Supernatural

The Bible is a supernatural book. Here’s one indication of this—the Bible can’t be properly understood without the assistance of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 2:14)! An atheistic website provides a good example:

“From Genesis to Revelation prominent individuals abound. But are they really worthy of respect and admiration? Was their behavior such that you would want to awaken your children on Sunday morning to read about their exploits?”

The article proceeds to line up, like bowling pins to be bowled down, all the misdeeds about these “prominent individuals” without understanding that it’s our unrighteousness that shows off God’s righteousness. For instance, the atheist writes that Abraham…

“Told his wife to lie, debauched Hagar, his maidservant, sent his maidservant and her child into the wilderness, lied, and married his half-sister.”

This is supposed to prove that the Bible is utterly unworthy of any serious consideration. However, the author misses the real dirt about Abraham—that he pimped off Sarah on several occasions! But this atheist misses far more—the grace of God for sinners like us! The article concludes, “Anyone approaching the Bible for goodness, decency, role models, and morality, enters at his own peril.” This, of course, is true, but they fail to grasp that Christ is the actual role model and not the wretches He stoops to save.

Orthodox Judaism fares little better, and surprisingly has a lot in common with atheism. Both think that the Bible is ultimately about human role models. In the Jewish Talmud, Abraham is reinterpreted and emerges sinless. Isaac and Jacob also come out without a wrinkle. Recently, an Orthodox Jew informed me that I was misinformed about King David and his “sin” with Bathsheba. Uriah, her husband, had already divorced her. Besides, he was an evil man and David had done righteously by plotting Uriah’s death. No need for a Savior in these lives!

We humans like to exalt our forefathers and, by doing so, we exalt ourselves. The Talmud is all too human in this regard. As a new Christian, this too was my tendency. I was deeply disturbed to read about the blemishes of Abraham and David. These seemed to detract from my new-found religion. However, as God continued to reveal my own unworthiness along with His forgiveness, I learned to delight in the incredible love and patience He demonstrated to His Old Testament “saints.” But my eyes had first to be opened!

It is perhaps one of the great ironies—the more the skeptic battles against the Faith, the more he inevitably demonstrates its veracity.

Daniel Mann