Franz Kafka, the brilliant German novelist, once described a fictional bombed-out city of rubble where death & ruin were everywhere… people crushed under debris, where they lay dying in agony. In the middle of this total holocaust, one solitary figure sits in a bathroom. Kafka calls him the defiant fisherman. He sits on a toilet seat with a fishing line dangling in the bathtub. There is no water in the tub, & obviously no fish, but the defiant fisherman keeps on fishing anyhow. That, said Kafka, is what man’s search for truth is like: a futile quest for something that isn’t really there. It is a worthless pursuit for meaning, while the whole world is dying all around us.
It was a hopeless picture, but that is exactly what it’s like to look for truth apart from the Bible. Man cannot find truth by himself. He is spiritually dead & unresponsive to God (Ephesians 2:1-2).
The last fifty years have produced an information explosion unparalleled in human history. Any information you want is available with one click of a button. Yet with all we have learned & with all the volumes that have been written, including all difficult subjects ranging from microbiology to astronomy; modern knowledge has been unable to shed any new light on the most basic questions facing the human race – on life, death, God, man, sin, heaven, hell, love, joy & peace. This is exactly the situation the Bible ascribes to mankind in the end times: “always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).
The problem is that spiritual answers cannot be deduced by human reason alone (1 Corinthians 2:14). It’s not that spiritual truth is irrational or illogical, but human wisdom is defective because it is tainted by man’s sinfulness and unable to perceive the things of God.
That is why the Bible is so important. It gives us the answers we can’t find on our own. It is God’s Word to mankind. The Bible gives us trustworthy answers from an unchanging God. If you are looking for the transformation of your soul; if you are in need of true wisdom and real joy; if you long for eternal life, the only place you’ll ever find it is in the pages of God’s Word, the Bible.
It was a hopeless picture, but that is exactly what it’s like to look for truth apart from the Bible. Man cannot find truth by himself. He is spiritually dead & unresponsive to God (Ephesians 2:1-2).
The last fifty years have produced an information explosion unparalleled in human history. Any information you want is available with one click of a button. Yet with all we have learned & with all the volumes that have been written, including all difficult subjects ranging from microbiology to astronomy; modern knowledge has been unable to shed any new light on the most basic questions facing the human race – on life, death, God, man, sin, heaven, hell, love, joy & peace. This is exactly the situation the Bible ascribes to mankind in the end times: “always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).
The problem is that spiritual answers cannot be deduced by human reason alone (1 Corinthians 2:14). It’s not that spiritual truth is irrational or illogical, but human wisdom is defective because it is tainted by man’s sinfulness and unable to perceive the things of God.
That is why the Bible is so important. It gives us the answers we can’t find on our own. It is God’s Word to mankind. The Bible gives us trustworthy answers from an unchanging God. If you are looking for the transformation of your soul; if you are in need of true wisdom and real joy; if you long for eternal life, the only place you’ll ever find it is in the pages of God’s Word, the Bible.
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
Psalms 19:7
adapted from : Trustworthy Answers in Untrusting Times by John MacArthur. © 2006
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
Psalms 19:7
adapted from : Trustworthy Answers in Untrusting Times by John MacArthur. © 2006
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