Vengeance for a desecrated Bible

A very recent ‘blazing furnace’ (15 June 2018) in Glasgow, which has dramatically altered the city centre landscape, is a timely reminder that God is not asleep, as many foolishly think. What happened is a powerful demonstration that the God of the Bible will not allow anyone to defy His authority, mock His laws, blaspheme His name and ridicule His Word, and then brazenly imagine they can somehow get away with it.

Yes, you can try and run away from God, as Jonah once did, but He will catch up with you, sooner or later. God has plenty of time to deal with those who either directly, or indirectly, desecrate and reject His Word, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ In other words, if a man sows sin, he will reap destruction.

Let me jog your memory. In 2009 the famous Glasgow School of Art was inundated with complaints after announcing they were going to sell a 200-year old Bible, deep fat fried in chip-shop batter, at one of its galleries! This was nothing less than a perilous act of Divine defiance. The public auction of God’s Word in this blasphemous manner, hosted by council-run McLellan Galleries, to raise money for students on the Master of Fine Arts course, was belittlingly termed by the Art School ‘just another exhibit of art!’ Unbelievable.

A few months earlier Glasgow City Council also received hundreds of complaints when an exhibition at the city’s Gallery of Modern Art resulted in a Bible being defaced with obscene and offensive messages. Next to the Bible was a container of pens and a notice, which read: 'If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.' This sacrilegious invitation prompted visitors to write whatever they liked, and they did so shamelessly with hellish gusto.

Despite all the organisations involved receiving hundreds of complaints, pleading with them to abandon the profane events, they completely disregarded them all and went ahead with their so-called ‘arty events.’ Little did they appreciate that sinful actions have dire consequences, ‘be sure your sin will find you out.’

Numerous Biblical warnings were given by those who were protesting, urging exhibitors and visitors to seriously consider what they were doing. In the gospel tracts being circulated were the following Bible verses, ‘Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed ...therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.’

It is not surprising what happened on the night of 16 June 2018 at the Glasgow School of Art; it ‘reaped what it sowed’ when the iconic building, and its priceless treasures, went up in flames. One word sums up what is now visible on the entire site: destruction.

The Bible reminds us that God is a ‘consuming fire’ and when He unleashes His burning wrath, against sin, destruction follows: the Glasgow School of Art found that out to their miserable cost. Yes, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’