Most of us are acquainted with the parable of the sower. Jesus explained it this way in Matthew 13:37-39: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.” (Legacy Standard Bible) The Greek words used in verse 39 for the evil one are “tou ponerou” and they are identical to the Greek words used in Matthew 6:13 where Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the Father to deliver us from “the evil one.” So the Lord’s prayer clearly asks God to deliver us from our enemy, the evil one, the devil.
The devil uses many tactics to attack believers. He often sows temptation through worldly desires, lust, and pride (1 John 2:15-16). He frequently flings fiery darts of spiritual attack at God’s people (Ephesians 6:16). One of his favorite tactics is raising doubts about the inspiration, inerrancy and authority of the Holy Bible. His strategy has been effective. A 2020 survey conducted by George Barna for the Cultural Research Institute found that “the percentage of Americans who believe that the Bible is the inspired, true word of God is down more than 21 percentage points since 2000.” (by Tracy Munsil on April 7, 2020, in American Worldview Inventory, CRC).
Christians should strive together to affirm truth and reject error. We must always be on guard for attacks upon the Word of God in whatever form they appear. Such attacks may come from people who claim the Bible is just another book of human writings, scholars who claim that the authors of the books of the Bible are false, or critics who say the Bible is full of errors. We should not be surprised by such fiery darts.
In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Billy Graham revealed that early in his evangelistic ministry, fiery darts such as these brought him to a crisis of faith over the trustworthiness of the Bible. On his knees before God, Billy claimed 2 Tim. 3:16 (KJV) “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” During that time in prayer, the Holy Spirit gave Billy grace to say “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word – by faith!” For the rest of his life, he never wavered in that belief.
May the Spirit of God also fill you with grace to trust in God’s Word under every type of attack. May God grant you the calm assurance that His word is true yesterday, today, and forever.
Pastor Dave Korinek