God's Word speaks for itself

The director of a new documentary insists the Bible provides "legitimate answers" to questions about God as well as adequate responses to cheap shots against His Word.

Last weekend, Salon.com published an article titled, "Why is the Bible so badly written?” The obvious answer, the article concludes, is that "the Bible was not actually dictated by God." The piece goes on to present several arguments as to why the Bible is just an ordinary book.

But because such arguments are nothing new, the American Family Association has released a new documentary, "The God Who Speaks," to help answer questions like those raised in the Salon article. For example, Pastor Alistair Begg begins the documentary by touching on Scripture's divine inspiration.

"The great wonder of it is without any violation of Paul's personality or his intellect, God, through the instrumentation of the Holy Spirit, both provided Paul and enabled Paul to write as he wrote," says Begg. "And that would be true of all the Bible authors."

Salon also calls variations in the gospels "contradictions." But on that topic, Ben Witherington insists in the documentary, "We need to stop thinking about the gospels as if they were modern photographs. They're not. They're like portraits, and portraits are inherently interpretive."

Of course some of Salon's charges were more like cheap shots than serious question – like comparing preachers who take the Bible literally to stand-up comedians who are too stupid to get their own jokes. "The God Who Speaks" Director MD Perkins says the film even helps believers respond to those kinds of attacks.

"You can trust the Bible," he asserts. "And when you read something like the Salon article, you don't have to kind of hide in embarrassment, because we have legitimate answers to those questions."

Upon further review, Salon tweeted that the article, which was published from a partner website, has been removed from Salon.com, as it "did not meet … editorial standards." The article, as it appeared on that partner website, can be read here [PDF].