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Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

John 10:34‭-‬36 RSV

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“Scripture Cannot Be Broken”

This was only a a parenthesis in the words of Jesus but, in the long view, a parenthesis embracing creation, all time, and eternity.

What does this mean?

• A. It means that the Bible is inspired.

• B. It identifies the Old Testament as Scripture in the fullest sense.

• C. It means that Jesus believed the Bible.

• D. It means that the Bible is an infallible book, the one judge and jury before which all men and their deeds shall at last be tried.

• E. It means that the sacred Scriptures are as immutable as God’s other laws, such as those of gravity, etc.

Many have not believed this text

• A. Those who sought here to stone Jesus did not believe it.

• B. The rulers of this world’s darkness, such as Herod Agrippa, Felix, Festus, Nero, Caligula, and countless others, did not believe it.

• C. The apostate church did not believe it.

• D. Faithless Christians of all ages have not believed it.

• E. So-called “modernists” who explain away the Scriptures do not believe it.

• F. The world does not believe it (John 3:19).

The Word of God is TRUE

For generations, men believed the earth was flat, but their belief did not alter the truth; and so it is with the unbreakable word of God.

If every man on earth disbelieved and repudiated the Bible, it would make no difference, except in regard to the destiny of them that disbelieved. Absolutely nothing can break the word of God.

• A. Time cannot break it.

• B. Disobedience cannot break it, as witnessed by such examples as Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Judas, and Demas.

• C. Neglectful disciples cannot break it.

• D. The advance of knowledge cannot break it.

• E. Satan cannot break it.

• F. Death and the grave cannot break it.

Even when it seems that the Scripture is broken, it remains yet unbroken

• A. Pilate condemned Jesus; but no, it was Pilate who was condemned to perpetual infamy.

• B. Judas sold Jesus, at least that is what he and the Pharisees thought; but it was Judas who was sold to a suicide’s death.

• C. Herod placed the apostles in jail; but they were released, and Herod was eaten with worms.

• D. Millions of men fancy they have broken the Scripture, and even churches have denied and broken the Scripture, so they thought; but, of all who do so, it is they who are broken.

The earth’s kings and captains, the mighty and the proud, have broken the Scripture in the sense of ignoring and disobeying the word of God; but wait.

Stand at the judgment and behold who is really broken:

Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”

Revelation 6:15‭-‬17 RSV

Six classes of mankind are mentioned, but they stand for all people.

Under the symbolism of these six classes, John sees the entire godless world seized with sudden fear.

Fear of what?

They do not fear death, because death is what they are praying for.

It is the Lamb of God whose sudden appearance in glory has signaled the close of earth’s probation.

Instantaneously, there’s not an infidel anywhere in the universe anymore. It is this colossal scene that requires our understanding of it as the Second Advent and judgment.

Just how the accompanying language of stars falling, mountains moving, sun being darkened, etc., must be interpreted, we do not pretend to know; but one thing is sure:

God will bring his purpose to pass, and he will do so though it means that this world order, and indeed this whole mighty universe, pass away.

The essential reality underlying all the symbolism of these verses is simply, the terror which John foresaw when God would invade the earth when time was coming to an end.

The swift agony of being crushed to death is preferable to being left face to face with the indignation of an outraged God.

Of all the incredible postulations advanced by scholars regarding the meaning of this passage, consider the following:

There is no need to find a place in John’s theology for any concept of the wrath of the Lamb!

It is not a phrase which he (John) uses, but one on the lips of the terrified inhabitants of earth!

Let no man dare to believe that the Scripture can be broken. If one shall so believe, Christ has made him a liar by this text.

O Word of God, secure, unshaken, Foiling evil’s every art,

Bringing peace to man’s misshapen Life and broken heart.

O Word, eternally abiding,

While millennia roll,

Thou art the only place of hiding For the ransomed soul.

JBC