re-routed and new roads are built. We bought an atlas and then used it until the pages were falling out. When your atlas also lists “wagon trails” in the legend, it could be time to replace it with a “new and updated” version.

Travelers, even frugal ones, must live by the truth that, if the map is wrong, it really doesn’t matter how well one follows it. We can make all the right turns, according to the map, but still not arrive at our intended destination; we trusted a map that steered us wrong!

Bible students must live by the same axiom. Think of your Bible as a roadmap that guides us safely through this life and takes us to our desired destination, heaven itself, to be with God for eternity. It only makes sense that we would devote time and energy in study of the “map” so that we can accurately follow it.

But what if our spiritual roadmap is inaccurate? It really doesn’t matter how well we understand and follow the directions it gives us…if the directions are misleading!

Surely, however, we can trust our Bible to be an accurate roadmap, can’t we? After all, the Scriptures themselves affirm that God is their source. The Old Testament prophets claimed that they spoke “the word of the Lord” as it came to them (e.g., Jeremiah 2:1). Peter wrote that these “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Paul claimed that he revealed the wisdom of God in words taught by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13). He reminded Timothy that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Deciding upon a study Bible can be a daunting task. There are so many versions (with new ones being marketed all the time) with obvious and significant differences between them. Which version should we use for our study — the King James Version, New American Standard, the New Living Translation? The list goes on and on.  One thing is certain: not all of the versions represent an accurate roadmap!

To be certain that we are using “an accurate roadmap” for our journey to heaven, we need to understand the process responsible for getting the word of God to modern man, a process involving several steps. God revealed His word to individuals who committed that message to writing. Divinely inspired individuals, however, were not the only ones writing religious materials. It was necessary for early Christians to distinguish between inspired and uninspired literature.

The revealed word of God was written on perishable materials and thus the original documents are no longer available. Like all such ancient “books,” the text of these documents was preserved by repeated copying. Although the original writers were inspired and produced an inerrant text, those who copied their texts were not.

In addition, most of us are not fluent in the languages in which the original documents and their copies were written. For us to read the Scriptures in our own language, we need a translation of the biblical text.

That’s a simplified description of the process involved in getting the word of God to modern man. It is my intention to write about the various steps of this process in future articles. We will talk about inspiration, canonization and the transmission of the biblical text. The field of study known as texual criticism is concerned with the determination of the original text of the inspired documents, a process involving the comparison of the many extant manuscript copies of the biblical books.

Using an inaccurate map will usually cause us to go astray in our travels. The purpose of these articles will be to show that we can have confidence in the accurate transmission of the Scriptures and provide necessary information for choosing a good study Bible.

Where I grew up, there was no shortage of sermons that made specific application to personal righteousness. Sermons on modest dress, fleeing fornication, using pure speech (including avoiding euphemisms), and the dangers of worldliness were every Sunday fare. We were taught to be good examples at work, at home, and at play. When and where you slipped out of line there seemed to always be someone who loved you enough to say something to you. Their loving rebuke stung a little, but it caused you to think, resolve to change, and do better.

Bible classes drilled kids in the basics of the Bible. We learned the books of the Bible and the distinction between the covenants at an early age. Our teachers expected us to come to Bible study with lessons prepared and ready to recite information about Bible characters, events, and topics. Parents usually made it happen.

This kind of thing is still taking place in a lot churches I know. There are many dedicated preachers whose sermons possess that “ole Jerusalem gospel” ring. I know Bible teachers who work long hours to present Bible stories in the most effective way possible. Only the most naive, however, refuse to recognize that things are changing — and not for the better. Though most folks today possess a greater level of education than many of our predecessors, their Bibles go unread and their knowledge of spiritual things is weak or absent altogether. Feelings and subjective religion have captured the imagination of many because they have little grasp of the need for Bible authority (Colossians 3:17). Some have ridiculed our demand for book, chapter, and verse in all that we do, calling it a patternistic “plague” which is “foul and diseased.” In answer, I respond with Paul’s instruction to Timothy, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13). Perhaps it would to good for us to reflect upon this statement for a moment.

“Sound Words”

Someone once said that a word is a “vehicle upon which a thought rides.” Words uttered by the human voice give expression to concepts or ideas. The thoughts of God are expressed to us through words he has chosen (1 Corinthians 2:12-13) and are recorded for us in Scripture. Thus, they are inspired words (2 Timothy 3:16-17). They are:

1. Important. By them our faith can rest, not in the wisdom, philosophies, and feelings of men, but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).
2. Profitable. Paul said they were “… profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Moses reminded Israel that God’s statutes were “for our good always” and commanded them to be observed (Deuteronomy 6:24-25).
3. Understandable. Admittedly, some concepts in Scripture are hard to understand (2 Peter 3:18). But this is not the case most of the time. Paul said we could understand merely by reading (Ephesians 3:4).
4. Authoritative. The words of Jesus will judge us (John 12:48). Paul wanted us to know that what he wrote was the “Lord’s commandment” (1 Corinthians 14:37), not his suggestions or mere sentimental pleadings. We must do all in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17).
5. Unalterable. When we speak, we are to speak as the very mouthpiece of God (1Peter 4:11), without addition or subtraction (Deuteronomy 4:2; Joshua 1:7-9; Revelation 22:18-19). All teachers and preachers need to take this into account (James 3:10).

“Sound Words”

Sound is from the same Greek word from which we get our English word “hygiene” and literally means to be in good physical health. Here it is used in the figurative sense of being free from error or correct.

Sound teaching is teaching that is healthy and nutritious. Most everyone recognizes the need for a healthy diet for our physical body, even if we do neglect it at times. How much more so our spirit! Spiritual survival depends upon good spiritual nourishment. We dare not neglect it. Yet many folks today think they can survive on spiritual “junk” food, and just as little of that as possible. An older preacher once said, “Sermonettes preached by preacherettes will produce Christianettes” — food for thought.

“Retain the Standard of Sound Words”

God’s word is our standard or pattern for living. A standard is a basis of comparison. Every woman who has made the attempt to sew a garment knows the importance of following the pattern. Every man who has made the attempt to build knows the importance of following a blueprint. Even our children learn early of the need to color all the picture, inside the lines, or paint by number. It’s the same principle.

It is impossible to overstate the case. Only by sound teaching can we develop wholesome, healthy spiritual lives – either individually or collectively. Therefore, when some loving brother or sister comes alongside you to encourage you, whether in standard of worship or pattern of life application (modest dress, speech, worldliness, et. al.), don’t think that this is merely some “church of Christ doctrine.” They are encouraging you to “retain the standard of sound words” that you might be pleasing to God and go to heaven when you die.