Saved By the Bible

Abe Miller, Senior Minister
Thu Sep 04 10:38:36 MST 2008

        This story came across my desk a week ago that is worthy of sharing in order to illustrate a point:                 

       “Ten days ago, Pfc. Brendon Schweigart, age 22, was on a mission to recover a tank that had broken down in Bagdad, Iraq. Upon reaching the tank, he was struck in the chest by a sniper’s bullet. Fortunately for Schweigart, the bullet embedded itself into a Bible he carried in his shirt pocket. The Word of God had quite literally saved his life!”              

       Mr. Schweigart’s experience reminds me of a passage in the Bible. “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so  prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (James 1:21).               

      Pfc. Brendon Schweigart learned that keeping a Bible near your heart can literally save your life, but more important than that, keeping The Word in your heart will also be able to stop the attacks of the Devil and will save your soul.           

       No, the Bible cannot save your soul. The message contained in the Bible can save your soul providing you believe it and allow it to create faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. A saving faith recognizes our need for salvation from sin. Salvation is a word that expresses deliverance. For example God used Moses to lead His people out of Egypt after 430 years of cruel treatment. After there observance of the Passover Moses lead them to the Red Sea where God again miraculously opened up the Sea so Moses and Israel cold walk through the waters on dry ground. After which Pharaoh and army followed them into the sea and the waters destroyed them.              

       So Israel had a physical salvation from Pharaoh and his army. This was God’s deliverance. In the same way the Apostle Paul uses this historical event to illustrate for us spiritual salvation. In (I Corinthians 10:1-2) “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”            

      With faith in Jesus Christ as our Passover and Deliverer we to can have confidence that God will do the same for us. As the Red Sea was the demarcation for  Israel so our baptism is our demarcation from Satan’s territory. Just as the Passover fore shadowed the crucifixion of Jesus as our Passover, so the crossing of the Red Seas fore shadows our baptism. That is salvation by faith through the blood and the water. That is life in Christ!            

      Yes, the Bible can benefit us physically, and above all spiritually and save us eternally.