Love the Author

A few days ago I received a letter from an organization called Answers in Genesis. 

 The president and CEO of this organization and the founder of the Creation Science museum in Cincinnati, Ken Ham, wrote in the letter of his vision to build a recreation of the ark based on the specifications of Genesis and make it an attraction along with "a large complex of associated museums, theaters, and amenities, including a first-century village, Tower of Babel, aviary, and Walled City."  The price tag: 29.5 million dollars.

Ken Ham states, "I really don't think there's a better way to reach America with biblical truth than by building our Ark Encounter."  Really?  I can't even imagine Jesus saying that sentence, let alone inspiring it.  And yet, Ham regards this vision as a "God-inspired mission."

Of course, it's easy to see this Ark Encounter as a wacky idea, but here's what concerned me.  Clearly Ham has a heart to reach the lost, but what is His gospel?  For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son?  That's in there, but it's only secondary to Ham's main focus: the Bible is true.  

Here are a few quotes of his:

"your most important jobs as parents is to teach your children the truth of God's Word and the message of salvation through Jesus Christ."

The Creation museum "is a testimony to the truth of God's Word."

He wants to "draw more non-believers here so they, too, could experience the truth of God's Word and its life-changing gospel message."

"we will be able to point millions of people to the truth of God's Word and to Christ."

"What a powerful outreach to teach millions about God's Word and the message of salvation!"

"it's crucial that we reach every man, woman, and child we can with the truth of God's Word."

"so much of our nation is in rebellion against God, His authority, and His Word."

"the Ark Encounter will be a bold reminder that God's Word is true."

"Carrying your wooden key chain is another simple way you can share the truth of God's Word."

The actual gospel is in some of these statements, but it seems secondary to the Gospel of the Bible.  Have we become Bible deists?  For God so loved the world that He gave us the Bible?  Repent and believe the Bible?  Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will let you read my Bible?  

Hundreds of years of early Jesus-followers turned their world upside down (and brought down the Roman Empire) without a Bible.  They experienced God, felt His love, found forgiveness, were enlivened by the Holy Spirit, loved their neighbors, gave them the hope of the Messiah, even clarified the Trinity without the Bible as we know it.  The creeds don't list the Bible as a prerequisite to orthodoxy either.  

This is no criticism of the Bible.  Instead, it is a criticism of the place that it has become in our faith.  We have a picture of my wife and I on our wedding day on the wall of our bedroom.  We don't have a picture of the pastor.  He was a vehicle, a means, a gift, one I'm glad we had, but I don't give him credit for my marriage.  I don't teach my daughters that the way to a successful marriage is to find the right pastor.  Of course, the analogy is incomplete, but the point is that we can miss the heart by focusing on the veins.

 

For so long, I assumed that when Scripture talked about God's Word, it meant the Bible when, in actuality, it meant either God communicating with His people or Jesus Himself.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The Word came and lived among us.  The B-I-B-L-E is still the book for me, but when I stand alone on the Word of God, I want it to be my Savior, not the book.