Hey Matt! Here is the next installment on my belief.
This addresses Item C “Why do I believe that the Creator is the inspiration behind the scriptures?” (I will go back, at a later time, to Item B, Why I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the actively creative power of the Creator.)
I do not call the Bible the “Word of God.” I may be unique among believers, concerning the use of this scriptural term.
But, as I have studied this, it appears to me that the Holy Spirit has revealed that the “Word” is Jesus. This will come out more in my answer to Item B.
I have struggled in the order of presentation of Items B & C, because they are tied together.
There are so many uses of the term “word”, that we may become confused about that, which we are discussing, i.e. the Lord’s words, God’s words, the Word of the Lord, the Word of Life, etc.
There are differences in the use of the singular rather than the plural. The words of God are not the same as the Word of God.
I hope this is making sense. Because I am attempting to hold to the semantics that I believe the Holy Spirit has used in the “words” of His prophets, apostles and disciples.
So, just as a beginning point I will outline briefly what I believe about “the Word”, and about the “words” of God.
- I believe that “the Word of God” is Jesus. John 1:1ff
- I believe that Jesus is “God’s Word”. 1John 2:14
- I believe that Jesus is “the Word of the Lord.” Genesis 15:1, 1Samuel 3:1-21 Look closely at verse 21.
- I believe that the “Word of Life” is, again, Jesus. 1John 1:1
- I believe that the words of God are found in the bible.
- I believe also, however, that the words of the devil are found in the bible. Matthew 4:3 is one such example of Satan’s words in the bible.
- I believe that the words of people are found in the bible. Exodus 3:11 (An interesting sidebar to this point, is that people either speak the words of the devil or the words of God. In the verse cited above, Moses speaks the words of Satan to Yahweh. Look at Matthew 16:22-23, to see how Jesus dealt with the words of Satan spoken by Peter. Human words may ultimately only serve two ends, they may serve God or they may serve self, where self is always the goal of the devil.)
This is the semantic difference, which I see in the scriptural use of the term “Word”. If someone has a different opinion about my distinctions, I am interested in reading them. However, until I am persuaded otherwise, this is how I will proceed in the subsequent response to belief in God’s Word and belief in the bible as inspired, respectively.
I believe that the recording and preservation of the bible is an action of inspiration by God’s Holy Spirit.
My conviction has been slowly developed, even while I was attempting to cast off my faith, as written in the first part of this series on my belief.
I have found that the bible is more than just allegorical, in its written text.
I hear many “believers” who are quite willing to consign the bible to the bookshelf, because of its antiquity.
They do this, by initially diminishing it as a collection of allegories. Thus, if it is only allegorical, then it holds no value.
In these cases, it becomes only a collection of symbols.
But, what can it symbolize? If it is not real at its root, then symbols of the illusory are of no value, for anything practical, except entertainment, if entertainment might be said to be “practical”.
Nevertheless, even if we are to accept the bible as only “a nice bit of antiquated literature,” we are still left with a very “good book”, worthy of our study.
The bible is chock full of ancient near eastern examples of early art, poetry, song, prose, proverbs, technical documentation, etc.
Surely, these many early expressions of the humanities are worthy of some respect from the world. But, oddly enough, this is not the case.
Thusly, our world seems intent on suppressing the bible, and this speaks volumes to me.
This is a simple curiosity that draws my attention.
It is, to me, the equivalent of saying don’t think about pink elephants.
Are you thinking about a fuchsia pachyderm?
These examples draw our attention. Humans are designed to seek answers to mysteries. And the bible is an enigma among human literature.
Our world doesn’t want it, ‘because its only an old book of out-of-touch allegories’.
However, our world digs deep to find an old moth eaten scrap of parchment that contains only 100 legible words from a Roman era copy of Homer’s “Iliad.”
Does this make sense to you?
Well, there is the enigma.
If you diminish the bible, by telling me that it is an ancient collection of fiction, or literary forms and allegorical chronicles, but that we should not trouble our students with this historical collection, I will be very intrigued about the apparent paradox.
To me, this treatment of the scriptures, by our world, speaks to the bible’s veracity.
This is one reason for my belief in the bible.
(To Be Continued)
God Bless,
DSM
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