Modern man can get any information at his fingertips. In a few blinks of an eye (depending on the speed of your modem and internet connections), you can access all the information available in the World Wide Web. Google (and googling) has replaced the need for traditional library research work. Wikipedia has replaced the traditional Encyclopaedia Britannica for quick references.
Convenient? Definitely. Good? Perhaps, but not entirely. For instance, emailing has replaced the traditional snail mail. It is good in the sense that emails can be transmitted to the recipient in a matter of nanoseconds, compared to snail mail which may take weeks. However, the art of handwriting has been replaced by speed on the keyboard, and that replacement is not exactly good.
Wikipedia as a source of information may or may not exactly be reliable. Contents of the traditional bulky encyclopedia were well-researched and well-documented, edited by many scholars and experts in their respective fields. The contents of Wikipedia, on the other hand, are volunteered by diverse sources. Sometimes it does give us the useful information we need, but Wiki does not guarantee its sources’ accuracy. More often than not, their articles may be written by any Tom, Dick, or Harry who simply has a web site. How do we know if it is reliable? Check the source, and the source of the source.
Google the word Jesus and you get 191 million references! Google the word Bible, you get 115 million results! Each of these sites has varying opinions and views about Jesus and the Bible. Not all of these sites are written by theologians, Bible scholars, seminary professors, or Biblical archeology and history experts. Which of these millions of sites are reliable then? Check out their source.
What should be our ultimate reliable source? The Bible!!! The Living Word of God (Hebrews 4:12) is the ultimate source of Truth and its standards should be our guideposts for living. The Bible is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). It is the Word of God written down for you – His child -to read. It is unchanging. It is timeless. Throughout these two millennia, His Word still applies. It is inerrant – completely, totally. Wikipedia has received a lot of criticisms for many of its inaccurate contents. But the Bible has stood for Truth up to this new century, and will still be the Truth until the end of time (Mark 13:31).
Be like the Bereans, (Acts 17:11) who were described to be noble-minded. Receive the Word with great eagerness and examine the Scriptures daily, so that you would know what is true, what is good, what you need to know, and what you need to do.
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