What is The Bible to you as a professing Christian?

JimiTime

This is sparked by what seems to have been a cack-minded assumption on my part in relation to Benny Cake's view of The Bible.

So......

As a professing Christian, what is The Bible to you?

I've seen professing Christians give answers from, 'Its the ultimate authority we have on all things Godly' to 'Its just a collection of books written by people of a certain time, and its wholly outdated'

I thought we could tease it out here.

martinedwards

it confusing and contradictory baseline to bring every dilemma back to for clarification.

I don't care if your church has been doing something for 10/50/500 years because "we always have"

if the bible says its a no no, then you should stop it.

but there are contradictory bits so it all gets much more interesting!!

The Jammy dodger

The Bible is the word of God, not dropped down from heaven but compiled and distributed to us by Jesus through the Church, who decided the canons. So whenever we pick up a Bible, we always are reminded that the Catholic Church decided the canons. Unless it is a KJV in which they then later decided to drop some books from the original version to suit their heretical theology. Its odd, because seeing as the Bible is the sole authority for Christians I wonder where it says in the Bible that they have the authority to change, edit or drop the books.

Benny_Cake

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

The Bible is the word of God, not dropped down from heaven but compiled and distributed to us by Jesus through the Church, who decided the canons. So whenever we pick up a Bible, we always are reminded that the Catholic Church decided the canons. Unless it is a KJV in which they then later decided to drop some books from the original version to suit their heretical theology. Its odd, because seeing as the Bible is the sole authority for Christians I wonder where it says in the Bible that they have the authority to change, edit or drop the books.

I'll leave it to others to respond to that, but cut out the sectarian remarks please, it's not needed here.

philologos

I'm not going to succumb to The Jammy Dodger's bait this time.

However, on a broader point, and one that I've come to more and more over the past few years, and a point that is causing me to grow more and more as a Christian. However, I think the primacy and the authority of God's word is the most important. Irrespective of who you are from the layman to the highest church leader or authority, even the Pope. The Bible comes first.

If we find that when we're confronted with passages that we find difficult, I think submission is the key point. If we read Scripture, and if we find something difficult, the question is are we willing to listen to God, and are we willing to accept His word first over our own. Or are we seeking to make the Bible conform to our own thought. When I read Scripture, am I going to be eager and willing to listen to God and be servant hearted in respect to what I read, or am I going to force God's word to say what I want it to?

I think genuinely that too many people want God to follow their word over God's word. From individuals who say that the Bible is just another book, to church authorities who assert that what they teach is above Scripture, above God's very words. By the by, I am very guilty of this myself, and I need to be rebuked by Scripture. Yes, rebuked. Scripture is intended to rebuke and challenge us, and to discipline us and correct us. God disciplines His people, as any loving father would (Hebrews 12:3-17). God's will comes first. My will cannot supersede Scripture at all. Irrespective of how I choose to rebel against God, twisting His word won't work. Why? God is surely going to judge the world in righteousness. I won't fool Him. I can't fool Him. He is sovereign and His will will come to pass.

When the use of Scripture is mentioned by Paul in 2 Timothy, he says the following:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 wrote:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Scripture is intended to rebuke, the Scripture is intended to correct, the Scripture is intended to train us in righteousness. When I ignore Scripture, and when anyone else ignores Scripture and says that their opinion is above God's they are refusing to be trained. We are refusing to be corrected. We are refusing to humbly submit to God's word.

If I refuse to submit to God - how on earth can I say that Jesus is my Lord? If I follow the world's opinion over Jesus' He's not my Lord. The world, and the lord of the world (Satan) is my lord also. It's harsh to say, but Biblically it is true. Why do we insist on submitting to the world before submitting to Jesus?

When I say the Lord's prayer, in the old sounding English I learned it in I say "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

Whose will? Whose kingdom? = God's will. Not my will.

The Christian is one who realises that God has come into the world to rescue people from sin. Jesus in the Hebrew literally means YHWH salvation or God saves. Why on earth would we still say that we are boss? Jesus came and as He died we died to sin (Romans 6), and He rose again to bring us to new life?

How can we go back to sin and say that it is our master, when we claim that Jesus is our Lord?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Christians won't struggle with sin, but I am saying if we accept the philosophy of the world above Jesus and His word, and if we refuse stubbornly to be conformed to God, there's something wrong. We are called to love what God loves, and hate what God hates.

Jesus is my commanding officer, if I really believe that I'll need to be rebuked by Him, corrected by Him, disciplined by Him, and I must say that Jesus is my Lord first. Not my selfish will, not my church leader, not the Pope, nobody but Jesus is my Lord. The world and the lord of the world (Satan) is not my boss any more, Jesus is. I still struggle with sin, but I need to come back to Jesus and be willing to be corrected by Him, and humbly submit to Him, and humbly repent before Him. He's my commanding officer, not the world, and not the former reign of sin (Romans 6:10-14).

This world is not my home, the new creation is (2 Corinthians 5:1-9). I can't belong to sin any longer, I need to change, and keep changing, and keep learning.

That's my hope that 2013 will bring me more under Jesus. He's my boss, I want to trust Him. There's no other King or no other Lord in all creation worth listening to in comparison to Him. How blasphemous then would it be for me to suggest that I should follow the world's philosophy over Christ? How can I even call myself someone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord if I stubbornly refuse to do what He says, and live as He lives?

Funnily enough, I've noticed the more and more I submit to Christ, the more and more the world thinks I'm nuts, but the world isn't my Lord, Jesus is.