100 Prison Meditations: Cries of Truth from Behind the Iron Curtain (13 page)

The Inerrancy of the Bible

Inerrancy of the Bible is an article of faith for Christians. Reason is insufficient to prove it because there is no infallible mind which, having examined all arguments for and against, can establish the Bible’s infallibility.

According to Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, no system can prove its own consistency without recourse to concepts that the system itself cannot generate but which are supplied from outside by a larger system—which is subject itself like everything else in this world to incompleteness, and so on and so on. You overcome this only through a leap of faith. I belong to the Church established by Christ and it is our faith that the Bible is inerrant.

But which Bible? Not only are there numerous translations, but there are also texts that are included in some scriptures and excluded from others.

There are over 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament. No two agree exactly. Early copies call the robber pardoned by Pilate “Jesus Barabbas.” Later copyists perhaps found this confusing and offensive and omitted the word “Jesus” from the robber’s name.

Mark 11:26, Mark 16:9–20, and John 5:3,4 are missing from some old manuscripts. When the church historian Eusebius died in 340, only a segment of the Church acknowledged the epistles of Jacob, Jude, 2 and 3 John, and 2 Peter as Scripture. Luther never acknowledged the epistle of James, even though he translated it.

St. Athanasius, who died in 364, was the first teacher to quote all 27 books of the New Testament.

The Sinaticus, a text of the New Testament from the third century, includes two letters of Barnabas, and a book, “The pastor Hermas,” which is excluded from our Bibles.

Books which are so inspired that biblical authors quote them—“the Book of the Wars of the Lord” (Numbers 21:14), “the Book of Jasher” (Joshua 10:13), and others—are not included in Scripture.

There is also a vast difference in texts among the manuscripts that exist. Here are four versions of 1 Corinthians 15:51, all equally correct depending on which Greek manuscript is consulted:

In another familiar passage, only one Greek letter makes the difference between the New King James translation, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men,” and the Revised Standard Version’s, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased.” Some manuscripts have that letter; some do not. Other Bible verses can be read in over ten different ways.

The discoveries at the Dead Sea of old biblical manuscripts have complicated the problem even more. The scrolls essentially confirm previous Scriptures, but also differ from them in certain parts.

In the Old Testament, the name Nebuchadnezzar is spelled in seven different ways. Which is the inerrant spelling?

The conclusion to be drawn from this is that God has willed to give us a text with variations, problems, missing parts: a text which should leave our minds perplexed and should be one more factor in convincing us that in faith we do not have to rely on reason.

In Jerusalem there are two places believed to have been Golgotha, and two sepulchres of Jesus. For many other important biblical events, several sites are claimed. It is because the biblical events are not merely geographically located, they fill the whole world. Jesus died only once for our salvation. But He is crucified afresh as often as saints fall away (Hebrews 6:6). The Church is also the prolongation of His life. In this sense, there are innumerable Golgothas and places where Jesus is buried and where He performs miracles. So it is with the Bible. It is inerrant, but it does not have only one text. Christians have lived and believed and died martyrs’ deaths for various texts. The truth of God shines through many texts and through various translations.

Problems of Punctuation in the Bible

The original manuscripts of the Bible have no punctuation. Sentences without punctuation put our minds to work. We must sometimes work hard to guess a biblical writer’s intention.

Genesis 22:2, as it stands in most translations, is incorrect because of wrong punctuation. We read “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” But Isaac was not Abraham’s only son. If the last comma is omitted, the passage makes sense: “your only son Isaac whom you love.” Ishmael had not been loved.

Luke 23:43 is punctuated in a certain way by Seventh Day Adventists and others who do not believe in immediate entrance into eternal life after death, but think that the dead remain dead until a resurrection on the final day. They read, “Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” The mainstream of Christianity prefers the following punctuation: “Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Paradise can be entered immediately after death, provided one had faith in the Lord.

Much depends upon punctuation in John 14:6 also. Jesus says He is three things: the way, the truth, and the life. I personally do not understand what being the way means. A primitive in the Philippines, when told by a missionary that Jesus is the way, asked, “What kind of a way? Is it a mountain trail?”

My punctuation would be: “I am the way: the truth and the life.” Truth has absolute demands which, if fulfilled, would annihilate life. Life has desires which can be totally fulfilled only through renouncing the truth. He who has come not only full of truth, because mankind could not bear the truth alone, but full of “grace and truth” (John 1:17), showed the way again on the last evening. The way is a loving attention to the demands of both, of life and truth.

Romans 9:5 can be punctuated in at least three ways, giving three different meanings:

1. “Christ came, who is over all God…” This is the only text in which Paul declares Christ to be God. The verse was thus understood by the majority of interpreters until the 8th century.
   
2. “Christ came, God who is over all be blessed for ever.” It is a doxology to God, not an assertion that Christ is God.
   
3. “Christ came, who is over all, God be blessed for ever.” Here the praise is divided between Christ and God.
   

Let us thank God for the diversity of thoughts that are given through the Scriptures. Everything is possible to God, including all the different punctuations and translations of the Bible which express His truth.

Does the Bible Teach Literalism?

Due respect must be given to every letter of the Bible, but the Bible has been written with a purpose: to bring men to salvation. Therefore its authors sometimes sacrifice the letter. The purpose is more important than the means.

Paul quotes Hosea as having said, “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God” (Romans 9:25,26). The translation is not literal and does not correspond to any version of the Hebrew text. Paul felt free to adapt the text for his own purpose. He applied to the Gentiles words that were intended by the Jewish prophet for the ten tribes of Israel separated from Judah (Hosea 1:4—2:33) and made them sound more forceful.

In Romans 11:26, Paul gives the great teaching, “All Israel will be saved.” Needing some verses from the Old Testament to substantiate the promise, he says, “It is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion.” But these words are not to be found anywhere. In Psalm 14:7, David had expressed a desire, “Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!” Certain that God has fulfilled this pious desire, Paul modifies David’s words so that they no longer express a wish but an assurance.

Paul also assures the Jewish believers that the deliverer “will turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Romans 11:26), saying that this too is written. The only possible reference is to Isaiah 59:20 where no such promise is given. There we read that “the Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob.” It is Jacob who has to turn away from sin, not the Deliverer who will cause the turning. But Paul, when he read Isaiah, realized that men cannot change their hearts through their own endeavors. This must be the work of the Lord. He quotes the verse according to his own interpretation and not literally, as it is in the Old Testament.

We should also remember that many of Paul’s epistles were written in prisons where he had to quote from memory, not having the scrolls of the Old Testament at hand.

Matthew quotes in his Gospel what “was spoken by the prophets” about Jesus: “He shall be called a Nazarene” (2:23). However, these words cannot be found in any prophetical book. The worse for them. They should have been there. Matthew renders the prophets the favor of putting these words in their mouths. It is like attributing some words of John Chrysostom to a poor preacher whom you wish to uplift.

The sons of Jacob are enumerated in the Bible in 17 different sequences, showing the unimportance of sequences in the timeless sphere to which belief in the Bible moves us.

Value every letter of the Bible but seek fulfillment of the aim which is beyond it: the salvation of souls. Do not be like the child in Khartoum who loved the statue of General Gordon riding on a camel. Every day the lad asked to be taken to see General Gordon. When he reached the age of seven he asked, “Who is the man riding on General Gordon?” He had mistaken the camel for the hero. The Bible is not God: it is the carrier of His message.

About Angels

It is normal for a Christian to commune with angels. The Lord has said, “You shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending” (John 1:51).

This has been the privilege not just of children of God, but also for one man of prayer: Cornelius, a heathen, “saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in…to him” (Acts 10:3). When telling the story to Peter, he did not express any amazement (Acts 10:30). Why else do angels exist if not to serve men? An angel of the Lord also came to Peter himself (Acts 12:7).

Why do we not all see angels?

Their appearance can be dangerous for those who are spiritually unprepared, a shock, like touching a high-power electrical wire. The guards of Jesus’ tomb “became like dead men” when they saw the angel of the Lord (Matthew 28:4). So angels sometimes present themselves garbed as men. Cornelius tells Peter, “A man stood before me in bright clothing.” On the ascension day, the apostles beheld “two men…in white apparel” (Acts 1:10). They were angels.

You cannot be sure that you have not met an angel. Perhaps you did not recognize him as such. The Bible recommends hospitality, “for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Hebrews 13:2).

Keep communion with angels. Value them, but at the same time know their limitations. They do not know everything. Each angel has only a certain assignment and can do no more.

If the angel who announced to the virgin that she would become pregnant with the Lord had also told Joseph, there would have been one sadness less. But he could not—he had received only one commission.

If the angel who warned Joseph of the danger to the life of the infant Jesus had also told all parents in Bethlehem about Herod’s evil intentions, a mass slaughter would have been avoided. But the angel did not know everything.

Seek therefore communion with the Lord Himself.

For mysterious purposes of their own, angels sometimes fight with men. Do not be afraid. Jacob defeated an angel (Genesis 32:24–28). This is what prevailing prayer is about.

Even if an angel opposes you, you can win. Only One is almighty. Always submit unconditionally to Him alone.

When Jesus Can’t

Christ Jesus…made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5–7). He became the most perfect man, but still a man, a being with essential limitations. Certain things He could do; others He could not.

Jesus “came to His own country, and…He could do no mighty work there” (Mark 6:1,5). He had met unbelief. He had brothers and sisters (verse 3), but they did not believe in Him (John 7:5), and Jesus was not able to bring them to conversion. What an education Mary must have given them, but in vain.

It is usually said that the Lord performed “many” miracles. Blind men received their sight, the lame walked, lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, and the dead were raised up (Matthew 11:5). But how many?

A few may have been awakened from death, but thousands remained dead and their relatives remained uncomforted. Thousands of sick retained their maladies. He fed hungry multitudes on a couple of occasions but He did not solve the problem of hunger, not even in little Palestine. Many went to bed without having eaten. Nor could Jesus make all who heard Him preach the gospel accept it.

All Jesus’ mighty works happen on a small scale.

This is because He had become human. You too are human. Why then do you wonder, why do you despair about the many things you cannot do?

“You do not do the things that you wish” (Galatians 5:17); you cannot fully overcome the lust of your own flesh. You cannot overcome all adverse circumstances. This state is a characteristic feature of human nature. Angels are also limited. Only with God is everything possible.

If you are converted, God helps you to become a saint, who will bring goodness and love into the world of wickedness as the Gulf Stream brings warmth to the ocean. But the Gulf Stream is constituted of water, like the cold ocean surrounding it, and its warmth can penetrate only to a certain distance, no more.

The devil wins through spectacular feats. A man in the country of the Gadarenes who was possessed of devils could pull chains apart and break shackles in pieces (Mark 5:4). When Jesus drove the demons from him, the man became a disciple. He might later have been thrown in jail for his faith, and worn chains for Jesus, as so many thousands have done throughout history. But he could no longer break the shackles. No instance of a chained Christian accomplishing such feats is known.

The Lord does not raise us above the human, but makes us saints in our human weakness. Accept your weakness and bring to it the warmth of love.