The Bible Is Not God - Part II
(Part I: here)
So let’s continue in our response to the claims of those who wish to make the Bible secondary in the life of the Christian by pointing out that everything you know about Jesus Christ, God, and Christianity comes from the Bible. When pressed about just how people are supposed to maintain their Christian walk without the Bible, proponents of this idea often claim that the faith can be transmitted orally, as it so often was in the past before personal ownership of a copy of the Scriptures became commonplace.
This is true, to be sure, but I would point out that if what someone is being told is real Christianity, then it will necessarily have its root in the Scriptures. Someone may have told you something that they were told by someone else who was told by someone else who was told by someone else, but eventually, that trail will lead back to the teachings of the Bible. People in centuries past who didn’t own copies of the Scriptures themselves were still taught the Scriptures by pastors, priests and ministers who did. Underground churches in the modern day are still established and maintained by the teachings found within the pages of the Bible. The Word is, quite simply, how we know what we know and why we believe what we believe when it comes to each and every element of the Christian faith.
The Bible presents itself as the gold standard of all things pertaining to Christian faith and life. The Berean Jews were, “more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so,” in Acts 17:11. And what were “these things” that the Bereans checked out in the Scriptures? They are what is mentioned earlier in the chapter in verses 2 and 3: “And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ,’” (emphasis mine).
Paul taught and reasoned from the Scriptures, and the Bereans who heard him were commended by God precisely because they compared what they heard him teach with those same Scriptures as opposed to some other standard.
When John writes in his first epistle to “test the spirits,” he contrasts the teachings of false prophets with those of the true apostles: “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (I John 4:5-6). And where might we find the teachings of the apostles? What standard are we to use to test (and consequently reject) the proclamations of false teachers?
The Biblical example is clear: the Scriptures are to be our final court of appeal in matters of judgment, discernment, and teaching in the Christian life. If what someone says agrees with what the Bible teaches, well and good. If not, it is to be soundly rejected.
“But, wait,” the Bible-is-secondary crowd will interject, “the purpose of the Scriptures is not on par with Christ, but rather to point us to Him. He Himself said as much when He rebuked religious hypocrites in John 5:39-40: ‘You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.’” And, of course, I have nothing but a stout, “Yay and amen!” to add to that statement from our Lord. I have already admitted that using the Bible as a cover for religious abuse is an all-too-common occurrence. But the Scriptures’ purpose in directing us toward God should in no way diminish their untold importance in our lives. As we’ve also already established, no Christian actually bows down to or worships the book. And it is precisely because the Scriptures are meant to drive us to Him that we love them so much and advocate for their primacy.
Which brings me to my final point of contention: the attempt to separate and marginalize the Bible from the work of the Holy Spirit is somewhere between misguided at best and spiritually suicidal at worst. No, the Bible is not God. And no Christian claims that it is. But the Bible is the primary tool by which the Holy Spirit conducts His Christ-exalting ministry in the lives of the saints.
Let’s be abundantly clear: the testimony of the Bible itself is that it is God-breathed (II Timothy 3:16), written by the Spirit (II Peter 1:16-21), flawless (Proverbs 30:5), true (Psalm 18:3), perfect (Psalm 19:7), and eternal (Matthew 24:35). And since the author of the Bible is God, who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), the Word of God was manifested in Christ Himself (John 1:1-5), and by it we will all one day be judged (Hebrews 4:12-13, John 12:48), what possible advantage might a Christian achieve by relegating it to a place of secondary importance in their life?
To say it another way: if you claim that the Bible is important but unnecessary, you disagree with the Bible and you disagree with God.
The sword of the Spirit is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). To try and separate the two makes no sense given the case the Bible itself spends so much time establishing. The Bible is not God, but to take it seriously at all is to believe both that He is the one from whom it directly emanated and that it is an essential part of any Christian’s life. For someone to try and claim that the Bible is great but not entirely necessary is akin to telling people that they need to stay hydrated but shouldn’t worry too much about drinking water. It acknowledges the need but pretends that the mechanism for fulfilling the need is unnecessary.
In closing, the attempt to place distance between the Holy Spirit and His Word is a battle against shadows and strawmen strategically organized around turning the Bible against itself. The grand irony of it all is that this position’s proponents try to use the Bible in order to make a point about the Bible that the Bible itself contradicts. The argument can’t stand up under its own weight - it seeks to make the Word of God inconsistent in order to maintain itself – and its advocates seem more than willing to do just that.
And, again, while acknowledging the very real suffering that so many people have received under the pretense of so-called Biblical authority, the answer to that problem is not to attack or marginalize the Bible. The answer is actually to believe it and apply it more strenuously. Without wanting to put words in anyone’s mouth or judge anyone’s motivations, I can think of no logical outcome from adhering to a position that claims the Bible is ancillary other than an eventual rejection of what the Bible teaches. If you believe, as some of the people making these claims do, that the Bible is altogether secondary to God the Spirit and His work, then it will not be very much trouble at all for you to reject the Scriptures in exchange for something that you believe God revealed to you some other way. Testing the spirits by the standard of the Word (as we are all directed to do) is no longer your concern if you believe there are other, higher ways by which God ministers to His people.
I will not say that all those who are embracing this line of thinking are theological liberals. But thinking like this is absolutely necessary for theological liberalism to take root. Ideas like this should be roundly, enthusiastically, and completely rejected.
The Spirit wrote the Bible: He will never contradict it. The Word is the heart and mind of God written out for us to read, study, understand, and build our lives around. You cannot take it too seriously, know it too well, or value it too highly.
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And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. – II Peter 1:19-21
The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. – John 12:48
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
- Psalm 19:7-11