What is your view of the Bible? Is it boring, too complicated, irrelevant today? Satan has succeeded in feeding you a lie! (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
“If I were the devil (please, no comment), one of my first aims would be to stop folk from digging into the Bible. Knowing that it is the Word of God, teaching people to know and love and serve the God of the Word, I should do all I could to surround it with the spiritual equivalent of pits, thorn hedges and traps, to frighten people off.” J. I. Packer in the “Foreword” to “Knowing Scripture” by R.C. Sproul
The Devil’s Strategy to Sideline the Bible
1. Distract all clergy from preaching and teaching the Bible.
Get them to tell extended personal experience stories, pass the time with humor, stun people with logic and eloquence rather than opening the Word of God and let it speak as the Holy Spirit intended.
2. Spread the feeling that to study this ancient book directly is a burdensome extra that modern Christians can forgo without loss.
Convince people that they “already know enough Scripture.” All they need to do is listen to a sermon on Sunday morning, or Christian music throughout the week and they will be spiritual olympians!
3. Convince believers that the Bible is out of their reach, only accessible to the “experts.”
“I don’t get anything out of it when I read it any way! It must be that I need an advanced degree to understand what each horn on the beast means. I guess I’ll just leave the Bible to pastor to teach me.”
4. Lure readers to believe that the value of the Bible is in the feelings evoked by Scripture rather than in discovering what it actually says.
“Well, when I read this passage, this is what I got out of it. It is ok if we all get something different from the same passage. It all depends on how it strikes you!”
The Word of God is Profitable and Available to Every Believer
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2Timothy 3:16-17
Don’t let the devil deceive you and rob you of the greatest treasure available to the child of God, His Word!