What Do You Believe About the Bible?...Continued from page 1

Marvin A. McMickle

I cannot speak for anybody else in this church today, but it is as clear to me as night is from day that there is only one book ever written that truly informs my thoughts and feelings about who we should love and how we should treat the person who is the “other’, and that book is the Bible. I may never pick up Don Quixote or The Canterbury Tales again in my life, but not a day goes by in my life that I do not slip a Bible into my pocket and read it throughout the day. I mean no disrespect to the distinguished professor from Yale, but when it comes to his choice of reading material he certainly does not speak for me or for millions of others across this country and around the world.

We need a book that speaks about faith. We need a book that can lift our eyes and our hopes beyond the realities of this present generation. We need a book that has the power to search our hearts and our minds and our values. We need a book that is not dependent upon popularity polls among university professors. And today I have come to lift up that book; it is the Bible. It has God as its author, salvation as its content and its appeal is timeless as it has touched every continent on earth without interruption over the last 3,000 years!

In II Timothy 3:16 we are told that all Scripture is inspired, and also that scripture serves an important purpose in our lives. The Bible can be used to teach sound doctrine about God. The Bible can be used to rebuke people whose lives are out of line with God’s divine plan. The Bible can be used to correct people who are saying things about the faith that are untrue or ungodly; like Professor Bloom. Finally, the Bible can be used to train a person so that they can live a righteous and godly life. I read The Canterbury Tales in 1967 in a class at Aurora College. Its content has not crossed my mind again. However, I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus and with my heart open to the teachings of God’s holy Word.

I want you to envision with me a relay race at a track meet where several teams are competing against one another. This is not one of those races where one person runs against another person to see which one is the fastest. A relay race is

much more complicated, because the speed of each runner is not the only factor to be considered. In a relay race there are four runners on each team who run a certain distance (usually 110 or 220 meters) while carrying a baton. Once each runner has run that distance he or she must pass the baton on to the next runner who will cover the same distance in a second lap. Each of the four runners covers the same distance, but three times during that race the baton is exchanged from one runner to the next. This is a difficult process, because the runner who is coming to the end of one lap must slap the baton into the hand of the person who is beginning the second lap after that second person has already begun to run.