THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD!

Monday 2 December

You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me! John 5:39 (AMPC)

Then beginning with Moses and [throughout] all the Prophets, He went on explaining and interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning and referring to Himself. Luke 24:27 (AMPC)

When you make the claim that the Bible is not the Word of God you start hearing people shout ‘heresy!’ The same people that are coming for you with torch and pitchfork in hand however, are usually the very same ones that don’t even know what the Word of God is.

Scripture is not always the Word of God. Scripture refers to being from Genesis to Malachi. Not everything in Genesis to Malachi is the Word of God either. The New Testament is revelation of the scriptures which include the gospels as they are predominantly situated in the Old Testament. You guessed it, not everything in the New Testament is the Word of God either!

So what is the Word of God? Jesus gives us the answer in Luke 24:27. The Word of God is all the things in the scriptures that were about Himself .

Notice that He only expounded on the Old Testament scriptures because at that time there was no New Testament. This shows us something profound. The Old Testament concealed the truth of Christ and that was the only thing Jesus used to preach the gospel to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

The theme of the Old Testament is found summed up in 1 Peter 1:10-11

‘Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow.’

These two things are what Jesus would have explained to them using the scriptures. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit gave insight by the Apostles, particularly Paul into the revelation of Christ that was concealed within the scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. A good litmus test to understand what is the Word of God in the scriptures is whatever verses the Apostles used to reveal ‘the things concerning Christ’ were the scriptures that Paul and others used in their New Testament writings.

Think of the Old Testament as a junkyard that is littered with treasure. In order to get to the treasure you had to sift through or interpret the scriptures to find out what was Christ, what was the assumptions of man and what was for learning or example but never personal application. Think about it. Murderers, blasphemers, wicked and evil men and women spoke and did terrible acts in the scriptures that have been recorded in the Bible. You can’t tell me that what Haman said about hanging Mordecai for example, is the Word of God just because it is found in the Bible.

The Word of God can be clearly defined as anything in the scriptures or the revelation of the scriptures that is consistent with the good news of Jesus Christ and the message of His salvation. if you can’t see Christ in the scriptures which is the Old Testament, or the revelation of the scriptures which is the New Testament, then discard them because they have nothing to do with you.

If there is not a correlation of doctrine such as Peter saying ‘Now stretch forth your hand to heal’ to Jesus when Jesus expressly stated in Mark 16:17 that ‘you will lay hands on the sick and the sick will recover’ not Him. What does this teach us? The Word of God is consistent regarding Christ and His gospel.

We must rightly divide (orthotomeo) the word of truth if we want to arrive at the right conclusion about Christ. Who He is, what He came to do, what He is like and what He thinks is all there in the Bible. The message of Christ and His salvation found therein, is the Word of God.

APPLICATION

Learn to seperate the accusation of the law of Moses from the message of the gospel of Christ and study to show yourself approved unto God by rightly dividing the word of truth.