Is the "Living Word:" "The Bible. Part 2
Is it biblical to call the Bible "The Living Word of God"?
Because the Bible contains some of God’s words does that make it the Word of God? The Bible doesn't make that assertion about itself. The Bible does say in John 1:1; "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God", then it goes on to say in verse 14, "The Word became flesh". The Bible outright tells us that JESUS is the Word, not the Bible. There wasn't even a Bible compiled when this passage was written. If we believe that the Bible is "The Word" of God are we wrongly exchanging Christ for the Bible?
Jesus said "I will build MY Church" yet today we have many different buildings known as churches called by various descriptive names, that in no way resembles the Church that Jesus said He would build, claiming to be a “Bible Church”. The name tags over the doors alone make known our intentions and biases. We are no different in this generation than the Pharisees in Jesus' day. They had a very similar view of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus confronted them and said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39-40). The Pharisees were making the same trade that millions of people make today, not trading their religion for relationship. Another important point to note in this passage is that Jesus clearly makes a distinction between "studying the Scriptures" and "coming to Him", they are not one and the same.
Most religions believe that a person cannot be saved unless they "believe in the Bible". Religions advertise themselves as being a, "Bible believing Church". Where in the Bible does it say that we have to "believe in the Bible" in order to be saved? What about people who have no Bible in their language, what about Paul, He had no Bible, in fact He was using the scripture to justify his persecution of believers...but after his encounter with the WORD (Jesus) he became a believer without believing the Bible. The Bible does say to believe in Christ, but for some reason we have raised belief in the Bible to the same spiritual level as believing in Christ Himself. In the New Testament times the believers met together to study God, today a get together in someone's home is for Bible study. If the Bible is not brought out and studied at some point the entire event is looked upon as a non-spiritual waste of time.
The religious system has wholeheartedly exchanged God for the Bible! This is precisely why so many sincere hearted people go into a full-fledged panic attack the moment anyone suggests that there might be mistranslation errors or discrepancies in the Bible.
Some believers will outright tell you that to even entertain such a thought is blasphemy. Because we have made the Bible an idol, we have exchanged it for God, we believe the Bible now takes on the attributes of God Himself. This is why it is imperative for them to believe that every word of Bible is inspired...meaning that God by His Spirit told the authors what to write. It is equally wrong to conclude that because there are mistakes in the Bible our entire faith is worthless". Their entire existence as a believer stands on the belief that there are no errors in the Bible. If they were to be shown a true discrepancy in in the Bible that could not be explained away, it would literally cause their entire belief system to crumble because their entire faith stands on the Bible instead of Christ.
Part 3 to follow.
Because the Bible contains some of God’s words does that make it the Word of God? The Bible doesn't make that assertion about itself. The Bible does say in John 1:1; "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God", then it goes on to say in verse 14, "The Word became flesh". The Bible outright tells us that JESUS is the Word, not the Bible. There wasn't even a Bible compiled when this passage was written. If we believe that the Bible is "The Word" of God are we wrongly exchanging Christ for the Bible?
Jesus said "I will build MY Church" yet today we have many different buildings known as churches called by various descriptive names, that in no way resembles the Church that Jesus said He would build, claiming to be a “Bible Church”. The name tags over the doors alone make known our intentions and biases. We are no different in this generation than the Pharisees in Jesus' day. They had a very similar view of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus confronted them and said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39-40). The Pharisees were making the same trade that millions of people make today, not trading their religion for relationship. Another important point to note in this passage is that Jesus clearly makes a distinction between "studying the Scriptures" and "coming to Him", they are not one and the same.
Most religions believe that a person cannot be saved unless they "believe in the Bible". Religions advertise themselves as being a, "Bible believing Church". Where in the Bible does it say that we have to "believe in the Bible" in order to be saved? What about people who have no Bible in their language, what about Paul, He had no Bible, in fact He was using the scripture to justify his persecution of believers...but after his encounter with the WORD (Jesus) he became a believer without believing the Bible. The Bible does say to believe in Christ, but for some reason we have raised belief in the Bible to the same spiritual level as believing in Christ Himself. In the New Testament times the believers met together to study God, today a get together in someone's home is for Bible study. If the Bible is not brought out and studied at some point the entire event is looked upon as a non-spiritual waste of time.
The religious system has wholeheartedly exchanged God for the Bible! This is precisely why so many sincere hearted people go into a full-fledged panic attack the moment anyone suggests that there might be mistranslation errors or discrepancies in the Bible.
Some believers will outright tell you that to even entertain such a thought is blasphemy. Because we have made the Bible an idol, we have exchanged it for God, we believe the Bible now takes on the attributes of God Himself. This is why it is imperative for them to believe that every word of Bible is inspired...meaning that God by His Spirit told the authors what to write. It is equally wrong to conclude that because there are mistakes in the Bible our entire faith is worthless". Their entire existence as a believer stands on the belief that there are no errors in the Bible. If they were to be shown a true discrepancy in in the Bible that could not be explained away, it would literally cause their entire belief system to crumble because their entire faith stands on the Bible instead of Christ.
Part 3 to follow.
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