God endures forever

“All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.”

“But the word of the Lord endureth forever.” – 1 Pet. 1:24

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Gen. 1:1, Rev. 22:13).

God the Father spoke the world into existence, and God the Son shall judge it one day. Between Genesis and Revelation, God has always been there. And God will always be. Generations have lived and died, nations have risen and fallen, yet our all-powerful, all-knowing God is still there. Time and again, men have tried to ignore the presence of God, have deviated from the truth of God’s word, and tried to destroy His word.

He is still there, His word is still there. And nothing, nothing, can erase the existence of God.

For some reason, men think that they can deny the existence of God. Back in the days of the Old Testament, pagan worshippers tried their best. If I recall correctly, God sent the fire when Elijah prayed…not the worshippers of Baal. How about during time of the Roman Empire? Numerous Christians were put to death because of their faith in God and Christ...those Roman emperors died, but the Lord’s church continued to grow. And let’s think about the world today. The assault on our Lord’s word and church is even more deadly with so called ethical issues, atheists, evolutionists, false teachers and the like.

But guess what? The Bible is the number one selling book every year. A few years ago, it was recorded to be the most translated book in the world. But of course, the media doesn’t want you to know that. Let’ see…oh! It’s Dan Brown and his Da Vinci’s Code. New York Times bestseller. But did they tell you that it’s also one of the greatest mockeries of God’s word? No, they wouldn’t tell you that. Where’s Mr. Brown going to make his money?

But, this I know. One day, the name Dan Brown will be a distant memory. One day, The Da Vinci Code will be taken off the bookshelves of your local bookseller to make way for yet another bestseller. And God’s word will still be there…as it has always been. (please refer to the excellent article below about the fallacies of Brown’s Da Vinci Code written by Victoria Chang for more information about this book).

Praise our Lord for His marvelous word which we have today, and by which we have hope and our salvation.

All else will fail…but the word of the Lord endureth forever.

The Da Vinci Code - How Should We Look at it?

Ever since author Dan Brown has written the book "The Da Vinci Code", there has been a HUGE controversy and many questions asked. Loads of my non-christian friends were asking me stuff like...

1. "Did Jesus REALLY marry Mary Magdalene?"
2. "Can the Bible really be trusted?"
3. "How do we know that the Scriptures in the Bible today are true ones?"

Being the young and insensitive Christian that I was (perhaps still am), I dismissed their questions with an airy wave and pointed out to them the small print in "The Da Vinci Code" book, which stated that the book was merely a work of fiction.

Seriously. At first I felt that people were making too much of a big deal out of this book. After all, Dan Brown's idea of the Holy Grail being the bones of Mary Magdalene wasn't a new one. And I coudn't really relate to the big fuss that was made over the Holy Grail. After all, I am sure Jesus isn't taking kindly to the fact that people seem to believe in the 'power' of an ordinary cup he was drinking from at the Last upper rather than believing in HIS power and prestige as the Son of God.

It was only much later that I realised that as ficticious the book may be, it was SERIOUSLY misleading many of the close non-christian friends I have been trying to encourage to enter the Lord's family. Which is why I find it vital to address this situation here, in this article.

First of all, Jesus was NO ORDINARY man. He did things that a man can never achieve. He walked on water. He turned water into wine. He healed the blind. He raised Lazarus from the dead.

And those things that he did weren't merely parlour tricks. They were MIRACLES. In Colossians 2:9, we read of Jesus being fully man and yet fully God, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

Jesus, being the son of God, was the perfect man. And I hardly think that the perfect man would choose to engage in sexual intercourse with Mary Magdalene. He was here on earth with a Godly purpose of washing our sins away with his blood; to be the ultimate sacrifice for us in order to provide us with salvation. As seen in the famous verses, John 3:16-17, we know that Jesus was sent by God so that we "should not perish but have everlasting life" and that "the world through Him might be saved."

Secondly, I believe that the Holy Bible is the only book you can seriously trust in this world. And not only do I believe this, I KNOW this. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we can be assured that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, throughly equipped for every good work."

We know that the Bible we have in our hands today is perfect and without mistakes simply because God says so! The fact that all of the prophecies in the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ's first coming were fulfilled precisely proves that the
Bible is indeed well-accounted for (e.g Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23).

The Bible was written over a span of a thousand and five hundred years by many different authors. However, despite this diversity, all it's Scriptures are miraculously linked and united. This proves that the Bible is of God's word, and not man's word, though men have helped to put God's words on paper.

Last of all, I would like to emphasise that though "The Da Vinci Code" is an extremely creative piece of fiction with many fascinating theories, we should not be so overly intrigued by it that we neglect the truth of the Bible.Though I must admit that "The Da Vinci Code" is really an interesting book, we must not be misled by it and we must always go back to the Bible when in doubt.

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Victoria Chang is 16 years old and a member of the Jurong Church of Christ. She also happens to be an avid reader. Welcome Victoria to the team!