Chapter Nine
“The Authority of Scriptures”
Yes, there is a God and He does exist. But who is He, and what is He like?
To answer these questions, we need to have special and supernatural revelation from God, and this special revelation can only be found in His word, the Bible; all 66 books making up both the Old and New testaments.
But is the Bible is reliable? Is it a document written by man to explain what he doesn’t understand, or is it written by God, as the Apostle Paul stated to Timothy?
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
The Bible is fully inspired by God. It is the rule of Christian faith and practice, of what we believe and how we respond to the world around us.
Paul said the Bible is profitable in that it’s useful, beneficial, and advantageous. It teaches what is true, reproves what isn’t, along with correcting and instructing how to get and stay right with God.
The Bible is to be believed in its entirety. We either believe every word of it, or we should reject it completely. There is no middle ground.
When revivals swept the globe, people believed in the Bible. In fact it’s where we get the expression of truthfulness, “It’s the gospel.” It is this well of living water that brought spiritual life to many.
Today we live in an age of doubt, skepticism, and so called higher criticism where if something sounds to incredible to be true, then it can’t be believed. To these individuals belief only comes through what they can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, or what they consider to be reasonable.
But belief can exist without employing our five senses, along with what exceeds our own understanding as to what is reasonable. It’s really sad when people find it easier to believe in ghosts and aliens from outer space than it is to believe in the Bible, which has been proven to be true time and again.
The Bible is like no other book. It isn’t just another religious book. It is God’s word. Through the Bible we find God’s path to salvation along with His plan and purpose for our lives.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
The Bible isn’t the same as the other religious books like the Koran of the Islamic faith, the Bhagavad-Gita of the Hindus, or for that matter the Book of Mormon and other individual writings of the Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science, or Scientology.
The Bible is literally God’s word for our lives. It tells us everything we need to know and gives us instruction as to how we face the trials, tribulations, problems, and struggles of life.
Humanity’s only hope
There is no more ridiculous charge brought against the Bible than it’s is an old book and no longer relevant. Yet there is nothing more remarkable than the reality that the Bible has always been contemporary, up to date, and relevant, having something to say to each and every generation.
The Bible has always had a word and it always has had the last word. That’s because it’s God’s word. It’s not a human book of theories and ideas. It’s a book that was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit although it was physically written by men.
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)
These men were not writing their own opinions, they were writing under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Earlier we saw what Paul said to Timothy in how the Scriptures were given by the inspiration of God, 2 Timothy 3:16.
The word, “inspiration,” in the Greek language means the Scriptures were literally breathed into by God. It comes from the Greek words for God and breath. And so it was the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit that breathed out these words into those who wrote them down, and it is the Holy Spirit that is breathing them into us today.
The Bible gives us knowledge that is absolutely vital for our lives. It gives us real knowledge, because it gives us God’s knowledge. It isn’t some fairy tale, pie-in-the-sky unrealistic nonsense. It’s absolutely true and real. It’s a book of facts, history, and tells us the plain truth about ourselves with nothing glossed over.
The Bible is a book that looks us straight in the eye and examines the motives of our hearts and tells us the truth about ourselves.
The Bible is like no other
The Bible isn’t some outdated book on God, nor is it the morality of another age. It’s God’s word for every age, culture, and society.
The Bible addresses hundreds of controversial subjects along with the hot topics of our own day like marriage, morality, homosexuality, addictions, finances, greed, government, parenting, and the issues of life and death.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, talked about the importance of the Bible in establishing a better society.
“I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.”
The uniqueness of the Bible can be seen in that it was written over a 1,500-year time span in three different languages from a wide diversity of writers from business people to fishermen, IRS agents, kings, shepherds, soldiers, politicians, priests, prophets, and physicians.
It was written in various locations like Moses in the wilderness, King Solomon in a palace, Jeremiah in a dungeon, Paul in prison, and John in exile, along with the countries of Italy, Greece, Mesopotamia, and Israel.
It was also written in times of peace and times of war, and in a variety of literary styles including biographical, historical, personal correspondence, poetry, parables, allegories, legal, religious, prophetical, and apocalyptic.
And yet, over all these years and by all these different authors and places of writing, the Bible is unified and remains in complete harmony in all these topics. There is not another book that can make this claim.
Many have tried to ban the Bible only to see it flourish as one of the best-selling books of all time. The Bible is literally an anvil that has worn out the hammers of criticism that have pounded against it. And while others try to discount it as being written by man, no other book has survived and has remained as unchanged as the Bible.
It is estimated that from the oldest manuscripts, the Bible, as is presently printed, is more than 95 percent the same as it was over 2,000 years ago. And this is saying a lot seeing how it was continually copied by hand because of the perishable materials it was written upon.
The Bible contains hundreds of prophecies concerning things that would happen in the future. Since many of them have come to pass exactly as foretold, critics think these prophecies must have been written after the fact, which has been proven to be untrue as well.
These prophecies include the coming of Jesus as the Messiah along with His life and death. These prophecies were so exact that Peter Stoner, author of “Science Speaks,” said the mathematical probability that one person could fulfill just eight of these prophecies today would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power.
There are also those who doubt what the Bible says because of perceived discrepancies. But the benefit of the doubt should be in favor of the Bible, rather than those who cite contradictions thousands of years later. And over the last century, there have been many objections resolved through further research and archaeology.
And just because it isn’t fully explained, doesn’t mean it’s unexplainable. If science took this approach then we wouldn’t have anything close to the technology we have today. In fact, we’d still be living in the dark ages.
When we realize the lengths God has gone in order to communicate to His creation and in the process preserve these teachings, we cannot help but to be completely overwhelmed and humbled at the same time.
God’s instruction manual for life
It has been humorously reported that if everyone on planet earth were to open his or her Bible at the same time, the earth would suffer the largest dust storm in history.
The truth is that the longer the Bible remains unread collecting dust, the more likely their owners will live a dirty and immoral life.
But if the Bible is the single most important influence in a person’s life, why don’t people want to read it? It may be because they don’t want to know just how bad off they really are.
The Bible isn’t just another religious book. It’s God’s roadmap to salvation, giving both direction and purpose for life.
The problem is that no one wants to read a book that tells them they are sinners destined for hell if they don’t repent and turn back to God.
The Bible is God’s instruction manual as to how we live our lives before a holy and righteous God. Instead of reading it, however, we just want to get on the road and press the accelerator.
What we really need to do is to take time and read the Bible in order to discover how this life works, and how to stay on the narrow road leading to heaven.
Whenever a manufacturer makes a machine they also provide an instruction manual on how to operate it. Although this seems like a crude analogy, God’s word is like an automobile’s instruction manual. The car had a designer/creator and a company that manufactured it. To help us know how to operate it correctly, they put an instruction manual in the glove compartment.
The Bible is God’s instruction manual written by our designer and manufacturer to tell us not only how we’re designed, but also how to operate the machinery to live a full and productive life. When we follow the instructions, our lives will begin to operate the way God intended. Life will start to come together where everything works. We’ll become spiritually healthy, happy, and a little bit more stable.
Reading and studying God’s word is the most transformational practice we can do, because we are daily encountering the One who created us.
Unfortunately, too many consider the Bible dry, dusty, boring, or worse, thinking it has little if any relevance to living in the twenty-first century.
But getting into the Bible daily and allowing the Bible to daily get into us will be the most transforming practice we can experience.
Everything in the Bible is true, and will never lead us astray.
Therefore the Bible cannot be ignored, especially if we want to travel down the road to everlasting life. It’s much too powerful not to be used. If we take it seriously it will realign our lives with God, His will, and His ways.
Nothing is more transformative than listening, reading, and studying God’s word, God’s instruction manual for life.
Is it the Bible or something else?
Back in the 1970’s, Memorex launched a series of commercials where Ella Fitzgerald would sing a note that would shatter a glass while recording it on a Memorex tape. Playing the tape would likewise shatter the glass. Afterward they would ask, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”
When Jeroboam took over as king of the ten northern tribes of Israel he realized if something wasn’t done soon the people’s hearts would be drawn back to the Temple and King Rehoboam.
So he instituted a new form of worship saying, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.” (1 Kings 12:28)
The question becomes, “Is our obedience to God’s commands more out of love and devotion, or more out of convenience?”
We live in a world hell bent on making life as convenient as possible. HGTV promotes a “smart house” where one can use just about any intelligent device, from an iPhone or iPad, to make it operate including turning lights on and off and turning the heat up or down. I’m waiting for those apps that will cook my meals and do my work.
It’s all about convenience. Now, I’m not against convenience, I do like to use the TV remote, but now it’s creeping into our spiritual lives, especially when it comes to reading God’s word.
The way many Christians live their lives makes a person wonder if Jesus left something out when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)
Did Jesus leave out, “When you find it convenient.”
We need to read and follow God’s word when it’s convenient and when it’s not, then we’ll receive the reward Jesus spoke about for every believer on Judgment Day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)
The Duck Test
The Duck Test: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”
Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy when it comes to what is and isn’t Christian.
It may look like a Christian church, use Christian verbiage in its sermons, prominently display the Bible and the cross, meet on Sundays, sing songs about God, have the name of Christ plastered on their walls, but it doesn’t mean the people who attend are Christians.
This lesson is again found with king Jeroboam attempts to subvert the people’s worship of God.
“Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar.” (1 Kings 12:32)
It looked and sounded like the Feast of Tabernacles, but it wasn’t.
Jeroboam made every effort to have everything look like the worship and sacrifices of God, but they weren’t. They had changed it. It was in the wrong month.
There are religions today trying to look and sound Christian, which is the definition of a cult, but they’re not Christian. They’ve changed the truth of God’s word. A lie is still a lie even if it contains some portions of truth.
They accept the Bible, but not completely, adding to it their own writings, thus changing the person and nature of God.
They give a good first impression that they’re righteous and holy, having a great set of standards and good morals. But a lie is still a lie no matter how nicely it’s dressed.
We need to be careful not to get caught up thinking the lies are true. It may not be a duck after all. Instead they may be false prophets dressed up in religious garb.
“Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ.” (Colossians 2:8 NLT)
Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:22-23)
Conclusion
The Bible, God’s word for humanity, is the single most important influence in a person’s life. When ignored, not only does it grieve the heart of God but it will also lead our lives, society, and culture into the abyss.
The Bible says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12 NIV)
Consider the words of King David.
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)
The Bible influences every area of our lives, and every great work of the past had its foundation and beginning in the Bible.
The Bible is not only timely, but also timeless. It truly is the only book for the ages. Its principles and teachings are universal, and its truths have stood the test of time and will last until the end of time.
Jesus said, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them. I assure you, until heaven and earth disappear, even the smallest detail of God’s law will remain until its purpose is achieved.” (Matthew 5:17-18 NLT)
When we begin to drift off course, God’s word will bring us back and realign us. The goal of getting into the Bible is to get the Bible into us so that we can gain the insight necessary to make good decisions and live the life God created us for.
The insights we will gain will be far more valuable than any financial retirement account we could imagine. It’s perfect and practical, and it will revive the soul like no other.
Discussion and Reflection
