Answers
By BGEA Admin • September 5, 2022 • Topics: Bible
Q:
The nation of Israel is in the news so much and it is astounding to realize how little people know of its past. Isn’t the Old Testament really just a history of Israel and how God governed a people he called His very own? Why does the Bible have to be constantly attacked just because others choose not to believe its truth? I shudder to think of life without the wisdom, comfort, and truth that comes from this blessed book.
A:
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
God loves the nation of Israel and its people. But the Bible is concerned only incidentally with the history of Israel or with a system of ethics. The Bible is primarily concerned with the story of man’s redemption as it is through Jesus Christ. If people read Scripture and miss the story of salvation, God’s message—and its meaning—have been missed altogether!
The Bible will always be the center of controversy. For centuries, there have been purges and bonfires. There are Bibles in existence today that were baked into loaves of bread to keep them from the hands of leaders who wanted to destroy the Word of God. There are Bibles in scores of languages, and organizations work around the clock to provide Bible portions for remote tribes so that they, too, may have something of God’s Word.
Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, said, “It is out of the Word of God that a system has come to make life sweet. If you blot out of your statute books, your Constitution and your family life all that is taken from the Sacred Book, what would be left to bind society together?”
The message of Jesus Christ, our Savior, is the story of the Bible—it is the story of salvation—the Gospel—and this gift from a loving God offers peace, eternity, and Heaven.
(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)
