"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge
in him.
Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. --
Proverbs 30: 5-6 (NIV)
The headlines screamed out on Yahoo the other day -- "Jesus was married!" I immediately thought, here we go again. I recall the furor over Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, which made several ludicrous allegations, including that Christ was married and had children. I remember watching the movie and the drama-laden scene where one character exclaims -- "witness the greatest cover-up in modern history!" Then to prove his point he superimposes sections of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper. I remember being asked about this movie by employees of mine who were unsaved and my answer was that Da Vinci painted the Last Supper; he wasn't at the Last Supper. With a thousand years between the two, I would just as soon go with the historical record that has been agreed upon for two centuries. Just another attempt by the devil to bring into question the veracity of Scripture.
This brings us to the headlines from yesterday. It seems
that a centuries old, one and a half inch by three inch Coptic papyrus fragment
contains the line -- "Jesus said to them, "my wife-- Well, stop the presses
everyone. This must mean"absolutely nothing. By the time you get to the third
paragraph even the article admits this proves nothing, despite the
sensationalizing of the headline. The Coptic Christians lived in
More importantly, the fragment doesn't provide any context whatsoever. The fragment could be mistranslated. Jesus often referred to the church as His bride. It could have been a part of a teaching on marriage. It could have been one of the earliest Henny Youngman jokes on record -- "Jesus said, my wife? Take her please." All kidding aside, this fragment says little and reveals nothing, while not being credible in its authenticity or history. So why then is it important to us as believers? I see two problems. The first is that this story was being posted yesterday on Facebook -- by Christians. I do not know what the fascination is with the world but the people in the church should know better. This deals with the sufficiency of Scripture beloved. Is the Word of God enough for our lives? What does the Psalmist teach us?
You are my portion, O Lord ; I have promised to
obey your words. -- Psalm 119: 57 (NIV)
We sing about the Lord being our
portion all the time but I wonder if we really have stopped to consider what we
sing. By Him being our portion we are saying that He is enough for us. That we
are filled by Him and we do not need anything else. Since He is His Word, that
also means that the Word of God is our portion. That the Bible is enough to
fill us and that we do not need anything else. We do not need sensationalized
stories of ancient Coptic fragments to ponder about. We do not need secret
societies and the latest Dan Brown movie and try to see how it applies to what
we believe. We are either all in or Jesus Himself will spit us out of His
mouth:
I know
your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or
the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am
about to spit you out of my mouth. -- Revelation 3: 15-16 (NIV)
Is the Gospel sufficient for you today? The
second problem I saw yesterday was someone offering up the notion that even if
it were true -- what is the big deal? Why would Jesus being married
significantly change His message? This cuts to the heart of the inerrancy of
Scripture. We believe as Christians that the entire Word of God is perfect and
inspired directly by God Himself. It is the Word that breaks the yokes in
people's lives. It is the Word that sets people free from bondage. It is the
Word that gives us power to defeat the schemes of the enemy. That is why it is
so important is that it is black and white in a world gone grey. It represents
absolute truth in a world that says there are no absolutes. Because of the
inerrancy, you never have cause to doubt God.
That is the ultimate damage the enemy seeks
to cause when we see stories such as these. They are designed to bring doubt
into what God has said we need to have faith in. When you start allowing the
idea that something is inaccurate in Scripture, you invite doubt into all of
Scripture. It is the same damage as when Christians seek common ground with
science so they are willing to accept that maybe creation did not occur in
seven days as described. Or that portions of the Bible are figurative such as
the fall of man. It is inherent in man to doubt God. In these last days we see
truth become a malleable property where people can mold it to fit their
pre-conceived notions. God says the truth is truth:
All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal. -- Psalm
119: 160 (NIV)
This brings us to the key verses
for today. Proverbs 30 and verse 5 teaches us that every single word from God
is flawless. That means it is perfect. We do not need to qualify it or quantify
it. It is sufficient and inerrant. There are so many salad bar theologians out
there already who cherry pick which verses they like and dismiss which portions
grate against their sin nature. Verse five also reminds us that the Word of God
is our shield when we take refuge in the Lord. As a shield it protects us from
the lies of this world and the schemes of the enemy. But imagine a shield with
holes in it! Of what use is that? A shield with holes in it does not provide
full protection. It allows some damage to sneak through. That is the end result
when we start to allow holes in our doctrine. When we start to think it is not
a big deal that something in the Word may not be accurate because someone finds
a shred of a fragment we invite the enemy to cast doubt on the entire Gospel,
one small fragment at a time. As verse 6 from the key verses state -- no one is
to add anything to what God has already said. They will be rebuked and proven a
liar. We need to protect the authenticity, sufficiency and inerrancy of Scripture.
Our faith is built upon it amidst a world that refuses to believe.
Rev. Anthony
