What Is The Bible?
By Evangelist Percy George Cross
The Bible is here. You must account for it in one or two ways: either man wrote it or God. How did the Bible get here? Before you were the Bible was, and after you are gone the Bible will be! Man oft condemns himself by condemning the Bible, without studying the Bible. This is absolutely certain: the more Bible there is in your life the better will be your life, and the less Bible there is in your life the worse will be your life. Bible men are best men; Bible light is brightest light; Bible ways are safest ways; Bible faith is noblest faith; and Bible life is the purest life.
1. The Bible is the Book of No Mistakes. It is the only Book without a moral or spiritual mistake. It is the only Book of sixty-six books that is a harmonious whole, a moral mosaic built by many hands in different ages and in various lands. Man has been much of a moralist, yet with all of his moralizing by all of his philosophers in all the ages man falls far below the moral code of the Bible. Not only has man failed outside of the Bible to make a perfect code of morals, but man has ignominiously failed to live up to the code of his own creation. His own work mocks him! The Bible is the Book of the perfect plans, built on a perfect plan, and containing the perfect plan for man.
Consider this irrefragable fact: destroy all the books of all the libraries of all the ages and leave one Bible, and you have lost no light for life and labor. Or put it this way: Collate from all the multitudinous writings of man the moral codes and standards for character and conduct and leave me just one Bible and you will have less than I have! Before the New Testament Bible was written, the greatest philosophers failed to give to man the perfect standard of life; since this Bible is in our midst, man has signally failed to give to man a better standard, or to live up to this standard with the New Testament writings to go by. The Bible has been imitated but never duplicated. The Bible is the one uncopyrighted Book. It is anyman's Book and everyman's Book, yet no man's Book. There is no law protecting it nor forbidding any infringement on its writings. All men can draw from it, and do draw from it, for any and all purposes. Many criticize it, others strive to destroy it, not a few are indifferent to it, some deny it, but "the Scriptures cannot be broken." (John 10:35)
2. The Bible is the Book of Perfect Reason. The Bible is the only Book that gives a reasonable and comprehensive account of the creation of man and the universe. The more you study the accounts of the creative evolution of the hypothetical sciences of man, all are built on the shifting sands of assertion and surmise, two facts are realized: Man looms up as a failing pigmy before the problem of life and eternity, and the Bible is more and more being vindicated in its reason and revelation of light for the facts of life and its future. If the Bible had come to you saying, "In the beginning God made man out of a tadpole," you would have refused the Book with scorn: "God made man out of an amoeba," or, "God created man out of a bit of floating protoplasm," or, "A water worm decided to leave its habitat and become a dry-land being and by wiggling grew into a man," you would have rejected such a book as the vapid sayings of an idiot being. Imagine, if possible, what it would mean if we were called upon to worship such a protoplasmic god, the father of tadpole man!
If the Genesis account is wrong, as some sinful men have asserted and never proven, why is it that some man has not by the fine force of his superior intellect given to erring man a better account than that of Moses? Some affirm that that age was crude and chaotic, an age of ignorance and superstition. Then how do you account for Genesis?
3. The Bible is the Book with the perfect man in it. It is the one lone Book containing the throbbing portrait of the only perfect character in all history - Jesus Christ. The Bible is the only Book with a Man in it. Here is a stupendous fact that defies the explanation of mortal man, let alone the creating of such a character by the mind of man. It is to be noted that the world's greatest philosophers all wrote their philosophies before Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their biographies of Christ, the sinless One and the selfless One. Man failed before this fact of revelation to create the perfect character, and with this revelation to go by, man has failed even worse since! He has failed to put into literature such a life with the illustration before him, and has failed to live up to the illustration of his own creation, let alone living up to the illustration given of God in Christ Jesus. Further, it is easily proven that the very best characters man has created in literature appropriated their finest traits and sayings from Jesus Christ. You believe in Cicero? There are more quotations from the New Testament Scriptures in Tertullian of the second century than of the writings of Cicero in all writers of three centuries. Do you believe in the most popular writings of antiquity, the poems of Virgil and Horace, the annals of Tacitus, and the orations of Cicero? You say "Yes!" Why? These writings you say you accept and believe in have not half the solid proof as to authenticated authorship as have the biographies of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Do you believe in these? If not, why not? No school of thought, be it rationalistic, materialistic, or socialistic, that can lay any just claim to scholarship, dare deny that Paul the apostle wrote the four epistles of the contention, Romans, First and Second Corinthians and Galatians. Paul was an eye witness and spoke of those things that he knew. I am persuaded Almighty God designed the Bible to stand upon its own merits and not by the testimony of the pens of men. Truly it is the lonely Book and stands alone as The Book.
4. The Bible is the Book of the Perfect God. It is the only Book that reveals to man a sensible and reasonable account of the Creator. Man's ideas of God are crude, cruel, and fantastic. Look at a few: "The First Cause." Think of praying to "O, Thou First Cause!" "God is law and law is God." Law is lifeless. Think of holding any communion with law! "Nature is God;" then go talk to a tree and get acquainted with God! God is not in a tree nor up a tree! This is bad enough, but think of the gods man has made where the influence of the Bible is absent. The paganism of Africa is appalling in the light of the Bible. Man left to himself is a polygamist and a polytheist, and in sin a polyglot! The Bible reveals to man, amid the blackness of sin, God as our Heavenly Father, a loving God, a just God, a suffering God, a sympathizing God, a merciful God, an all wise God.
5. The Bible is the Book of Perfect Love. Not only does the Bible reveal God as love, but the gift of His love; Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, stands forth as the One lovable, loving Being, in all man's History. Before the Bible became the love of man was lust. In all the writings of man love looms forth as a thing based upon the flesh life. Plato's disquisitions on what purports to be love become drivel in the light of Paul's phillipic to the church of God at Corinth as found in the thirteenth chapter of his epistle. With that, the saying of Christ is, "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you." This is not of man for the world of man does not think that way, and here is one of the reasons man is found fighting the Bible. The lust of man is to kill his enemies, and not by any means love them.
6. The Bible is the Book of Perfect Prayer. The prayer wheel of the Tibetan is a fair sample of what man makes of prayer without the Bible. Prayer? Man knows not the meaning of prayer without the revelation of God as found in the Bible. The man of evolution knows not the privilege of prayer for such a theory leaves no place for prayer. Just as the Bible is God's means of talking to you, so prayer is God's means for You to talk to Him. Strange would be the child that never holds converse with his parent. A study of the prayers of Christ and the apostles reveals a wondrous working of this misunderstood and misused privilege and power. This age is in sore need of a New Testament revival of the practice of bent knee prayer.
7. The Bible is the Book of Promised Return. Here is thought that lies utterly beyond the mind of man. This Book reveals the death, burial and resurrection of the Sinless One who was made sin for man with the climax revelation that as He left so will He return. Jesus, the Sinless One, began His earthly life in a rniraculous birth. His earthly life was so lived as to make for history the outstanding miracle in character and conduct. His life ended in a miraculous going and must be consummated in a miraculous return. A sinless man is a life miracle completely foreign to the unaided mind of man. The raising from the dead of this Man is true to God's plan, and the return of this Raised Being is a revelation too colossal for unaided man to plan.
8. The Bible is the Book of Perfect Rule. It reveals to man the perfect rule for the individual life of man. Is is the only Book that brings to man the perfect plan for the government of man on Earth. The many plans of man for the society of, man have all failed or are failing. The aching fault with all of man's plans for the government of man is the failure to take into account - Man. The Bible reveals to man the government of grace for the growth of man in the goodness of God. Not until man becomes a new born being in Christ, circumscribed by the Lordship of Christ under the will of God will man be well governed within, and with peace, plenty, and contentment without. This is sustained by three pivotal facts that belong with peculiar force to the Bible, and the Bible only.
First: The authority of the purpose of the Bible. The purpose of God is the salvation of man from man, and from sin within.
Second: The authority of the Spirit of the Bible to make men selfless where man is selfish. Holiness in man for all the sons and daughters, of man. Man must be made right within before you can right the world without.
Third: The authority of the Fruits of the Bible, which is to make man live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Sober with himself, righteous in his relationships in all the walks of life, and like God in his mental processes and heart sympathies.
Open the Bible and "Let God be found true." Amen.
http://www.biblebelievers.com/misc_periodical_articles/bible-champ_002.html
Florida city denies church permit for 9/11 Quran burning
GAINESVILLE, Florida (AP) — Officials in a Florida city have denied a church that is seeking to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 a permit to set a bonfire.
Interim Fire Chief Gene Prince said Wednesday that the open burning of books is not allowed under Gainesville's burning ordinance.
The Dove World Outreach Center drew international attention after announcing a plan to burn copies of the Islamic holy text on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Prince says the church will be fined if the burning is held.
In an e-mail sent out Wednesday, the church said, "City of Gainesville denies burn permit — BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS."
The Gainesville church made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said, "Islam is of the Devil."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-19-burn19_ST_N.htm
They're doing it: U.N. makes its move into your school
Program already operating in hundreds of U.S. locations
The agenda of the United-Nations-funded and -run International Baccalaureate Curriculum is making massive inroads into America's public schools, with operations already established in more than 1,000 locations.
Worldview Weekend President and Founder Brannon Howse says the program is trying to train American students to embrace an anti-Christian worldview.
"This U.N. curriculum is extremely hostile to Christians. It's hostile to American values and ideas and very big on humanism, redistribution of wealth, and very big on pluralism and that all religions are equal," Howse told WND.
Howse says one of his radio program's listeners is frustrated that there is no outcry from the public.
Here's the instruction manual on an alternative to public schools, in "You've Decided to Homeschool, Now What?"
"The man wrote me an e-mail, and he said, 'It's crazy how we're not informed and how so many parents, Christian parents, are shuffling their kids into these programs thinking it's a good thing, a positive thing," Howse said.
Listen to with Brannon Howse:
Howse points to the program's objectives that say the entire curriculum is shaped by the U.N.
According to a report at EdNews.org, the program should overrule any "parochial" values or beliefs, with a heavy focus on a social agenda throughout classes.
"Math Studies curriculum explores problems concerning the weather, environmental protection, conservation and energy. … The statistics unit will examine a variety of problems from a global perspective, such as the disparity of wealth distribution between first- and third-world countries."
The report says Latin students "will examine the ancient world as a sounding board to measure and compare the global issues in a modern world. Students will discuss the impact on the Roman world, as well as their own, of such topics as women's rights, slavery and national imperialism."
The report is highly critical of the International Baccalaureate.
The organization "not only teaches its own worldview, it simultaneously undermines the beliefs and values of the United States (also called the 'American creed')," the report said. It cites an International Baccalaureate teaching page, which says, "Both Democrats and the Republicans supported a more or less unrestrained capitalist system. They believed that it offered unique incentives to hard work and opportunities for all even though there was plenty of evidence that it left many people very poor and a few grotesquely rich."
A teacher who asked not to be identified believes the standards in Massachusetts, one of the states where the International Baccalaureate has been expanding, are fine the way they are.
"One thing that greatly troubles me is we have an excellent curriculum in Massachusetts public schools. Our frameworks are second to none. Our [standard] is the envy of the nation," the teacher said.
The teacher is also pleased that the current state standards allow for openness to the Bible.
"Did you know we are not only allowed to use the Bible in public schools – it is encouraged as recommended literature?" the teacher asked.
She added that further interference from the federal government will compromise this freedom.
"This past month I believe the liberal legislators on Beacon Hill took Obama's bait (involving financial incentives) and are adopting the federal standards 'Common Core Curriculum.' I very much doubt that the federal standards exalt the Scriptures as quality literature. In our social-studies frameworks, it includes what salvation means, in the life of a Christian. Doubtful the federal common core standards do that," the teacher said.
The Massachusetts teacher's concern for her own state would appear to be justified because the Massachusetts Department of Education website discusses Massachusetts school systems that are introducing the International Baccalaureate Curriculum.
One link is to the Sturgis, Mass., Charter School that lists its International Baccalaureate program among its best practices.
The Sturgis site says, "To foster international awareness and understanding and ensure world-class standards of academic achievement, Sturgis will maintain for membership in the International Baccalaureate."
Later, on the same page, the site boasts, "Ensuring College Readiness: International Baccalaureate for All. Sturgis Charter Public School offers a nonselective International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme for students who are admitted to the school by lottery. The school has been successful at ensuring college readiness for all students at the school through the program."
Who is behind the advocacy of the International Baccalaureate program?
Recent evidence of federal involvement is seen in a 2008 position paper issued by the Obama-Biden campaign that openly promoted the International Baccalaureate program.
The statement begins with campaign slogans and speaks of a vision for a "21st Century Education."
Then the statement continues.
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will create a national 'Make College a Reality' initiative, based on the successful efforts underway in many states to increase the percentage of students taking rigorous courses and assessments, such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses."
While not specifically mentioning the International Baccalaureate program by name, the president's website continues to echo the "global" theme.
"At this defining moment in our history, preparing our children to compete in the global economy is one of the most urgent challenges we face," Obama's education issues page said.
A search for references to the International Baccalaureate program leads to the National Education Association website. A 2008 NEA policy brief openly promotes introduction of the International Baccalaureate Curriculum.
"In a revamped high school, the concept of rigor is broadened to include mastery not only of core academic subjects but of the higher-order cognitive skills that the global economy demands. A rigorous high-school program aligns curriculum, instruction and assessment with high standards and high expectations. It focuses on the integration of skills and knowledge. It is coherent and sequential and encourages students to tackle challenging Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and honors courses," the statement recommended.
The NEA further listed an advocacy letter from U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisc.
"Researchers and other experts have recommended that these indicators could include graduation rates; postsecondary and career-placement rates; attendance rates; student mobility or transfer rates; the number and percentage of students participating in rigorous coursework (including honors, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual enrollment, early college)," Moore's letter read.
The NEA declined comment on this story.
Support for the program also comes from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. In a May 2010 Council on Foreign Relations forum, Duncan advocated more international integration for U.S. schools.
"I really appreciate the chance to have this conversation. I want to begin by discussing two important trends that inform our drive to transform education here in America. The first is increased international competition and the second is increased international collaboration," Duncan stated.
The reference is to international collaboration, but while he was superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, Duncan promoted the International Baccalaureate Curriculum.
The Chicago Public Schools website features two pages that discuss the implementation of the International Baccalaureate program in the Chicago schools.
Both pages say one of the goals of the International Baccalaureate Curriculum in Chicago is encouraging students to be globalists. The "Diploma Programme" page lists the goals.
"Goals: Teach students how to learn. Provide an opportunity for each student to strengthen their communication skills. Enable students to become global citizens by encouraging their understanding of people from other countries and cultures," the "Diploma Programme" site said.
President Obama's support for the International Baccalaureate program goes back to his connections with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. While the two worked together at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the Walter-Annenberg-funded program gave money to Chicago-area schools.
In a document posted on the Truth About the International Baccalaureate website, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge is reported to have given money to the Beverly–Morgan Park Middle School to fund the "Middle Years" International Baccalaureate program.
Further funding for the International Baccalaureate Curriculum comes from such diverse organizations as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation website reports that the group gave over $2 million to the Irving, Texas, public schools.
Other groups that have contributed large sums of money for the adoption of the International Baccalaureate program include former International Baccalaureate Board Chairman Carol Bellamy's Star Network.
The Star Network's World Learning site also lists the George-Soros-connected Tides Foundation, Zonta International, the United States Agency for International Development and Soros' new organization, the Open Society Institute, as donors to the cause.
Worldview Weekend's Howse adds that America's biggest problem is that parents and schools are working against their own interests.
"Here we have 1,095 schools across the country adopting a U.N. curriculum and you have conservatives, whether it's conservative parents, thinking it's great for their kids to be in there, and conservative educators who if you asked them would say they are conservatives. Then you have conservative school-board members who have bought the lie that they can rewrite the curriculum," Howse observed.
"So much for Washington. If Washington waits around, we'll destroy ourselves," Howse said.
WND previously has reported on a growing move in the U.N. that would impact significantly Americans' rights regarding their children's education.
Its programs are being opposed by ParentalRights.org, which was created in response, advocating for a simple addition to the U.S. Constitution. The proposed change would state: "The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right. Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served."
It also would specify, "No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article."
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=189413
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