A trinity of revelation II. The Bible.

If it is true that the heavens declare the Glory of God (and they do) then, as I said in the first post on  this trinity, they also declare that He exists and is powerful.  Among the things that they do not tell us  though,  is that God loves us, wants a relationship with us, and went to extraordinary lengths to make it possible.   Neither do they tell us how to get right with Him,  or how to live life.   All of this,  and more,  comes in the Bible.

I like to think of the  Bible as God's love letter to mankind (and mancruel too).  I like the way that some of the early missionaries used to put it “God loves bad boys, and Jesus died so that you could live a full life and then go to heaven to be with Him forever when you die.”  It is, if you think about it, an extraordinary message, not one that anyone would likely make up. In other words it is a message that had to be revealed.  You see, the natural man, if he acknowledges God at all,  has this tendency to think that being good is how to get right with Him.  Please do not misquote me here, I am not saying not being good does not matter,  I am saying the fact we are not good does not exclude us, if we are willing to turn our lives over to Him,  and to let Him change us.

In fact Christianity is unique in this, every other religion is man reaching up to God, while Christianity alone is God reaching down to man.  God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die in my place, so that I might have life (abundant and eternal) in Him.   Only in the Bible do we see this revelation of God's initiative.  Apart form the Bible, and the witness of God's people to its life changing truth,  this amazing plan of salvation (how we get right with God) would be unknown.

But some will ask “Isn't it just a book, written by man (and so a book by man, and not a revelation from God at all)?”  The Bible (the Hebrew Christians Scriptures) consists of 66 books, written certainly by man, but inspired by God.  This is a truth claim to be checked out.  Paul tells us (II Timothy 3:16) "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness".  Note that it says all, not just some. It is all inspired by God.  The  Greek word translated 'inspired' here is a compound word theo-pneustos.  It  literally means God Spirited (or God breathed as one translation puts it, since the Greek uses the same word for breath and spirit).

I like the way the Invervarsity statement of Faith puts it affirming “The unique divine inspiration,
entire trustworthiness and authority of the Bible” (see http://www.intervarsity.org/about/our/doctrinal-basis ).  This statement, refined in the furnace of interdenominational dialog among those who take the Scriptures as authoritative, affirms several things. Firstly that the inspiration is divine, it originates with God. This divine inspiration does not obliterate the personality of the one being inspired. Within both the Sovereignty of God and the free will of man – God's Spirit moved “Holy men of old” to write, and to write accurately,  what God wanted written. This is not a “type writer” view of inspiration, it is not direct dictation, but nevertheless gives accurately all God intended. That and nothing more. Thus it is authoritative, and we can trust it entirely.   The Intervarsity statement includes the word “unique”. There is no other work that is fully inspired in the way the Bible is inspired, and in fact all other forms of revelation are to be tested by agreement or not, with the Scriptures.  Thus the Scriptures are God's primary verbal revelation of Himself to mankind.

As strong as the above statement is, it is is not strong enough for some. It is however the one I use,  and do so because the words it uses are all words the Scripture uses about itself. In my opinion, we need a  very good reason for going beyond Biblical words (see I Corinthians 4:6). Its a long debate.  I could recommend a point by point summary of the issues – at http://www.christinyou.net/pages/inspiration.html. I like this summary, because the author does not spell out the solution, but rather brings together in point form, the ingredients needed for a fully reasoned position on the issues. 

 So then the Scriptures are God's primary verbal revelation of Himself. They are not the only vehicle for His revelation, for “the invisible things of Him are clearly seen from the creation of the earth”, and the Spirit searches the heart of man (see 1 Corinthians 2:10). Note that I can say these last two things authoritatively since these are Biblical concepts. The Spirit will not tell me to murder since in His inspired writings He wrote “Do not murder”. Well it is a trinity, each one is to confirm the other.  On the other hand the subjective (what I feel God may be revealing to me),  is to be tested by the objective written Word “rightly handled”  (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV).