A Challenge

In my last blog, I quoted something that Billy Graham once said about proving the Bible to be true. Although my last blog was not meant to be religious in nature, the one I am now writing will be thus. I want to continue Dr. Graham’s quote.

He continues from the quote in the last blog, “I felt as though I had a rapier in my hand (his Bible) and, through the power of the Bible, was slashing deeply into men’s consciences, leading them to surrender to God. Does not the Bible say of itself, ‘For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any tow-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart’ (Heb. 4:12-ff)?”

“I am not advocating bibliolatry…I am, however, fervently urging a return to Bible-centered preaching, a gospel presentation that says without apology and without ambiguity, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’”

I have been a minister of the Gospel since 1983. Although I have not held a formal position in a church for very much of that time, I believe that God set me apart, and to that end I continue to read, study, and ponder the depths of God and His message to humanity.

One of the things I have wrestled with over the years is the Bible and its, shall we say, bald-faced assertion that it is indeed the message of God and has the ability to perform acts upon humanity that no other instrument has ever had. “How presumptuous,” I sometimes would say of what I see in that collection of writings. Other times, I would marvel at the beauty and teaching that transcends the ages and reaches to the depths of the human soul.

Dr. Graham is perhaps the most successful gospel preacher in modern times. He has preached live to over 215 million people during his career and many millions more by means of television, radio, and other media. I don’t know what you think about the man, but there’s something special at work in a life that has touched the lives of so many.

For a man like Billy Graham to accept the Bible as the Word of God “without apology and without ambiguity” is but to heap upon that book yet one more validation of the specialness and the uniqueness of it. To discard what the book says about itself as well as the combined voices of those who have attested and continue to attest to its uniqueness is to do something very, very dangerous.

I challenge you to look again at the Bible. Study it. Take it in. See for yourself.