Skip to main content

The Word of God

 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (II Timothy 3:16)

“If you love me, keep my commands.”  (John 14:15)

 

          A third of the fundamental ideas of Christianity is that the Bible is the Word of God. Some who criticize this assertion quickly point out that claiming that the Bible is the Word of God because the Bible says that it’s the Word of God is circular reasoning. By itself, it is not evidence that the Bible is the Word of God, and more than a bit of drivel that I write becomes a Shakespearian sonnet just because I put his name on the page, or any more than my putting Stephen King’s or Brandon Sanderson’s name on my novel would make it a best seller.

          There are books on this subject, and I can’t possibly do justice to it all here. But there is one point that seems obvious but is somehow missed by most of us. If we believe the Bible is the Word of God, we should pay close attention to it, study it, build our lives around the principles it teaches. That is what is meant by being a Christian. We may not be able to be perfect about it, but it should be our goal in all that we do, and our failure to do so should disappoint us deeply.

          Consider what would happen if, in the middle of a game of Uno, someone announced, “I don’t like the rules to this game. I want the winner to be the person who has collected all the cards in the deck.” I don’t know how such a game would be played, but I know this: the game would no longer be Uno. In the same way, those who want to change the rules of Christianity, to reject Scripture as the Word of God aren’t Christian. I’d say they aren’t necessarily bad people, but if they claim they are Christian, they are either mistaken or lying. And if they are trying to convince others to reject the Bible as the Word of God (and therefore authoritative in the life of a Christian) they are doing evil even if they have good intentions. Whatever they are being, it is not Christian. To claim it is, is evil, whether they intend it to be or not.

          And what of the Christian’s response to the Bible as the Word of God. Should we not turn to it with enthusiasm, to find out how to better live in accordance with its teachings? How often do we, instead, approach it with fear, trembling, and perhaps resentment, expecting to find yet another impossible standard that we’ll spend the rest of our lives failing to meet? Yet another reason for us to be praying for our attitudes, and the attitudes of those around us. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more