The Word of God (part 1)

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I believe it is time for us to return to a sincere reverence of the Word of God. I want to show some examples of how the Scriptures are being trampled and perverted, but first I want to explore the importance of taking the Bible seriously. To begin, I want to make a point of saying that having faith in the Bible as the Word of Almighty God is not a blind leap in the dark. On the contrary, Biblical faith is based on verifiable facts and reasonable logic. The Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, "Come now and let us reason together..." (Isaiah 1:18) The apostle Paul had the custom of going into the synagogues and reasoning with the Jews out of the scriptures (Acts 17:2). Later I may look at specific examples of the evidence upon which we may base our faith, but for the purposes of this piece, we can work with the assumption that the Bible is divinely inspired.

This fact alone (that we hold in our possession the very words of God) should cause us to catch our breath and realize that we need to take it very seriously. But what does the Bible itself have to say about it? First of all, realize that Jesus Christ is given the title "the Word" by the apostle John (John 1:1-2, 14; Revelation 19:13). Secondly God created the universe by His Word.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." (Hebrews 11:3)

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Psalm 33:6)

In fact "the Word" (i.e. Jesus Christ) created the universe "by the word of the LORD" (Colossians 1:13-16).
Jesus displayed His power simply by His word:

Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. (John 18:4-6)

The apostles were careful in using the Word of God to evangelize instead of carefully devised schemes and methods:

And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. (Acts 8:25)

Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. (Acts 15:35)

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures. (Acts 17:2)

In the next post, I will look more closely at this point.

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