But the Word of the Lord endureth forever; and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter 1:25
In chapter 36 of Jeremiah, we read the account of King Jehoiakim’s disregard for the Word of God. God had given a message to Jeremiah for the king, and Jeremiah had written the message in a roll. But when the roll was read to the king, Jehoiakim took his pen knife and cut out the parts that he disagreed with, and had the offending leaves thrown into a fire that was burning in the hearth. The king did not like that Jeremiah had prophesied that the king of Babylon would come and destroy the land. So God instructed Jeremiah to rewrite the message, and to add an extra message for Jehoiakim. The extra message was that Jehoiakim’s body would be thrown out like garbage without burial, and that none of his offspring would inherit the throne of the kingdom. Regardless of Jehoiakim’s pen knife, Jeremiah’s prophecy came to pass. And instead of Jehoiakim’s son Coniah becoming king, the throne passed on to Jehoiakim’s brother Zedekiah. The two lessons we learn from this are that God’s Word remains true regardless of those who would change or destroy it, and it doesn’t pay to mess with the Word of God.
Many Canadian cities hold an annual gap pride parade or other celebration of the homosexuality movement. That which the Bible clearly condemns as an abomination and deeply shameful is being flaunted as something to be proud of. They might not come out and say it, but the inference is that they believe the Bible to be wrong. If we could take a microphone into that section of hell where the inhabitants of Sodom are, and interrogate them, we would quickly learn whether their homosexual lifestyle was something to be proud of. Sodom and Gomorrah did not have the Bible to instruct them, although they did have nature to tell them that what they did was wrong. But we have the Bible today, with its clear instructions. So today’s world is far more responsible, and its judgment must be more severe than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because God’s word endureth forever.
God’s word is under attack today from another source: the corruption that exists in modern-language versions of the Bible. No, it’s not the modern language that is the problem, although the modern language destroys the regal and dignified tone of Scripture. It is the deletion of truth by the deletion of many valuable portions of the Word. Because they use the corrupted Alexandrian texts, the new versions omit such portions as Acts 8:37 that make it clear that salvation must precede baptism. They omit the need for the blood of Christ for our redemption as in Colossians 1:14 and in other portions. They either delete or place in italics Matthew 18:11: For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. These are just a few of the many deletions found in the modern versions. More and more Christians are reading these versions, and are eroding the truth of the Word of God. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever; the truth will persist, even though it may be among the few.
The Gospel that saves poor sinners is found in the Word of the Lord. If we would see souls saved, we must never diminish its truth nor set it aside. -Jim MacIntosh