Be a Keeper of the Sacred Flame (Book Excerpt)

The following text is taken from my free book, Once Upon a Time: Tracing the Footsteps of Christ, Our Hero. Sign up for our free, very occasional newsletter and download your free copy today!

What are the Scriptures?

The Scriptures, commonly called the Bible or The Holy Bible, are the most reliable and trustworthy transmission of God’s message to humanity. God did not simply dictate the Bible. We know this because each writer’s own personality and experiences show through in their style of writing. In fact, when God explicitly dictates anything to a human writer, there is a notice to that effect accompanying the dictation, something like “Thus saith the Lord.” If there isn’t anything telling us God explicitly spoke the words in the text, then He did not. However, every word in the original manuscripts appears exactly as God intended, for all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16). Thus, we refer to the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God. If we turn to 2 Peter, we find verses 20-21 clarify: Prophecy in Scripture does not come about through an individual’s interpretation, but that men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. To which you may say, “How is that not dictation?” I only note what it says, and it seems Holy Spirit can work through human beings in such a way their unique traits and personalities still show through. The original manuscripts contain the fullness of God’s message intended for humanity, first for the Jew and then for the gentile. Every word in them matters.

Are the Bibles we have without error?

Yes, and no. What does that mean? Exactly what it says. This is where we get into dangerous territory. What I’m about to say may shake the faith of some, but what comes after should build in them a stronger faith than went before. What do I mean? Well, let’s consider the debate over words occurring only in certain bibles. Look at the story of the adulterous woman at the beginning of John 8. The story is well-known and oft-quoted, but if you look into the matter, you find the oldest manuscripts didn’t include it. Much speculation exists about how and why this story got added, but the evidence is pretty strong John didn’t write it. If you attend certain seminaries, you even learn current professional Bible scholars believe they know exactly who added it and when. So, what happened? I don’t know. Some think it was a story handed down from apostolic tradition that got inserted by mistake. Some think there may have been a paper, like a bookmark, with the story written upon it, laid at that place in an older manuscript that then got copied and inserted. Could the story be true? Certainly. Did John write it? Probably not. What does this mean? We just don’t know; therefore, we proceed with caution.

God gave us a message He intended we receive. He entrusted it into the hands of the saints of old to deliver to us over the generations. Jude 1:3 suggests support for my view. Thousands of hand-copied manuscripts from various places and different centuries still exist. Variants appear across them, but the vast majority of these have to do with word order and do not affect meaning. Of the remaining variants, most involve a difference of word choice. No variant affects doctrinal truth. The story of Jesus and the adulterous woman teaches things that are true: Justice should stand upon an attitude of grace; Jesus wrote the Law and reigns above it; Jesus out-foxes the foxes; and Jesus points the forgiven sinner toward a new life apart from old ways.

I believe God’s Word is true. The Bible contains the truest collection of Truth, truth, and truths ever assembled. But to claim the modern English Bible is wholly without error suggests things that may not be supportable by fact. It suggests human beings, to whom God entrusted His message, need not fear failing to tend and keep (or serve and protect) that which He has given them. It suggests human beings, at least regarding Scripture, are incapable of error or sin, and we know this cannot be correct. It flies against the fact that Christ alone is perfect and without sin. We can, however, trust the Bible we have remains trustworthy. We can read our Bibles in confidence, knowing God’s truth comes to us.

The Word originally written by its various human authors was without error, but because of human failings, such precision doesn’t always reach its modern readers in a language and culture completely foreign to the ones who wrote it. Language has a life of its own. It’s a very dynamic, almost living force. Where there is a bond between people, it solidifies. Where there is division, it diverges. God did something profound at the tower of Babel, and our communication functions according to some very interesting rules. The words we read in the Bible are translations of languages that existed as unique expressions of actual people who lived in a very specific culture, which fitted into the workings of humanity in a precise location in space and time. We have a pretty good idea about the big picture stuff, but we don’t get the full picture. Unless you can go back to their time, grow up in their culture, enmeshed in their language, and look over their shoulders as they are writing it, a good deal of the truth they communicated, understandably, gets filtered out.

Let me give you a concrete example, one which will earn me the ire of a good number of people. The King James translation of the Bible, revered by many Christian-identifying English speakers, has been the source of missed truth for over four hundred years. How so? Because, in seeking to make it understandable to their contemporary English readers, they translated what was available to them in the best way possible, but they taught His people, the Church (by which I mean His universal church, wherever they may worship, in whatever denomination they’re coined), to miss Truth. And they are not alone in this. How do I know this to be true?

Look at John 18:6. In many translations we find what the King James translators give us, that Jesus said to them, “I am [H]e.” To which His enemies responded by falling over backwards. Are we really to believe they were so surprised by His appearance they fell over themselves in shock? No, that isn’t what happened at all. What Jesus actually said to them was, “I AM.” The translators inserted “he” for clarification, and they showed this by setting it in italics. Christ, our Lord, showed everyone in that moment that what they were about to do they did only with His permission because He spoke His Name, the Name which He will speak again one day soon. Atheists know not what they demand when they insist He appear and prove Himself to them. Which gives the greater impression of the glory of God? The story presented by the translators, or the one presented by the Word? And how do I know such things? I didn’t learn it in seminary. Men did not give this knowledge to me, but God did.

Why have so many missed His glory in this moment? Because for a long time now, a good many people have contented themselves to be simple consumers of His Word. It is not entirely their fault. The church from which they arose groomed them for it. But we are a far distance from those days. Why does such an attitude persist? Think of it the way you think of fast food. We all know it isn’t good for us, but people continue to consume it. Why? Because it’s fast food. We’re so busy, tired, and distracted, it’s easier to eat something heavily processed but prepared for us quickly. And to be sure, for many there is a sense of comfort attached to it as they ate it with their parents as children. The experience, because it’s formulaic, carries also about it a sense of the familiar. Certainty is more attractive than uncertainty in troublesome times. The times have grown strange; the path winds arduous. But it was ever so.

The Way yet remains open to those who may find it, but fools will not travel upon it. But He calls you to live a better life in Him. He designed you for better things. Do not content yourself to digest things already chewed and regurgitated by others, but to forge your own path with the help of Holy Spirit. As the Mandalorian says, “This is the way.”

How can we trust Scripture at all?

I asked myself this many times when I was younger, so I understand. Here is my best answer for you:

Sacred Trust:

People find themselves in a viewpoint opened to them by people they trust. It’s why Muslims usually give birth to Muslims, Jews to Jews, atheists to atheists, and so on. Without a human bond of trust, there is no continuance of any culturally relevant artifacts, in this case, belief in the God of the Bible as expressed through Jesus the Christ and His prophets. To stop all religious observation, as some atheists would love to do, would require the breaking of all bonds of trust between parents and children and the brother- or sisterhood of humanity. It is not likely to succeed.

Instead, the usurper will come and overtake all religious observances, bending them toward a new shining ideal. Scripture foretells all of this. People matter more than observances. Real Christians made the difference for me as God worked through them in my life. Let that model guide you. Be the difference for someone else as you allow God to use you to improve the lives of others.

Exhibited Truth:

The Scriptures exhibit truth as God entrusted it to the Saints, from the days of Adam on down to the present. If we approach it with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and accept God is Who He claims to be through it, that it is truth, we find what we expect. The skeptic calls this confirmation bias, and they are correct in that they, too, find what they expect. If you want reasons to believe, you will find them. If you want reasons to deny, you will find them. If you stop as soon as you think you are correct, you’re missing pieces of the puzzle, which works for and against each point of view. The Sword of the Spirit is two-edged: It cuts both ways.

Experiential Confirmation:

Walking with the Lord proves itself as truth. I have a life filled with experiences delivered by the very hand of God. I know what it is to hear the still, small voice. I have heard the whisper at my shoulder, “This way.” “Look here.” And I’ve felt the pressure on my chest and the burden to respond when the Spirit urges me to speak. I have watched tornadoes and thunderstorms break and diverge away from the living and heavily populated areas in response to prayer. I know the things in the Bible to be true because I have lived them and have a personal relationship with God, not some mystical force, but a person, the God self-described through Scripture.

I have seen angels, demons, and a golden hand that reached through a window during an accident and held me in my seat when I wasn’t wearing a seat belt (I thought I was, but it turned out I wasn’t). The top half of the steering wheel was bent over flat against the steering column. I didn’t receive a single injury in that accident. Not even a scratch. Not a window in my vehicle shattered, though I struck a man who pulled across my lane, t-boning his driver’s side door at over 45 mph.

Experience beats debate every time. Why? If we argue, there’s always another rabbit hole or trick of the mind for the opponent to retreat into. If we share experience, we are no longer opponents because no debate need occur. One may either believe or not. Then it’s no longer win or lose. The experience itself becomes rejected or approved, doing away with any need to focus on the rhetorical skill or pride of the speaker.

Mythological Echoes:

The story told through Scripture bears witness to the truth of the world on display in everyday life. Many Christians run in fear or lash out in anger in response to the word “myth,” but we should not fear or resent it at all. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien both wrote and spoke about this very fact. It would be quite odd if Truth of the sort we’re claiming did not find echoes and reflections in mythological parallels all throughout the world. The Bible itself makes the case for us, if we’re paying attention when we read it: In the beginning, God made humanity in His own image. What is that image? Besides the other things people claim, regardless of their accuracy, the Bible itself gives meaning to this statement in Jesus: The Son is the image of the Father.

Scripture explicitly expresses this in Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:15. In Hebrews, the word used is the one from which we get our modern day “character,” but it originally referred to a tool used to make exact impressions. In Colossians, we see the word comes down to us as “icon.” So, in the first we see the tool used for making the image, and in the second we see the image itself displayed. Hence, it should come as no surprise, the people made in God’s image daily live out echoes and reflections of the One True Story of Christ, the Light and the Word. Not only do our myths all carry some likeness of Him blurred by human flesh and sin, but in fact so, too, do all our stories every day. Even the most mundane of them. It is for this reason, when all of our differences, ignorances, and disturbances fall away in the presence of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, every knee will bow and every tongue confess: Jesus Christ is Lord.

Sacred Trust, Exhibited Truth, Experiential Confirmation, Mythological Echoes. These four stand at the foundation of what it means to be a Keeper of the Sacred Flame.

Be a Keeper of the Sacred Flame

Keep Trust, Serve Truth, Bear Witness, Pass the Torch

Keep Trust

God gives to you a sacred trust, to serve and protect it, and to pass it on. Be the difference for others. Be a doer. Be a mentor. Be a signpost saying, “This is the way.” But also, be a warm, generous, caring human being involved in the lives of others, both for your good and theirs. Forgetting this one truth is why so many hurting people find the modern churches to be irrelevant. Too many grow too self-absorbed. Too quickly led after the sins and desires of powerful, wicked, corrupted men and women. To call them ravenous wolves does a disservice to wolves. What our Lord actually said was they were rapacious wolves, which has a different connotation altogether, suggesting, rather than just hungering, they would snatch away whatever they set their intent upon. This is where we get the root of words like “rapture,” “raptor,” and “rape.” The sense the word conveys would be to grab up something with an open display of force, rather than through subtlety, covertly or with trickery.

Serve Truth

God gives to you a sacred Truth, to serve and protect it, and to pass it on. Press ever on toward the mark. Search the Scriptures. Test what I write to you. Keep what seems good. Know for yourself what it means when it says a thing in Scripture. Find the Truth. The one the Son sets free is truly free. The Truth shall set you free. The dumb ox, however, has a ring put through its nose and treads in perpetual bondage. It knows not, nor cares, where it is going, only that food fills its belly, its needs of the moment satisfied. You are more than a beast, act like it.

Bear Witness

God calls you to live a life in Christ, giving you a gift or gifts to invest in His kingdom at your birth into faith. Your duty is to serve and protect those gifts, to build whatever you can upon the Rock that is Christ, and to build it well so it will stand the tests, to pass it on. The first test is time. The second test is fruit. The third test is the fire. Build so what you labor to produce will endure, bring forth good fruit, and remain through the fires to come. Nobody builds without considering first what the thing they are building will be, the purposes and people it will serve, and how the structure should stand. Good builders consider the materials and form that will serve them well. Great builders also consider the artistry and appearance of it. Others will experience Christ’s Truth when He manifests through your life.

Pass the Torch

God calls you to be a Keeper of the Sacred Flame. He can remove that flame from you. You can snuff it out by your own choices. Serve and protect it. Tend it. Fan it to strength in Him. Give it to others because you have limited time here. You do not know when your Lord will call you away to give an account of yourself and your doings. All the mythologies of the world bear witness: What we do matters, and what we believe is true and good, noble and worthy. All the stories of all the people testify: What we do, we do for the ages. Understand your worth. Do not think too highly of yourself, or too little of what He has given you. Put it to good use and get a good return. It is not enough to stand before Him having kept what He gave you safe. He expects you to grow it into something worthy of Him. Don’t be like the others, who content themselves, soothed by false ideas into complacency. Be all God has created you to be in Him. Do all God has created you to do in Him. None of us are sufficient alone. He created us to need each other, and it’s in groupings of people we may best serve His will rather than as solitary figures, priests, and heroes operating in seclusion. Many false christs are in the world. One greater than they will appear. Do not be deceived.

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