The Bible is the Word of God!

There is a dangerous teaching going around that claims that “the Bible is not the Word of God”. It’s a dangerous teaching that will cause many to go astray and into deception. They claim that the Word of God is in us and that we have an inward witness and therefore THIS is our final authority, NOT the Bible. Everything in the Bible must then be filtered through our inward witness and if it doesn’t line up to the “Word of God in us” then we don’t have to accept it and can dismiss it or change it. This is absolutely a recipe for distortion, error, deception, going astray, shipwrecking one’s faith and destruction in people’s lives.

The truth is we don’t submit the Bible to our inward witness, we submit our inward witness to the Bible. The Bible is our final authority and the Holy Spirit in us helps us to understand it. Doing proper Bible study will help us to rightly divide and handle the Word of God so that we can understand it in its correct context and apply it appropriately to ourselves today. We have absolutely no authorisation from Christ to reject or correct the Bible and force it to line up with our inward witness of what we perceive as the “Word of God in us”. As soon as people feel they don’t have to submit to the truth of the Bible they WILL stray further and further into error. This is what 1 and 2 Timothy is all about and what Paul STRESSED with apostolic fervor!

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, RIGHTLY HANDLING THE WORD OF TRUTH. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have SWERVED FROM THE TRUTH, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.”

-2 Timothy 2:15–18 ESV

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and IMPOSTERS will go on from bad to worse, DECEIVING and being DECEIVED. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the SACRED WRITINGS, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All SCRIPTURE is BREATHED OUT BY GOD and PROFITABLE for TEACHING, for REPROOF, for CORRECTING, and for TRAINING in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

-2 Timothy 3:12-17 ESV

Yes the Scriptures were written by men but Paul calls them “God breathed” and “sacred writings”. They are not someones inner subjective truth, it’s the written God breathed sacred Word of God! It is the objective standard of truth that we align our lives to, that we use to establish sound doctrine, that we use to rebuke, reprove and correct people who are straying into deception and error, and it’s the Word of God that we use to train and equip the Body of Christ.

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the WORD; be ready in season and out of season; REPROVE, REBUKE, and EXHORT, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure SOUND TEACHING, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will TURN AWAY from listening to the TRUTH and WANDER OFF into myths.”

-2 Timothy 4:1-4 ESV

Some questions to consider:

1. How do you “swerve from truth” if there is no objective standard of truth?
2. How do you determine if someone is following the truth or wandering off into myths if you don’t have an objective standard of truth?
3. How do you correct someone back into truth if all truth is subjective to one’s inner witness?
4. How do you establish sound doctrine, that all believers should follow and which leads to a unity in the faith, if there is no objective standard of truth? If doctrine is subjective to each believer’s inner witness then there can be no common sound doctrine and no unity of the faith.
5. What if my inner witness doesn’t agree with the Bible? What if my inner witness wants to change the Bible? Is it possible that my inner witness could be wrong? Is it possible I think my inner witness is the Holy Spirit but actually it’s a demon?

The reason why there are so many erroneous doctrines is because people are not following the Scriptures but something else.

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any DIFFERENT DOCTRINE”

-1 Timothy 1:3 ESV

“Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the PUBLIC READING of SCRIPTURE, to exhortation, to teaching…Keep a CLOSE WATCH on yourself and on the TEACHING. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

-1 Timothy 4:11-13,16 ESV

“Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, CORRECTING his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the TRUTH, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

-2 Timothy 2:23-26 ESV

“But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with GOD’S WORD, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

-2 Corinthians 4:2 ESV

Yes the Holy Spirit is our inner witness and this is important but Scripture (in context) must always be our final authority. The Holy Spirit will always lead us to align with Scripture and never against it! We should never feel the need to change Scripture. If we are feeling that way, you can be sure, your inner witness is not the Holy Spirit!

God Bless.
Ryan Rufus.

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