Cut It Out!
In the 18th
century, the U. S. Congress once issued a special edition of
Thomas Jefferson's Bible. It was a simple copy of our Bible
with all
references to the supernatural eliminated. Jefferson, in
selecting, had
confined himself solely to the moral teachings of Jesus.
The closing words of this Bible are: "There laid they
Jesus and rolled a
great stone at the mouth of the sepulchre and departed."
Thank God, our Bible ended with the news that "He is
risen!"
There was a king in the Old Testament that did something
similar to what Thomas Jefferson did but went a lot further.
He had Jeremiah put into prison. Jeremiah had a message from
god for this king so he got someone to write it down on a
scroll. Here is what happened to it:
Jeremiah 36:20-24 (The Message)
20 "The officials went to the court of the palace to
report to the king,
having put the scroll for safekeeping in the office of
Elishama the
secretary of state. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the
scroll. He brought it
from the office of Elishama the secretary. Jehudi then read
it to the king
and the officials who were in the king's service. 22 It was
December. The king was sitting in his winter quarters in
front of a charcoal fire. 23
After Jehudi would read three or four columns, the king
would cut them off the scroll with his pocket-knife and
throw them in the fire. He continued in this way until the
entire scroll had been burned up in the fire. 24 Neither the
king nor any of his officials showed the slightest twinge of
conscience as they listened to the messages read."
I doubt there are any people today that actually cut parts
of the bible out
but they do it in other ways. They don't believe that some
of the things
really happened or that what is in the Bible doesn't apply
to them. Below
are some examples of comments I have read or heard:
. "I believe God created everything but he couldn't do it in
six 24 hour
days."
"Moses didn't lead the Israelites through the Red Sea, it
was the Reed Sea
which was just a few inches deep."
"I know Jesus told us to do. But he doesn't know my
circumstances."
"We're under grace so we don't have to obey the
commandments."
"I know the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and that the
apostles were given
spiritual gifts but they all died so the gifts died with
them. There are no
gifts of the Spirit today."
"I know Jesus did miracles when he was on earth but he can't
do them now."
People who say or think these types of things may as well
cut all the
references of them out of their Bibles. We cannot do that.
Here is what the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:
2 Timothy 3:16 (The Message)
16 "Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful
one way or
another-showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting
our mistakes,
training us to live God's way."
So CUT IT OUT! Stop cutting out the parts of the bible you
don't believe or
don't understand!
By Dean Masters
Unedited redistribution authorized.