The approach of selecting one verse out of 31000+ verses in the Bible or even one chapter out of 1189 chapters to attack the Bible is darkly dubious. To attack one verse or one phrase, without fitting it into the context or the Bible’s big story or plot is an approach that would be labelled patently unfair in other spheres. To use one line to discredit an entire work would be ridiculed as an undisputed proof of absolute ignorance if applied to any other great literary or encyclopaedic work.
Lucy Maud Montgomery authored her best-selling novel Anne of Green Gables in 1908. It sold nineteen thousand copies in
the first five months and ten additional printings that first year. It was translated into Swedish as early as 1909. It has since been translated into more than a dozen languages and over 50 million copies have been sold around the world. It has been a part of the school curriculum in Japan since 1952. She added five other novels as sequels to her one story of Anne Shirley.
Movies (even silent movies in the early 1900’s), musicals, TV series, radio programs and other medium have capitalized on the outstanding stories written by one of Canada’s most famous and loved authors, Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Annually Anne enthusiasts travel from around the world to attend the LM Montgomery Institute in PEI where the life and writings of the author are delved into and academically studied.
THINK ABOUT IT:
Can you imagine how the LM Montgomery Institute would respond to someone who read only one paragraph of one chapter in one of the six volumes and then proceeded to act as a credible authority, passing harsh and condemning judgment on the best-selling novels of Anne of Green Gables? Who would listen? Who would believe?
And yet pundits, armed with one verse or one phrase of one verse, taken from over 30,000+ verses, take pot shots at the Bible every day and they are given air time – even quoted as authorities on the subject of the credibility of the Bible or the lack thereof.
Have you been adversely influenced against the Bible by such a biased and unfair strategy? Do you know the big story of the
Bible? Or have you been turned off because others have eloquently dismissed the entire book by ridiculing one part of the book – completely overlooking the context, the setting and the theme of the book? Think about it seriously.
For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
More reading about the Bible: