The Word of God or the Word of Men - Part 1

1 Thessalonians 2v13

30^th July 2021

1 Thessalonians 2v13
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

You know the expression "everybody's entitled to their opinion". That's true up to a point. Some things are a matter of opinion. You might like one composer's music more than another's, or one painter's landscapes more than another's. You might think one football team is more worthy of support than another. But some things are not a matter of opinion. The earth is not flat. If you think it is, you're wrong. The sun is hotter than the moon. If you think it isn't, you're wrong. 2 and 2 make 4. And so on. In football terms again, you can have a preference for one club over another but if you think Halifax Town have won the Premier League more often that Manchester United, you're wrong.

The word of God is not a matter of opinion. If God says something, then what He says is true. The Christians at Thessalonica listened to what Paul and his friends had to say. When they'd thought about it, they accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God. The Thessalonians believed the message was true, and it changed their lives. Paul, Silas and Timothy were so thrilled about this that they thanked God continually because of it. Belief that the Bible is not the word of men but is the word of God, is a vital part of the foundation of a healthy, joyful, fruitful Christian life.

Please take this extremely seriously. Each of us needs to make his mind up. Is the Bible the word of God, or is it the word of men, or is it a sort of hybrid? There are plenty of people who will tell you that the Bible is a very nice religious book, with some helpful ideas in it, but that it also contains flaws, inaccuracies and errors. They will tell you that some of its historical information is plain wrong, the some of its ethical teaching is positively bad, that its ideas about men, women and many other things are outdated. Some people even believe that some passages of the Bible should be banned from public display.

What about us? Do we receive the Biblical message as the word of God, as the Thessalonians did, do we reject it as an outdated religious text that has some good ideas and some bad ideas, or do we take a sort of middle ground, in which we accept the Bible, except when we disagree with it?

If we truly accept the Bible as the word of God, then we'll not only trust it; we'll revere it. And if we revere it, we'll be less tempted to distort its words to suit ourselves. We'll genuinely want to know what it means, rather than trying to make it say what we already believe.

This is very important, especially for young Christians because, sooner or later, you'll find something in the Bible that you wish wasn't there. It will be very helpful to you if you've decided that everything in the Bible is true before you find the passage that you wish wasn't true. Otherwise, when you find it, you may be tempted to choose to believe the Bible is not perfect, or to more-or-less deliberately misinterpret it, so you won't have to change your mind about what it says, and amend your world-view and your life accordingly.

There is a sense in which men wrote the Bible (we think all the Bible writers were men). It was men who actually put pen to paper, or stylus to papyrus. They were godly, prayerful men. But did they simply write what they thought was true? Did they merely describe history as they understood it? Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John merely write about Jesus so far as they understood Him, or were their words inspired by God?

When the prophets wrote "This is what the Lord says…" were they merely writing what they thought God should say, or what they would say if they were God? Or did they write what they actually heard God say? How bold, how irreverent it would be to claim God said something if He didn't. To do so would be to break the Third Commandment.

Was God totally in control of what they wrote, so that every word of the Bible is exactly what God intended it to be? We need to make our minds up. I've made my mind up. I believe the Bible is absolutely perfect. So did Peter and Paul:

2 Peter 1:19-21 (latest NIV)
We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I realise that self-praise is no recommendation. If somebody told you that he always told the truth, that may also be a lie. But the Bible is better than that, isn't it? If both St Peter and St Paul claim infallibility for the Bible, I'm willing to believe them. And the more I study the scriptures for myself, the more confidence I have in their reliability.

Peter tells us that the prophetic message is completely reliable. He says no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. Rather, prophets… spoke from God. That is, God wrote the Bible, so it's completely reliable. It's what we call "inerrant", without error. Men didn't merely write what they thought might be helpful, what they thought God was probably saying, what probably happened. They wrote what God caused them to write.

The human writers of the Bible were not just human typewriters, writing what God dictated to them. God uses our human wills and our human understanding. But the Holy Spirit convinces us of the truth, and He's wise enough and powerful enough to ensure the Bible writers wrote exactly what He wanted them to write.

And why would God want His holy book to contain errors?

Paul takes this idea further. He says that every word of scripture is God-breathed. Not merely inspired by God, not merely guided by God. Every word of scripture came out of God's mouth.

So we understand the men wrote the Bible, and we understand that God wrote the Bible. Both are true. But God was always in absolute control of what was written.