May 5, 2024
In verse one of Chapter 66 of the Book of Isaiah, the LORD God proclaims that “the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” He then asks where the house is that man can build for Him and where He may rest. What is it in man that thinks he can supply what God Almighty needs, as if God needed anything? God then responds;
“For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isaiah 66:2 emphasis added.
God created heaven and earth, and all that they contain. He doesn’t need a man to build Him anything. But what He does desire and will consider, and what He will favorably look on is the man or woman that “is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” To be poor is to be humble and not proud. To be contrite is to show sincere remorse and be filled with a sense of guilt and a desire to be cleansed and forgiven of our sins.
God is not interested in or impressed by our worldly accomplishments. We can’t build Him a house to live in or rest. He is not attracted to us:
- because of how much money we make,
- how many books we write,
- how many places we travel to,
- how many honors we earn,
- how many mountains we have climbed,
- how fast or how strong we are,
- how many businesses we start and make successful, or in any of our magnificent inventions.
God created us and the entire universe. The only way we can impress God is by humbling ourselves through sincere repentance and by “trembling at His word.”
The person who trembles at His word is the one who believes and obeys it. This individual understands that God is impartial and holy, and that He will not show favoritism to anyone, including His children. Violating His law and His word will lead to condemnation for all who refuse to humble themselves and repent. As the prophet Isaiah declared, God judged His children because of their stubborn rebellion. Do you think He will overlook the sinful rebellion of Christians?
Not unexpectedly, the unbelieving world does not tremble at the Word of God. But why is it that so few Christians “tremble” at His word? What comes immediately to mind are the following reasons:
- Christians, along with the entire world, are taught that science has disproved the creation account of the Bible. If the creation epic in the Book of Genesis is not truthful, then why would anyone believe in Biblical morality, especially sexual morality? Why would anyone believe anything in the Bible if the creation account is a myth? How much of this thinking has polluted the minds of believers?
- Christians are taught, along with the entire world, that the Bible is just like any other book written by a human being. They are taught that it is not a supernatural work of God. Many Biblical Scholars have created significant doubt in Christian minds that many errors in the Bible are yet to be resolved or that may never be resolved. Does higher criticism of the Bible make things better, or does it simply sow doubt about the authority and credibility of the Word of God? Higher critics do not accept the miraculous stories of the Bible. How much of that thinking has polluted the minds of Christians?
- Their teachers and pastors often teach Christians that the plain meaning in scripture is not the true meaning. We are taught that what we read requires special knowledge and or experience that only an expert can understand. In other words, even in Christian Churches, we are taught unbelief. How much unbelief has polluted the minds of Christians?
Is it any wonder that very few Christians tremble at His word? And if Christians do not tremble at His word, none of us should be surprised that the unbeliever scoffs at the Bible. If God did not create the universe, as He claims to have done, then why should anyone believe Him or trust anything He says? If His word is not a supernatural book, inspired by Him and preserved by Him, then to place ultimate confidence in a book written by man is foolish indeed. And if we can’t read the word and understand it, without a professional to interpret it, then why not pick an interpreter of the Bible who tells you what you want to hear? Why even bother with any of it!
First point: Has science disproved the Bible’s account of creation?
The short answer is absolutely not! There are many scientific reasons to reject the theory of evolution and the ancient age of the universe. I have read and considered many of them. It may be a shock to many because all they ever hear about is the “fact” of evolution and that the universe is billions of years old. Many well-qualified scientists reject the theory of evolution and believe in the Biblical account of creation. The story of evolution indeed gets the most press, but the reason for that is apparent. Many people do not want God telling them what to do. Embrace evolution and dethrone God is their thinking.
Bottom line is, there are two options. The first option is that someone created the universe and everything in it. The second option is that the universe created itself or is eternal. We know from the law of nature or science that only life begets life. Dr. James Tour has some great material on the origins of life. Spontaneous generation is a fiction.
As to the universe being eternal, we know that it is winding down, so it must have had a start. The Kalam Cosmological principle is based on these two premises: 1) Everything that begins to exist has a cause, and 2) the universe began to exist. Therefore, the conclusion is that the universe has a cause. That cause is God.
Many evolutionists are atheists and deny everything supernatural. This position is the height of arrogance, for it assumes that man is the measure of all things, even though man is finite and weak. It must assume that man knows all things to be able to state that the supernatural doesn’t exist. Explanations as to the origin of life that dismiss the supernatural are juvenile at best, in my not highly regarded opinion.
If the Bible’s account of creation is myth, then why would anyone tremble at the Word of God?
Second point, is the Bible a natural or supernatural Book?
The Bible is under attack by textual scholars (textual critics) who, like the atheistic evolutionists, do not believe in the supernatural. Therefore, they believe the Bible is full of myth, not the miraculous. They think it is a human book and that is all it is. But the Bible declares that it is the very word of the living God, who created all things in six literal days, probably less than 10,000 years ago. God also promised to preserve His word. Jesus declared that His word would never pass away. There are other such promises in the Bible.
Higher criticism of the Bible produces doubt in the credibility and authority of the Word of God despite the good intentions of some scholars. Some critical scholars may only question a few of the minor textual variants, while many other scholars use higher criticism to deny all of God’s Word. Making sense of all of it isn’t easy at best for the average person. And all of this controversy and confusion, clearly makes it more difficult or impossible to tremble at His word. Doubt brings to mind this question, “Is this the Word of the Living God or is this one of the errors?” It is impossible to ‘tremble at His Word’ if you doubt that the Bible is His word. Some aggressive forms of higher criticism, like most cults, deny that we have an infallible word, deny the blood atonement, and deny that Jesus Christ is God. These critics deny essential doctrines of the Bible.
Dr. James White is a higher critic of the Bible, but a conservative Christian at the same time. He rejects the Received Text and the KJV of the Bible as the final authority, as he believes there are some mistakes or errors in these books. At the same time, Dr. White argues that all the essential doctrines of the Bible can be found in most Bibles. His debates are therefore about non-essentials. He says you can find critical truth in all Bibles, but not all higher critics believe that, for they deny just about every crucial doctrine in the Bible. How is all this helpful? Does it not all serve to undermine the authority and credibility of the Word of God? Of course it does. Are the supposed errors in the KJV so serious that we must then question and doubt everything proclaimed in the Bible? It appears to me that is precisely where we are.
Why do we argue about who wrote the first five books of the Bible? There are passages in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament that attribute the authorship of some of these books to Moses. But critics deny that it is true. Some critics use this debate to weaken people’s faith in the Word of God; that is their goal. We even have critical scholars who deny most everything the Bible declares that Jesus said. All they do is sow doubt and denial, just like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Why do we argue about the miracles of the Bible or about anything that the higher critics argue about? What is the fruit of higher criticism? Hard for me to believe there is anything but bad fruit, so that few Christians tremble at His word.
Third point, false teaching.
False teaching of the Bible makes it challenging to tremble at His word. We Christians are told that there is no need to tremble at His word, for no matter how wicked we remain, we are eternally secure. We have Bible teachers who hold firm to the inerrant, infallible, and inspired word of God, who teach the false doctrine of once saved always saved. That doctrine single-handedly makes trembling at His word almost impossible. I know that some will say, we tremble at His word because if Christians refuse to repent of our sins, we will lose out on rewards in heaven, or have a lower rank in heaven, or not have as many jewels in our crown in heaven. Risking a few rewards in heaven is much less of a risk than losing eternal life and being sent to an everlasting hell. I seriously doubt that anyone will tremble at His word if losing rewards is all that is at risk. But the prospect of losing eternal life, as a result of our impenitence, will cause most sincere Christians to tremble at His word.
The Bible contains many passages that teach the truth that sin is the exception and not the rule for those who are born again. Yet, these false teachers tell their members the exact opposite. They tell them that every Christian sins habitually. The Bible, in many places, tells readers that no one who is born of God sins habitually (see Romans 6, 8, and 1 John for much more). Trembling at His word produces righteousness, not sin.
Closing comments
Higher criticism of the Bible can make it impossible to tremble at the Word of God if you are unsure that what you are reading is, in fact, the Word of God. The lie that science has proved the Bible wrong makes it impossible to tremble at the Word of God when you are convinced that the Word of God is wrong in critical areas, such as the account of creation. False teaching makes it impossible to tremble at the Word of God when you are fed a diet of lies that undermines the plain truth.
Knowing how attractive these traits of humility, contriteness, and trembling at His word are to God, humble yourself and believe His word. Listen not to an expert that sows doubt in the Bible, but do listen to the Holy Spirit of God. Who does God look to? The one who is humble, contrite, and who trembles at His Word.
