Recently, my wife and I had an interesting discussion with our adult son, who is a born again Christian (as are we), about the validity of calling the Bible (or the Scriptures) the "Word of God." Since I often find my own arguments and explanations to be less than adequate in reasoning with someone about the things of God, I asked the Holy Spirit in my prayer time to help me to write a note to my son to address this issue on both an intellectual and spiritual level. Here is the resulting letter:
"Mom
and I very much enjoyed our discussion with you concerning whether or
not the Bible is the 'Word of God'. Mom is always saying 'Iron sharpens
iron', and your questions and points concerning this subject causes we
as Believers to have to reevaluate our beliefs and position on this
important foundational matter.
Since
your intellect is pretty much on a different level than ours, and my
apologetic skills are pretty much still in the infancy stage, I wondered
if you would consider watching a couple of short videos of Ravi
Zacharias answering questions concerning the integrity, validity and
accuracy of the Bible in general? They don't directly answer your
challenge, but they do provide important points to use when discussing
issues concerning the Bible, especially with non-Believers. Here are the
links; one is 8 minutes and one is 9 minutes:
Preview by Yahoo
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But in my opinion, the crux of this matter comes down to three important points:
1)
In terms of its spiritual value and content, the Bible will never be
comprehended by non-Believers...essentially, the non-spiritual, or those
whose spirit is dead to the Spirit of God; to them, it will always be
seen as a literary endeavor comprised of prophesies, teachings,
illustrations, stories, etc. But the fact of the matter is that the
Message and meaning of the Bible must be revealed to the born again
Believer by the Holy Spirit; recall that in the Gospel of John, chapter
14, Jesus said that He would send the Holy Spirit to His disciples and
followers (Believers) to "teach you all things and remind you of
everything I have said to you" (essentially, revelation knowledge).
Then, it becomes like the illustration of sitting in a chair: If I
present you with a chair to sit in, you may believe that chair will hold
you if you go sit on it, but you don't actually express your faith in
that belief until you go sit in it, without reservations about its
structural integrity, partly because you observe its design...and partly
because you trust me not to provide a defective chair for you to sit
in.
2)
One of the big mistakes we make in studying the Bible is that the
Gospel Message is interpreted from the Scriptures, which implies that we
can use reasoning to decipher that Message. The truth is, the
Scriptures must be interpreted according to the Gospel Message, which is
written on our heart the moment we accept Jesus Christ into our life as
our Lord and Savior and receive the ministry and message of
reconciliation (2Cor 5). When we become born again, a veil drops from
our eyes (2Cor 3:14-18) and we begin to better understand the things of
God, including His Word. This also helps to explain why to unbelievers
the Bible seems to contain a lot of contradictions and conflicting
statements.
3)
I think that before we can discuss the question of whether or not the
Bible is the Word of God with anyone they need to answer the question,
"What have you done with Jesus?" What do I mean by that? Jesus flat out
declares this statement: "I am the way and the truth and the light. No
one comes to the Father except through me."(John 14:6) If we chose to
deny that statement, then Spiritually we are dead as a hammer, and what
is said or not said in the Bible doesn't really matter in the long run
anyway. If we do believe that statement and accept the salvation and
rebirth provided by Him, then we begin to see how often He relied upon
and referenced to the written Scriptures of His time in His earthly
ministries of teaching, healing and deliverance, thus confirming the
validity and authority of not only the written words of God, but also
the divine inspiration process to produce them.
So
you see, although my Bible may not physically contain the statement
"This book you are holding is the Word of God", the Spirit of the words
it contains shout loudly and gleefully to my Spirit that it is!
Hopefully, it will to yours as well!
Again,
my Wonderfully intelligent son, thanks for the discussion and the
push-back; it helps me to comply with Peter's challenge in 1Pet 3:15,
which is a very important part of our earthly ministry. Let's do it
again some time!
Love, DaD
Mark McLeroy
The Prayer Directed Life Ministries
www.theprayerdirectedlife.com "
The Prayer Directed Life Ministries
www.theprayerdirectedlife.com "
