In the Volume of a Book – Part 3

A lifetime study of the Scriptures will be engaging, enlightening, and encouraging; but it will never be exhaustive. As you experience God’s Word along with your obedience of it, He will reveal that there’s exponentially more for you to explore. And, at the end of your life, you’ll only be at the threshold of understanding its eternal significance.

In our last post we introduced nine concepts that believers should consider and discuss as a foundation for looking into the Word on its own terms… and not on our terms. This is a life-journey! These concepts are not exclusive or exhaustive. But they will help equip you to travel wisely.  Comprehending these aspects of the Word in this post and part 4 should allow you to enter the launch code into your own personal study.

Are we able to trust the Bible as the absolute and authoritative Word / Truth of God?! It is necessary to first understand that the nature of “truth” presumes its exclusivity. It must also be self-authenticating, universally authoritative, and accessible to everyone in any period of time and in any culture. We would also expect the transmission [the way it is transmitted from God to man] and the preservation of truth [assuring the eternal accuracy of the message] to be flawless and organic [the seamless interaction between the authors and God].

The God who is our Designer and Deliverer desires to communicate with us. He must initiate and superintend [guide] the entire process to ensure the credibility of the message. [He seeks us! We do not seek Him!]  This transmission of the truth is already accomplished specifically in the written Word [the Bible] and in the living Word [Jesus Christ]. God also speaks to us in general ways: through history, conscience, and nature. God uses what we consider supernatural to communicate to humanity the truth that we otherwise would not or could not know. This is called revelation [things revealed to us that we do not discern on our own.]

Inspiration refers to the method by which God spoke supernaturally. He so directed the human authors of the Scriptures that – without diminishing their individuality or literary styles – His complete and connected thoughts toward humanity were revealed and recorded without error or contradiction in the original documents. Within this collection of 66 books, written by several authors over a span of about 1600 years, we see the sovereign oversight of God in transmitting and preserving them.

In the Volume of a Book – Part 4: Within the Scriptures are self-contained principles that enable us to understand and interpret these words carefully, credibly, and confidently.

Questions for your discussion and research…

  • What makes the Bible unique in comparison to other “sacred” writings?
  • Consider and discuss why Christ is called the “Living Word”?
  • What is implied in the fact that the transmission of the Scriptures was “organic” in nature?
  • What could have happened to the original documents of the Word of God?