All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
The Word of God
I am posting this to make it clear to any and all who are on AAG that we believe, preach and teach that the Bible is The Word of God. In our statement of faith we make this clear in the following:
"The Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God - a supernaturally integrated set of 66 books, written by 40 authors, over nearly 2,000 years."
We do not hold to the low view of Scripture that views the Word of God as a word about God, or as a work that mixes some of God's Words with human words. We do not accept that the Word of God is in error or that any of the authors the Holy Spirit spoke through are in error. This is not a debatable issue with us. If you are convinced the Word of God is in error or less than the inerrant, inspired Word of God you probably are on the wrong site. There are many sites out there that hold to the error of viewing the Word of God as less than it is. This is not one of them.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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I'm glad you posted this, LT.
When I hear a response that Saint Paul or Peter or one of the other biblical authors gets their take on a subject wrong, I'm like -- What did you just say?
I understand that it is often difficult to find the true meaning that God intended to convey through the human authors --but to say the human author is wrong?
Without having faith that the Bible is the Word of God, one can only conjure up the best ideas one can about Him or agree with the best ideas that others have about Him. It means you just have to stumble along and might happen upon truth by accident and it's the same as saying that this is how God has left it and we are in the dark, left to figure things out on our own.
The Bible is not simply man made but is the inspired Word of God and is infallible and inerrant. God has given it to us so that we don't have to grope helplessly in a blind search for truth. Thankfully.
It is God-breathed. As human authors wrote, the Lord Himself was breathing and revealing His message to them and through them.
The Bible is doctrine. We are to follow Christ and remain teachable so that we can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose sound doctrine – the trustworthy message contained in the Word of God – as Titus 1:9 says, “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.”
Rejecting the truths of the Bible as truths happens when anyone says "Paul gets it wrong" and it may also plant seeds of doubt in the minds of those who are new borns in Christ and those who are already weak Christians.
We have liberty on disputable matters but the essential doctrines are not disputable matters. 1Timothy 4:16 says, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
When someone rejects the bible as the Word of God, that person is still adhering to doctrines whether or not he or she wants to admit it. Yet, they want to accuse others of following Paul, following man? I don't get it. The teachings that they are holding to are the doctrines that oppose this stance. Yes, they hold to doctrines, to teachings, and they often quote the ones with whom they are in agreement on their teachings, just as I believe the Bible is the Word of God and often quote the teachings of those with whom I agree. If I follow the writings of Paul, am I not following Christ?
A.W. Tozer writes:
"The saving power of the Word is reserved for those for whom it is intended. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The impenitent heart will find the Bible but a skeleton of facts without flesh or life or breath. Shakespeare may be enjoyed without penitence; we may understand Plato without believing a word he says; but penitence and humility along with faith and obedience are necessary to a right understanding of the Scriptures.
"In natural matters faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the realm of the spirit faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know. The faith that saves is not a conclusion drawn from evidence; it is a moral thing, a thing of the spirit, a supernatural infusion of confidence in Jesus Christ, a very gift of God.
"The faith that saves reposes in the Person of Christ; it leads at once to a committal of the total being to Christ, an act impossible to the natural man. To believe rightly is as much a miracle as was the coming forth of dead Lazarus at the command of Christ.
"The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid." Chapter 6 from Man: The Dwelling Place of God (Camp Hill, Penn: Christian Publications, 1966).
http://www.bible-researcher.com/tozer1.html
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Permalink Reply by Grazer #E2H on
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Just because someone has a different view doesn't mean they have a low view, that is just sheer arrogance. But you've made your feelings quite clear, you won't have to worry about me posting anymore
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Grazer,
To hold that the Word of God is God's Word and without error is not arrogance, but rather holding to what is true. If you believe Paul is wrong in this one instance you believe the Word of God is wrong in others, probably in all the areas that you disagree with ... the one's that do not align with your world view. What you hold is not simply a different view ... you believe the Bible is wrong and therefore in error.
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Grazer,
All biblical writers spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). The bible's origin was never in the will of man.
You appear to struggle with and hold to the belief that fallible humans didn't produce an infallible bible. I could also use the argument that this belief is sheer arrogance since it implies that the Creator of the universe, and all that is in it, is not omnipotent enough to be the origin of the infallible, inerrant Word of God. How do you view the virgin birth of Christ? He was born of a fallible woman.
Do you think it's impossible for a mere human to ever perform any mistake free act? Even without being carried along by the Holy Spirit in an act that doesn't originate from the will of God, people do many things everyday without making any errors. So when Holy Spirit is deeply involved and the origin is the will of God, why is it so difficult to believe that the Bible is infallible and without error?
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Permalink Reply by JB on
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LT, I agree with you, and Amanda’s response, I thank you for posting this as well.
Just a little humor; It’s like shaking the walnut tree, isn’t it?
JB
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Lol. I have 8 black walnut trees in my back yard. I know what you mean.
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Permalink Reply by journeyman on
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Amen
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Permalink Reply by Colby on
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Amen, LT.
The Scriptures bear witness to God (John 5:39). I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of the Holy Spirit bearing witness to me. Without this--the gift of faith by God's grace through the Holy Spirit--I would be spiritually blind and the Bible would be just another book.
Throughout the many writings of the Old and New Testaments, I behold the unity and consistency that points to the glorious God of creation and love and to his son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whom there is eternal life.
We worship the risen Christ, yet love the Word because it does give us life and tells us about the One who is imparting that life. As A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) wrote in The Pursuit of God:
- "The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts."
- 1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
- Paul warns about false teachers, swollen with conceit, who are "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7)
- Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
- "The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts."
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Permalink Reply by RoyW on
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Another question that remains is one I asked over a year ago: can a person really believe in Jesus and not believe in God's Word? My answer remains "no" with allowances for ignorance. Jesus often confirmed His faith in the Bible as being God's Word. Since it is completely true, everything that it says must come to pass about Him and its other predictions. The Law and the Prophets speak of His first coming and His second as well. The New Testament is written to reveal to us God's Word and thus becomes a part of His Word.
To say that one believes in Christ and yet rejects God's Word is simply ignorant or lying.
I had the privilege of speaking with a parent that was to have a child in my Bible class this year. After my explanation to her about God's grace, she asked if I would teach the New Testament to her child rather than the Old as I am planning. She wanted her child to completely understand grace and felt the Old Testament was all about the Law. I explained that the Old Testament was a Testament of God's grace and that it would be impossible to teach the Old without gaining an understanding of God's grace in the Old. I explained that one could never come to an understanding of God's grace without a full knowledge of the Old Testament. Her face began to shine as she also realized how she had so misunderstood the Old.
We discussed David. I asked her if David was a pretty good guy who obeyed all the Law of God. Of course, she immediately realized that David was a pretty bad character when all things were considered. Yet, God loved him desperately. He said He was a man after His own heart.
God could love David and take him home with Him because of His great grace. Grace is so much more than mercy. It is God's guarantee that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. The characters of the Old Testament are testaments to us that God loves us all very much and that He will never forsake us for anything. There is nothing that can separate us from His love. We are saved eternally. The Old Testament testifies to His great love for those who believe and damnation to those who do not.
I love the entire Bible and spend most of my time in the Old Testament. All Scripture is inspired by God. To deny this is to deny the Author. I know this is controversial, but I believe it to be true. I pray that those who reject God's Word come to know the Person that it testifies of and that is our Lord Jesus Christ Who takes away all of our sin. Without faith in Him and His Word, we remain totally lost in our sin.
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