Four additional truths about the Bible:
5. The Bible is the united Word.
5. The Bible is the united Word.
Think
with me a minute – 66 books, at least 1500 years from the time the first one
was written to the last one, 40 different authors (with many of those who wrote
did not have access to what the others had written), several languages, different
continents, and hundreds of topics. Yet the Bible is a united book. It is bound
up in a common theme: the eternal purposes of God for the redemption of sinful
man. We could put 40 people in the same room today, tell them what we wanted
them to say, and give them an outline; and they could not come close to having
such unity. The Bible’s unity is astonishing,
one of the strongest arguments for the validity of the Scripture is its unity.
6. The Bible is
the conclusive Word of God
This
is extremely important. "For I
testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone
adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are
written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of
Life, from the holy city, and from
the things which are written in this book" (Rev. 22:18-19).
One
may say, "That is talking about the book of Revelation." That is
true. But we cannot write anything else without adding to it. It does not
matter if that refers just to the book of Revelation or if it refers to all the
inspired Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. There is nothing else to be
added, the canon of Scripture has long been closed.
The
Bible is the conclusive Word of God. Since that is true, everything we need is
found within its pages. We simply need to diligently study and willingly obey
what God has said. If someone says, "I have a new revelation from
God," do not believe him. It is not so. The Bible has no new chapters and
verses. There are no addenda to it. Nothing new is to be added.
Every theological and
moral dispute that we face must be brought to the Word of God. That is where it
is measured. Every experience we have is brought the Word of God. We cannot
measure truth by our experience. We measure our experience by the truth. Many
false sayings are being passed off as spiritual truths. The Bible is to gauge.
Check the sayings against the Bible.
7. The Bible is
the inerrant Word of God
Since
it is divinely inspired, it is without error. The Bible is not a scientific
textbook; but everything the Bible touches upon scientific fact, it is without
error. It is not a history book; but all historical events recorded are true.
Men have scoffed at the history of the Bible; yet every time an archaeologist
turns a spade over, he verifies God's Word. Whatever God utters is true without error. What the Bible teaches is
without error. Not everything the Bible contains is without error, meaning that
some things that are recorded are untrue. There are some false sayings
contained in the Bible, such as the false saying of the serpent when he told
Eve that if she disobeyed God, God would not punish her, and she would not die
as God had said (Gen. 3:4). That certainly is not the truth. The Bible contains
false sayings of Satan. We need to be very careful as we study the Word of God
to allow the Spirit of God to pinpoint for us the areas were false sayings and
false prophets or quoted. However, what
the Bible teaches is without error.
8. It is
transforming Word of God
The greatest witness for the Word of God is what it
does to us. "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). The
greatest testimony to the Word of God is that it transforms human life.
Wherever the Word of God is read and proclaimed, comfort and strength is given
to those who were bereaved; wisdom and guidance is distributed to those who are
confused; those who were slaves to evil are liberated from their sins and evil
habits, and their lives are transformed. Wherever the Word of God has touched,
it has brought transformed lives.
That
is not true of anything else. Personally, before coming face to face with Jesus
Christ, before trusting him as my Lord and Savior, I had read many books but
none of those books transformed me from the inside out, none of them had the
power to do that. The Holy Spirit took the Word and applied it to my heart.
When he did, habits I could not break were broken. Peter said that we are born
again by the Word of God, “having been born again, not of corruptible
seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and
abides forever” (1 Pet. 1:23). There is no new birth apart from his
Word. It is the transforming Word.
So the question is, do you believe that
the Bible is God's inspired, infallible, inerrant Word? If so, what does that
look like!
Unless
otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James
Version (NKJV).
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