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BIBLE BELIEVERS REPORT

November 7, 2009

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Malachi 4:5-6

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

These are the closing verses of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi spoke them to Israel around 400 BC. After these words God grew silent for 4 centuries.

The Jews, faithful to their calling, gathered together at Jerusalem the 39 books that God had given them over the previous 1,400 years. These books would become the canon, or measuring rod, of the Jewish faith.

For 400 years, God's people waited. They were no longer a free nation. They had only returned to their homeland because God had moved on their conquerors, the Medo-Persians, to allow them to return. A century passed and the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, conquered Israel. Two more centuries and the Romans defeated the Greeks and also conquered the Holy Land. By the turning of the millennium, all of God's people are crying out for their king to come and free them at last.

Then stories began to spread around Jerusalem concerning angels, shepherds, wise men from the east, and a child in Bethlehem. Immediately King Herod the Great ordered all the babies around Jerusalem, from Bethlehem in the south to Ramah in the north killed. Within a matter of days Herod himself dies under the judgment of God, and little else is heard of this miracle child.

Thirty years later, the forerunner mentioned by Malachi came forth in answer to God's last Old Testament prophecy (Matthew 3:1-3). Just as the prophets of old, John the Baptist speaks with the power of God, and the people flock to hear him. Although his ministry only lasted a few, short months, it is long enough for him to carry out the mission he was given; to baptize the Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Luke 3:21-23).

For centuries, Israel had waited for the Messiah to come. Someone else has been waiting also. He was actually the one who had directed the killing of anyone that he thought might lay claim to the title of Messiah and free mankind from his evil grip. Thus it is that the stage is set for the greatest conflict of all time as Jesus enters the wilderness to fast, pray, and confront his age-old adversary, with the fate of all mankind hanging in the balance.

Matthew 4:3-4

And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

There are two points we need to look at here. First, in his haste to defeat Jesus, the devil tips his own hand. He calls Jesus the Son of God. Yet part of the Mystery Babylon doctrine (Revelation 17) throughout history has been that there is not "the Son of God". This system has always tried to deceive men into believing there were many sons of God sent out to help mankind from time to time. The devil has told this lie in the hope of causing the true Christ to be lost in a sea of false christs to further deceive man.

The second point is that Christ's answer to Satan shows us the only weapon that He, or any of us, needs to successfully defeat our common enemy. Jesus' words "It is written" refers here to the Hebrew Old Testament writings that still existed in His day. The Hebrew original autographs were long since gone and the only scriptures that Jesus, or anyone else at that time would have had, would have been copies of copies of those originals. These same scriptures carry the same power to beat Satan every time that he attacks us.

Having failed the first time, the devil now tries a different angle. He tries to use the word of God to try to trip up the Son of God. It had worked on Adam and Eve, so he figures it would work on Jesus.

Matthew 4:5-7

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Jesus knows that Satan is twisting scriptures here. Jesus also knew that no true Bible doctrine can be built on just one verse. It must be tested to see that the idea that we seem to get from it does not contradict with the rest of the word of God. Jesus shows this by calling up other scriptures to defeat the devil's false doctrine. So Satan gives up this line of attack, knowing he is beaten here also. He then tries one more angle, the direct approach.

Matthew 4:8-10

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Now Satan plays his trump card. Why suffer, Jesus? Why die? All you have to do is bow down and worship me for one moment, and I'll give it all back to you. Jesus knows Satan owns the world. He doesn't dispute that. He also knows that in this way he could avoid the death of the cross. Jesus also knows, however, that if He is given the world now, all the Old Testament prophecies concerning His suffering and death will prove untrue, and this would make His Father a liar, so He will not take the prize as it is offered.

Strike one...Strike two...Strike three...You're out, Satan! The devil has to leave Jesus for now, and the angels come and minister to Jesus. This is just as the angels will do for us if we will just stand up and use the word of God when attacked by the devil and unbelief.

Now Jesus takes the path as laid out by His Father in His word. For the next 3 1/2 years He will preach, heal the sick, and raise the dead. During this time, Jesus repeatedly shows His followers the importance of understanding and believing in God's word

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Keep in mind, as we continue our discussion here that God's word has stood for many centuries. In spite of the current wave of liberal theology, modernism, and higher criticism that has swept through the church today, God's word has stood the test of time. While modern textual critics may feel that they have been educated to the point that they need to no longer accept God's word at face value, this is not a new phenomena at all.

II Timothy 2:23-26

But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

There have always been critics opposing the true, historical accounts given in God's word down through the ages. However, God's word, as we have it in English in the Authorized King James Bible, is still here and those selfsame critics have now gone on to their rewards and will have to give account for every idle word they uttered against the Holy Scriptures, not to mention it's Author! As Dr. Floyd Jones so aptly put it recently....

"No one has to defend Jesus or the Word of God. God is perfectly capable of defending Himself and His Word. Nevertheless, He tells us to contend for the faith as there is a great issue before us today. The question is - where is the Word of God? Which version is the real Bible? Why do the different versions not read the same? These are good questions and they beg to be answered."

It is par for the course that unbelievers feel that the Bible is full of myths. It is a little more sobering when those who claim to be God's servants make the same claims. Such do not need our rancor but rather our prayers and understanding. At the same time, we still need to stand firm in our faith as Bible believers who stand for the truths as revealed in God's word. This is the only way we can ever hope to free any of those thus entrapped by the enemy. In his writings, Dr. Jones addresses this predicament also.

"Many Christians have been taken captive by the devil concerning the Bible manuscripts. As will be revealed, the questions regarding the reliability and authenticity of the Word of God are neither foolish nor unlearned. The ultimate purpose in all of this is to restore - to meekly instruct those who are either in error or simply do not understand the issue with regard to the various translations, in order to bring them to the truth."

Thus it becomes incumbent upon us to do what we can, in our own humble way, to help to rescue those who have been educated out of their faith in such areas. More importantly, we need to be a true witness for those who are lost so that they may be won into the family of God. To do otherwise would be to fail in the great commission that Jesus first gave to us.

Much of modern textual criticism would have us believe in the inspiration but not the preservation of the Holy Scriptures. To do so is indeed a statement of unbelief in God's own promises.

This would mean that it is impossible to have in our hands the infallible word of God today. Who would benefit from such a belief? To answer this question is to determine who is profiting from the current babel of Bibles that the church is floundering in.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Born and raised in India, Dr. K. P. Yohannan is founder and international director of Gospel for Asia . The following section comes from his book entitled REVOLUTION IN WORLD MISSIONS. You can get a free copy of this book by going to www.gfa.org.

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A Nation Asleep in Bondage

Religion, I discovered, is a multi-billion dollar business in the United States. Entering churches, I was astonished at the carpeting, furnishings, air conditioning and ornamentation. Many churches have gymnasiums and fellowships that cater to a busy schedule of activities having little or nothing to do with Christ. The orchestras, choirs, “special” music—and sometimes even the preaching—seemed to me more like entertainment than worship. Many North American Christians live isolated from reality—not only from the needs of the poor overseas, but even from the poor in their own cities. Amidst all the affluence live millions of terribly poor people left behind as Christians have moved into the suburbs. I found that believers are ready to get involved in almost any activity which looks spiritual but allows them to escape their responsibility to the Gospel.

One morning, for example, I picked up a popular Christian magazine containing many interesting articles, stories and reports from all over the world—most written by famous Christian leaders in the West. I noticed that this magazine offered ads for 21 Christian colleges, seminaries and correspondence courses; five different English translations of the Bible; seven conferences and retreats; five new Christian films; 19 commentaries and devotional books; seven Christian health or diet programs; and five fund-raising services.

But that was not all. There were ads for all kinds of products and services: counseling, chaplaincy services, writing courses, church steeples, choir robes, wall crosses, baptistries and water heaters, T-shirts, records, tapes, adoption agencies, tracts, poems, gifts, book clubs and pen pals. It was all rather impressive. Probably none of these things was wrong in itself, but it bothered me that one nation should have such spiritual luxury while 40,000 people were dying in my homeland every day without hearing the Gospel even once.

If the affluence of America impressed me, the affluence of Christians impressed me even more. The United States has about 5,000 Christian book and gift stores, carrying varieties of products beyond my ability to imagine—and many secular stores also carry religious books. All this while more than 4,000 of the world’s nearly 6,500 languages are still without a single portion of the Bible published in their own language!

In his book My Billion Bible Dream, Rochunga Pudaite says, “Eighty-five percent of all Bibles printed today are in English for the nine percent of the world who read English. Eighty percent of the world’s people have never owned a Bible while Americans have an average of four in every household.”

Besides books, well over a thousand Christian magazines and newspapers flourish. Over 1,500 Christian radio stations broadcast the Gospel full time, while most countries don’t even have their first Christian radio station. Nearly 2,000 radio and TV programs are produced for Christians in the United States, but fewer than 400 are produced for use overseas.

The saddest observation I can make about most of the religious communication activity of the Western world is this: Little, if any, of this media is designed to reach unbelievers. Almost all is entertainment for the saints.

The United States, with its 400,000-450,000 congregations or groups2, is blessed with over one million full-time Christian workers, or one full-time religious leader for every 230 people in the nation. What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where nearly three billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The unreached or “hidden peoples” have only one missionary working for every 500,000 people, and there are still 1,750 distinct cultural groups in the world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died.

One of the most impressive blessings in America is religious liberty. Not only do Christians have access to radio and television, unheard of in most nations of Asia, but they are also free to hold meetings, evangelize and print literature. How different this is from many Asian nations where government persecution of Christians is common and often legal.

Such was the case in Nepal, where until recently it was illegal to change one’s religion or to influence others to change their religion. Christians often faced prison there for their faith.

One native missionary there served time in 14 different prisons between 1960 and 1975. He spent ten out of those 15 years suffering torture and ridicule for preaching the Gospel to his people.

His ordeal began when he baptized nine new believers and was arrested for doing so. The new converts, five men and four women, also were arrested, and each was sentenced to a year in prison. He was sentenced to serve six years for influencing them.

Nepali prisons are typically Asian—literally dungeons of death. About 25 or 30 people are jammed into one small room with no ventilation or sanitation. The smell is so bad that newcomers often pass out in less than half an hour. The place where Brother P. and his fellow believers were sent was crawling with lice and cockroaches. Prisoners slept on dirt floors. Rats and mice gnawed on fingers and toes during the night. In the winter there was no heat; in summer no ventilation. For food, the prisoners were allowed one cup of rice each day, but they had to build a fire on the ground to cook it. The room was constantly filled with smoke since there was no chimney. On that inadequate diet, most prisoners became seriously ill, and the stench of vomit was added to the other putrefying odors. Yet, miraculously, none of the Christians were sick for even one day during the entire year.

After serving their one-year sentences, the nine new believers were released. Then the authorities decided to break Brother P. They took his Bible away from him, chained him hand and foot, then forced him through a low doorway into a tiny cubicle previously used to store bodies of dead prisoners until relatives came to claim them.

In the damp darkness, the jailer predicted his sanity would not last more than a few days. The room was so small Brother P. could not stand up or even stretch out on the floor. He could not build a fire to cook, so other prisoners slipped food under the door to keep him alive.

Lice ate away his underwear, but he could not scratch because of the chains, which soon cut his wrists and ankles to the bone. It was winter, and he nearly froze to death several times. He could not tell day from night, but as he closed his eyes, God let him see the pages of the New Testament. Although his Bible had been taken away, he was still able to read it in total darkness. It sustained him as he endured the terrible torture. For three months he was not allowed to speak to another human being.

Brother P. was transferred to many other prisons. In each, he continually shared his faith with both guards and prisoners.

Although Brother P. continues to move in and out of prisons, he has refused to form secret churches. “How can a Christian keep silent?” he asks. “How can a church go underground? Jesus died openly for us. He did not try to hide on the way to the cross. We also must speak out boldly for Him regardless of the consequences.”

Coming from India, where I was beaten and stoned for my faith, I know what it is to be a persecuted minority in my own country. When I set foot on Western soil, I could sense a spirit of religious liberty. North Americans have never known the fear of persecution. Nothing seems impossible to them. From India, I always had looked to North America as a fortress of Christianity. With the abundance of both spiritual and material things, affluence unsurpassed by any nation on earth, and a totally unfettered church, I expected to see a bold witness. God’s grace obviously has been poured out on this nation and church in a way no other people ever have experienced.

Instead I found a church in spiritual decline. American believers were still the leading givers to missions, but this appeared due more to historical accident than the deepset conviction I expected to find. As I spoke in churches and met average Christians, I discovered they had terrible misconceptions about the missionary mandate of the church. In church meetings, as I listened to the questions of my hosts and heard their comments about the Third World, my heart would almost burst with pain. These people, I knew, were capable of so much more. They were dying spiritually, but I knew God wanted to give them life again. He wanted His Church to recover its moral mandate and sense of mission. I didn’t yet know how. I didn’t know when. But I knew one thing: God did not shower such great blessing on this nation for the Christians to live in extravagance, in self-indulgence and in spiritual weakness.

By faith, I could see a revival coming—the body of Christ rediscovering the power of the Gospel and their obligation to it. But for the time being, all I could do was sense how wrong the situation was—and pray. God had not given me the words to articulate what I was seeing—or a platform from which to speak. Instead He still had some important lessons to teach me, and I was to learn them in this alien land far from my beloved India.

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This brings us to our Bible Believers question of the week. Who stated the following? "There exists no reason for supposing that the Divine Agent, who in the first instance thus gave to mankind the Scriptures of Truth, straightway abdicated His office; took no further care of His work; abandoned those precious writings to their fate. That a perpetual miracle was wrought for their preservation; that copyists were protected against the risk of error, or evil men prevented from adulterating shamefully copies of the Deposit; no one, it is presumed, is so weak as to suppose. It is quite a different thing to claim that all down the ages the sacred writings must needs have been God's peculiar care; that the Church under Him has watched over them with intelligence and skill; has recognized which copies exhibit a fabricated, which an honestly transcribed text; has generally sanctioned the one, and generally disallowed the other." God bless. MARANATHA!

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