A Subtle Deception!
A subtle deception, that religion has whole-heartedly bought into, is keeping the people of God from walking in the power, anointing and following the path God has designed for them. It is a simple substitution of words that causes believers to miss out on experiencing the reality of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and conditions us as believers to settle for our own understanding and intellectual rendering of spiritual truths.
This simple word substitution is the confusion between the Bible and the Word. The Bible you hold in your hand that most believers consider to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, was written by over 40 authors across 3 continents in 3 languages over a period of 1500 years. It is a translation of copies and verbal hand-me-downs of the inspirational original. It is the written history of God's dealings with people and nations, it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding the works and actions of God towards certain men during a certain period of time. It is useful for reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, equipping for good works, for bringing hope, and it is the written source of all of God's promises to us (2 Tim. 3:16-17; Rom. 15:4; 2 Pet. 1:4). But the Bible is not God. It is not the Word. The Bible points to the Word written on paper.
A quote by Richard Wurmbrand the author of "The Voice of the Martyrs" reads;
"The Bible is a wonderful book. It is the truth about the Truth. It is not the Truth. A sermon taken from the Bible can be a wonderful thing to hear. It is the truth about the truth about the truth. But it is not the Truth. There have been many books written about the things contained in the Bible. They can be quite wonderful to read. They are the truth about the truth about truth about the truth. But they are NOT the Truth. Only Jesus Christ is the Truth. Sometimes the Truth can be drowned in a multitude of words."
The Word, in contrast to the words in the Bible, is alive and powerful, separating between that which is soulish and spiritual, between that which is of the flesh and that which is of the Spirit (Heb. 4:12). “The Word became flesh and lived among us...and we beheld His glory as of the glory of the unique Son of God” (Jn. 1:14). “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1), it does not read; “in the beginning was the Bible and the Bible was with God and the Bible was God”! The Bible is the Bible and the Word is Jesus Christ who became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). When we embrace the Bible as if it were the living Word of God, we subordinate the words of God to the powers of our intellect...an area of the soul in which it is impossible to spiritually know the things of the Spirit...and we spurn the Person of the Word, the Person who is the Truth...the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is in this light that we see that those who intellectually embrace the Bible as the final authority and standard for all of life and conduct are misguided. The Pharisees did this and Jesus rebuked them soundly by saying, "You study the Scripture because you think that in them you possess eternal life. But I tell you that it is these Scriptures which point to Me." (Jn. 5:39). Without the Holy Spirit to spiritually illuminate the words recorded in the Bible, there is no hope that we, through the use of our natural minds, could ever rightly divide the true words written therein. If the Holy Spirit does not cause the words of the Bible to be filled with the Spirit of Truth, the life-giving Spirit of the second Adam, then it is only a dead letter administered in the life-quenching energies of the soul. There is no hope that it will ever produce a life that brings glory to God.
Un-anointed words...that is, words devoid of the Spirit of life...even when read directly from the printed pages of the Bible, will administer confusion.
Thus, as the people heap up to themselves teachers, they will hear much of the words of God...but they will never, through the soulish administrations of these un-anointed and spiritually dead teachers, become personally acquainted with the living Word of God, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be greatly acquainted with stories, many of them about God and about Jesus Christ and many containing a great deal of factual experiences, but they will be stories nonetheless because they were not brought to life in the heart of the individual by the Spirit of life and truth.
Many times Truth is misunderstood because of man’s interpretation and understanding of the words of truth contained in the Bible!
This simple word substitution is the confusion between the Bible and the Word. The Bible you hold in your hand that most believers consider to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, was written by over 40 authors across 3 continents in 3 languages over a period of 1500 years. It is a translation of copies and verbal hand-me-downs of the inspirational original. It is the written history of God's dealings with people and nations, it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding the works and actions of God towards certain men during a certain period of time. It is useful for reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, equipping for good works, for bringing hope, and it is the written source of all of God's promises to us (2 Tim. 3:16-17; Rom. 15:4; 2 Pet. 1:4). But the Bible is not God. It is not the Word. The Bible points to the Word written on paper.
A quote by Richard Wurmbrand the author of "The Voice of the Martyrs" reads;
"The Bible is a wonderful book. It is the truth about the Truth. It is not the Truth. A sermon taken from the Bible can be a wonderful thing to hear. It is the truth about the truth about the truth. But it is not the Truth. There have been many books written about the things contained in the Bible. They can be quite wonderful to read. They are the truth about the truth about truth about the truth. But they are NOT the Truth. Only Jesus Christ is the Truth. Sometimes the Truth can be drowned in a multitude of words."
The Word, in contrast to the words in the Bible, is alive and powerful, separating between that which is soulish and spiritual, between that which is of the flesh and that which is of the Spirit (Heb. 4:12). “The Word became flesh and lived among us...and we beheld His glory as of the glory of the unique Son of God” (Jn. 1:14). “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1), it does not read; “in the beginning was the Bible and the Bible was with God and the Bible was God”! The Bible is the Bible and the Word is Jesus Christ who became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). When we embrace the Bible as if it were the living Word of God, we subordinate the words of God to the powers of our intellect...an area of the soul in which it is impossible to spiritually know the things of the Spirit...and we spurn the Person of the Word, the Person who is the Truth...the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is in this light that we see that those who intellectually embrace the Bible as the final authority and standard for all of life and conduct are misguided. The Pharisees did this and Jesus rebuked them soundly by saying, "You study the Scripture because you think that in them you possess eternal life. But I tell you that it is these Scriptures which point to Me." (Jn. 5:39). Without the Holy Spirit to spiritually illuminate the words recorded in the Bible, there is no hope that we, through the use of our natural minds, could ever rightly divide the true words written therein. If the Holy Spirit does not cause the words of the Bible to be filled with the Spirit of Truth, the life-giving Spirit of the second Adam, then it is only a dead letter administered in the life-quenching energies of the soul. There is no hope that it will ever produce a life that brings glory to God.
Un-anointed words...that is, words devoid of the Spirit of life...even when read directly from the printed pages of the Bible, will administer confusion.
Thus, as the people heap up to themselves teachers, they will hear much of the words of God...but they will never, through the soulish administrations of these un-anointed and spiritually dead teachers, become personally acquainted with the living Word of God, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be greatly acquainted with stories, many of them about God and about Jesus Christ and many containing a great deal of factual experiences, but they will be stories nonetheless because they were not brought to life in the heart of the individual by the Spirit of life and truth.
Many times Truth is misunderstood because of man’s interpretation and understanding of the words of truth contained in the Bible!
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