Is the Bible the Word of God?
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:07 am
I have often heard people refer to the Bible as “The Word of God.” I am wondering what they mean by that. Do they mean that God dictated the words to the human writers? If not, perhaps that He inspired them in such a way that whatever they wrote was the words that God wanted people in every age to read?
1. The first question I have is, “Which Bible is the Word of God?”— The Orthdox Bible, the Roman Catholic Bible, or the Protestant Bible? As far as the New Testament is concerned, it doesn't matter, for all three contain the same list of writings. However, for the Old Testament, the list of writings in each of the Bibles differs from those of the other two.
2. Secondly, in his second letter to Timothy, Paul asked Timothy to bring the cloak he had forgotten at Troas, and also to bring the books and parchments he had left there.
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:23 ESV)
In what way would Paul's specific request to Timothy be “the Word of God” to us?
3. Thirdly, the writings in the Old Testament indicate that God commanded the Israelites to wipe out Canaanites, including women, children and babies.
The following passage seem to indicate that God will cause infants to be dashed to pieces and women to be raped. It could be a prediction instead, but verse 13 seems to indicate that God is behind it because of His fierce anger:
11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. (Isaiah 13:11-18)
The following passage indicates that when Uzzah saw that the oxen stumble, he reached out his hand, presumably to keep the ark from falling, and the Lord killed him for doing so.
And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6: 6,7 ESV)
However, Jesus never spoke of God doing such things. Rather He stated that God is kind to ungrateful people and to evil people (Luke 6:35). Jesus is Another exactly like His Father. He is the exact image of the Father's essence (Hebrews 1:3). Yet Jesus never killed anyone. He was quite different from the way God is described in the Old Testament. The apostle John declared that God is LOVE! Not that God merely exhibits love, but that He IS love! (1 John 4: 8, 16) Not that LOVE is just one of God's characterstics, but that it is His very essence! Could it be that some of the writers of the Old Testament thought God caused evil as well as good? So that when suffering and death occurred, they automatically attributed it to God?
I am a Christian, and I believe that the way the Lord Jesus described God is the way God truly is. I think some of the OT writers were mistaken about Him and what He supposedly did. My question is, did God inspire the OT writers to write this things about Him—that He killed a man for touching the ark? That He commanded the wholesale slaughter of Israel enemies?— while Jesus asked us to love our enemies, pray for them, and do good to them?
4. Fourthly it seems that the NT writers sometimes made mistakes. For example, Jude wrote the following:
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Jude 14, 15 NKJV)
Similar words to those which Jude quoted are found in the book of Enoch. I happen to have a copy of the book of Enoch. In Enoch chapter 2 it is written:
Behold, He comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon them,and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against Him.
However, Jude appears to have been mistaken in his statement that the author of the book of Enoch was the historic Enoch mentioned in Genesis 5. For in chapter 54 verse 9 Enoch mentions the Parthians. However, the Parthians were altogether unknown in history until 250 B.C. Thus Enoch the writer of the book of Enoch could not have been the Enoch mentioned in Genesis 5. So Jude's statement that the writer was the “seventh from Adam” must not have been the case. So how could this false statement be “the Word of God”?
As I see it, the Bible is a historical record. But not mere history. It includes events in which God intervenes in the affairs of man, the most important, of course, being the birth of the very Son of God as a human being, who died to deliver us from wrongdoing, and to provide enabling grace to live righteously (Titus 2).
I welcome any thoughts you may have on the matter.
By the way, in the book of Acts, the expression “The Word of God” seems to refer to the gospel.
Also, Jesus is also called “The Word of God” since He was the very expression of God to man.
1. The first question I have is, “Which Bible is the Word of God?”— The Orthdox Bible, the Roman Catholic Bible, or the Protestant Bible? As far as the New Testament is concerned, it doesn't matter, for all three contain the same list of writings. However, for the Old Testament, the list of writings in each of the Bibles differs from those of the other two.
2. Secondly, in his second letter to Timothy, Paul asked Timothy to bring the cloak he had forgotten at Troas, and also to bring the books and parchments he had left there.
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:23 ESV)
In what way would Paul's specific request to Timothy be “the Word of God” to us?
3. Thirdly, the writings in the Old Testament indicate that God commanded the Israelites to wipe out Canaanites, including women, children and babies.
The following passage seem to indicate that God will cause infants to be dashed to pieces and women to be raped. It could be a prediction instead, but verse 13 seems to indicate that God is behind it because of His fierce anger:
11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. (Isaiah 13:11-18)
The following passage indicates that when Uzzah saw that the oxen stumble, he reached out his hand, presumably to keep the ark from falling, and the Lord killed him for doing so.
And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6: 6,7 ESV)
However, Jesus never spoke of God doing such things. Rather He stated that God is kind to ungrateful people and to evil people (Luke 6:35). Jesus is Another exactly like His Father. He is the exact image of the Father's essence (Hebrews 1:3). Yet Jesus never killed anyone. He was quite different from the way God is described in the Old Testament. The apostle John declared that God is LOVE! Not that God merely exhibits love, but that He IS love! (1 John 4: 8, 16) Not that LOVE is just one of God's characterstics, but that it is His very essence! Could it be that some of the writers of the Old Testament thought God caused evil as well as good? So that when suffering and death occurred, they automatically attributed it to God?
I am a Christian, and I believe that the way the Lord Jesus described God is the way God truly is. I think some of the OT writers were mistaken about Him and what He supposedly did. My question is, did God inspire the OT writers to write this things about Him—that He killed a man for touching the ark? That He commanded the wholesale slaughter of Israel enemies?— while Jesus asked us to love our enemies, pray for them, and do good to them?
4. Fourthly it seems that the NT writers sometimes made mistakes. For example, Jude wrote the following:
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Jude 14, 15 NKJV)
Similar words to those which Jude quoted are found in the book of Enoch. I happen to have a copy of the book of Enoch. In Enoch chapter 2 it is written:
Behold, He comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon them,and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against Him.
However, Jude appears to have been mistaken in his statement that the author of the book of Enoch was the historic Enoch mentioned in Genesis 5. For in chapter 54 verse 9 Enoch mentions the Parthians. However, the Parthians were altogether unknown in history until 250 B.C. Thus Enoch the writer of the book of Enoch could not have been the Enoch mentioned in Genesis 5. So Jude's statement that the writer was the “seventh from Adam” must not have been the case. So how could this false statement be “the Word of God”?
As I see it, the Bible is a historical record. But not mere history. It includes events in which God intervenes in the affairs of man, the most important, of course, being the birth of the very Son of God as a human being, who died to deliver us from wrongdoing, and to provide enabling grace to live righteously (Titus 2).
I welcome any thoughts you may have on the matter.
By the way, in the book of Acts, the expression “The Word of God” seems to refer to the gospel.
Also, Jesus is also called “The Word of God” since He was the very expression of God to man.