John 8:31-32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
I have a problem with a relatively new and modernistic view of the Bible. Yes, the Bible is consisted of narrative, poetry, letters, history, genealogy, accounting, testimonies, and teachings. But it is something more. The Bible is a holy book. We are to read it, meditate on it, encouraged by it, teach through it, believe in it, and live by it (http://www.openbible.info/topics/reading_gods_word). It is something that should be part of our everyday life. Jesus said Himself that Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. To us, every word of the Bible should be considered Word from God's mouth, God inspired, God breathed. There is a reason why the Bible is called the Word of God. This means the Bible was written by God through people, not a collection of works written by people about God. Yes, you see the shaping of the many authors of the Bible, from different writing styles that give them away. People like Paul, and we know that scribes helped him write most of his letters (he will specifically say if its by his own pen), who probably was chosen to write so much given his background and training as a Pharisee (knowledge of the Law). But even so, those words were inspired by the Holy Spirit within those selected to write, such as with David (Mark 12:36, Acts 4:25), or in the case of Moses, spoken from God Himself, that is why Jesus in Matt. 19 and Paul and the author of Hebrews (chapter 11) put so much credence on the Torah, especially Genesis 1 and 2. Many of the authors of the Bible truly wouldn't understand what they were writing at all, and so can only come about from transformative power of the Holy Spirit. We really need to stop underestimating the Holy Spirit within us. He is still God. (He also has feelings so when we neglect Him as part of the Trinity...lets just say we should get to know Him, really read about who He is from Scripture).
Acts 4:25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David
Now to the inspired by the Holy Spirit part. What do you say about all the atheists who have read the Bible, and some of them have even memorized the Bible? Yet they still do not believe in God. They do not have faith. That is because belief and faith are absolutely pinnacle to Christianity. That is where the Holy Spirit comes in. Just like how the disciples were lost about many of Jesus' parables and teachings, such as Jesus being the temple, until the Holy Spirit came upon them to help them interpret Jesus' teachings (Luke 24:45). That is also why those atheists who read the Bible don't believe, because to them, the Bible is just narrative, just poetry, just history, just culture, just a bunch of books. The Holy Spirit isn't in them and thus won't bring the words on the page to life. We literally cannot understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit's help (1 Cor. 2:9–14). That is also why the Bible is also called the Living Word (Hebrews 4:12), because it is alive. It has equal weight with any word we hear from God directly. Sometimes when I read the Bible, it is just words to me too. I read it, say to myself "interesting", and then shove the knowledge somewhere in my head. But when the power of the Holy Spirit brings the words in the Bible to life, then I really hear Jesus speaking to me, not just in my head, but in my heart as well. That is what they mean when the Written Word points to the Incarnate Word. The Bible will point to our Savior and our Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake
We really need to take the Bible more seriously. We shouldn't talk about it as if it is like The Lord of the Rings. Yes, there are truths hidden in that wonderful trilogy, about life and morality and even God Himself. But I'm not going to go around saying that elves, hobbits, orcs, and Nazgul are real things. Lord of the Rings is just fantasy, something that follows the traditional purpose of children's stories used to teach children about morality and point to Truth. In the words of St. Augustine, stories are the key to unlocking Truth. That is why even the Psalms are held in high regard, even by Satan, who quotes the Psalms to Jesus during the tempting in the desert. Satan obviously knows that there are sovereign truths in the Psalms that transcend just pretty words to describe God, or he wouldn't be foolish enough to use them against Jesus. So we must treat them with the same reverence. Jesus Himself quotes Psalm 110 to the Sanhedrin to unequivocally align Himself with God (showing both Jesus and the religious leaders of the time both held to the Psalms as absolute authorities). In Ephesians 5, we see Paul telling the Church to use psalms and songs filled with the Spirit to love one another. In Colossians 3, Psalms were used to both teach and admonished. Psalms were truly the OT version of testimonies, filled with emotion and grit, but still all pointed to the faithfulness and praiseworthiness of God. They are poetry. But they are also real (not like fiction), as real as any of our own experiences and testimonies. Please don't look down on them. Seriously...go to the NT and see how many times the Psalms are cited. Credible source? Yes. Authoritative source? You betcha. Let us not put the Bible on the same level as other books please, self-help or philosophy or even fiction.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
I know for a fact that people who are quick to call out the inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of scripture as an excuse to fit Christianity to their own goal, to try to merge Christianity with culture and the worldview of open-mindedness, or are just lazy and really don't want to follow Jesus and be His disciple. They just want to edit the Bible and turn into their version of the Thomas Jefferson Bible. People say they "love" the Bible, but don't want to live by it, to be constrained by it. Parts of the Bible offend them, but you know what? Jesus was really offensive in the Bible. If you don't believe me, re-read the Gospels. But we are to (figuratively) write the scriptures onto our heart. In Deuteronomy, the Law was literally supposed to be incorporated in every aspect of the Israelites' lives. They were to impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Why did they do this? Not out of legalism, but to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Yes, this famous Jesus quote came from the OT. Yeah...if we only did that nowadays with the Bible. Including me, I am as much a hypocrite as anyone else, so lucky there is Grace for me.
1 Peter 1:20-21 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
Yes, we shouldn't take everything in the Bible literally or with absolute equal value, yes not all of the Bible has equal weight in how we apply it to our modern lives, but we should also not dumb it down to a compilation of books written by humans. It is not that either. Yes, context is important, and we should be careful about how to interpret the Word and extrapolate it for the modern Church. Yes, we all have a tendency in our narrow-mindedness and our limited existence to pick parts of the Bible that resonate with us to defend and emphasize. Maybe that is part of our unique calling, and that is why we need to work together as the Church to defend all of the Bible (instead of fighting each other out of pride what is important). Yes there are many parts of the Bible that are unclear, which has led to many debates within the Church over the last 2,000 years. This has led to camps, to denominations, to splits, to different theologies/doctrines, to pain and grief and sadness within the Body. This is not good. I would point to Ephesians 4 and Romans 14 for a Biblical picture of how to hold the Body together despite the many interpretations. I also do not want the world to look at the Church and mock us for believing in a book that has "too many translations" and "too many interpretations" to possibly be believable. In a way they are right. But the Bible is still the Truth, and it is believable. The Gospel contained in the Bible is the Truth we all sought, and by our mouths we profess it is real. That core message cannot be different. At the end of the day, Truth will win out no matter what.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me
To end, we need to remember who we are. We are Christians, a term first used in Antioch (Acts 11) to describe disciples of Jesus Christ. That means we need to do what disciples ought to do. As the word translates, we literally "belong to Christ." We need to remember the story of the Bible is not about us, but the Glory of God. Our salvation is just a means to that end. Scripture is used to teaching, but not Bible bashing. We are to use it in Truth in Love to guide our brothers and sisters towards Christ. But we are called to hold fast to Biblical truth and call out false teachings and lead our beloved brothers and sisters away from it. Jesus Himself was the harshest on this, and Paul a close second. (Jude and John tied for 3rd place). I wish I had more theology on the evidence of infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible, but you can look that up for yourself. As for sufficiency, yes it should be sufficient for us in our lives. No it doesn't mean the Bible will teach you how to tie your shoes or how to code or build a computer. But it does mean scripture has a really really really important role in how you eat, how you sleep, how you greet people, how you choose colleges or jobs, how you love your friends and family, how your marriage will look, and who/what/where/how you put your hope and trust and faith in. So when a brother or sister comes to you with genuine care in their eyes and heart and say, "hey, you might be doing something wrong, here is what scripture says...", please don't feel condemned, for there is no more condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1). They just want to help point you to Christ. Be willing to listen, for they will be speaking with the power of the Holy Spirit the Words from God's mouth.
Note: as a supplementary, here is a summary by John Piper on why we believe in the Bible (its long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBpC0i-DeXA - Who do you think wrote the Bible? -- Mark Driscoll (though he has stepped down as pastor, his teaching here is still legit)
https://www.multiplymovement.com/material - Part 3 of Multiply Materia
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/08/02/christian-smith-makes-the-bible-impossible/
http://vimeo.com/41783506 Inerrancy: Did God Really Say...?
http://adam4d.com/who-said-it/
“The Bible is not a philosophy textbook to be debated; it
is a revelation from God to be believed and obeyed.” - Robert Plummer
