Is The Bible The Word of God? A lot of people accept the Bible being the word of God with little thought. They have always heard it said that the Bible is the word of God and that is enough for them. Others question whether this is so, especially when other religious groups claim to also have the word of God. The problem is their word of God is not the Bible. The Muslims have the Koran, Church of Christ of Later Day Saints (Mormons) have the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Others go by the writings of Confucius and the list goes on. So which one is “The Word of God?” How can we know for sure the Bible is the word of God? Another question is, “Can they all be the word of God?” Some people want to say the Koran is the word of God, just as the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Let us begin our study with the Bible. Starting off, we need to notice what the Bible claims for itself. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3.16). The Bible claims to be the word of God, Paul clarifies this by saying “all scripture.” Meaning we must take the whole Bible and not just bits and pieces of it. During the day of Jesus, the Sadducees only accepted the first 5 books of the Old Testament as being the word of God. This would have included the events from Genesis to Deuteronomy. However, Jesus pointed out that He came to fulfill not just the prophecies of Genesis to Deuteronomy, but also the Prophets and the Psalms. “Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. (Luke 24:44) The Prophets refer to the writings of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, and the rest of the Old Testament Prophets. Of course the Psalms refers to what we call the Psalms today. The 22nd Psalms speaks of the suffering of the Christ upon the cross. Let us not miss the point that Jesus is making. The Law of Moses, the Prophets of the Old Testament, and the Psalms were revealing the word of God and spoke of Him. In the New Testament we have the words of Jesus written in the Gospels. The Book of Acts written by Luke, the Epistles written by Paul, Peter, John, Jude, and James. Finally, the Book of Revelation written by John. They all contain the word of God. Next, 2 Timothy 3.16 says the scriptures were given by inspiration. The word inspiration means to be breathed. Literally it means that God breathed the scriptures or God spoke. You see we breath out when we speak. Therefore, as God spoke He gave us the scriptures. What proof do we have of this being true? The writers of the Old Testament pointed out time and again that they were simply revealing the word of God. “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying” (Exodus 6.10) “Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying” (Numbers 5.4) “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun” (Joshua 1:1) David said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me” (2 Samuel 23.2) Isaiah wrote, “Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom ; Give ear to the instruction of our God You people of Gomorrah ” (Isaiah 1.10). Jeremiah gives us a description of how God did this. “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying… Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold I have put My words in y our mouth’” (Jeremiah 1.4, 10). Reading on in Jeremiah one finds the prophet stressing the source of the message; “And the word of the Lord came to me saying” (Jeremiah 1.11), “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying” (Jeremiah 2.1), “Hear the word of the Lord” (Jeremiah 2.4). In Ezekiel we read, “the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest” (Ezekiel 1.3a). Haggai contains all of thirty eight verses and in 26 of those verses the “Lord” is mentioned as being the source of the message. In many cases, the prophets proved their inspiration through miracles. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 to prove that He was a prophet of Jehovah. The prophets of Baal built altars and offered a sacrifice to their god, but nothing happened. Elijah built an altar with wood and a sacrifice to offer to God. It was dowsed with water three times. Fire from heaven came and consumed the altar. Was Elijah a prophet of God? What greater proof could he offer? The prophets foretold events that came true. Babylon conquering Judah was foretold in Isaiah 39, serves as one example. In the New Testament Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit. What would the Holy Spirit do? “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14.26b); “He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15.26b-27), “And He, when He comes will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16.8). The writings of the Apostles were not what they wanted to say, but what the Holy Spirit revealed to them. Therefore Paul could say, “that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” (Ephesians 3.3-5). The will of God was not discovered by man or invented in the minds of the Apostles and Prophets, it was revealed by inspiration. If one believes in Jesus, then they must accept what Jesus said about the writings of Moses and the Prophets. Christ referred to the creation account in Genesis 1 & 2 in Matthew 19 when dealing with the question of marriage and divorce. He also told them to “remember Lot ’s wife” in Luke 17.32. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy when being tempted by Satan in Matthew 4. If one accepts one part of the Bible they must accept the whole of the Bible as being inspired by God, 2 Timothy 3.16. One must also accept the claim of the Bible to being the totality of God’s revelation to mankind. Why? Because the very scriptures that claim to be inspired by God also claim to contain all of God’s word. “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1.3). The phrase “everything” leaves no room for later day revelation or some other revelation. Jude writes, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). What is our common salvation? It is the acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God and all that it entails. Christ said that not one can come to the Father except through Him, John 14.6. What about that “common salvation?” It had been once and for all delivered to the saints. Once and for all means there is nothing left to reveal. If one wants to argue that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, they must reject the Bible. The same goes for the Koran, the writings of Confucius, or any other so called prophet. I have heard people say, “That sounds closed minded.” It is not more “closed minded” and those that accept the Book of Mormon, or the Koran, or any other religion. While studying with some Mormons I asked them the following question. If there is a contradiction between the Bible and one of their books, which one will they accept? They said, one of their books. The person that accepts the Koran places it above the Bible and such is true for another religion. One cannot accept the Bible and the Koran, or the Book of Mormon, etc. – Dennis Tucker
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 08:38:49 +0000
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