The Bible has been dissected and vilified by the world and yet it endures with coherency. This week, Pastor Lutzer instructs us on God's consistent truth from James 1:18.
"Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
- James 1:18
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Transcript: Welcome to Five Minutes With Pastor Lutzer. I'm so glad that you have joined us today as we discuss the attributes of God—the wonderful, mysterious attributes of God. Always we are instructed, always we are rebuked, and always we worship.
Jesus said that the Father was the only true God. The verse of Scripture I want to read today actually comes from the book of James chapter one, verse 18, where the Bible says that God brought us forth by the Word of Truth. Now if you were with us last time—and I sure hope that you were—you know that I introduced you to one characteristic of truth, and that is universality. Today, we come to a second, and that is coherence or consistency.
Many years ago, there was a young woman who was attending university. And she was sitting next to a man, a young man who said that he was an atheist; and she was a Christian, and he knew it. So he wrote a two-page paper trying to show that there was no truth. I remember she gave it to me and I read it, and I wrote a very brief reply. I said, "If there is no truth, I don't really have to read your paper; because I know it contains two pages of lies." In fact I said, "Every time you open your mouth, I know that you're not speaking truth." Well, she said he never said another word to her for the rest of the semester. And I say, good for him.
We must understand that truth is always consistent. Now, let's look at the Bible. If the Bible is the word of God, it can have no provable contradictions. As a matter of fact, it is remarkable that the Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years with 40 different authors; a collection of 66 books—a library of 66 books—and it has coherence. It has a sense of consistency. It does not contradict itself. By the way, the Bible has often been vilified. I like to think of the Huguenots in France who were Christians who were martyred for their faith—martyred because of their faith in the Bible. There is a monument to them which says this: "Hammer away ye hostile hands; your hammers break, God's anvil stands."
The Bible has been vilified. It's been spoken against. It's been dissected. And yet there it is, coherent truth. By the way, God also is incapable of contradictions. One day, a young man said to me—he was kind of being smart—he said, "I have a question. If you answer it," he said, "I'll become a Christian." I said, "What's your question?" He said, "Can God make a mountain so big that He can't move it?" I said, "I'll answer that. Of course, the answer is no. No matter how big He makes it He can always move it. Now that we've settled that, become a Christian." Well, of course all of that was simply a smoke screen.
My friend today, there are a lot of people who are speaking truth, supposedly. But let's remember that truth always has universality, as we emphasized last time. Truth always has consistency, and truth is a communicable attribute. What that means is, if you and I have been brought forth by the Word of Truth, God has taken the Word of Truth; He's combined it with the Spirit of God and birthed in us the life of God. You and I, above all people in the world, should be truthful people. God is truth. Let us be truth as well. So glad that you have joined us. Today, I want you to make sure that you go with God, and I'll see you right here next time.