[Darris McNeely] In part one of this real short series about the Word of God and the reliability of God's Word, I wanted to talk briefly about a new museum that is opening in Washington, DC, in the United States, the 17th of November 2017, which is next month. It's called the "Museum of the Bible." It's an amazing collection of artifacts, and lessons, and stories, about the impact of the Bible, culturally and historically throughout the world, throughout history.

It is a half-a-billion-dollar museum that is being put together, state-of-the-art technology, to explain the story, the history, the text, the transmission, of the Bible. It will have artifacts from archaeology proving biblical individuals and characters, and events...can be proven from artifacts that have actually been dug out of the earth in the Middle East, and the lands where the story of the Bible took place.

It promises to be, by all of the information that is there on the website, quite a museum to see, and a testimony to the power and the impact culturally, religiously and historically, of the Bible and the Word of God. I read a couple of articles in one science magazine and another very international newspaper, and the approach that was taken by the writers expressing a lot of concerns and opposite viewpoints about the museum and its purpose, its mission, and what it is intending to do, raised some interesting questions.

One of which was that it was actually being built, and was within, downtown Washington DC, America's capital. "Within view," as one article put it, of the nation's capital, was raising concerns of the separation of church and state, as well as the influence of Evangelical Christianity once again rearing its head in American politics.

Evangelicals were behind the moral majority of the 1980s in American history, which was very instrumental in electing officials to government, and even the election of the American president, Ronald Reagan, is declined in recent years. And this museum, again built by those of an evangelical faith, is raising concerns by people again, and being placed right downtown Washington, of its potential influence.

Atheists have weighed in on their concern that, again, separation of church and state, or that even public-school children will be allowed on public-school time to visit, and tour, the Museum of the Bible. And that, in their eyes, is something that is irregular. So there have been a lot of challenges from many different quarters to the work and the mission of this Museum of the Bible, and raising concerns.

If I were to sum it up in one term, as I was reading these articles, it is fear. And it is fear that people seem to have of a continuing appreciation and a continuing ability of the Bible to influence people at the individual level and a larger level, and still have an impact culturally within the United States, and even other parts of the world.

Throughout the years, the Bible has been attacked, going as far back as the Roman Empire, the emperor Diocletian, in 303 AD, tried to exterminate all copies of the Scriptures that he could find within the Roman Empire. He did not succeed.

The Roman Catholic Church, through the ages, would persecute to the death anyone who sought to translate the Bible into the common tongue, and distribute the Bible. The story of the transmission of the Bible, and how we have come to our English Bible, is an amazing story. And one that would help us appreciate what we do have, but also, the enduring value of the Word of God.

The Museum of the Bible, its mission, its purpose, stated, is what it is for people to go and to see. It'll be opening next month, but at least we can appreciate the enduring Word of God and its impact upon the world. And I'm pretty sure that even in its own way, this Museum of the Bible is going to be something very interesting to see...to help people at least appreciate and to look deeper into the words of the Book, and to be assured of its place, not only in history, but ultimately, in our own lives as the Word of God.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.