What word is this?
Explainer 1: I saw a well presented blog recently which had nice pictures. So while I doubt this blog will ever be well presented in the way many are, I decided to include pictures, as I have above in this week’s Sunday News. The picture does not have any relevance to the article, except it shows the wonders of the world in which we live, which God has made. This is a picture I have taken on one of my regular walks around my neighbourhood, and I hope to include other such pictures in future. Like the words of Wilderness99, the pictures seem to me to have value and I have nowhere else to put them.
Explainer 2: This article is not an ‘Easter special’. I do wish to be mindful always of what Jesus did for us all at the cross, and in his whole earthly life. And I was brought up to regard Easter and Christmas as times of particular significance for Christian faith, and I do not wish to offend those for whom these times and other ‘church seasons’ are important. For me, they are not a focus. Please excuse me if I seem remiss in not making Easter the topic of this article.
So – what word is this?
Glancing over the comments under a post by a popular Bible teacher recently, I came across a familiar theme. The Bible teacher declared that the Bible was no longer his ‘standard for truth’, but that he now relied on Jesus himself.
I heard a similar statement in a church I attended recently, the preacher stating that the lens through which he understands the Bible is the lens of God himself – the person whom he knows God to be – and he interprets the Bible accordingly.
A minor distinction?
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ (John 1:1)
If there was any doubt the above verse speaks of Jesus, then the remainder of John 1 removes that doubt. So if Jesus is the Word, and the Bible is the word of God – is there any argument over which comes first in our understanding? Or rather, any disagreement between the two? (Allowing that not everything God might wish to say, or everything there is to know about Jesus, could be contained in a single volume i.e. the Bible – though personally I have found no limits to what God is able to impart through the scripture.)
Surely we worship God and not a book? The preacher above actually held the Bible aloft in his sermon, saying it can be an idol if we place it before God himself.
This may seem a benign and rather tedious topic, and silly to argue about. But in fact I think it is a critical front in the battle against our enemy at this time. Given that Jesus has won the battle, but still we see it worked out in our lives and in our world, and not without significant setbacks at times, which also the Bible predicts for our age. The subject in question is like a seemingly necessary and innocuous move in a game of chess, but one which, through a series of consequent moves, leads inevitably to checkmate.
Another aspect of this ‘word/Word of God’ issue came up in a discussion I was having recently with another church member in which I asked, ‘Do you believe the writings of Paul are scripture?’ (Meaning, the letters of Paul in the Bible.) The reason I asked was, any debate about what those writings mean for us (and for the question at hand – the place of the Bible generally in our understandibng of God) has entirely different and lesser significance if we do not regard them as authoritative in any case. And I suspect many who would call themselves Christians and believers, do not.
But afterwards I found myself questioning the very thing I had asked – ‘is it scripture?’ Because after all, many voices are recorded in scripture – Judas, Pontius Pilate, Satan himself – and it would not be wise to accept the words of those persons as good instruction, taken as the speakers intended them. So if the Bible contains such words, what does it mean to say the Bible is the word of God? Because personally, I believe it is.
So to clarify, my current understanding is that the Bible as the word of God means the whole Bible. Taken in that way, the verses of the Bible mean what they mean in the context of the whole Bible. Whereby, anyone reading and understanding the whole Bible would understand that it is not wise to receive any words of Satan recorded in it, in the way that speaker intended, and those particular words are not in that sense the word of God. But they form part of the whole message of the Bible, which is the word of God (so I believe).
Jesus had some things to say about scripture.
‘Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemist; because I said, I am the Son of God?’ (John 10:35-36)
‘The scripture cannot be broken’.
In other words, Jesus is saying, just because I have pulled out a rather obscure verse that could seem to go against what a lot of scripture has to say – don’t think you can set it aside. It is part of the scripture, and the scripture is one – it cannot be broken. Believe it all, or believe none of it. If you discard any of it, then you have not believed the scripture. In which case, you would be an unbeliever.
So – Jesus believed in the perfection of scripture.
Ah, we might say – but that is according to the way the Holy Spirit speaks through it. And, amen.
But without denying our need of the Holy Spirit, without whom nothing of the Bible can be understood, Jesus believed also in the perfection of the written scripture.
‘For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’ (Matthew 5:18)
Jots and tittles? Apparently these are punctuation marks in the language of the Old Testament – primarily Hebrew, I understand. Personally I have only read the Bible in English. But there are certainly no punctuation marks in the spoken form of any language (though their effects may be heard). Jots and tittles are in writing only.
Furthermore, Peter believed that the writings of Paul, for example, are also scripture.
‘in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.’ (2 Peter 3:16)
When Peter speaks of ‘the other scriptures’, that must in the understanding of the day have included the Old Testament, and the law with regards to which Jesus said, the scripture cannot be broken. But concerning Paul I might observe, if his writings are considered scripture – which I suspect are overall the most widely disputed writings in the Bible, certainly in terms of their meaning and intent – then it is a reasonable position to regard all of the New Testament as scripture. If we believe as Peter did.
So then – can this written scripture, the Bible, be an idol? Is there a need to put God first, and to interpret the Bible accordingly?
The subtlety of this question is illuminating. The first point of entry where our enemy makes inroads into the church is exceedingly difficult to detect, and may show no apparent connection to the final objective. And I might add, the church in which I heard these things preached is one where I regularly had powerful experience of the tangible presence of God, and in which many great works have taken place. For example, many young people baptized into faith in Jesus, worshipping God, and many works of compassion and service in the church and community besides. It is not a bad church – far from it. But to penetrate such a church, the enemy does not begin with anything obvious, or even necessarily, anything wrong. The first moves only begin to lay the groundwork, to condition our minds to receive what is more certainly a lie when the opportunity at some point arises, on which more lies can then be built, leading to destruction.
And to answer the question, must God come before scripture in our understanding – well of course. Without the Holy Spirit, who is God, how can any of us claim to understand God or the scriptures? Or indeed anything in the way we should understand.
And, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.’ Jesus. (John 5:39)
So to put the scripture before Jesus himself – if the whole point of scripture is to point to Jesus – that is putting the cart before the horse, surely? And, amen. That seems to me to be what Jesus is saying in the scripture above.
But again, what does this mean in practice?
To me, what I experience as the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to simply the read the scripture as honestly as I can, to understand as best as I can what it plainly and directly says. Which, I should add, it not always what I thought it said, though I have read all of it before, and some parts of it many times. And what the Bible says is incisive, specific and enlightening.
‘For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.’ (Hebrews 4:12)
Whereas, my direct experience of God, while profound, and an indispensable and indisputable evidence for what I believe, is broader. Infinite, and precise, yet broader. I cannot immediately say from my experience of the presence of God what exactly he would have me do in any particular situation, for example. Though it does help with that.
There are a great number of things I have come to understand from the Bible which I simply could not discern directly from the presence of God, no matter how powerful my experience of his presence may be. For example, I may know from the presence of God, if my experience is genuine and accurate (and those who have experienced the presence of God will not doubt that it is) that God is pure, that he is tender, and loving, and good. But how God – or we – might express those aspects of his character in our daily lives – that is not completely evident from simply (and wonderfully) experiencing his presence.
This is in fact one of the main evidences I rely on for my faith in Jesus, and it is an evidence from scripture: you couldn’t make Jesus up.
Who would have thought that Jesus would deliver the adulteress from being stoned to death as recorded in the New Testament – yet also uphold the perfection and sanctity of the Old Testament law down to the last punctuation mark? And find a way to do both without denying a single word of scripture. (John 8:1-11)
How would we have imagined that Jesus might respond to demands that he pay taxes, as presented by both the Pharisee’s minions and by his own disciple, Peter, without denying his own role and calling to be the King of Kings, and thereby denying the Father himself who gave Jesus his calling? Knowing that Jesus was fearless, and at other times denied requests from the highest authorities of the day (which would normally result in arrest, imprisonment and perhaps execution) – who would have thought he would have actually found a way to pay the taxes, and that he would have chosen to do so? (Matthew 17:24-27, 22:15-22)
In so many ways, Jesus is not whom we would expect. And personally I can say, having experienced the tangible presence of Jesus, that is still true for me today. I continue to be surprised by the person the scriptures reveal Jesus to be. And I have discovered, that is the person he is, whether or not that is the person I thought he was.
What it means to follow Jesus is not completely explained simply by his tangible presence.
Jesus is the Word of God, and he uses words. Jesus uses scripture, and has created us to need it and receive it.
‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’ (John 6:63)
It is worth considering that as Jesus spoke the above words he was in the process of preparing his disciples for his departure and for the coming of the Holy Spirit – yet he taught that his spoken words were a vital medium – perhaps the vital medium – of the spiritual life he gives us. Jesus did not say, once the Holy Spirit comes you will have a much better idea who I am and nothing I say now will be of much further use.
‘Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.’ (Mark 13:31)
But what about actual, spoken words from Jesus himself, directly spoken by him to us now? Or from an angel sent by the Lord – as for example, were given to John and recorded in the Book of Revelation? Should we not look to such words to guide our interpretation of scripture?
I have heard such words and I do not deny them. But my own experience is that to this day I do not know with certainty whether they were from God, or an angel, or from somewhere else. And that does not concern me, because I took note of what was said, and anything which contradicts scripture, I would discard.
And you might say, is that not then putting scripture before God himself?
Perhaps. But in reality, there is no disagreement between scripture and God himself. There is no disagreement between Jesus and the Bible. And I have yet to meet a believer who loves Jesus more than they love the Bible. Because the Bible is the most specific revelation we have of Jesus himself. ‘These [the scriptures] are they which testify of me.’
When we interpret scripture ‘according to our understanding of God’, we limit our understanding of God to whom we already think he is. But when we read the Bible, the scripture by the power of God continually changes, refines and increases our understanding so that we can comprehend things which are completely hidden to our natural mind, which we could not normally or naturally understand about God.
We can say that God is love. If we have experienced the loving presence of God, we can say that without reading the Bible. In theory anyway. (For me personally, different aspects of the nature and character of God are apparent in his presence – it is not always the same, and ‘love’ for example might not always be what I most powerfully experience. But could be.)
Jesus, through the scripture, shows us what love actually means in practice. And it is not exactly what any of us would have thought.
This process of enlarging our understanding happens when we prayerfully read scripture in reverence to God, submitting to his written word and his absolute authority and ability to present it to us in language which we can, by his grace, understand.
God is not entirely who we think he is. He is always better than that. Our hearts must be ‘enlarged’ (not in the physical sense!), our minds transformed, to continually comprehend more of who God is. And what that means for us.
‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ (Romans 12:2)
Let’s call a spade a spade.
Christians don’t like everything the Bible says about God. We would prefer he was more like what we understand ‘goodness’, and ‘love’ to mean. Especially, what we want them to mean in practice. We don’t want to do or condone things which seem to us unloving (not to mention, unpopular) but which it seems in the Bible both God and his people do appear to do. We don’t want to upset people. To get around this, the first thing we do is relegate the Bible to a lower level of authority so we can do ‘what we know is right’, and proclaim a God ‘as we know he is’ – not as the Bible clearly says he is.
That is folly. There is nothing more foolish than to read the Bible, and to profess belief in the God of the Bible, then to misrepresent and refuse to believe the very words of the Bible which are his own. Better, rather than that, not to profess any belief at all. Because we are accountable for what has been set before us, and how we regard it. Whether we receive the word of God, or not.
Saying we put God before the Bible is a fallacy – it is a pretext to believe what we want to about God, and not what is clearly revealed in scripture, which is the truth. Imagining we have some revelation of God which is clearer and more dependable than the Bible, is really just a preference for a revelation of God which if genuine, is less specific, and allows us more ‘wriggle room’ to sideline or reject aspects of the truth, which is Jesus himself, which (and whom) we find unpalatable or inconvenient.
‘Other revelations’ of God which are used to override the authority of the Bible appear to arise not only from misappropriation of experiences of the presence of God, but also from a consensus of like-minded Christians who look to each other for a shared orthodoxy – a ‘company line’ – and a friendly and supportive community where they can belong and be accepted, and celebrated. Christian leaders are forming these networks today. They are as old as Adam and Eve who formed the first one, Adam siding with Eve in what he knew was wrong, so that nothing should come between them.
The misuse of the Bible by those who misrepresent and hurtfully misapply it is no excuse to set aside the reverence which Jesus himself had for the scripture, though it is but a witness to himself, and which he directs us to show also. Much of the issues discussed in this article come about by people looking to others and how they view the Bible, and what they assert that it says, rather than submitting to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, the teacher, who is able to perfectly instruct all his children directly, not only those given to great numbers of words like myself.
The spread of this ‘God before the Bible’ doctrine is part of our enemy’s futile assault on the Church, which nonetheless in the current age could cause hurt and damage to people. It does not honour Jesus. Reject it.
Amen.
wilderness99 