1040. Is the Bible God's Word and Our Final Authority?

In our culture today, the collection of writings commonly referred to as The Bible has often been called God's Word. Some call it our final authority. Yet we see within the pages where it is Jesus who is specifically defined as the Word who was with God from the beginning—and was God—and He became flesh. In Him was life and light. Jesus never promised an addendum to the writings of the old, holy, Jewish scriptures ... but did indeed promise to send His Spirit as a helper and guide.

This is not to minimize the Bible or anything in it, whether it be Old or New Testament. The pages are a reliable source of truth that point us to the Life-giver. But there is much confusion amongst thousands of corporate Christian church denominations with a multitude of different opinions that do not align ... and yet they pretty much all consider the Bible as the source for their beliefs. God is not the author of that confusion. Considering the phrase, "the word" ... it can be defined in multiple ways when looking through the pages of the Bible. For example, there was a word of law for the Jews and there was something better that came along that Paul preached, which he called the word of faith. One was given for the Jews "to do" under what is now an obsolete covenant, while the other was given for anyone to believe in a new and better covenant.

But we are not on a divine path to become perfect interpreters of the Bible. This is not our destination. It's all about keeping our eyes on the person of Jesus with the help of His Spirit while getting to know Him. He is our final authority and the Author of faith, life, and salvation.



   
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867. This May Have Caused More Division Among Believers Than Anything Else

It’s easily skimmed over or swept under the rug, but it’s difficult to deny there are thousands of different church corporations and Christian denominations with very different dogmas and doctrines. This isn’t exactly breaking news, but let’s face this reality and talk this out. Think about it, millions of varied opinions from a perspective of theology, endless debates about (what should be) some of the most foundational issues from forgiveness to salvation. Who is right? Who is wrong? Why all the confusion? Which group should I associate with?

If believers in Jesus all have the same Spirit of God living within, how is it that perspectives and opinions can be so far apart in many cases? There is something that most of these religious branches—and individuals—have in common. They claim their conclusions come from a collection of books called the Bible. The Jews already had writings (scriptures) … and they pointed to Jesus. If we think the Bible is truly meant to be the final authority that ensures its every reader of being solidified in the truth, we may want to ask why Jesus said He would send His Spirit to lead, guide and reveal truth as He looked ahead to the New Covenant.



   
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