Promises, Promises, Promises
Remember the advertisement for the x-ray glasses when you where growing up? You found them in the back of comic books where kids were likely to fall for the promises.
You can see your bones through your skin! You can see through walls! You can see in the dark! you could see through numerous other things…
I was naturally curious, and of course, gullible. I wanted a set of those x-ray glasses. As much as part of me knew the promises could not be true, another wanted to believe.
I wanted to believe those glasses would satisfy that youthful curiosity and reveal the previously unknown. I wanted to believe the promises of the advertisers. As a young boy growing up in America, I wanted to believe companies advertising in comic books could be trusted. I wanted to believe adults were honest. I wanted to believe adults would not lie to take money from children. I wanted to believe in the American way of life!
“Gee Wally, why don’t you just calm down a little bit and we’ll see what the Beav has to say about it.”
Ok, I got a little worked up there. Let’s move on…
Eventually, I outgrew those childish desires and lost some of my gullible tendencies. My desire for the x-ray glasses soon matured to other youthful quests offering more empty promises. There was the awesome ten-speed bike making climbing hills effortless – the word effortless was never defined by the advertiser. There was the greatest phonograph needle (does anyone remember phonograph needles?) that would never scratch a record (does anyone remember records?) ruined three of my favorite albums. And those silly iron-on shirt decals which would permanently adhere to your favorite T-shirt when heated… permanently or until you wore the shirt.
Now I am an adult finding those x-ray glasses symbolic for many empty promise purchases. The excellent, razor sharp knives that would never dull broke when we first tried using them – they remained sharp that way. We had the drinking glass-froster breaking the glass on the first use – only three stitches in my hand and you can barely see the scar. The sonic-charge fuel economy device for my car did reduce my fuel expenses – I didn’t spend a dime on fuel when the car was in the shop with carburetor problems (does anyone remember carburetors?).
And for this article, I will refrain from listing the four get-rich-quick programs taking more money to get started than was ever generated 
(even though one such scheme included these cute gimmick glasses you could advertise in comic books).
We want to trust people. We want to believe in them. Why is this so different when it comes to God’s Word? Should we want to believe more in men who want to take money away from us or in the Bible? We know what we should do, but what is reality?
Before we answer, let’s consider the unique qualities of the Bible. Secular and Biblical history prove the Bible was written over the course of 1600 years, 60 generations, and by over 40 writers of different backgrounds – kings, peasants, philosophers, doctors, and fishermen. Consider the Bible was written in different places, from the wilderness to a dungeon, and in a comfortable room. The Bible was written during war and during peaceful times, when the author was in the height of joy to the depths of despair, on three different continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), and in three different languages – Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Yet, for under all the different aspects and variables that the Bible was written, the same central theme remains consistent: God’s relationship with Man. Not once did the authors contradict each other. Not once has man been able to improve or disprove Scripture, and of the hundreds of statements about history, astronomy, botany, geology, and the other branches of learning, the Bible remains scientifically perfect.
Even with Darwin’s birthday coming up in a couple of months, we can look at the evolutionist’s tireless efforts to disprove the Bible - they can’t. They can’t even prove their own beliefs, let alone try to disprove Scripture.
Entire kingdoms, cultures, and religions have sought to destroy the Bible, yet it remains victorious, indestructible, and popular. The Bible has influenced the world like no other book, blessing millions in each generation from the lower class to the highest. The wise, the godly, and the most honest of men claim the Bible as God’s Word and Holy Truth.
The proofs of the Bible are inexhaustible, spreading from religion to religion, from one belief to another, from culture to culture, generation to generation, and from individual to individual. The Bible applies to all and to one.
No advertiser can make the claims the Bible holds as only God’s Word can. His promise in His Word is full and unbroken.
Can you take off your x-ray glasses and see the truth? Who is easier to believe? God or man?
Glenn Sasscer
www.glennsasscer.com
