The Word of God and the word of God
The following is a post I wrote on a web board. Several folks there had been asserting that the Scriptures are all that's needed, that the "Word *is* God." They felt that they don't really need the Holy Spirit for anything because they had the Bible. In the interest of keeping our Theology clean and clear, I had to respond. (Does that make me a Theologian or an Apologetist? I never knew the difference!) Read on, if you dare...
(begin post)
I think we're in danger these days of confusing the Word and the word...(before people break into hives or anything let me make it clear that I believe the Bible to be the inerrant, inspired word of God, and I treasure it greatly. In college, I often slept with my Bible like it was a teddy bear because I'm so attached to it!) The Word of God is Jesus. Sometimes we call the Bible the "word of God." The Bible IS NOT God. It is His message. As wonderful and true as it is, it is NOT Him and it is not meant to be a substitute for Him. It teaches and guides us, but so does the Holy Spirit (as it says in the Bible). The Bible itself teaches us to judge things both by the book and by the Spirit. Jesus is the Living Word, the Bible is the written word. Does that make sense? I'm afraid that in some of our churches today, folks are getting the Bible mixed up with the Word. When it says "...and the Word was with God and the Word was God..." it is referring to Jesus, not the written collection of histories, books of law and prophets, gospel accounts, and letters of instruction for the churches that we call the Bible. The content of the Bible is true, and is God's message for us, but it is NOT Him. Okay, I'm not trying to make anyone mad here, I'm just trying to make sure we're clear on this one. If the Bible were God, would we bow down to the book and worship? I just can't see myself singing *to* my Bible.
(end post)
(begin post)
I think we're in danger these days of confusing the Word and the word...(before people break into hives or anything let me make it clear that I believe the Bible to be the inerrant, inspired word of God, and I treasure it greatly. In college, I often slept with my Bible like it was a teddy bear because I'm so attached to it!) The Word of God is Jesus. Sometimes we call the Bible the "word of God." The Bible IS NOT God. It is His message. As wonderful and true as it is, it is NOT Him and it is not meant to be a substitute for Him. It teaches and guides us, but so does the Holy Spirit (as it says in the Bible). The Bible itself teaches us to judge things both by the book and by the Spirit. Jesus is the Living Word, the Bible is the written word. Does that make sense? I'm afraid that in some of our churches today, folks are getting the Bible mixed up with the Word. When it says "...and the Word was with God and the Word was God..." it is referring to Jesus, not the written collection of histories, books of law and prophets, gospel accounts, and letters of instruction for the churches that we call the Bible. The content of the Bible is true, and is God's message for us, but it is NOT Him. Okay, I'm not trying to make anyone mad here, I'm just trying to make sure we're clear on this one. If the Bible were God, would we bow down to the book and worship? I just can't see myself singing *to* my Bible.
(end post)
posted by Lisa-Anne | 1:00 PM
1 Comments:
Update: At a class last night a lady raised the same question when John 1:1 was mentioned. She said, "the Word of God" meant here is the Bible, right? The question wasn't really answered just then, but later there was opportunity to ask the pastor questions and so I asked him to clarify that question.
He said, definately not, the logos there does not refer to th scriptures of God, even though they are inspiration and revelation of God written for our benefit. Jesus is being called "the revelation" of God in this passage, God's Message to us. He also said if anyone tells you that the Bible is the Word of God meant here, you can see that it isn't the case if you read on... The scriptures didn't become flesh and dwell among us, did they? It is clearly Jesus that is God, not the Bible." I thought that was a good, clear answer!
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