This started right after the resurrection:
Matthew 28:
12 A meeting of ALL the RELIGIOUS LEADERS was called, and they decided to BRIBE the SOLDIERS.
13 They told the soldiers, "You must say, 'Jesus' disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.'
14 If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you and everything will be all right."
15 So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.
Another example in the Bible:
Acts 5:
34 But one member had a different perspective. He was a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert on religious law and was very popular with the people. He stood up and ordered that the apostles be sent outside the council chamber for a while.
35 Then he addressed his colleagues as follows: "Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men!
36 Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About four hundred others joined him, but he was killed, and his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing.
37 After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got some people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered.
38 "So my advice is, leave these men alone. If they are teaching and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.
39 But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God."
️
In church history this attempt has continued until contemporary times. There are a lot of non-Christians who will want the Bible banned and that is no news or indication of anything. When we were young we read gospel tracts which admonished people to memorise the Bible as a time will come when it will be difficult to find hard copies of the Bible as it will be an offence to hold one.
Well, the Bible has given us specific instructions on how to study the Word of God:
This book of the law SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF THY MOUTH; BUT THOU SHALL MEDIATE THEREIN DAY AND NIGHT,...
Joshua 1:8
Memorise the Bible. You don't have to necessarily memorise the exact chapter or verse. It comes with constant meditation on the Word of God. Just paraphrase, for after all the best lawyer is not the one who goes about memorising and reciting the law but the one who knows where to find which law when it becomes necessary. As officer cadets at the Ghana Military Academy, and commissioned officers of the Ghana Armed Forces we write Military Law Examinations with the law book; what we may refer to as 'open-book examination'. You have the law book, Armed Forces Regulations Volume 2 (Discipline) with you during the examinations. If you have not read the law book to be familiar with it's contents before the examination, forget it, you cannot use it. You will keep opening the book till the examination time is up.
So memorise the Bible; be able to paraphrase quotations until it becomes a reflex action. Your language and vocabulary will change and conform to the Word of God. Anytime you speak you will speak scripture. The Word of God will change your language when you meditate on it.
So, go for the Word of God and when you get hold of it:
Keep saying it;
Don't stop talking it.
It will make you what it talks about. When you stick to the Word of God you will come back with a testimony.
It's no news if attempts are being made to legislate the sale of the Bible, vary its content or ban it. Your responsibility is to study the Word of God and memorise it. That's why at Sunday school we were made to memorise what we called memory verse. Focus on the Bible and don't get distracted by social media. Everything that will happen has been prophesied in the Bible so don't press the panic button.
Bro Ritchie Edukwesi WOANYA
