The Bible On Trial

Imagine that you have been accused of doing something vile that you didn't do. This in itself is hard to imagine. Now imagine that this act was suppose to have been done twenty, thirty or forty years ago, and there is now simply no way to refute the accusation. So what do you do? If the accusation were true, and today you were honest of heart, and "no lie was found" in your mouth, the response would be simple; you would admit to the fault, accomplish restitution (if that were still possible), appologize to the injured party, and get on with your life. But WHAT IF you didn't do it? What if this accusation was a tool of the enemy to discredit you, and/or the message you were speaking, such that the accusation itself would require a response?

You would not be alone in facing this kind of dilema, because Jesus faced this same situation a number of times in His ministry while here on earth.  His enemies set verbal traps for Him at various times to try to discredit Him in order to make the people stop listening to Him. They asked Him questions such as, "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?" (Matt. 21:23) He was accused of sedition by the Chief priests and the scribes while in front of Pilate, and yet against their accusations He said nothing (Matt. 27:12). He chose not to defend Himself against these accusations of His enemies because His mission was to teach the truth, and not to waste time on distractions. He simply had nothing to hide; He was blameless before God.

We too can and must become blameless before God by learning and practicing the truth, such that we can not be distracted from our purpose in this world, which is to do exactly the same thing Jesus did in the face of the enemy which is to use the words of Jesus to teach others the Way, the Truth and the Life that leads to salvation.