By Pastor Stephen Hess –
One could argue that there are two types of people in the world today: Those who trust the Bible and live life according to God’s word, and those who reject the Bible and live life according to their own wisdom. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” I have found this verse to be true repeatedly in my own life. Even when I come to passages of Scripture that seem strange or incompatible with what I think I know about the world, the Bible always eventually proves itself to be true when I give it the benefit of the doubt.
I came across a recent story that illustrates this principle. Sir William Ramsay was a British scholar who, while studying the history of the Book of Acts, decided to visit Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Ramsey was particularly interested in investigating the ancient sites and cities mentioned in Acts, many of which had been lost for centuries.
As Ramsey began his research, one of the things he investigated was the boundary line between the ancient Roman territories of Pisidia and Lycaonia. According to an ancient boundary marker this boundary line appeared to be between the cities of Lystra and Derbe. But this brought up an interesting puzzle: In Acts 14:6 Luke reports that Lystra and Derbe were “cities of Lycaonia.” In other words, Luke seemed to think these cities were in the same Roman province, while most historians believed that they were in separate Roman provinces.
Like many scholars of his day, Ramsey assumed this was a point where Luke got the facts wrong and that Scripture was in error. However, as he was retracing Paul’s steps and came to Lystra and Derbe he discovered something amazing. The ancient boundary marker between Lystra and Derbe had been moved! Ramsey discovered that Lystra and Derbe were in the same province (Lycaonia) between the years A.D. 32 and 72—the same years Paul was there as Luke accurately reports!
This story is an illustration of the fact that time and again the Bible proves itself to be accurate, even when modern scholars would claim otherwise. In commenting on the story of Sir William Ramsay and Acts 14, James Montgomery Boice wrote: “If you want to seem very wise and popular today, you can gain attention by making a career of criticizing the Bible. Show all the places where modern scholarship ‘proves’ that it is wrong—if you are not afraid of looking very foolish about thirty years from now, and perhaps much sooner, when the explanation of the apparent difficulty is found. However, if you want to look wise in the future, though you may be thought foolish now, you should take your stand on the integrity and complete accuracy of this Book. If you do, you will find the same sort of things Ramsay and others discovered.”
It has been said that when we come to a passage of Scripture that we don’t understand, the problem is not with the Bible but with us. This is because our thinking is fallible and therefore prone to errors. But God’s word is infallible and therefore inerrant. Indeed, as Psalm 19 says, God’s word is perfect and makes the simple wise. This is why I am willing to stake my life on it and always give it the benefit of the doubt.