The Written Word Glorifies the Living Word.

 

I am constrained to wonder on whose authority did the recorded words of the writers of scripture, who professed that they had not declared ALL truth, did sanction that man's interpretation of the Bible be made into definitive doctrines to support denominational beliefs that prevents any further illumination or revelation by God's appointed Teacher “The Spirit of Truth” regarding the denominated slant projected on their interpretation of the chosen scripture.

Who sanctioned the written word about God to be the Living Word of God and in doing so deified the written word?

The deification and idolization of the Bible is such that ii results in independence from God. People who use the Bible as a rule book, a denomination forming book and a book to formulate man-made doctrines based of one's interpretation of the writing, subsequently do not have to depend on God as their source for living, they instead depend on what they think the Bible means based on their own interpretation. This non-dependence on God is because they are eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good as Adam and Eve did.

This also is the same mindset the Pharisees, the scribes, and the law experts had during Jesus' earth days? They didn’t need to listen to Jesus, because they had their self-interpretations, as far as they were concerned they knew what they were talking about. They knew what the scriptures said. They knew what the scriptures meant. They knew the heart and mind of God as to what He wanted for them. But, though they thought they were right that did not make what they thought right...right. Jesus told them repeatedly that their own knowledge in Scripture had blinded them to the true meaning and the context of Scripture. The same is today for people who idolize and deify the Bible.

I am committed to the Bible as it is revealed through the life of Jesus, not as to how it is interpreted, misused and abused by denominated people to protect their man-made beliefs. I respect the importance of Scripture and the role it plays in living the life of a believer in the Community of the Redeemed as God's Church in the Community of Humanity.


Which is why it causes me great concern when people misuse the Bible by working it for their own benefit or some denomination's benefit that is directly opposed to the plan of God for the Community of the Redeemed Jesus came to establish. The Bible is for pointing us to the Word (Jesus) and drawing us close to God and each other, it is not for segregating people into denominated buildings in isolation because of man's wrong understanding and contextual misunderstandings. 


The doctrine of final authority causes misuse of the Bible in that it is used to confront people, tell people how to live, judge and condemn people and lay out what God has called people to do or be. But this is not how we are meant to use Scripture. It is not meant to be used as pliers that helps me pick the speck out of my brother’s eye. It is a mirror that shows me the beam in my own eye. Scripture carries the weight and importance it does, not because it is some magic book I can use at my discretion for my own means, but because it is the primary means to point me to God through the revelation of Jesus, revealing traits of His character, confronting me in my complacency, calling me to rest in His amazing grace as He lives His life through me.


This is far from how many believers use the Bible. Here we put aside our own ideas and ask the Holy Spirit to come and speak to us through Scripture. Here we grow ever more mistrustful of our pet doctrines and ideologies, the standard interpretations and the usual way of doing church. Because, whether you believe it or not, all mankind are fallible beings and we can’t trust ourselves to get it right. Remember the scribes and Pharisees? They were experts of Scripture. They had it memorized, they copied it by hand, they studied it night and day, they gave their lives to it. But they were completely wrong in their interpretation of it.


Jesus blew their theology, ideology, phraseology, their interpretations, and understandings to smithereens. Do we really think that in our humanity we are better than the religious self-righteous of Jesus' day? 


Scripture is an account of God revealing Himself to humans, down through history, leading up to and culminating in the fullest revelation of God possible: the Incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus Christ (the Grace Gospel. Thus all Scripture must be read and understood through Jesus (both the NT and the OT) and thankfully He sent His Holy Spirit as our Teacher as Jesus tell us, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”