THE BIBLE -- GOD'S WORD TO MEN - Universal Bible Sunday, Dece, 9

Sunday after Sunday, y ear after year, church members hear srmons

that have as their source a passage from the Bible / In most cases the

seriptural passage acts as a springboard for the sermon: it colors
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and shspes the sermon: and if it is a truly Biblical sermon it will come

out at the same place as the passage in cuestion./ the essential
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function of Protestant preaching is to intepret and anply the content

of the Bible to our contemporary situation, / This sunday, however, T

intend go deviate somewhat from the accepted procedure. Instead of
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using the Bible as 2 source--thgis morning it will be our subject,
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Protestant ministers are guilty of the unwarranted assumntion that

ali Protestants have 2 similar and a true coneeption of the Bible / The

whbole of Protestant worship revolves around the Bible and the

assumption that the congregation knows nny. | ane We are guilty of the
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even shakier assumption thet Protestants regularly read and study the
fier assum read

Bible. } Personally I think these assumptions are @lase, T'm not so

certain that we understand the role scripture plays in the life of the

church. I'm not so certain you understand why the Bible is read as
tar oie .
2 part of &8, “And tT am even less certain that Protestants resularlyl

read and study the Bivie. | A recent survey, conducted by the Church
of England, revealed the distrubing fact that the average Anglican

Churchman, in good standing, spends a total Of one hour_a year reading

yhe Bible. {Colonel Spencer Chapman, in his hook, The Jungie is Neutral

records how in Malaya during the war, whi le surrounded but eon-
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cealed from the Japanese for a period of several months with nothing

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Whatever to do, he attempted to take in hand a task which he hag
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promised himself mani times to fulfill, namely to read the New TEstament.
But when they tried to begin, he and his companions found they could

make nothing of it. Instead they read the Oxford dictionary, their

only other reading material, from cover to cover, but not the Bible.

It is highly ironical that the Bible is a perennial best seller;
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but the least read best seller in the English language. | What do we

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believe about the Biplet What is the Bible anyhow$ These are
questions J hone to raise this morning, In doing so f r&eognize that
answers are not easy; but I hope you will at least have something}

with which to approach the questions as they present themselves to

you in your personal lives.

Throughout the Christian Church--Universal Rible Synday is being
opservea, /1¢ is no accident that Bible Sunday fells on the second

Sunday in Advent. Last week we discussed the Word become flesh in the

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miracle of the incarnation. | We saw that the central Christian affirmationl

is that God has taken on the flesh of humanity in Jesus Christ. In

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this way he has spoken to men, expressed himself, so to speak. f The
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Gosepl of John has given us the explanation, (“the word became flesh

and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, as of the only son of

the father, "\ The Christian belief about the Bible is very similar

to this, In Jesus CHrist the Word was made flesh, In the Bible the word
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has been written down,/ Just as God has used Jesus Christ to confront

men personally, so he uses the Bible for the same purpose; to confront

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men; to express himself to meh; to reveal to men his will for ther

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vives. / 12 we had to answer the guestion¥, "What is the Bible?" it

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would be in these terms, [the Bible is a vessel. © It is contained
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God;s self exoression to men~-God's word. | Advent is the time when

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we celebrate God:s active particination in h uman history in Jesus

Christ.He has done this also in a book: a hook we call the Holy Bib;e.

It is no secret that peonle don't read the Bible, and so I will
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proceed, assumming you fall into that category, by asking , why?

Certainiy one of the reasons is the nature of the Biblical language
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teser?. fontiy quite recently an interested Bible reader had to overcome the

awesome barrier of reading in a linguis$ic style that very simply was not

his’ awn.) in 1611 a group of scholars were commissioned hy King James of

England; to translate the Bible into English,

This they did: and that the fruit of the labors, the King James Bible is

is a masterpiece of Victorian English, no one gould a 350

years the King James Bible was the only version popularly available to the

@hristain reader f Over the years men hecame so accustomed to the lofty

phraseology of this magnificent document that they vere reluctant to t

have the Bible re translated, [There is a grave danger here: the danger that

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has manifested itself in the ultra-conservative argument that says the
King James version is the only legitimate translation : that the men who
the words of the Bible into Vietortan Engiish were

trans lated jéle jEigdsJavedebd bad cvete J LUedeI cba ly idtedetedats jedal
infalliplg inspired by cod. | Tt is good to rememeber that the books of the 8

Bible, when they were written, were written in the vernacular of the time,

They were written yo be read and understood by all men: snd that té@ insisit

that one translation is ultimate is to betray the wake purpose for which

the Bible was written in the first piace,
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There are many difficulties with the K.d2, verston | tanguace changes
Over a period of 350 years: some words have completely changed meaning in

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that period of tine. brow instance the word "let" mesnt “hinder” in
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Vietorian England, The K.d, version uses "prevent" to mean "precede":
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"allow"in the sense of "approve" ,| The Greek word that means immediately
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ls translated "snan” or "straightway" in the K,J. Bible.j/I have cited

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just ® few: but theresre more than three hundredG words in the K.J. version

thet today mean something totally differetn from what they meant 350 _yvesra

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ago.\ Tic alone necessitates a new translation: and demonstrates that the
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tures must continuslly be undergoing serutinious retranslation te insure

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that the render knows ex ctly what the autthor meant to say,
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To illustrate the difficulty of style I want to rend the seme

two verses to you fromfour different translations of the Bible. KJ, R.S.V.:
published in 1952 —

and the One most widely used by Protestants todsy;

The NEP., a recent atempt to retranslate the oldest mm manuserints into
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contemporary English: and the J.B. Philips version, 3 translation bu one

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man that is good in parts snd not so good in semes. The passage I will fead

is Jom 4: 34-36:

King James
Jesus saith unto them: my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and
vo do his work, Say not ye, There are fdur harvests, and then cometh the
harvest? Rehold i say to vou, Lift un vour eves, and look on the ffimbm fieclés:
for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, ar
and gathereth fruit unto life etern21l: and bath he that soweth and he that
repeseth may rejolce together’,

R.o.V.

Jesus aid to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and tol
accomplish his work, Po yoy not say, "There are yet four months, then
comes the harvest!? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the
fields are already white for harvest. He who reopes recsives wages, and
gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice
together.

NEB,
But Jesus said, ‘It is meat and drink for me to do the will of him who sent
me until I have finished his work. 'Do you not say, "Four months more
and then comes harvest? But look, I tell you, look round on the fields;
they 2re alreody white, ripe for harvest. The reaper is drawing his pay
and gathering a crop for sternal life, so that cower and reaper may

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rejoice togetherT] Bka she sails comes oe: "One-sews, and.

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J.B.P,

"My food is doing the will of him who sent me and finishing the work
he has given me, Don;t you say, ‘Four months more and then comes

the harvest'? But I tellyou to open your eyes and look at the fields--
they are gleaming white, all ready for the harvest! The reaper is
already being rewarded and may be glad together.

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The K.J, version is still the one most of us grew up on. / te words

still strike us deeply; and in this sense it will probably never be

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replaced as our devotional Bible. | But at the same time snyone who
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wishes to know what really is here being said shovld own and read

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one of these other translations.

The second reason why the Bible is not widely read is 2 mush

deeper and more difficult one than word meanings. / It drives us back

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te the very nature of the Bibhle--and to the startling discovery that

a great many people simply don't know what the Bible is--and how to read

it,

Nothing is more intitating than the person who knows 4 nassage

OF seripture to meet every situation, | re is quite possible to use

bits and chunks of the Bible to prove anytring.| Lifted right out of

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eontext portions of the book of R_velation have been used to prove
that the end_of the world will occur on such and such a ate. / One

ean find Biblical proof texts to validate Democraey, Fascism and

communism.| Witnout evefi looking very hard one can find verses that
demand capital punishment; and others that sesy it is the worst

sin of all to stand in judgement of snother man, fru this, of couse,

is done completely disregarding what the author intended to sey in

the first place, and is a very questionable vse of the Bible,

the real problem existant today, however, is that involving the

so-called contradictions between Biblical narrative and selentifie fact.

This problem is so prevalent and so explosive that I hesitate to even

try to deal with it in this brief period; but at the same time I

feel some things must be sata. [r hone that you will follow what I
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am saying closely: and if a point arises that you don't Seteew that you will

a3ek me about it later,
The oradblem began centuries ago as men of science delwed into

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the mysteries of nature. / It came to a head in the Tete eentury with

“othe scientifle acceptance of the theory of Biological evolution / he

Pirst three chapters of Genesis state thit creatig® took place in seven

days, that Agam and Eve were the first man and woman; and that sin

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entered the world through a serpant that convinced Eve te eat forbidden

fruit. /Evolution, on the other hand, holds that creation as such took
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millions of years; that life as we now know it slowly evolved and

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perfected itself; and for that matter is now evolving and being perfected, |
ae A Ras ee: a cheat

Immediately upon hearing this, churehmen , manned the battle stations; —

a godless science am profaned the Holy Bible: there could be no

recon@iliation. f{The result of this conflict was that Christians sibibly
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retreated, hidirlig from the facts of science, behind 2 very shaky
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wall of Ribliesl Literatism. [the Bible became, not the vessel of

God's word-~but 4 celestial book of facks, an seceurate text bonk of

bidlogy, history, geology and physics. | Today this misuse of the Bible

has not been éliminated; the battle still rages on and the church of,

Jesus Christ hes suffered for it, J sven we, who consider ourselvesl

intelligent Christians, have not dealt fairly with it. Our chilaren

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still balk at the facts of seience+--and become involved in the

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ridiculous debatesof haw the Sea parted, or the s@n stood still, or

how the serpent talked; or where Cain found_a wife if his Mother and
Fabher were the first humans created,

Put as succinctly and briefly as possible; the Bihle is_a_ book

about God. It is a religious book, written by religious men, for

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the sole purpose of recording their experiences with the living God.

The Bible is not a book of History, Ig is not a seientific text ;
uf ter arg fecis - PROT S, 3 grr, Sajs, mmaerep tio, stores ffs phat ~ be FOES o @ CecF
book, If you want to learn how cration took place, the place to go
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is a text book on geology or bigioay. | If you want to learn about the
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ancient empires of Babylon, Egynt and Assyria, got to a book on

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ancient history and anthropology. ] Bat by the ssme logic thst posits

the validity of these disciplines, we see their inability to answer

the questions of religion. | tr you mi wixh to read about God, if you want

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to know the why behind history and science the pap proper resource

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is the Rible,

A biological text book will explain how life evolved. The first

chapter of Genesis will tell the why. [ tne Genesis creation accoun teéls

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a profound story by the means of an Litustration. / The points of the

story are these; firstly that liftexists because God created it;

secondly tht man is the high point of creation, made in God's own

image; thirdly that man has proven to be a disob-dient creature and hag
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abused the stature given him by the creator. } Any more than this is to
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make the Bible into somethings it is nov. | thts sameprocedure and approach

must be applied to the entire Bible. {Then it will come alive and in it we w
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will begin to hear the Word of God.

There is no conflict between Biblical Christianity and science, We

welcome every new sclentifie inguiry into the nature and working of the

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universe as further testimony to the magnificent handiwork of God.

To be threatened by science; to hide behind the wall of literalism is

simply to admit a basic ignorance of the very.nature of the Bible,

We PresbyyFerians believe the Bible to be inspired by God, This

word inspired has become a stumbling block also. Some fhave felt that

inspired means literally true; and that every word is equally the

result of divine inspiration / We believe that the men who wrote

the Bible were inspired, some more than others. The words themselves

are just the tools these ingpired men used to express what they felt

God was calling them to write,

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What theproper way to read the Bible then# The Bible must be_read

two wWays--studitously and dvotionally. THE reader must bring to his

taska basic understnding of what the Bible is; a scholar's openess to

hear what the author is saying; and above all a believer's open ear to

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the living Word of God. /30 read one or two verses, chosen at random

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is to wekte disaster, The way to read is one book at a time, preferabdly

in o@@ sitting,
To assist you_in your devotional reading the Session has decided
to purchase the little magazine "today. “For every family in the Church,

I hope that you will use it when it arrives; daily reading the Bible and

the accompanying meditation, individually or preferably together as
a family.

T eluded in our discussion of the Bible lmust be the Holy Spirit.

To a non-teliever the Bible is 2 lot of nonsense. | To the Ghristian
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who approaches the Bible in faith it becomes the Word of God./ By

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itself the Bible is just a book,/accompanied by faith, by the willingness

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ta hear and to listen it becomes God3s instrument.

God has used the Bible to address men down through the_centuries,

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Men haves died for refusing to ston reading it. Men have been insrired
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uplifted and encourtged as its words have come to them. | Martin Luther's
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pain staking study of Romans finally resutied in the discovery that inclied

the Reformation.

Today the Bible lies at the bottom of the Christian church; it is

the foundation upon which we stand or rail. | In 4 personal encountsr

with Ghristianity the Holy Bible must play the same role, Ji must

be an open book--a book that Is read and reread. It is the

vessel of God's message; the inetrument he uses in addressing mankinm,
2 Yt eee : Cnevere

The Bible is a priceless gift; like his son Jesus Christ, the
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Bible is God's way #@ speaking to us, I ancoursge and urge tyou to

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