God's Authority

The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). There is no hope for the fool that persists in the belief that there is no God (Ps. 14:1), "... for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and {that} He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 5:3). Indeed it takes extraordinary humility (poor spirit) to divest ourselves of the prideful thought that we know how to order our lives better than God does. A large number of people find out the hard way — only after living a life of misery apart from God. The recognition of God’s love for us now can avoid a host of misery.

This should be the major motivation for recognizing God’s authority and seeking after His will for us today. When we teach that the Bible is authoritative, we are not stating that the authority rests in the pages of some book. We are teaching that God is the author;   author; more specifically: "... Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). It is God, through His Word (Jn. 1:1f), that created us and has all power and authority over us. He will exercise this power definitively and completely on the day of judgment, according to His will (Mt. 7:21f).

The question that we want to answer in this and an upcoming issue is: given that we believe in God, how do we learn God’s will for us? How do we know that the Bible is God’s word, and what are the first steps that we take to understand it?

Is the Bible Authoritative?

The Bible is only authoritative when it communicates to us God’s will. It is useless in the hands of the crafty that distort the scriptures to their own destruction (Gal. 1:7; 2 Pet. 3:15). The most fundamental question that deserves consideration is: "Is the Bible really the Word of God?" This question can be answered in light of the only alternatives. If the Bible is not from God, then either: (1) God did not communicate at all, or (2) God gave us a different means of communication. The fact that we believe in a loving God who created us and has our interests in mind enables us to discard the first alternative immediately. The second alternative leads to considering all possible ways that God could communicate.

This would be a hard problem were it not for the fact that very few documents even claim to be God’s Word. Most of the ones that do (e.g., the Book of Mormon) freely declare the Bible as being authoritative as well. Of itself, the Bible declares: (2 Tim. 3:16-17): "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." How do we know that the body of work called the Bible is "all scripture?" This we must accept as an act of faith in a loving God. If God preserved what we now have, would he not preserve it in an adequate form to provide all necessary information for salvation? If we believe in a loving God, we must answer: yes.

But what about all of the other works that claim to be communications from God? Take these under consideration one at a time as you encounter them. Read and study them in light of your knowledge of the Bible. When compared to the Bible, they pale in comparison. The answer is within (Rom. 10:17).

Attacks on the Bible often take the form of: "the Bible is only one of many books." The objective is to destroy our faith in its authority. Yet, those who launch such attacks rarely have a working knowledge of either the Bible or any of these other works. Challenge them to name one of these works, and ask if they believe all that is taught therein. This will provide a sound basis to move ahead in determining the truth.

Ye often hear it said ...

"The Bible is just one of many great books of faith."

but Jesus said (Mt. 4:4) ...

"It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

There are two ways that this refutes the idea of many diverse documents. First, Jesus responded: "It is written ..." and proceeds to quote from Deut. 8:3. This, along with many other references of Jesus and the New Testament writers, attests to his/their acceptance of the currently accepted version of the Old Testament. Much like our Bible today, it was handed down through the religious powers that be, despite many of them being worldly and evil. The providence of God assured was preserved for the purpose for which it was created.

A second nail in the coffin of diverse documents is that Jesus required that we acquire knowledge of "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." If God revealed himself out of a huge diversity of books (some even include parts of Shakespeare), this would be impossible. It would be humanly impossible for us to distinguish what portions of certain books were God speaking and which were not. Further, if he were continuously revealing himself with new writings and statements every day, this would also be impossible. Jesus was looking to that point when all that needed to be revealed would be revealed and "that which was perfect [fully grown] was come" (1 Cor. 13:8-10). See also (Heb. 1:1f) and (Rev. 22:18-19).