One would think this is an obvious question to answer. However, I have had personal experience to the contrary. I had a professor in college - at my Christian university - who did not appear to take the same view as I did on this matter. This individual is supposedly very well-respected in academic religious circles, so much so, that they believe it is their duty to blast any and all opinions contrary to their own. If you do not believe what this person believes, you are flat wrong. I was given the task at the end of one quarter to write a paper expressing my personal beliefs regarding God, the Bible, everything in the Christian life. We had just completed a university-mandated course on Biblical theology (zzzz...), and the professor wanted to know our beliefs/opinions at the end-of-quarter as compared to prior (I believe it was nothing more than a shameless attempt to see how mush the professor had changed our thinking to conform to their own). I got blasted on the assignment. I have grown-up in the church. I have volunteered hundreds of hours of my life to the Gospel. Now, I am by no-means building myself up; if anything, I do not do enough for the Lord anymore. I just want to set the stage for what I am about to tell you. After all my decades in the church - after all the missions trips, youth leadership meetings, camps/retreats, and so-on - after a year of intensive discipleship/Bible study in Master's Commission, and even after a year of ministry training at my Christian school as a Ministry major... I got a C. My beliefs were not good enough. I was told I had a lot to learn about God. The atheist who sat two chairs over... got an A. The professor's biggest knock on my paper?? "Where does it say the Bible is the 'Word of God'?" WHAT!?
How is it possible for a leading Christian "authority" to question such a basic, fundamental element of the Christian life? How is it possible for someone to have missed such obvious Scriptural proof? In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul says "All Scripture is inspired by God..." The King James Version says it is "given by inspiration of God," and the Amplified calls it "God-breathed (given by His inspiration)." In short, the entire Bible comes straight from the mouth of God, through the Holy Spirit. Every last word is a direct result of God's intention for all humanity. If it weren't, why would you even bother to read it? Paul puts it another way in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, "...we constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe" (1Thes 2:13). If what Paul teaches is the Word of God, then all thirteen epistles are God's Word to His people. And if every word in the epistles is God's, then God is telling us in 2 Timothy that every other Scripture is from Him and is His Word. THAT'S why I can say without a shadow of doubt that the Bible is God's Word.
See, that wasn't exhaustive by any stretch of the means. However, it is important simply to remember the simple. If the Bible is not God's spoken Word to his people, why would any of us bother to read it? It simply becomes ancient religious text without God's intervening. Without God's inspiration, we cannot trust the Bible. However, the Scriptures are given directly from the mouth of God, through the Holy Spirit. It is a perfect book; it needs no interpretation. We need to stop adding our own spins and twists to the Bible. We need to quit placing more emphasis on the literary techniques of each book and remember this is God's spoken Word to His people. The Bible is God's instructions to us (which we will get into next time), not a compilation of ancient writings that Christians need to "figure out." That is not to say that there are not difficult passages that we need to decipher. Actually, the Bible even refers to Itself as containing the "mysteries of God" that are stored up for the righteous (go find it, it's in there). That means it is even more vitally necessary that we spend as much quality time with it as possible. Do not simply plow through as many passages as possible to meet your religious quota; but rather, meditate in it often. That is when the Lord will speak to your spirit through His Word, and all the Scriptures you found difficult to understand/apply will become clear. When you meditate in God's Word, it will bypass your head (which screws it up like my old professor's did) and will go straight to your spirit-man, where it will affect the whole of your being - including your head. It is were direction is found; it is where understanding is found; it is where life to the fullest is found. Be renewed through the transforming of your mind by understanding the Scripture as God's spoken Word to you.
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