By David Lasseter
I have been privileged to receive several responses to the material I’ve presented within my web site. Each question submitted has caused me to search more deeply into the Word of God and discover the truths only it contains. Recently I received a response to my study regarding infant baptism, written by Mr. Mario Derksen, the web author of Catholic Insight (http://www.cathinsight.com/apologetics/infant.htm). In his response he makes several claims which I will address over the next few lessons. However, as I was considering the points he was including in his essay it became clear to me where I needed to start as I developed my response: Is the Bible authoritative or is it not? If the Bible is authoritative, is it the sole authority in religious matters or are other utterances and writings of man equally authoritative? Before this issue is clearly addressed and the answer plainly revealed, religious division is destined to flourish. If you haven’t already, please take a few moments and read my study on infant baptism and Mr. Derksen’s response. I believe it is important for you to fully understand the position each of us takes on the issue as we present our differing views. In the end, what any man says is irrelevant, in that we will be judged solely by the word spoken by Jesus (John 12:48). Each of us will stand before God as individuals and answer for our lives on earth. For these reasons I urge you not to consider the words of any man, but determine for yourselves what authority is valid. But keep in mind that a clear conscience is not sufficient for one to enter into heaven for eternity. Paul states in his defense before the chief priests and their council that “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” (Acts 23:1) Paul’s (Saul’s) conscience was clean as he consented to the death of Stephen (Acts 7:58-8:1). But what did the Lord think of his actions? Jesus asked Saul for the reason he was persecuting His church (Acts 9:4). So despite Saul’s clear conscience, he was fighting against the Lord as he persecuted the church. So please do not allow a warm inner glow as you consider your beliefs regarding the issues we’ll study to be your sole indication of a right relationship between you and God. You MUST allow your mind to prevail over your emotions. If a religious position is clearly based on invalid authority, no matter how strong are the emotional ties to that position it must be discarded. Consequently, much of my response to Mr. Derksen’s essay will focus on authority. I want you to form a mental image of the religious world as it stands today–some 34,000 “Christian” religious organizations (according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001 edition), each preaching something different but claiming the same God. Ask yourselves “Why is this so?” As you consider each possibility leading to such religious division I believe you’ll eventually find the ultimate reason to be adherence to invalid authority. As you consider my study on baptism and Mr. Derksen’s response, ask yourselves this question, “Is his teaching based on valid authority?” Definitions As we begin this study I want to make clear the point we’ll be proving: The Bible is the inspired Word of God. As is always my practice, I will start with a review of the meaning of the words we are studying. What does the statement “The Bible is the inspired Word of God” declare? Please bear with me as I break this sentence down into its component parts. The Bible is (present tense) the(definite article) inspired (see below) Word(singular) of God (author). Does it seem crazy to divide a sentence in such a fashion? Maybe it does, but unfortunately it is necessary since men have failed to grasp the importance of this simple 8-word sentence. Is. A simple word we use everyday. Merriam-Webster tells us the word is the third singular form of “be”. The first definition given by Merriam-Webster tells us that is means “to equal in meaning: have the same connotation as”. I don’t want anyone to leave our study because of an unnecessary emphasis on grammar, but it is essential we have a basic understanding of the words we use to express our ideas. So when we say the Bible is the inspired Word of God we are saying that the Bible is equal in meaning to the inspired Word of God. Another way to say the same thing is to use “the Bible” and “the Word of God” interchangeably. This is something we do on a regular basis. Since “is” represents apresent tense form of the word “be” (compared with “was”, which is the past tense form of “be”), to say “The Bible is the inspired Word of God” is to emphasize the current nature of the Bible. Let’s look at some scriptures which support the statement regarding the current state of the Bible as the inspired Word of God.Mark 13:31: “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.” Jesus affirms the eternal nature of the words he spoke. From the day they were uttered they were destined to last for eternity.John 12:49: The Father told Jesus what He was to say and what He was to speak. Since Jesus spoke the words of the Father, and the words spoken by Jesus are eternal, then the words spoken by the Father are eternal. Since they are eternal, they will never cease being valid. Therefore, they will always be in the present tense.The. Another word spoken hundreds of times by every English speaking person, if not daily then over the span of a few days. It functions as a definite article. Let’s return to the dictionary and review the definition. We read that the word “the” is “used as a function word to indicate that a following noun or noun equivalent is a unique or a particular member of its class.” Hmmm. A unique or particular member of its class. For example, “The President” is a person who is unique and is a particular member of his class. How many of us would honestly state that the President of the United States is more than one person? We all understand that “the” used in this manner points to one definite individual (the “definite article” function of “the”). So when we say “The Bible is the inspired Word of God”, we are saying “The Bible is a unique member of its class in that it is the only inspired Word of God.” Just as we have only one active President of the United States, there is only one inspired Word of God. Because of the singular tense of “the” and “word”, I’ll include scriptures validating the use of the definite article in our sentence above after we examine “word.”Word. In the initial statement above I used the singular “word” rather than the plural “words.” Notice in our study of “is” we determined that “the Bible” and “the word of God” are interchangeable. But we all know the Bible is not comprised of a single word, but of thousands of words. What I hope to illustrate by this study is how the words contained within the pages of the Bible are woven together into a single “word” of God. Lets look at a couple of scriptures to illustrate this point:John 5:24: Jesus states that “he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life”. Here we see Jesus referring to the words he spoke as a body of knowledge by referring to a singular “word” which one must hear in order to receive the promises made by Jesus.John 8:47: Jesus tells us that “He who is of God hears God’s words.” Jesus now refers to the individual words which make up the body of knowledge known as the “word of God.” We see this again in Matthew 4:4 when Jesus tells Satan that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Each and every word making up the complete word of God is important and not to be ignored. Comments are closed.
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