Q3: What is the word of God?

A3: The holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" (2 Timothy 3:16 AV).

" We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" {in old time: or, at any time} (2 Peter 1:19-21 AV).

As I looked at this statement by the Westminster Divines my first two thoughts were: 1) How sad that the only rule for both faith and practice have not been completely read by many who profess Christ and even make an attempt to live godly lives. 2) How often when listening to those who would have another believe they "know" what they are talking about, and who hold most dogmatically to their beliefs have never read most of the Bible, but base their beliefs on what someone else has said, or even worse what they "think" another has said. The lack of Bible knowledge, the simple reading of Scripture has as much and perhaps more with the current liberal trends and descent of the church from the heights of glory to the byways of hell.

Without the Bible as that sure foundation upon which everything else is based, we cannot even have a Christian discussion. Without a positive knowledge of what the Bibles says, what it means, and most importantly, what am I going to do about it, we wander in the desert dying of thirst, tossed about with every shifting wind upon the sands of time.

For a Presbyterian this should be impossible for we firmly believe in a creed that states the "only" rule and guide for both faith and life is the Holy Bible. You may sit at the feet of the greatest teacher God has blessed mankind with, yet unless you have taken the time to find it for yourself in the Bible and to know what they teach is the truth, it does not belong to you and in times of greatest stress and temptation that knowledge will fail you. Where the saint has spent his daily time meditating on the Word of God, Satan flees before them. I wonder just how many think we are to resist Satan the father of lies, where he will flee before them as the Scripture clearly states. I suggest that resistance comes from a solid knowledge of what God has said, whereby, even as Christ in His temptation was able to reply to Satan, it is written, meaning God’s revealed Word to man said this very thing, we too will be enabled to first recognize the lies of the devil and last be able to avoid the traps Satan lays for the unwary and slothful soul who doesn’t have time to spend alone in the Word of God.

As I thought about the Bible in preparing for this devotion I was reminded first that one of the marks of the true church is the preaching of the Word in its simplicity and integrity. This requirement gave rise to the phrases that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. Without error and will not fail are marks of it being God’s Word and are not options for a minister of the Word. They are also essential to the individual who would claim the title Christian or in meaning literally a disciple or student of Jesus Christ. These two adjectives while essential and true are very revealing in that as men we need such qualifying adjectives. It is only when it is God’s word, needing nothing else to make it of absolute necessity to obey it that the Word becomes the food for the soul that enables us to live as His children in this temporal world of evil.

I was reminded of a story I read somewhere from the life of Jim Elliott which brought me to my knees in tears and repentance for an unworthy arrogance before our God. The story (which knowing of Jim’s life I believe to be true) is told in the narrative of a prayer from Jim’s prayer journal where he asks God for forgiveness for doing his daily Bible study in the Spanish language Bible. Jim was reading the Spanish version to aid in the learning of that language, but in this prayer he asked for forgiveness for not taking the time to separate his language study from his time with God’s word and vowed to return to the tongue of his birth for daily times with God, so he might feed his soul. How easily most let their daily time with God be interrupted and I was impressed with the attention Jim gave this joy from the Lord and would have given no thought to which language or even version such time was spent. It hit home with me because at the time I was using the Geneva Bible exclusively for my private study. This isn’t a foreign language but because of the difference of the English in the two ages and the difficulty of reading the available Geneva Bibles it took thought where the soul rather than the mind should be in control, as our spirit communes with the spirit of God.

How loving and gracious of God to bless us with such an abundance of versions in our own language. How revealing of the slothfulness of heart that we cannot find the time to spend alone with God drinking often and deep of this well spring of life.

The spiritual health of an individual and a family is a direct reflection of the time each spends in reading and praying over God’s Word of Life. There must be no reason that can set aside our times of daily Bible reading and devotional time with God. Without this rigid schedule, as men we will soon slide to the point we have let this essential element of our faith diminish to a point of being extinguished, and the very light of life removed from our homes.

Do you read the Bible? Can you understand that our very salvation rests on the Word of God, not Calvary, the manger, an experience or feeling, but the Bible alone? It is here God speaks to our "soul" and here our all rests, or we have nothing. It is here alone we can know beyond human doubt that our life is in Christ and without Him we can do nothing of eternal value, and in Him we can do all things both temporal and eternal. It is rare indeed for God to save any outside of the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures. I dare not limit God who can do all His holy will, but it is a demonstrated fact, that apart from the Scriptures or the very Word of God, salvation has not been the example among men, but the revelation of the horror of hell on earth.

Pray not then for the blessings without an understanding of those blessings based on a sure knowledge from the Father who cannot lie, thereby revealing the pit of hell and the father of lies himself, even Satan. Without the Bible, man cannot recognize the lies of the evil one and will be led down that brimstone path. With the Bible we can know we are the children of God.

By:  Dr. Chuck Baynard