Lesson One: Inerrancy of Scripture
Pastor Jayson Combs
“You get nothing! You lose! Good day sir!” This is the climax of the legendary film, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” This is where the movie gets serious. Gene Wilder, aka Willy Wonka, exploded on Charlie (the main character) by telling Charlie that he had violated the factory contract. The movie revolved around five children who are specially chosen to take a tour of the mysterious Wonka Chocolate Factory. When the children first entered the chocolate factory, they signed a seemingly unimportant contract. The font size of the letters was very large at the top of the contract, but as the words continued, the font size got smaller and smaller until it was impossible to read. All the children signed anyway. At the end of the movie, Willy Wonka revealed that Charlie did not follow all the rules of the contract. At which point, Willy Wonka had to pull out a magnifying glass to read the fine print of the contract.
In Matthew 5:18 (KJV) Jesus says, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” A “jot” is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is also the smallest letter. The “tittle” is a small stroke only part of a letter, (think of the tiny dot used in a lower case i or j in the English alphabet.)
Jesus says that not even the smallest letter or stroke will pass away from God’s word. In fact, Jesus places the Old Testament in the highest regard, signifying that all of the Old Testament, even the fine print, is true and completely from God. Later in Matthew, Jesus speaks of words again. But this time, He does not speak of the words of the Old Testament. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). He says, “my words.” Jesus is now speaking of His own words here on earth. With this revelation, Jesus “equates his own words with the word of God,” as MacArthur explains, and therefore makes the claim that He is God.
In the 1970’s, the makers of “Star Wars” searched for a toy company to make action figures for their movie characters. All of the big toy companies turned down the proposals (Obviously, this was before the first movie came out). Finally, they found a small toy company out of Cincinnati called Kenner that received a very favorable contract. As we all know, “Star Wars” soon became one of the greatest movie franchises of all time, making Kenner millions of dollars. Contractually, Kenner was required to pay the makers of “Star Wars” a mere $10,000 a year to maintain the contract, a small iota of their earnings. However, as years went by, someone forgot to read the fine print and did not send the $10,000 check. The contract became void and cost the toy company millions and millions of dollars to get it back.
The Word of the Lord is so important. We are blessed to have it in our homes, on our computers, and on our phones. Do not miss out on all that the Bible offers. I want to challenge you to have it in your heart. It is powerful, and every little detail Jesus says is true. Remember this the next time you decide to skip your Bible time.