Supernatural Changes to Scripture

You often hear people who say that scripture is being supernatural changed refer to Amos 8:11.  They believe this scripture is evidence of scripture being supernaturally changed.  They say this famine is being caused by the devil systematically taking away words and changing familiar passages of scripture such as the Lion and the Lamb from Isaiah 11:6-9, rather than the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together.  Most people see this as a minor case of misremembering scripture, but proponents of the belief in supernatural changes believe that the scriptures are being supernaturally changed by mysterious external forces such as CERN and other scientific anomalies.  This belief, although not biblical, is held religiously by most of these new Bible critics.  Some have even gone so far as to call the Bible an idol since Jesus is the living word rather than words on pages.  What was Amos talking about in chapter 8?

To gain deeper insight into a challenging message, it's beneficial to grasp the background of the messenger. Amos, alongside Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, delivered prophecies during the eighth century BC. At that time, the Jewish nation had divided into two: the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah. It's noteworthy that Amos lacked formal theological education; he was a farmer who tended to livestock and sycamore figs (Amos 7:14). Equally intriguing is the fact that despite residing in Judah, Amos was commissioned by God to preach in the northern kingdom. Predictably, given the nature of a rebellious populace, Amos encountered hostility when urging national repentance (Amos 7:12). Let's delve into the eighth chapter of Amos in its entirety to glean further understanding.

This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,
“The end has come upon my people Israel;
   I will never again pass by them.
The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
“Silence!”
Hear this, you who trample on the needy
   and bring the poor of the land to an end,
saying, “When will the new moon be over,
   that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
   that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
   and deal deceitfully with false balances,
that we may buy the poor for silver
   and the needy for a pair of sandals
   and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
   and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
   and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
   and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning
   and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
   and the end of it like a bitter day.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
   “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
   but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea,
   and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
   but they shall not find it.
“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
   shall faint for thirst.
Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
   and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’
   they shall fall, and never rise again” (ESV).

Just as the harvest signals the culmination of the season, the basket of summer fruit symbolizes the imminent judgment, where the defiant reap the bitter fruits of their actions (Amos 8:1–3). Driven by greed and entangled in economic prosperity, deceitful merchants amassed wealth at the expense of the impoverished (Amos 8:4–6). Instead of revering the Lord, these dishonest traders regarded acts of worship as inconvenient interruptions to their business pursuits. None of their actions escaped God's notice; He observed their deeds and perceived the hardness of their hearts.

As is customary, those who persist in unrepentance and reject God's mercy will ultimately face His wrath (Amos 8:7). Verse 9 portrays celestial phenomena signaling the imminent arrival of the day of the Lord. This day precedes the millennial reign of Christ Jesus, representing a period of darkness during which God unleashes His judgment upon the earth. The prophet's vivid depiction of death and devastation serves as a stark reminder of the terrifying spectacle of God's wrath (Amos 8:8–14).

Among the judgments in those times, God will decree a famine: a famine of hearing His Word. This is undeniably a severe judgment, for people will earnestly seek the Lord but will not find Him. Those who spurned the prophets will no longer have access to one. Those who scorned God's Word will find it concealed from them. They will long for a message from God, but it will be too late. Like the virgins in Jesus’ parable, they will approach the door of the wedding feast only to find it shut. "Lord, Lord," they will cry, "open the door for us!" (Matthew 25:11). Yet, the only response they will receive is, "Truly I tell you, I don’t know you" (verse 12).

To some extent, the scarcity of God's Word is evident today. An increasing number of pastors are forsaking sound biblical doctrines and the core message of the cross. Instead of proclaiming the truth that humanity is lost in sin and in desperate need of salvation, these false teachers propagate messages of prosperity, self-worth, or political activism. The apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, forewarned, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:3–5, ESV). Engaging in Bible study accompanied by fervent prayer serves as the believer’s most effective defense against spiritual famine.  At the end of the day, a famine of hearing the word of God is not due to the devil changing scriptures, but due to a judgment from God put on the people because of their disobedience and unwillingness to heed his word.  However, those of us who revere his word and seek his truths are free from such a consequence.  

Indeed, Jesus did say that heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away.  Matthew 24:35