Is The Holy Bible God’s Authoritative Word?
When contemplating the question, Are You Saved Yet, The Holy Bible is God’s one and only written Authority given mankind for guidance. After all, if it is not, then surely each and every one of us could choose our own Gospel; our own way to Heaven. In effect, we each could become our own god having the authority to pick and choose only those ‘spiritual’ things we want. Make no mistake though, God’s Word, the Holy Bible, clearly teaches us that God’s Word is not subjective. Not in the slightest. Rather, it is God’s authoritative Word and is intrinsically essential to our ability to understand every allowed aspect of God and certainly the God/man relationship… including the Biblically Defined manner in which we must become a ‘Child of God‘ in order to enter Heaven.
Please note…Naturally, the premise from which I write is the foundation that God’s Word, the Holy Bible, is in fact His actual Word. Some might suggest the better premise would be to begin with one that has no foundation; the foundation arising and being proven only according to the facts presented. Nonetheless, I believe if you follow the reasoning process herein presented, your logical conclusion will be that the premise was the correct premise with which to begin… because Truth prevailed. Perhaps you’ll consider this approach with the same understanding you’d hold if you overheard someone attempting to explain to another that the Earth was round, rather than flat. By beginning with the premise the Earth is round, and preparing illustrations from that perspective… the Truth will certainly arise. So too, proof the reality of Scripture is in fact God’s Authoritative Word.
Another consideration of proof you might ponder… Usually, in order to acquire a definitive understanding of proof concerning any subject matter in question, all one has to do is go to the source. Then, diligently study it from all perspectives in your effort to discover what the source says about itself. Obviously then, you become best able to specifically point out their own errors which, of course, will normally discredit that source. Sooooo… Study the Holy Bible for yourself. Don’t simply take someone else’s word for what it declares. Are you aware that God identified the Berean people to be ‘noble’ (the only ones to receive such an honor) because they didn’t even take the word of the Apostle Paul as ‘gospel’ until they verified the words Paul had spoken according to the available Scripture of the day. (Acts 17:11)
…Consider this…
Doubt is not necessarily a bad thing.
But,
to doubt and not take the initiative to
- – - personally investigate – - -
in order to discover Truth
is indeed a bad thing.
It means you are willing to remain easily lead.
You’ll continue to believe what others have told you to believe.
Your bonus of personally investigating for Truth the doubts you have…
is that the end result we lead to justly deny that which you’ve doubted, or,
embrace far more firmly that Truth you have by proper research… discovered.
……………………………………………….
‘What Can I Expect From This Page?‘
‘A Few Specific Biblical Declarations’‘
‘Is The Holy Bible Really God’s Word?’‘
‘By Whose Intelligent Authority Do We Throw Out God’s Word?’
‘We’ve convinced ourselves the Holy Bible was written by men – thus, ‘no authority”
‘Can Such Thoughts Even Be Reasonable?’
‘What Does God’s Word Teach Will Happen To Those Who Do Not Believe His Word?’
‘God Knows We’ll Have Questions – Therefore, He Provides The Answers’
‘Gaining Victory through the Authority of God’s Holy Word’
‘What Does Modern Science Declare About The Authority of the Holy Bible?’
‘Have You Honestly Studied Prophesy -vs- Today’s World News?’
……………………………………………….
God, Himself, proclaims the Holy Bible
to be the authoritative Word of God
John 1:1 NIV
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.
2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV
All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV
Above all, you must understand that
no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
QUESTION:
Why does God hold each of us accountable to that understanding?
ANSWER:
To believe the Holy Bible is NOT God’s Own Word is to tell Him His… Honor …is faulty.
It is to tell Him that at least on occasion neither He nor His Word can be trusted.
In effect – - – By choosing to believe other than what His Word specifically teaches…
you are telling God that both YOUR Honor and YOUR will are at least on occasion – greater than His. (Romans 3:4)
(Is it any wonder God so passionately hates Pride?)
CHOOSING ‘OUR WILL’ OVER GOD’S PROVIDES… satan …A DISTINCT ADVANTAGE OVER US…
It is not without reason
that one of the most viable tools in satan’s arsenal against you
is to cause you to question the Authority of God’s Word.
By so doing he and his minions become FAR better positioned to lead you astray!
Genesis 3:1 NIV
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman,
“Did God really say“…
With those words and that frame of mind satan began his plundering of the Authenticity of God’s Word, the Holy Bible. By so doing he and his minions have fostered countless cults and false religions… which may on the surface seem to be Christian, or Biblical in nature, but surely are ‘Anti-Christ’ in fact. Consider satan’s second words to Eve as recorded in Genesis 3:5 “…you will be like God…” NIV. Those words book-cased satan’s deceptive advance in that throughout history, including today, people don’t recognize the Holy Bible as God’s Single, Authoritative Word. That single error leads people toward chaos in their ability to understand God’s Word in general, much more their ability to understand its depths. That premise, of course, causes even diligent searchers of His Word to even believe that by means of a huge variety of ways they, themselves, are en-route toward godhood. Most of the Eastern Religions teach such; in the West, that line of teaching is generally limited to the doctrine of the Mormon Faith. (Yes indeed… most people from the East as well as most Mormons who are (both) diligent in their faiths are terrific people. Unfortunately for them though, if at all… they follow the Wrong Jesus. According to specific Biblical Doctrine then… they are therefore not at all destined for Heaven. It just won’t happen unless people seek and come to God in the ONLY manner ordained by Himself in His Word, the Holy Bible. That is, through Jesus, The Messiah. See God’s definition of who He, Himself, claims as a… ‘Child of God‘.
To their great and ultimate horror, on Judgment Day, Jesus Christ, Himself, will direct countless numbers of extremely surprised people to immediately turn and enter Hell for Eternity. (Matthew 7:21-23) At that moment and forever after not one of those shocked people will have the slightest opportunity for reconsideration or forgiveness. Their mistake??? It is evident by the words of Jesus that although according to Scripture their lives did indeed exhibit ‘good works’, etc., those same people chose to avoid fully believing the Authority of His Own Word, the Holy Bible. They either discounted God’s authoritative Word entirely or, most likely, they elected to ‘pick and choose’ only those things authoritatively written which ‘fit’ their worldview and their lifestyle. Because they did not believe in His right to maintain Authority in Scripture, their pride of ‘their own ‘will’ be done’ created the circumstances through which their understanding of the Holy Bible couldn’t help, of course, to become distorted. Thus, their choosing to personally embrace the definitive directions of becoming Born Again as is specifically defined within His Word, also became less authoritative than that which God’s Word, the Holy Bible, clearly mandates.
Yes, God’s Word describes those people to have all along… only thought …they were Born Again, but as becomes evident on Judgment Day they also thought they had been the authority in choosing as their allegiance only those parts of God’s Word that ‘fit’ their worldview or lifestyle. The remainder of the Holy Bible was at minimum not relevant to the performance of their lives, thus unimportant. Or, at worst, meaningless to them because their belief system placed ‘their will’ above His Word. Perhaps more concise and certainly more strongly… Instead of honorably searching out what the Holy Bible clearly declares and then endeavoring to conform their mind and lifestyle to that which God’s Own Word teaches is just, they chose to routinely ‘harden their hearts’ against His Word by choosing to believe only what they wanted to. However politely declared or lived, their position regarding the absolute authenticity of the entirety of the Holy Bible… be damned. While yet living on Earth they chose to fool themselves into believing they were the authority rather than fully acknowledging…
The Bible is God’s Authority.
Every word and concept is by His own design. (John 1:1)
In that God is above all and over all…
His Word, the Holy Bible, logically…
‘says precisely what it means and means precisely what it says’.
Will God lie to you? Will He deceive you through His Word? Of course not.
Therefore, God will accept no deviation, argument nor substitution concerning the authority of His Holy Word.
(Your Salvation depends on the Authority of His Word…
and upon your BELIEF and CONFORMITY to His Authority.)
Unfortunately, countless numbers of people don’t believe that.
- – - The Problem With Their Belief System, though, Is – - -
That most of those same people who adamantly, condescendingly and/or with imagined ‘authority’
proclaim His Word incomplete…
Are those who have rarely even investigated the Holy Bible for themselves
vis-à-vis the employment of their own adult minds.
And when they have investigated the Holy Bible for themselves
they’ve not allowed God to open the depths of its teachings.
Thus, they’ve not fully investigated His Word in a manner which brings forth the deeper realization of Truth.
It’s a shame… Even though their lives and Eternal Lives depended upon it
their understanding of the Holy Bible was limited to what… they …wanted to believe it said.
Are you aware that believing they are Christians en-route toward Heaven,
HUGE numbers of people are not well versed in the Holy Bible
sufficiently well enough to carry on a definitive conversation
with even a Biblically knowledgeable eight year old child?
Yet, their imaginations proclaim they ‘know’ they are correct
regarding their ‘right’ to throw out what they don’t like about God’s Holy Word.
(After all, they think, they’re going to Heaven, anyway.)
Which, of course, means they claim their own right of authority over His definitive Word.
They reject the concept that
God’s Word,
‘says precisely what it means and means precisely what it says’.
Doesn’t it make sense
that before proclaiming the Holy Bible
to be wholly or even partially invalid,
the person who holds that belief should first resolve to
- – - personally investigate with due diligence – - -
what the Holy Bible actually says?
In a very real sense, life is a ‘testing’ ground. It is here that YOU choose your Eternal Destination. YOUR choice is Heaven. Or, Hell. By default, by doing nothing, by not caring enough to… even personally investigate …God and His Holy Word, YOUR choice is automatically Hell. (John 3:17-19) There is one and only one decision which solemnly and conclusively separates one from the other. Salvation. The very best way to make the only decision God allows for your acceptance into Heaven is to recognize God’s Own Word, the Holy Bible, is completely authoritative and therefore, wholly inerrant. The Non Believer certainly, and for the below noted Biblical reason even those who believe themselves to be Christian MUST surely investigate and thoroughly accept the parameter God, Himself, has established to identify whether or not you are a Heaven bound, ‘Child of God ‘. Judgment Day will be a horror for those who have chosen to avoid fully investigating or accepting His criteria. In case I’ve not made myself completely clear concerning what God’s Word, the Holy Bible, specifically says about those who ‘thought’ they were Saved ending up in Hell… In the below verses I’ve noted that speak of what Jesus will declare on Judgment Day, Jesus is not speaking to those who know they are not Believers. Rather, Jesus will then be solemnly declaring to those who all along presumed themselves to actually be ‘Believers’. The really sad part is that it will then be far, far too late for them to change their mind, change their position. Their, yours and my decision must logically be made while we yet live on Earth. ( Hebrews 9:27 ) – - – It is then too late. They are a mere step away from Hell for Eternity…
Matthew 7:21-23 NIV
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly,
‘I never knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers!’
Is the Holy Bible Really God’s Word?
Does it convey His own Personal Thoughts and Acceptable Standard toward us?
Or is it merely a book of generalities from which we are allowed to develop our own perspectives?
Why is it that mankind,
who from the first of us has maintained no Universal Standard…
still believes his Standard supersedes the foundational Word of God?
If you believe in God and believe He is not only the Creator, but a God who desires to help His Creation both in this life as well as the Afterlife, then reasonably and logically, you must also believe He has both established and placed a system to accomplish just that.
As you read and digest the remainder of this Page, consider the following…
Consideration One
If in your absence your loved one believes there is only one offering in which he or she is able to remain increasingly nurtured by you, your loved one would increasingly devour the details of that offering in order to continue to keep you, your spirit, the whole of your being… close. The offering you left behind was your all inclusive Personal Love Letter which embraced every feeling and teaching that you knew he or she would ever need to positively advance his or her life until your return. Indeed, it was all inclusive. He or she who was left behind would devour its contents and would protect it from any type of contamination from outside sources which forever tried to tell he or she that their loved one really didn’t, ‘say what he meant and mean what he said.’
Consideration Two
With God and His Word, the Holy Bible, the similarity is obviously identifiable. Since its inception, God has continued to maintain active for our benefit His inerrant Word. His ‘Love Letter’ to us. His guide that by its observance offers higher elements of peace, joy, love and happiness. Additionally though, His Holy Spirit is also present and remains active not only to draw us toward Him, but to better guide us toward a more clear understanding of His Word. (John 14:26) That is, those who become and remain interested in devouring His unadulterated Personal Love Letter to mankind. (Deuteronomy 8:3) Just as you would not leave behind something full of errors, a book requiring amendments or clarifications structured to tell people what God really meant, surely not multiples of men to each revise and tell you what God really means, insincere in expressions, etc., etc., etc., God is not only better able to accomplish that feat, but is never changing. (Hebrews 13:8) For our life long benefit, God’s Word, the Holy Bible does in fact, ‘says what it means and means what it says.”
Now then…
People throughout history have always been motivated toward thought and action by desires, goals and fantasies; as well as the creations, writings and endeavors of others… and surely also countless other inspirations. Moreover, because every single person throughout history has a mind of his or her own, the thoughts, actions and pursuits of every person who has ever lived has always been fraught with multiples of differences. Additionally, no person in his or her right mind is able to reasonably contest the certainty that the internal mental and emotional composition of men and women is different. Also, people have various childhood, home as well as educational backgrounds that bring forth differing views. And people with similar home and educational backgrounds still differ when age brackets come into play. Lets also not forget that each of us individually discovers his thoughts and actions vary from what they once did as he or she passes through the escalating ages of life. So too when you add nationalities and couple those nationalities with their own historic political and communal differences. Additionally, cultures vary as do the variety of religions and even the variety and sometimes widely differing teachings within the same sects of each religion.
Any thinking person therefore, clearly recognizes that as displayed in each of the above concepts, standards of living, standards of even a viewpoint of life, itself, can widely differ from one-another. Even people living even within one small community in one nation may well differ widely not only from people worldwide, but even from other people living in the same community. Every single person on the Planet is made up of multiples of consistently changing differences and standards.
The point of those first two paragraphs is to show clearly that because God does indeed want to guide as well as nurture those within His Creation, sensibly, He must have created one single standard that is structured to accomplish that goal. A Standard by which all people will have an un-erring, stable foundation from which to pursue life all the while knowing they are pursuing life along a course that is not only acceptable to the Creator, but the overall course was definitively orchestrated by Him, as well… for their individual benefit!
As noted above, we as the human race often view and experience things in this Physical Realm widely different from one-another. Moreover, we have the opportunity… in fact, our lives bring forth the inevitability to both view and experience a wide variety of Spiritual Realm considerations, as well. Unfortunately though, that prompts a further inevitability. That is, we can and have created our own spirituality. We are, to our discredit, filled with a huge variety of ‘spiritual’ standards. Sometimes even calling the diverse standards we come up with… ‘Biblically based’. After all, among Westerners with Biblical inclinations at least, it is a common propensity among us to keep and adhere to only the Biblical teachings with which we agree, i.e. we ‘pick and choose’ out of the Holy Bible what we will accept… throwing all else out the window all the while striving to convince ourselves that that part of God’s Word doesn’t really apply in this day and age… especially inasmuch as it was written by mere men, anyway. Obviously, by so doing we bring in our own ‘new standard’ and endeavor to believe it’s what the Holy Bible… really …means. It makes no difference, of course, that whomever decides to throw this or that out of Biblical Doctrine really has little idea that the entirety of the Holy Bible contains God’s essential Word to us, each part in some way dependent upon others in order to reach the highest understanding available to us.
How is it that any reasonable, thinking person can come to the conclusion that God allows, perhaps even encourages us to pick and choose… only …those Biblically defined Standards our own thoughts, goals and lifestyle wish to subscribe to? And by reason of such a choice either wholly discount what remains… or even throw the whole of the rest of the Holy Bible out? The question we tend NOT to ask ourselves during this ‘house cleaning’ endeavor though, is whose advise is it we employ when we throw that which we don’t subscribe to out of our minds and hearts? God’s? Or, our own? Will our own determination of what we accept as ‘gospel’ lead to life… or, death? (Prov 12:15; 14:12)
Friend, if we choose to become entirely honest with ourselves,
doesn’t it make sense that when we alter the Word of God to suite whatever aspect of life we wish to change it to,
we have in effect elected ourselves a god over that aspect of His Word?
(Believing that at least in certain arenas of life our Sovereignty supersedes His)
And given the number of people on Earth who either don’t like this or that in the Holy Bible…
or even discount the Holy Bible entirely,
doesn’t such disrespect for His Word suggest that we will allow God to be our God…
but only if He adheres to our will?
Only if God agrees to our own Sovereignty in that particular matter?
After all, because we firmly believe we can pick and choose what we want…
to us, every other aspect of His Word must by necessity become invalid, as well.
So too, naturally, the discounting someone else makes on whatever portion of Scripture conflicts with their own view!
The fact that you might cherish what they’ve discounted
must by necessity of your own standard of correctly throwing this or that out… be meaningless.
That, because their choices to accept or reject whatever they wish…
are as valid to them as yours is to you.
(Or so people would like to believe.)
A false, yet primary ‘justification’
structured to lessen the Authority of His Word
Those who discard the authenticity of the Holy Bible usually believe it is merely a good book whose authorship is limited to well intentioned men who identified usually good and perhaps sometimes inspired concepts. Therein lies the beginning of our answer to the problem of not believing its authority. Such a person has discounted the Holy Bible even when the various authors specifically declare their own writings are not the human author’s own opinions and perspectives regarding who they believed God to be, of what He would want of us and in which manner is a good way to strive to live. (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Friend, the Holy Bible doesn’t even remotely suggest that God wants each of us to pick and choose only those verses and concepts we like, i.e. those we feel will not hinder our ‘lifestyle’ or ‘worldview’ too much. And no, the Holy Bible does not teach us that according to God we can alter whatever we feel is no longer applicable and/or no long valid in these (ever changing) ‘modern times’.
Think about it. If such things were true, then every single generation, and even segmented parts of any generation who has ever lived since the individual writings of the Holy Bible were first documented would each, by succession, also live under the same, supposed, encouragement. In other words, anyone who believes it is OK to pick and choose whatever they’d like and discount the remainder must surely believe that every single person in every generation for at least two thousand years has had that same (God given) ‘right’. After all, inasmuch as that line of thought requires the idea that God originally gave men the authority to write the content of His Word as they saw fit, however inaccurate from God’s perspective it proved to be… then surely included within the Holy Bible is the continuing mandate that God wishes each successive generation to also feel free to alter and fashion its original meaning according to that which has become valid during their generation. If the original writers had the authority to write whatever they wanted, then of course, God would be obligated to give every generation of people throughout history the same ‘right’. Given that outlook, God of course, would have consigned His own Word to invalidate itself within the very first generation after each of the sixty six books had been written. (Such a ‘Plan’ doesn’t sound like a Sovereign God, nor One with the slightest bit of foresight, does it?)
Lastly, though it obviously couldn’t be done, to whom in every generation would we assign the ever changing job to yet again invalidate what had during the previous generation come to be considered ‘God’s historic Word’? Really though… doesn’t that question give rise to the reality the Holy Bible would not only be altered generation by generation, but untold numbers of people within each generation would also (understandably) have that right? Including the right to ‘modernize’ each and every verse or concept according to their own every change ‘modern’ perspective? And not only that, but ‘modern’ perspectives even as they differ among one single generation of people who live in any number of widely differing cultures around the world! Of course! Unless, of course, he or she who had created the current ‘Bible’ declared him or herself to be the ‘real’ or the ‘current Prophet’ of God thereby disallowing anyone else the right to change it as they saw fit.
And if we are authorized to alter the Holy Bible in any manner -
and believe what we want to believe -
then why don’t we all become ‘gods’?
Which, as you know, is a relatively common concept!
I hope it seems overtly apparent that the very concept of having the idea you can change the Word of God to conform to whatever you want it to become includes the fact every single human throughout all history would also have that same so called ‘God ordained right’. If you really believe such a thing, you must believe that either there really is no God at all, or God has ordained such absurdity to be so. (Given our outlook His ‘Amen’.) But, given the vast differences in opinion on virtually every aspect of human life each person, each community, each culture, each Nationality has before and now maintains, surely logic teaches you that the very things you’ve chosen to hold dear are the very things countless numbers of people have chosen to omit from God’s Word. Conversely, the very things you’ve omitted are the very things others hold dear. And when you conclude that each person in each generation from the beginning has also changed whatever they’d like, the Word of God must surely be nothing more than the changing ”Word of Mankind”. (Proverbs 14:10) God, you see, is not the Author of Confusion! (1 Corinthians 14:33)
Truly, the only reasonable, intelligent conclusion anyone can come to is the Holy Bible is… the one and only written Authority inspired by God, Himself. It was written by means of personal inspiration through His chosen men for the purpose of giving the whole of mankind certain helps and sure direction. It is not subjective. It is not given that we might consistently reinterpret it as we’d like. It specifically, ‘says what it means and means what it says’. The Holy Bible stands alone on its own merits and in every respect proves itself by its own Word. God has given no amendments nor updates nor clarifications. With respect to life after death, it is authoritative and intrinsically essential when contemplating the eternal question… ‘Are You Saved Yet‘?
Does God give us the Right to...
Why ‘anti-Bible’ thoughts can only be the thoughts
of un-thinking, un-reasoning men…
If you were a god you’d probably have enough brains to know that if you by your instruction, or even by your overt absence allow or encourage people to do in life things which are against your will or even against a commonly accepted standard of any generation’s mores, what a fool you’d be to hold them accountable for their actions. If for all existence you’d left it entirely up to mankind to not only make their own set of rules, but deemed it correct for each individual to change those rules dependent upon their own intellectual or cultural reality… or even their personal desires of ‘right and wrong’, how is it you could reasonably hold anyone accountable to meet any semblance of your own ‘Standard of Acceptability’?
Think about it. If you have the use of a sufficient number of brain cells to recognize the absurdity of leaving the ‘rules of life and Eternity’ entirely up to however each and every single man or woman throughout all history wished those rules to be… and then held each person accountable because he or she ‘didn’t measure up’ to… your rules …then doesn’t it make sense you’d have placed yourself into a quandary within which you could not with any sense of integrity or honor hold people accountable to your Word?
Do you suppose it’s possible The Creator of all there is has at least that much brain power working for Him? How then could you possibly imagine anything other than the real God having established not only a… Solid Authoritative Standard …by which people would know what He expected of them in their pursuit of Spiritual awareness (additionally – their receipt of the greater heights of peace, joy, love and happiness) but, throughout each generation ensure that Standard, the Holy Bible, remained constant in its educational value? Always clearly depicting that which God desired? Friend, do you suppose God doesn’t maintain the Sovereignty required to orchestrate such a Book? Or the Sovereignty to keep it as His Standard throughout all generations? Do you really expect that God Is One who is recurrently forced to acquiesce to the whims of not only each generation, but to the whims of each person within each generation? Do you really imagine that God ordained, or even accepts the fact that rather than the authority of ‘His Word’, He acquiesces to the authority of the ‘Word of Mankind’?
Truly, friend, doesn’t it make sense that by necessity a ‘just’ God who will in fact hold each of us accountable to His Standard… requires an ‘Absolute Standard’ by which to govern? God has such an exclusive, unchanging and unalterable Word. It is indeed His sole Standard. It is identified as the Holy Bible. In order to ensure the continuing stability of that Standard, His Path – the ‘Handbook for Human Existence’, et al which God, Himself, both originated and has maintained, doesn’t it make sense that even one with the lowliest degree of common sense realizes God simply… must …retain complete, autonomous Authority over it?
After all, what God with even half a brain would give the slightest bit of authority to any man, Organization or faith to alter what He personally declares to be the Standard by which He desires all mankind to live? And by which He will, in fact, Judge all mankind? If God structured His Word to not only give hope and direction for… all …mankind throughout each successive generation, but to offer particularly acute direction in order to with complete finality accurately resolve the question, ‘Are You Saved Yet‘, then it is only a fool who imagines God gives him or her the right to alter and even throw out that which he or she doesn’t like. (Hebrews 10:31)
As a way of reminder in bringing this to a close… If our individual view of God’s Word remains only a matter of our ever changing perspectives of life, doesn’t that automatically prompt many toward arriving at whatever conclusion about any aspect of life they might wish? Even, of course, their ultimate conclusion ends up as believing there is no God? No Heaven. No Judgment Day. No Hell? Of course! Without a Standard, the diversity of man’s perspectives lead people step by step away from the belief in God’s own, unadulterated ‘Handbook for Human Existence, i.e. God’s own Scripture. That same worldview can’t help but ultimately lead them to the incorrect conclusion there is no God at all. And/or… we are all gods!
The very unchanging exhibit which explains who He is, what He stands for and the Plan of Life He has established that we each may have a better guide toward peace, joy, love and happiness in life… is His Own Word, the Holy Bible. The Word of God is in fact, The Very Word of God and is His absolute Authority as it stands alone on its own merits.
Looking at it a little differently…
The long and short of it is that throughout our lives most of us gravitate toward a point that depending upon what we are trying to accomplish, it becomes OK to vary our ethical and/or moral standards depending upon the circumstance at hand. Our word is not necessarily carved in stone. It changes. Constantly. And we justify whatever change we make. Whether dealing with words or even written contracts, it’s not unusual for people to claim that what someone heard or what they thought we meant really wasn’t what we said or meant. The… huge …problem with living a life wherein our word is not necessarily something neither we nor anyone else can wholly depend on is that we end believing that when God’s written Word is in question, we can change that, as well. Worse… we end up believing that God has all along encouraged our altering His Word and justifying our act. (We say, ‘after all, the Holy Bible itself is a book written only by men… so naturally, God not only allows, but probably wants me to change His Word to fit my lifestyle and worldview, too’.) That overview prompts the idea that throughout various parts of the Holy Bible, especially those declarations we disagree with, it becomes proper to believe that what God has said in the Holy Bible really isn’t what He meant. We conclude that God is pretty much like us in that, ‘He doesn’t always say what He means and He doesn’t always mean what He says’. Therefore, slowly but surely… we …more and more become the ‘god’ of our lives with His Word becoming increasingly irrelevant. We think, “why in the world bother with the parts of His Word we disagree with… to me, they are meaningless, anyway.” God then, becomes made in…our …image. (Luke 9: 24)
But, God does not think like we humans. (Is 55: 8-9) Nor does He participate in things that He must in some way justify in order to encourage us to accept Him and His Word.
With specific respect to Biblical Authority, what most of us fail to realize is that God has given through our participation in life, itself, proof of the Authenticity of His Word. Surely in these current times, the clear, indisputable fulfillment of His written Prophesies are proof His Word is Authentic. Only a foolish person could conclude both the ancient Prophetic writings and the precise modern fulfillments of those same Prophesies have been wrought by men. But more than Prophesy… something that man throughout his existence can identify with are the systems of work we day to day enjoin. Everything from farming to repairing an auto engine to rocket science or selling real estate must be done in a prescribed manner in order to ensure a proper result. For instance, I can’t begin farming, become a mechanic, scientist or even sell real estate and throw away prescribed systems simply because I don’t want to believe that’s the way it’s done. I can, of course, create a new system. But to introduce a new, valid system, I must present a new system that accomplishes the tasks to the same degree of validity or better. Mankind has indeed created new systems with respect to what the Holy Bible seems to mean. (Proverbs 14:12) The problem is that no matter how many new systems we introduce and no matter how widely they are accepted… for even those who solemnly believe they are right in their analysis of the Holy Bible, God’s Final Word dictating the Eternal resting place each and every one of us has… individually …chosen will prove mankind’s theories and interjections to be worthless.
With respect to the Authenticity of God’s Word… God has has gone to great lengths in the Holy Bible to prescribe the system in order to ‘fit’ with the betterment of the very people He has created. Just as when a mechanic leaves this or that nut or bolt out of an engine, a realtor refuses to gather a title search, a scientist refuses an honorable empirical study or a farmer pays no attention to soil nutrition, each because he or she doesn’t want to bother with understanding the reasoning behind the established necessity… a New Age, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, (Eastern Religions also) or anyone else who simply does not want to live under the authority of God’s Word also cannot arbitrarily throw away any part of the Holy Bible they don’t agree with without incurring disastrous results… the worst as is noted in the verses below. The reality is that as a rule, people do not think that far in advance. (Our individual deaths or Judgment Day) But just as a mechanic, realtor, scientist or farmer who proceeds contrary to the prescribed systems only to shortly discover things aren’t going as well… so too, someone who by their unstudied beliefs and actions basically tells God to ‘go to Hell’ (Matt 12: 30) because the Created doesn’t wish to prescribe to the Creator’s System. (2 Pet 3: 9)
In The End…
Will it be God’s Word or man’s delusion that prevails?
Now then, let’s examine the following verses to discover what God’s Word solemnly declares will be the afterlife residence of… multitudes of people…who spent their lives believing they knew better than what God’s Word actually declares. Recognize, please, that all those addressed in the below verses believed themselves to be Christians en-route toward Heaven. The only obvious conclusion is they were more intent on believing what… they wanted …God’s Word, the Holy Bible, to say… rather than what it actually says. In other words, they interpreted it to be what they wanted it to be and basically threw away all the passages they didn’t agree with. By so doing, knowingly giving little heed to the whole of the Bible – they condemned themselves. (John 3: 18)
If His Word declares the following will surely happen to those who’ve apparently done so much good for Him… then what about those who gave His Word little relevance? Those who perhaps even felt a little bit ‘godly’ when changing His Word to suit their individual desires? What about you? With respect to following His Word, do you, as those who are noted below, believe you are too righteous to be held to account? What do you imagine will be God’s response on Judgment Day when you attempt to reasonably explain that His Word really didn’t apply to your life in this or that circumstance? Or do you believe God will NOT then abide by His own Word when it comes time for Him to Judge you?
Matt 7:21-23 NIV
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name,
and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Hebrews 10:31 NIV
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
You may wish to also read Matthew, Chapter 25.
How is it that in The End, perhaps even after a lifetime of thinking they were Saved, multitudes were in fact, not? Unless Jesus is a liar and such a thing won’t happen, obviously, many people will be entirely surprised and wholly bewildered by that Judgment Day proclamation of Jesus… who immediately after speaking those words casts into Hell those who affronted His Holy Word by their own personal interpretations (perspectives). How is it that people will unknowingly end up in that position?
To answer that question, we must first wholly accept the reality that God makes the rules solely according to His perspective of the entirety of life as He designed life to be. In the end, for those of us who are made of the mere dust of the Earth, our perspective is not of little, but is actually of… no …import. (Gen 2:7, 1 Cor 15:47)
Friend, doesn’t it make sense to recognize God’s ‘Rules of Life’ are made by a God who is not vulnerable nor compelled toward change due to any man’s changing mood or mind? Doesn’t it also make sense to believe the reality that in His Word God not only says what He means, but means what He says? Moreover, doesn’t it make sense that whatever He has determined to fit into the reality of His design for life, His analysis of Judgment is so appropriate it can never be intelligently argued?
For instance:
(And according to the title of this Page)
An honorable God will not put Himself into a position within which the people of His creation can justly ask Him
why they must go to Hell when, after all, He gave us the Bible and offered our acceptance and use of it
according to how we might ‘feel’ about the proclamations it holds.
(Doesn’t make sense, does it?)
It is only an individual’s foolishness then,
which suggests God gave us a Bible that is not His own unadulterated Word,
absolute in its… authority and proclamations.
Friend, never make the mistake of believing that you might view God’s Holy Word
according to our own ‘perspective’ of what during various points in our lifetime makes sense.
Or, according to your ‘opinion’ of how you wish to interpret it on different issues of life you face.
Friend, have you allowed yourself to honestly investigate the uniqueness of what the Bible… actually …says? If you don’t really have a good understanding of what the Holy Bible really declares, have you foolishly chosen to simply believe what others have taught you to believe it says? The others possibly being as ignorant about the Holy Bible as you? Doesn’t it make sense that it is likely that most of the people identified in the above noted verses (Matthew 7: 21-23) will likely have fallen into that category? Not mean or crazy people, just people who’ve either given their Biblical education over to yet other people’s perspectives, or, given over to their own prideful considerations of not wishing to believe they are personally responsible to God for how they stand before Him according to His Word. That same pride, by the way, prompting them to refuse to diligently investigate what His Word actually says.
I encourage you to not merely read the below noted Scriptures, but take the initiative to thoroughly investigate their meaning by searching out in other verses and concepts the whole of the meaning declared below. By so doing, you’ll not only learn that teachings relative to God’s authority over His own Word are… not …isolated verses and concepts, but they are a part of the whole reality of what the entirety of God’s Word declares. Give yourself a fair start on recognizing that God is indeed the Author of His own Authoritative Word.
2 Peter 1:19-21 NIV
Above all, you must understand
that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV
All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Isa 55:8-9 NIV
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God’s Word becomes more clear and valid
to those who diligently search out that same Word
Any ‘thinking’ person, which God desires we all be, will have questions about the authenticity of the Holy Bible. God understands that. If however, you are… willing to personally investigate …and alter your preconceptions according to new Truths learned, the above and related concepts will lead you toward further developing your education. For your benefit, you may wish to incorporate within what I assume is an… honorable …search for Truth, the very real Truth that neither you (nor I) know all there is to know on the subject. Nonetheless, as with… all spiritual things …God centers our entire education surrounding our willingness to embrace Jesus Christ as our Savior. With that in mind, you may also wish to embrace the following teachings along with your diligent endeavor to understand just who wrote the Holy Bible…
1 Corinthians 2: 1-16 TLB
Dear brothers, even when I first came to you I didn’t use
lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s message.
2 For I decided that I would speak only of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.
3 I came to you in weakness-timid and trembling.
4 And my preaching was very plain, not with a lot of oratory and human wisdom,
but the Holy Spirit’s power was in my words,
proving to those who heard them that the message was from God.
5 I did this because I wanted your faith to stand firmly upon God,
not on man’s great ideas.
6Yet when I am among mature Christians
I do speak with words of great wisdom,
but not the kind that comes from here on earth,
and not the kind that appeals to the great men of this world,
who are doomed to fall.
7 Our words are wise because they are from God,
telling of God’s wise plan to bring us into the glories of heaven.
This plan was hidden in former times,
though it was made for our benefit before the world began.
8 But the great men of the world have not understood it;
if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory.
9 That is what is meant by the Scriptures
which say that no mere man has ever seen, heard, or even imagined
what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord.
10 But we know about these things because God has sent his Spirit to tell us,
and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of God’s deepest secrets.
11 No one can really know what anyone else is thinking
or what he is really like except that person himself.
And no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.
12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit)
to tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and blessing that God has given us.
13 In telling you about these gifts
we have even used the very words given to us by the Holy Spirit,
not words that we as men might choose.
So we use the Holy Spirit’s words to explain the Holy Spirit’s facts.
14 But the man who isn’t a Christian
can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God,
which the Holy Spirit teaches us.
They sound foolish to him
because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them
can understand what the Holy Spirit means.
Others just can’t take it in.
15 But the spiritual man has insight into everything,
and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all.
16 How could he?
For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord’s thoughts,
or to discuss them with him,
or to move the hands of God by prayer.
But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us
a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.
Prov 3:5-6 NIV
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Acts 16: 30-31 KJV
And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
God’s Word becomes more clear and valid
to those who diligently search out that same Word
I dearly encourage you to link to each of the below noted ministries. Each Pastor is long noted as a strong Bible teacher giving no weight to anything except the solid, fundamental Truths found in the Holy Bible. Throughout each of their Websites you’ll discover a wealth of information pertaining to a variety of Biblical teachings. You will do yourself justice by reviewing what they offer…
You may wish to click onto Pastor Charles Stanley’s Website in order to listen to his messages concerning the Authority of the Holy Bible. You’ll find them listed under various titles in their ‘Audio Archive’ section, the first week of June, 2011…
You may wish to click onto Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s Website in order to listen to his messages concerning the Authority of the Holy Bible. You’ll find them under the title, ‘God’s Masterwork’…
Validation of the Bible_Part 2
The Introductory Section of Pastor J. Vernon McGee’s ‘Five Years Through The Bible‘ contains ten programs pertinent to what the best way to study the Holy Bible entails. Three parts are pretty specific to the Authority of Scripture…
You may also wish to click onto Pastor Adrian Rogers’ WebSite in order to view more messages which might give you deeper understanding on a variety of Biblical subjects. Now, though, begin by listening to only one message of a series entitles, ‘Triumph of the Lamb’…
Gaining Victory through The Authority of God’s Word
(The audio takes a short moment to begin playing.)
What does a wide variety of Modern Sciences declare
about the Authenticity of the Holy Bible?
Herein, you are provided with what is surely a mere introduction to the vast amount of information concerning the discovers of Modern Science that are available to us today. Anyone alive over the last several decades has surely realized there has been an immense amount of development within the scope of virtually every aspect of technology. So too, in the realm of Modern Science. Not only the enhancement of techniques of understanding greater depths, but due to the extreme advances in science… the advent of completely new aspects of science. (Daniel 12:4) The first link below takes you to once such example…
A Scientific Introduction to DNA
Another consideration for your review… Part of a Three Part Video Series presented by ‘Get a Life Ministries‘ provides to any reasonable, thinking person a good deal of rational and logical proof (partly scientific) the Holy Bible was inspired not by man alone, but by God, Himself. The only thing lacking in securing greater depths of these Truths is your willingness to honestly seek yet greater depths of those proven Truths by diligently, personally investigating the subject.
For more information, you may wish to start here…
What it all comes down to
is your willingness or unwillingness
to be open minded sufficently well enough
to judge the facts.
Don’t forget the fact of what you see going on around you
and weigh them against Bible Prophesy.
(That should prove God’s Word is Authoritative.)
Check these out…
Believe in the Word of God…
If for no other reason
than the facts of….
1) Biblical Prophesy coming true before your very eyes, and the
2) Technological advances of Modern Science
proving the reality of ‘Intelligent Design’…
Friend, you should re-investigate what
God’s Word, the Holy Bible,
declares about today’s World Reality,
and the soon to arrive Rapture and Tribulation.
PLEASE… PERSONALLY INVESTIGATE
before unwittingly committing The Unforgivable Sin.
Your Eternal Destination is your personally initiated Choice…
You, Alone, Choose Your Eternal Destination.
Choose to Become Born Again.
You may now wish to turn to…
If however,
you aren’t yet inclined to view the Bible as God’s specific, authoritative Word…
