Is the Bible

Is the Bible the Word of God?

To live a satisfactory Christian life we have to satisfy our minds to this question once and for all. Doubts as to whether the Bible is the Word of God are like cracks in the foundation of our Christian lives. Cracks in the foundation can cause the whole building to slowly collapse. Every time some so-called Christian leader comes out with a liberal statement, such as, "it's okay for practising homosexuals to be in Christian ministry”, or, “all religions lead to God", it's obvious that person's foundation is not the Bible as the Word of God. We may have differences in interpretation of parts of the Bible and even some doctrines of the Bible, but that is not saying we don't believe the Bible is the Word of God. In some things we may not see eye to eye or totally agree but that doesn't stop us having faith in the Bible. To call ourselves Christians at all, we must believe in the Bible. All our belief in Christianity and it’s ways come from the Bible. It is amazing that there are people who call themselves Christian who doubt the Bible or who only believe in parts of the Bible, or who believe modern contemporary man has improved on the Bible.

There is a story of a great missionary, Alexander Duff, who sailed to India to share Christ with the Indian people. On board were his clothes, his prized possessions and his library of 1800 books. A short distance from India they were shipwrecked. Everyone on board was saved but everyone's possessions were lost at the bottom of the sea. On the seashore Alexander Duff looked out at sea, hoping against hope that some part of his possessions might be cast upon the shore. Then he saw something floating in the water. Nearer and nearer it came. Anxiously he watched this small object floating on the waves. What would it be? He waded into the water and got hold of the floating object. It was his Bible! He had lost everything except his Bible. He took this as a token from the Lord that this one single book, the Word of God, was worth more than all the books in his library and all his other possessions. How different it would be if more people would see the Bible as a priceless treasure from God, something to be loved, something to be respected, something to be believed and something to be obeyed.

First, let us accept the fact the Bible itself claims to be the Word of God. It says that men were moved by the Spirit of God to write what they wrote. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came by the Prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20,21 NIV). The word translated, "carried long" is the Greek word, "Phero" which means: they were borne along, or impelled by the Holy Spirit's power, not acting according to their own wills, or simply expressing their own thoughts, but expressing the mind of God in words provided and ministered by Him. Everyone who wrote any part of the Bible (which means book) or the Scriptures (which means writings) would be regarded as a prophet. Notice it is the "mind of God" expressed in "words". David when speaking about how he wrote the Psalms says, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me, His word was on my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:2, NIV). Paul gives us a good idea how God wrote the Bible in the following words: "As it is written, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand:' what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in , spiritual WORDS" (1 Corinthians 2:9-13, N IV).

God expressed Himself by WORDS. These WORDS are to be spoken. These WORDS were also to be written down for the people of the time and for future generations. Look at the experience of Moses. "When Moses went and told the people all the Lord's WORDS and laws, they responded with one voice, 'Everything the Lord has said we will do.' Moses then WROTE DOWN everything the Lord had said" (Exodus 24:3,4, NIV).

Let's look at the experience of Jeremiah. "Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now I have put my WORDS in your mouth.'This is what the Lord God of Israel says WRITE in a BOOK all the WORDS I have spoken to you" (Jeremiah 30:1,2, NIV). "(Jeremiah 1:9, NIV). This is the WORD that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, "

The question comes, did God write the Bible the same way a business man dictates a letter to his secretary? No, it was very different from that. It was much more wonderful and amazing than that. Imagine if it was possible for the business man's spirit to enter into the mind, heart and emotions of his secretary. He has a message he wants written down but he uses the vocabulary, emotions, style, present circumstances, present needs, research, knowledge and experience of the secretary to convey his message. His message is infallible but he has played it as beautiful music on the mind and emotions and experience of the secretary's heart. This is just a little idea of how , over a period of about 1600 years, chose 40 people to write 66 books which have been joined together to make one book we call the Bible. It is an amazing book of history, poetry, songs, commands, warnings, promises and prophecies.

But in the end, believing the Bible to be the Word of God is a personal thing, it happens in your heart. Before I became a Christian at 18, I thought parts of the Bible were true and other parts doubtful. But when I came to Christ, the experience was so real that all my doubts about the Bible disappeared. Jesus was real to my heart and He spoke to my soul from the Bible. The Bible is a heart book, from the heart of God, to your heart.

Having confidence in the Bible

If the Bible is the very WORD of God, what confidence can we have after hundreds and hundreds of copies by hand and hundreds and hundreds of translations, that it is still the WORD of God? The Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. But, all the original writings have been lost and all we have are copies of copies and copies of copies. Over the centuries all these were handwritten copies as there were no printing presses in those days. So, someone may say, "Isn't this unreliable, knowing how human beings can make mistakes?"

Many years ago there was a very famous artist in America named Howard Pyle. He shared with his students his ideas about the use of colour in painting. The students carefully copied down his exact words. Years later another artist, Andrew Loomis wrote, "His words have been copied and handed down from artists from one generation to another. I must frankly admit that it has passed through many hands, so there is nothing to verify its absolute authenticity, but in substance, it is as Pyle himself wrote it down." Many artists have read these copies and it has helped them paint better pictures. Now all this happened without God specially watching over those copies. Surely we can have faith to believe God would look after the essential message of His Word. Did not God know that through all the copying and translating, His Word would be battered about? But was not God sure that the main message He wished to convey to the world would be safe and intact?

We know the Jewish scribes carefully copied the Old Testament countless times over hundreds of years with great reverence. Nevertheless some errors crept in, some mistakes were made, but they were all minor, nothing to spoil the main message of the Bible. The early Christians copied the New Testament just as lovingly and carefully. Here again a few mistakes occurred but nothing to hide the main message. An example of a copyist error is found in 2 Kings 8:26. It says Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to reign, while in 2 Chronicles 22:2, it says he was 42 years old (some later translations try to correct this). Does this error hide the main message of the Bible? Of course not! What God wants us to know is as plain as can be. The Bible is like a great painting hundreds of years old, it has a few cracks in the paint and some dirt spots, but the beauty and the message of the painting can still be seen.

As I was preparing this, my wife called out from another room, "I've found a mistake!" I went into the other room to see what she meant. She pointed to a Newsletter we both had prepared and had printed. In it we advertised a 50 year Celebration Dinner for the Child Evangelism Fellowship in New Zealand. On the cover we had 52pm to 10pm. It was a typing error we had missed. However, inside with the Invitation we had clearly shown the correct time, 5pm to 10pm. It was a mistake, but I don't think anyone would try and come at 52pm to the dinner.

Someone may say, "Why didn't God make sure with all this copying that no mistakes would be made?" The answer to that is God chose not to, and who are we to question God. Imagine a man who wanted to send a copy of a very valuable book to his friend in another country. He could travel to that country himself to give it safely to his friend or he could send it Airmail. He decides to send it Airmail. He wraps it very carefully with plenty of protection. He posts it and it is taken by a very bumpy van to the postal sorting office. Here it is roughly thrown into a big basket and later transferred to a plane. On the way to the country, the plane crashes. The parcel is thrown out of the plane and damaged. Then thunder and lightning come and the parcel is drenched. Finally it is rescued and delivered to the friend. He opens this very damaged parcel and finds the valuable book safe and still intact. The sender had taken the trouble to make sure that no matter what happened to the parcel the book would be safely.

So What is the Main Message of the Bible that God Has Kept Safe?

Let's look at what the Bible has to say about it. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 "And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. "

First - all Scripture is God-breathed. You breathe out as you speak words, so the Scripture is God's WORD. Second - they show you the way to Heaven and make you wise to salvation. Third - they show you how to live to please God, teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. Fourth - they can make you into man or woman of God, showing you how to do good in this world.

That message is just as clear today as it was when God first spoke to the Bible writers. That message is still clear after countless copies of copies over hundreds of years. In fact, none of the major doctrines or teachings of the Bible were lost because of small errors that have happened through copying and translating.

The Bible proves itself by what it does in changing people’s lives. There was a robber in India, the leader of a band of murderers. The police were afraid of them and stayed as far away as they could. This robber chieftain boasted that no one would ever catch him alive. He always carried two guns - one to use on other people, and one to use on himself if he ever got caught. One day he robbed and killed a man who had a Bible in his pocket. The pages of the Bible were good for making cigarettes, by rolling tobacco in them. So the robber kept the Bible and tore out pages as he needed them. A few days later when he tore out a page he noticed the writing on it and began to read it. He put the page back and started reading what was left on the Bible. The result was he gave his heart to the Lord, gave himself up to the police and became a changed man. Yes, we can have full confidence in the Bible.

The Translation of the Word of God

Now we look at translating the Word of God. There can be no doubt that God intended His book, His words, to be translated into all the languages of the world. I believe God made His book robust enough to handle this and not lose its essential message. A translation is like a photograph. Imagine taking a colour photo of a very famous painting. The photo would lose some of the quality of the original but the message the artist wished to convey would still be plain. Now, some photos are better than others, just like some translations are better than others, however, the original message still comes through. What is that message? How to get to heaven and how to live a God-pleasing life. The fact is, that if we still had all the original documents written in the original languages and we could all understand those languages, I don't believe we would obey God any better. God in His wisdom has allowed those documents to be lost and probably for good purpose. If we still had them we would probably be worshipping them rather than obeying them.

The command, "You shall not steal" I'm sure can be translated with the equivalent clear words in any language. Sometimes in a translation the meaning is made clear rather than the literal words. If someone put up a sign which said, "Don't walk on the grass, walk on the path or you will be put in jail", that would be okay for those people who understood that particular language but what about someone who does not understand that language? We would have to translate it into their language. By the time it is translated it might read something like this. "Don't walk on the green thing, walk on the white thing. If you disobey you will end up away from your family for a long time." God made His word so that it could take much translation and still convey His message.

Hebrew and Greek Translations

The Old Testament was mostly written in Hebrew and copied over hundreds of years by the scribes. It was copied in Hebrew and was the only Bible in the world. The New Testament was not written until the time of the early church. A little over a hundred years after the last book of the Old Testament was written, a new translation was made. A need arose to have a Greek translation because so many Jews were spread around the Greek-speaking world who did not even understand Hebrew. So the Greek version was produced. It was not a perfect translation but it became the Bible of the first Christians as Christianity spread around the Greek-speaking world. It was called the Septuagint. Septuagint means seventy because there were supposed to be seventy scholars who translated it from the original Hebrew. It was not regarded as a perfect translation, but God still used it, the Apostles still used it, the early church still used it.

Let's look at this translation being used of God. Acts 8:26-39. God had guided Philip the Evangelist to go into the desert. There he met a man returning from Jerusalem to go to his own country. He was a God believer but he didn't know Jesus. In Jerusalem he must have bought a copy of the Greek translation of the book of Isaiah and as he returned home in his chariot he was reading it. Verse 30, "Then Philip ran to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. ’ Do you understand what you are reading?' Philip asked. 'How can l,' he said, 'unless someone explains it to me?' So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken away from the earth. The eunuch asked Philip, 'Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?' Then Philip began with the very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, 'Look here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?' And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:30-39).

Philip had used an imperfect translation to lead a man to Christ. Let's make some comparisons between the copies of the Hebrew we have translated into English in our Old Testament and the Greek translation Philip used. We are looking at Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8. The Hebrew says, "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." The Greek says, "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." The lamb is where the sheep is and the sheep is where the lamb is, but does it matter? The meaning is clear. The Hebrew says, "By oppression and judgement he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living?" The Greek says, "in his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." Again a variation of words, but the meaning is the same.

So what is God's purpose through all the translations of His Word around the world? 2 Timothy 3:15-17 tells us. "From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." They show us how to be saved and show us how to become a man and woman of God. George was a young German man. He was a thief, he was immoral, pleasure-loving, a gambler, spent time in prison for defrauding, he even stole from his own father, but one day he went to a home where he heard someone reading from the Bible. They were reading from a German translation. Something happened in his heart that day that eventually lead him to become a Christian. This translation made him wise for salvation. He later went to England to live where he studied and taught the English translation of the Bible. He was being rebuked, corrected and trained in righteousness. Gradually he became a man of God, thoroughly equipped for every good work. He became famous as one of the greatest men of prayer known to history. By prayer and faith he built and operated orphan homes for hundreds of children. He never asked anyone for money, but just prayed to God and thousands of dollars came in answer to prayer. At 70 years of age, he travelled to many countries, teaching the Word of God. He was respected all around the world as a mighty man of God. The Word of God had done its work through a translation, his name was George Muller.

Using the Bible Correctly

Learning to use the Bible correctly can bring the mighty power of God into our lives. Someone who uses the Bible correctly is not going to doubt that the Bible is the Word of God, rather they are going to experience the power of the Bible, which is the power of God. About 3400 years ago God gave a man instruction on how to use the Bible. The instruction given then is just as valid today. We can read about it in Joshua 1:8 - "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in if. Then you will be prosperous and successful." The Book of the Law is the first five books of Moses, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It was all the Bible they had in those days. Joshua was about to embark on a great campaign for God, he was to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. He needed to know the power of the Bible to make him successful.

It says, "Don't let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth." Meaning for this verse is found in looking at the word, "meditate". In the Hebrew in which the original words were written, the word translated 'meditate', can mean to murmur, to mutter, speech as well as other meanings such as musing, etc. So simply put, the word ‘meditate’ means to muse, meditate, speak the word to ourselves softly or sometimes loudly. I am not speaking about memorising it and speaking it like a parrot. I remember listening to a man preach years ago, who had a fantastic memory. He could quote chapter and verse from many places in the Bible. In fact his sermon seemed to be a demonstration of his ability to remember verses from the Bible word perfect and also where they were found. None of us got a spiritual blessing from what he said, we just marvelled at his amazing ability.

We are to memorise God's Words, but there is a difference between memorising them in your head and memorising them in your heart. Psalm 119:11 says, "l have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." God's Word in the heart has the power to keep us from sin. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. " God's word is to dwell richly in your heart as you speak it out to others, but it is even more powerful when you speak it to yourself. Speaking the Word to yourself and speaking the Word to others from your heart has power to liberate you and liberate them. An old preacher blessed of God, speaking about preaching the Word of God said, "I consider that the success I have realised has depended much on my having spoken the Word of God from the heart to the heart." This is the secret of true preaching, speaking from heart to heart.

The Word of God can be like a fire in the heart. Jeremiah found this when he was tempted to give up preaching because of all the opposition he was getting. In Jeremiah 20.9 he says, "But if I say, 'I will not mention him or speak any more of his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed Icannot.’ The Word of God in his heart stirred up his feelings and emotions like a fire in his heart and he felt compelled to speak for God.

Let the word of Christ dwell richly in your hearts

Two who met Jesus after his resurrection, speaking of their experience afterwards said, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us" (Luke 24:32). When our hearts are burning within us and we speak, we speak with power. Jeremiah 15:16 says, "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight." When we eat something we accept it into our bodies. We chew it, we swallow it, we let it do its work inside our bodies. It keeps us alive, it helps us grow, it gives us strength, it gives us vitality. So it is when we accept God's Word into our hearts, it keeps us spiritually alive, it causes us to grow spiritually, it gives us spiritual strength, it gives us spiritual vitality. A person who just has a head knowledge of the Word of God, but not a heart knowledge is like someone who tastes food but does not swallow it. They taste and spit it out, taste and spit it out. These are the intellectual believers, plenty of knowledge but no heart, plenty of knowledge but no change in the heart. These are the Bible Bangers who go round banging people with Bible verses and driving people away from Christianity. These are those who go around spitting out Bible verses at people which they have held in the mouth of their minds but have never swallowed and allowed it to be assimilated in the stomachs of their hearts. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in your hearts.

Speaking the Word of God to ourselves creates faith in our hearts. It creates faith in God. Faith in God brings God's power into our lives and makes us victorious over our problems. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." or the Word of God. An inner confidence in God grows as we keep reminding ourselves and speaking to ourselves the promises of God. Let me illustrate with a personal experience. Not long after I had committed myself to Christ at 18 years of age I had to go into compulsory military training. I soon discovered by the actions and language of the young men in my hut where I slept that I was the only professing Christian. I had been told that I should boldly kneel at my bed at night and pray as a witness to my faith in Jesus Christ. I did not mind reading my Bible, but the thought of kneeling and praying in front of them was a bit much to handle. However, one night I was reading my Bible and I came across these words, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). I spoke them softly to my heart. Then thought came to me, God would be with me, even when I knelt to pray in front of all these cursing and blaspheming young men. It gave me the strength to do it and a silence came into the hut. There is power in speaking the Word of God to yourself, it makes you prosperous and gives you good success in your Christian life.

How to use the Bible to resist temptation

We need to know how to use the Bible to resist temptation. In speaking of Jesus in Hebrews 4:15, it says, "who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet without sin." Jesus always successfully resisted temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us - "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (N IV).

What is this way out that God has provided? Part of it is learning to use the Word of God to resist temptation. Notice Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. Temptation is not sin. Eve was tempted by Satan speaking through the snake. Eve had the way of escape but she didn't use it. Listen to the clear command God gave to Adam and Eve. "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:16,17). This was the Word of God to them. In chapter 3 we see how they were tempted. Genesis 3:1-4 - "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?' The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'.(Notice it is an Eve translation, but the meaning of God is still clear.) "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. (Notice Satan is saying the Word of God is not true. He is still influencing people to say the same today.) "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (This is how Satan tempts us, he makes sin look attractive. It is a mixture of half truths and lies.) "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it" (Genesis 3:6, NIV).

Notice it was not only Satan who tempted her but also the very desires of her heart. She gave into temptation and sinned. This one sin brought death and misery to the human race. Yet she could have escaped, she could have used the Word of God to resist temptation. There is power in the Word of God. What she should have done and continued to do was speak the Word of God to Satan. "You must not eat from the tree!" "But it looks nice" - "you must not eat from the tree!" "But it will make you like God" - "You must not eat from the tree!" Finally Satan would have got the message and gone away and tried again another day. The Bible says that the Word of God is like a sword and Satan gets tired and sore when we keep poking him with it. Ephesians 6.17. That's what she should have done and that's what you and I can do when Satan tempts us. This is how Jesus dealt with temptation; he used the Word of God. Matthew 4:1-11. After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry, so Satan came to tempt him. Verse 3 - "The tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread'." Now to turn stones into bread would have been no problem for Jesus, He had the power to do it. But it was not the will of God to use his miracle power on his own needs and it would be a sin to obey a suggestion of Satan even though he was hungry. So he spoke the Word of God to him. Verse 4 - "Jesus answered him, 'it is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'." (Deuteronomy 8:3, NIV.) Then Satan tried another temptation. He asked Jesus to show off and throw himself off the top of the temple. He even used Scripture, quoting from Psalm 91:11,12 - "For it is written. 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone'." But this is using the Bible wrongly, this is using the Bible to dare God, this is trying to tempt God. This is like someone climbing to the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland and then as they jump off quoting Jude 24 - "To him who is able to keep you from falling." Again it would be obeying a suggestion of Satan which would be sin. Jesus quickly got out the sword again and gave Satan another jab. Verse 7 - "Jesus answered him, 'It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test'." Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:16. Satan spoke the Word of God from a cunning disobedient heart but Jesus spoke it from a clean obedient heart with power. Satan tried one more time, he promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship him. The truth was all the kingdoms of the world did belong to Satan or rather were under his control and they still are today. However, Jesus had come to rescue people from the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light. Jesus had come to save people from Satan's kingdom and bring them into God's kingdom and he is still doing it today. Jesus knew one day, in God's time, He would rule over all the kingdoms of the earth, but before that He would have to go to the cross and die for all the sins of the world. Satan didn't want Jesus to go to the cross because then he knew he was doomed. Jesus was quick to answer with mighty power with the word of God. Verse 10 - "Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only'.” (Deuteronomy 6:13, NIV.) That was too much for Satan. We read in verse 11, "Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him."

Temptation does not only come from Satan, but also, as we learned from the experience of Eve, from the desires of our hearts. Satan loves to tickle those desires, he loves to stir up those desires, he loves to inflame those desires to make us sin against God. James 1:13-15 says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me,' for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." Death is separation from God. Thank God we can know forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is an old hymn we used to sing:

Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.

Each victory will help you some other to win.

Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue.

Look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through.

Is the Bible the Word of God? For true believers the answer is YES! For over and over again they have proved it to be so. May you also prove it to be so in your own heart and life.

If you would like further help or information, or if you made a commitment to the Lord through reading this, please write to us at office@pcf.gen.nz

We'd love you to visit us at PCF on Sundays to learn more about following Jesus.