The Living Word In The Bible

The Bible is the written Word of God. It begins with God and ends with God. All of its contents concern Him.

The Bible is not a record of man’s quest for God. The Bible is God’s message to man.

It is an unfolding of God’s truth to man so man might find a path back to

God and a basis for fellowship with Him.

Our faith can rest upon the Word of God.

The written Word reveals the Living Word.

With a solid scriptural foundation, we can intelligently and convincingly present the Good News.

The Bible is the source of Christianity in that the Bible contains the inspired words of God and how Christians are to apply it to their lives.

It is not a man-made faith arrived at by the faulty guesses of men.

God chose to give man a trustworthy account of

(2 Tim.

3:16–17)

Inspiration is a special act of the Holy Spirit by which He guided the writers of Scripture. It was written by human hands, molded in some degree by human thought, and using human words. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the writers were prevented from writing anything but what God intended. Their words were free from error and omission and they conveyed the thoughts that the Holy Spirit desired.

The writers of the Bible claim to write the very words of God. The Bible is filled with expressions such as, “God said . . .,” “the Lord spake saying . . .,” “the Lord commanded . . .,” “the Word of the Lord came unto me . . .”

The Bible never states that the men who wrote were inspired; only their writings were inspired. The men were fallible; the Scripture they wrote is infallible. Moses lost his temper and killed a man, but that does not change the fact that the Holy Spirit kept him from error as he wrote the Pentateuch (Books of Moses and the Law). A similar statement could be made about David. He sinned, and yet God used him to record portions of the infallible Word. Each of the Bible writers used only those words in their vocabulary that the Holy Spirit approved and prompted them to

The Bible presents all sides of truth, and all Scripture must be considered, for seldom does a single passage contain the entire teaching on a subject. Contradictions disappear as study continues. To illustrate, Paul states that salvation is by faith:

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Rom. 4:5)

While James says, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” ( Jas. 2:24)

Both are right. Faith alone saves, but it results in good works. Paul rightly states that salvation is by faith alone, and James warns against an alone faith. One condemns works without faith; the other, faith without works.

The Holy Spirit

Finally, Bible interpretation must involve the Holy Spirit. If we are to know the message of the Bible, we need the aid of the heavenly Interpreter, the Holy Spirit, who has promised to lead us into all truth.

The Bible requires study. Its hidden depths will not be revealed to the superficial reader. The most important book to use in the study of the Bible is the Bible itself.

Too many people read many books about the Bible but not the Bible itself. True Bible study must begin with the Bible, for the Bible itself is