The World's Last Night

Lewis brings up an excellent point on the first page when he says, in essence, that just because one man has exaggerated a point, doesn't mean we should react by snubbing the point. This point was also made in example in his book The Last Battle, from the Chronicles of Narnia. In that story, animals pretended to be Aslan, the great and loved God. When the hoax was discovered, many of the animals reacted by dismissing any belief that they once had for Aslan, rather than reverting to their prior belief in the true Aslan.

On the third page of his essay, Lewis uses the ignorance of Jesus with regard to the timing of the Second Coming, very near his statement that it will happen in his own generation, as evidence that only completely honest men copied the Bible, or they would have removed the error. I believe his reasoning here is faulty. A less-than-honest man may just as easily have inserted the error as an honest man might have left it there. Therefore, the apparent contradiction in the text is no more proof of the Bible's reliability than that it proclaims itself to be the Word of God.

For those of you lost on that point, here is an explanation. There are many people who believe that the Bible is the Word of God. When asked why they believe this way, many of them answer that the Bible itself proclaims itself to be the Word of God. Certainly, if it is true and the Bible is God's word, then any claim made in the Bible must also be true, for God is not a liar. But if the Bible were not the Word of God to begin with, then any claim made does not have to be true, including a claim that it might be the Word of God. To put it another way, I could write a book, and insert text that stated that my book was the Word of God. Must everyone suddenly believe my book is true? Of course not. Then why do they feel this way about the Bible? "Because God wrote it," comes the answer. "Well, how do you know that?" "Because it says so." And we continue in the same self-sustaining truth/lie paradox.

I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. That is stated in the 8th Article of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But I find the reason most conventional Christians believe the Bible to be unsatisfactory. I personally believe the Bible because the Holy Ghost has born witness to my soul of its truthfulness.