Most Amazing Fact in the Bible

The Bible, the best-selling book ever, has been translated in entirety into more than 635 languages. The New Testament has been translated into more than 1,440 languages. The Bible is comprised of 66 separate “books” – 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament – with nearly 3,000 languages having at least one of those books. But these statistics pale in comparison to the astonishing array of facts, truths, teachings and principles presented in the Bible, all believed to have been written and compiled under the inspiration of God.

With that in mind, if someone were to ask, “What’s the most amazing fact in the Bible?” how would you respond?

One might be tempted to reply, “Where do I start? There are so many things that we could cite.” But recently, reading a book about the early history of CBMC – a ministry to business and professional men – I came across a statement that caused me to nod in agreement, “Yes, that is the most amazing fact in the Bible.” What is it? I won’t keep you in suspense for long.

In the book was the story of Waldo Yeager of Toledo, Ohio, one of CBMC’s early leaders. He had written a gospel tract called “Life’s Most Amazing Fact,” and was explaining to another leader in his city what that “fact” was.

Yeager proceeded to acknowledge that in their community he would have been widely considered “a good sort of fellow, an average businessman at least, a good husband and father. But people don’t really know me. My wife and my two boys know me a little better than you do, and they are quite charitable with me…. But you know, even they don’t really know me.”

Then he concluded, “There’s only one Person who really does know me, and that’s God Himself. He knows all about me, my weaknesses, the myriad things I would not dare to expose, even to my own family. Yes, He knows all about me, and here’s the amazing fact – He still loves me!”

That, in the proverbial nutshell, is the most amazing fact in the Bible. God, the holy, all-knowing, omnipresent deity that many of us worship, knows each one of us – faults, imperfections, sins and all – and still loves us. That’s truly justifies the adjective, amazing.

Most of us do reasonably well at maintaining a good front. We like people to think highly of us, and have become skilled at showing our most favorable side – unless, of course, someone really ticks us off, in which case our facades come down. We want folks to say of us, “He’s a good guy,” or “She’s a nice woman.” But in the presence of God – which is all the time – He knows us as we really are on the inside.

As King David wrote, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast…. Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:7-24).

Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we’re reminded, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). From childhood, we begin cultivating the skill of acting as if we have it all together, even when we don’t. No sense letting people see us at our worst, right? As Abraham Lincoln once said, we can fool all the people some of the time.

But God isn’t deceived. He knows who we truly are, on the inside as well as out. And He still loves us! That, as Waldo Yeager said many years ago, is the most amazing fact in the Bible.

King James and Me

Did you know the King James Version of the Bible was first published 400 years ago? Happy birthday, KJV!

King James and I go back a long way. Growing up, the KJV was always used in our church and Sunday school. (There wasn’t much choice back then.) As I mentioned in an earlier blog, during my senior year of high school I read the Bible front to back, kind of as a project. Reading five chapters a night, it took about nine months. I understood very little of what I read, however, and when finished I stuck the Bible back on a shelf and wondered what to read next.

Then in 1978 I started attending a church where the Bible was taught in a practical, relevant way for everyday life, using a modern translation – the New American Standard. For me it was almost like dying and going to heaven. God, I realized, doesn’t speak in only 17^th century Elizabethan English. When I prayed, I didn’t need to “beseech” Him, and I needn’t refer to the Lord as “Thou.” He was perfectly okay with “You.”

That’s not to knock the KJV. Some passages in the oft-called “Authorized translation" still resonate best, like Psalm 23. Its wondrous, poetic composition -- “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside still waters…” -- still gives me a sense of peace and comfort.

But the original manuscripts that merged to make up our Bible were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, common languages to that area at that time. God desired to give His Word to everyone, not just to professional theologians and clerics.

I appreciate tradition and literary form. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we wouldn’t want to rewrite, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo,” to read “Hey…Romeo! Where you at?” But even though I once majored in English, I dislike reading Shakespeare because I don’t understand half of what he wrote.

So I’m thankful for the KJV (which by the way has undergone numerous, significant revisions itself over the years). But even more grateful we’re no longer confined to reading verbiage, so familiar to people in the early 1600s, that presents considerable consternation for many of us in the early 21^st century.

Its progeny – like the New American Standard, the New International, New Living Translation, Revised Standard, even the Amplified – are continuing to carry out the mission: Revealing to us who God is, helping us understand how we are designed, and telling what He expects of us.

Changing Words in God's Unchanging Word

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced a new Bible translation, supposedly more accurate, accessible and poetic, will be released next week. I’m not Catholic, but it’s probably overdue.

This “breaking news” reminded me of 1978, when I first encountered a modern Bible translation – the New American Standard. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Like most churchgoers growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I knew only the King James Version (the “Authorized version,” according to some). Out of curiosity, as a senior in high school I read the KJV, front to back. I plowed through it five chapters a night; it took about nine months. When I finished, it went back to my bookshelf as I wondered, “What should I read next?”

Frankly, although I technically had read every word of the Bible, I understood very little. Already on the path toward become a professional writer, I often got lost among “begats,” “whosoevers,” “quickens” and other quaint words and phrases of the 16^th century. Nobody uses “quicken” for its archaic meaning – “to make alive.” In fact, today Quicken is the name of financial software.

When I first read the NASB (and later, versions like the New International, English Standard, Revised Standard, New King James, New Living Translation, even The Message), I realized God speaks in our language, using vocabulary we can grasp. The Scriptures are deep and complex enough, without antiquated terms becoming an impediment.

The Bible, speaking of itself in Hebrews 4:12, says the “Word of God is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword.” To insist on an outdated translation for the sake of “tradition,” ignoring language is dynamic and words change – in style and meaning – over time, is to maintain God’s Word is dead and inert.

Originally, the Scriptures were written in Hebrew, common Greek and Aramaic, languages of that time. God wants everyone to be able to read and understand His eternal truth. His Word never changes, but words of every age and culture do change.

So instead of a “cereal offering,” ardent Catholics now will read about “grain offerings.” Makes sense to me – none of my Bibles ever made reference to Cheerios or Wheaties. Another word reportedly deleted in the revised Catholic Bible is “booty,” which meant to the spoils of war – but today can have a much different connotation.

The good news for Catholics, it would seem, is when they read in the Bible about “the call of God,” it clearly won’t be a “booty call.”