THE HOLY BIBLE

The masterful C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) wrote, “Unless the religious claims of the Bible are again acknowledged, its literary claims will, I think, be given only “mouth honor” and that decreasingly… It is, if you like to put it that way, not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite, it excludes or repels, the merely aesthetic approach. You can read it as literature only by a tour de force. You are cutting the wood against the grain, using the tool for a purpose it was not intended to serve. It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long except to those who go to it for something quite different.”

The Bible is holy. Holy means ‘dedicated and consecrated to God.’ This is why the Lewis quote is so striking: “it is not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite, it excludes or repels, the merely aesthetic approach.” If we do not want the things of God, the ways of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit… the Bible will not invite, but exclude and repel.

“It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus