Answering questions about the Bible with the Bible
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:17 pm
I came across a life-changing little tidbit while reading Tim Keller's book on Preaching, and I wanted to share it. It actually comes from 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon:
"There seems to me to have been twice as much done in some ages defending the Bible as in expounding it, but if the whole of our strength shall henceforth go to the exposition and spreading of it, we may leave it pretty much to defend itself. I do not know whether you see that lion - it is very distinctly before my eyes; a number of persons advance to attack him, while a host of us would defend [him]... Pardon me if I offer a quiet suggestion. Open the door and let the lion out; he will take care of himself. Why, they are gone! He no sooner goes forth in strength than his assailants flee. The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible."
Essentially this is saying stop trying to defend God because God can handle it. Instead tell people about him and his love.
I found this fascinating to think about, but it went from academically-interesting to wow-this-actually-works-perfectly when I recently had a chance to use this in the real world. Someone was debating with me about the existence of God (the usual "give me exact scientific evidence" stuff) and I did my best to be patient and kind while trying to explain the difference between scientific method and literally everything else in the universe, but then I started looking for Scripture instead. I found so much that was exactly what needed to be said, and said far better than anything I could come up with. All I needed was there! I had no reason to rely on my own work or language. It was beautiful.
Anyways, hope that's as helpful to someone here reading as it was to me! God really is amazing, and the idea that we don't need to defend him after all he's done seems like something I should have realized a lot sooner (and would have saved me so much difficulty if I had!).
"There seems to me to have been twice as much done in some ages defending the Bible as in expounding it, but if the whole of our strength shall henceforth go to the exposition and spreading of it, we may leave it pretty much to defend itself. I do not know whether you see that lion - it is very distinctly before my eyes; a number of persons advance to attack him, while a host of us would defend [him]... Pardon me if I offer a quiet suggestion. Open the door and let the lion out; he will take care of himself. Why, they are gone! He no sooner goes forth in strength than his assailants flee. The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible."
Essentially this is saying stop trying to defend God because God can handle it. Instead tell people about him and his love.
I found this fascinating to think about, but it went from academically-interesting to wow-this-actually-works-perfectly when I recently had a chance to use this in the real world. Someone was debating with me about the existence of God (the usual "give me exact scientific evidence" stuff) and I did my best to be patient and kind while trying to explain the difference between scientific method and literally everything else in the universe, but then I started looking for Scripture instead. I found so much that was exactly what needed to be said, and said far better than anything I could come up with. All I needed was there! I had no reason to rely on my own work or language. It was beautiful.
Anyways, hope that's as helpful to someone here reading as it was to me! God really is amazing, and the idea that we don't need to defend him after all he's done seems like something I should have realized a lot sooner (and would have saved me so much difficulty if I had!).