The Bible
An ancient inscription on a pillar in the crypt of what is now a church in Rome reads,
‘But God’s word is not chained.’
There is a tradition that Paul was imprisoned there. This brave apostle was not disheartened by the problems he was facing as he had full confidence that God would continue to spread the gospel about Jesus Christ. He told Timothy, who was by then helping to lead the church at Ephesus to remain true to Christ and the gospel. He says,
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised form the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.” 2 Timothy 2:8-9
In the past people have valued the Scriptures highly. May jones was born in a Welsh village of Llanfihangel in 1784. From the age of eight, she walked two miles each day to read a neighbour’s Bible as he family did not own a copy. When she was ten to sixteen years old she saved every penny she could so she could buy a Bible. Finally, by 1800 she had saved enough and she then had to walk twenty five miles each way to purchase one. The minister she bought it from, Mr Thomas Charles, was so impressed that it led to the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804.
The apostle Paul knew that his execution was fast approaching and he wrote this final letter to his successor, Timothy, to encourage him to continue the work he had been commissioned to do. In this letter he wrote:
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:15-17
What is the Bible?
The Scriptures have always been the authority for both the Jews and for Christians. In this passage Paul uses a strange phrase to describe them – they are ‘God-breathed’. When we speak, we breath out and make sounds using our larynx and tongues. This phrase is saying that God is speaking to us through his Scriptures. This phrase is explained in the Old Testament by a typical Hebrew parallelism, where a single idea is repeated in a different way:
“By the Word of the LORD the heavens were made, Their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33:6
God’s word has great power. The stages in the creation of the universe were all initiated by,
“And God said . . .” Genesis 1:3, 6, 9,11,14, 20, 24, 26, 29
In the Bible there are 66 books, written by around 40 human writers over 2,500 years. Different styles and languages are used, yet behind them all is God. The human words are God’s words, written in the context of that time but with a timeless message for all humanity. The phrase, ‘God said’ comes 505 times in the Bible.
Paul wrote about the privilege of being raised as a Jew,
“The Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.” Romans 3:2
Jesus himself was adamant about the role of Scripture,
“Scripture cannot be put aside.” John 10:35
When debating with the Sadducees he said,
“You are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Matthew 22:29
Jesus told some Jews who were persecuting him,
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.” John 5:39
The Old Testament contains around 330 prophecies about the coming Messiah; his family background, place of birth, his role as a preacher, his death by crucifixion and his resurrection are all foretold.
This passage by Paul to Timothy is a reminder to us that the only sure way that God speaks to people is through his word, the Bible.
Unfortunately many are told today that God speaks to people in different ways. In the 1930’s a group called ‘the Oxford Group’ encouraged their members to have a time of meditation in the morning and write down any idea they had on a piece of paper. They really believed that this was how God spoke to them. This group became known as ‘Moral Rearmament’ and had only a transient influence. Today there are many who will similarly say, after having an idea, ‘God has spoken directly to me . . .’ This is a dangerous line to follow as it is the path by which so much false teaching and so many erroneous groups have begun.
The role of a sermon in a church service is very important but only if the preacher is teaching and explaining God’s word to people. Any preacher who uses the pulpit to advocate his own ideas about how the world could be a better place should be banished from the pulpit. However a true preacher will invite you to open the Bible and to think about what God is saying there.
Some churches put more emphasis on singing and ‘worship’ in their services than listening to God’s word. Surely what God has to say to us is much more important than what we say or sing to him. Our worship should always be in response to what he says to us.
Some years ago Bishop Paul Barnett, an Australian, attended the Lambeth conference for Anglican bishops from all over the world. He was in a group asked to deal with the issues of human sexuality. It was this group that caused the great controversy within Anglican churches. Paul Barnett explained Jesus’ teaching that marriage is a lifelong commitment of one man and one woman. At this point an American liberal bishop challenged him, saying,
“I believe we must preach against such teaching.”
So startled and shocked were a group of African bishops that they walked out in protest. Whether, in hindsight, they would have been better to stay and state their view is a mute point because it left Paul Barnett and one other bishop to fight their corner alone. He asked the American bishop,
“Why do you oppose the teaching of Jesus?”
The reply shot back,
“Since the church wrote the Bible in the first place, so it may rewrite it in the twentieth century if they wish!”
Such an astonishingly arrogant attitude still persists in many denominations today. Scripture cannot be rewritten. The church didn’t write the Bible, the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament wrote the words of God to correct how people were thinking and to draw them back from apostasy. The only people who could have their writings admitted into the New Testament were those that originated from an apostle.
Yes, these writers were human, so were they not prone to error. Paul answers this idea by saying that,
“. . . all Scripture is God-breathed.”
The apostle Peter answered the same query,
“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Spirit.”
The Greek word used here for ‘carried along’ is also used in the bible of a great gale that carried a ship onto the rocks – the wind was irresistible.
Those men spoke from God, so no-one may rewrite, alter or add to the Word of God, these are his what he says to all people at all times. Paul wrote to the troubled church at Corinth,
“Learn from us the meaning of the saying, ‘Do not go beyond what is written,” 1 Corinthians 4:6
John wrote at the end of his book of last book in the Bible,
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. If anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” Revelation 22:18
From these words it is apparent that John knows the words he wrote to be of divine importance.
John Wycliffe (1324 - 1384)was an Oxford don who came to realise the importance of Scripture and helped to lead the churches out of the Dark Ages. In his book, ‘Of the Truth of Holy Scripture’ he wrote,
Holy Scripture is the faultless, most true, most perfect, and most holy law of God which it is the duty of all men to learn, to know, to defend and to observe, inasmuch as they are bound to serve the Lord in accordance with it, under the promise of an eternal reward.”
Wycliffe faced much opposition for his stance. In an English tract, ‘The Wyckett’ he wrote,
“If God’s word is the life of the world, and every word of God is life to the human soul, how may any anti-Christ, for dread of God, take it away from us that be Christian men and thus suffer the people to die for hunger in heresy and blasphemy of men’s laws that corrupteth and slayeth the soul?”
Today, similarly there are many in the world who are dying spiritually from ‘biblical malnutrition’.
What is the purpose of the Bible?
Our passage gives us just two answers to this question,
a. “The Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. . .” 2 Timothy 3:15
b. “ . . . and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
a. The Scriptures have been given to us all so we may learn how we can be saved, to become one of God’s own people, by putting our faith in Jesus. This is the greatest privilege anyone can be given. What a tragedy it is therefore that the Scriptures are so seldom taught in our schools – or even in many churches. If there were a national test for all church goers to see how much people have learned over the years about what Jesus and his apostles taught, it is doubtful if many would do well. Could people explain how a person can get right with God and so avoid god’s anger at our sinful rebellion against him. In a conversation with a young lady who has recently entered into a relationship with a non-Christian boyfriend, it was apparent that she did not want toknow what the Scriptures teach about this.
b. After people have been saved by committing themselves to living for Christ, they then need to know how God wants them to live. This is why the second purpose of Scripture is for ‘teaching and training in righteousness’.
What a great privilege it was for Timothy to have been raised in a home where the Scriptures were valued and therefore taught. His father was Greek but his mother and grandmother were sincere Jews who ensured that,
“ . . . from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures.” 2 Timothy 3:15
It is a lovely picture of this family, perhaps at breakfast or at the Bible time before bed, sitting around the Scriptures, reading them and discussing what god is saying therein. Knowledge of what the bible teaches is so important but this must be followed.
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of.” 2 Timothy 3:14
These words are significant. ‘Learned’ implies both understood and memorised. How we need to return to memorising Scripture in our churches. ‘Convinced of’ implies that the issues were debated and discussed and contrary opinions thought through before being found wanting and rejected.
Paul adds another phrase that implies that being ‘people of the book has a beneficial effect on people,
“. . . because you know those from whom you earned it.” 2 Timothy 3:14
Many of us can look back and see the character, steadfastness and godliness of those people. To spend time with God every day does change us. I never forget how my godly mother used to go into her sewing room every day to spend time with God, both reading the Bible and praying. She once wrote to me saying,
“The world puts our attempts to live by different standards down to personal whim or fancy. It looks on us rather in the category of the lady whose recent obituary notice remarked ‘that her chief hobby was religion!’
What can’t Scripture do?
This is so important. Scripture cannot save us, all it can do is make us wise and lead us to Christ. I have just re-read C.S.Lewis’ ‘The Great Divorce’. This describes a dream in which a bus load of peoplefrom hell are taken to visit heaven. They feel most uncomfortable. One person from hell had been a theologian and he meets up with an old college friend who was in heaven. Both of them had studied Scripture but the one in hell had never listened to God about his need of being saved. He had not recognised how serious his rebellion against God was.
Just as a knowledge of Scripture cannot save us, neither can any of the ‘means of grace’. Receiving the sacraments of baptism and communion cannot save. Confirmation and even ordination cannot save us. All these do is point us to the only person who can save us, the Lord Jesus himself. These rites all teach that a real subservient relationship with Jesus is vital both for salvation and for living the Christian life.
“The Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. . .” 2 Timothy 3:15
Our schools and universities should be places where all of life is brought together under one head and so make sense. That is why our universities are so named. They should be places to bring unity out of diversity. People put so much credence into obtaining knowledge and in scholarship but if the source of everything we have been given is forgotten then no harmony and no unity will be found. All our scholarship cannot save us for eternity. Paul wrote to the Corinthians on this matter. He quotes form the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament when he writes,
“For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligentI will frustrate,’ Where is the wise person? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world, through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:19-21
Men cannot find God or approach him on our own. We need a Saviour. Some years ago the actor, Sir Ralph Richadson, was interviewed by his old friend Peter Hall. This took place some sixmonths before sir Ralph died from a severe stroke. Sir Ralph asked Peter,
“Do you believe in God?’
“No,” Peter said, “I just worry!”
Then Sir Ralph said,
“I believe. I try to be as decent as I can, not hurt anyone much, you know. I don’t think I’ve been too bad. I was thinking the other day. When I die and go up to the pearly gates, do I expect a chap there to welcome me and say, ‘Hello, Richardson. Come in!”
This is so revealing. He thinks he will be acceptable to God because ‘I try to be as decent as I can.’
If we can be saved by beiing as decent as we can then there is no need for churches to teach us God’s way. Yet this is the contemporary creed of so many. On a recent walk with my dog I met another dog owner and after a conversation I asked him how he thinks he will get on when he meets God. He replied,
“Oh, I expect I will muddle through. I don’t really think about such things much!”
How such people need to hear what the Bible teaches, that no-one is righteous in God’s eys, that we have all sinned (Romans 3:11, 23). Everyone needs to know both that God’s anger will remain on all people who refuse to turn back to God, that ‘trying to be as decent as we can’ will never make us good enough to allow us to live in the presence of a righteous God. The bible teaches that salvation is a gift of God and that this is only given to those who are committed to following the Lord Jesus, God’s only Son. The Bible is clear,
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36
Similarly belonging to a church where the bible is taught cannot save us. All churches can do is point us to the Lord Jesus who alone is the source of eternal life.
It needs to be explained to some people that the Bible is not God’s textbook about everything. Don’t go to the Bible to learn about nuclear physics, how to solve quadratic equations or modern chemistry or physics. The Scriptures were written by men who had the understanding about the world that existed at their time. I have recently read the letter that Galileo wrote to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany in 1615 in which he brilliantly dismisses the way some churchmen have misconstrued the words of the Bible to say that the advances he has discovered cannot be true as these discoveries go against the bible’s teaching. In this letter he quotes the advice given by his friend Cardinal Baronius,
“The intention of the Bible is to teach us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go!”
What should be the effect of Scripture on Christians?
Paul wrote,
“ . . . so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped . . .” 2 Timothy 3:17
All Christians need to be thoroughly trained so that we live as God wants us to. Paul uses four words that come in two couplets,
a. ‘for teaching and rebuking’
The Bible must be used positively to teach the truths of the faith and negatively to refute error,
b. ‘for correcting and training’
To ‘correct’ someone is to stop them going astray and ‘training’ is positive, helping people live as God wants. Jesus clearly expects all people to be subject to the Word of God and to let it control how we think and live. Today there are many Christian teachers who sit in judgment of Scripture. This is nothing new. Martin Luther, the Christian reformer said to Erasmus the great humanist scholar,
“The difference between you and me, Erasmus, is that you sit above Scripture and judge it, while I sit under Scripture and let it judge me.”
How we all need to be taught to live as God wants. If we are Christians we need to ensure that we are teaching the Scriptures well. Are we encouraging people to memorise Scripture and think how this applies to our lives. The church leaders jobs are primarily to train us in Scripture.
A survey was made of 4000 members of 114 evangelical churches across the USA. They were asked,
“Do you feel the preaching on Sunday relates to what is going on in your life?”
Over eighty-three per cent saw virtually no connection between what they heard on Sunday morning and what they faced on Monday morning. There is clearly a problem here as the Bible is highly relevant to every day life.
The effect of the Bible should to make us think. Christians should never be blinkered fundamentalists who have closed their minds. God gave us minds with which to seek him and to understand his world. There must be harmony between God’s truths revealed by good science and what God teaches in his word.
In the book ‘Essentials, a liberal-evangelical dialogue’, the great bible teacher, John Stott, answers the criticisms of a liberal theologian. He writes,
“What worries me is your Biblical selectivity. In later writings you reject traditional Christian teaching about the atonement, miracles, homosexual partnerships, and the awful reality of hell, not on the ground that you consider it unbiblical, but because on other grounds you find it unacceptable.” (1)
It is interesting to read what those who are getting ordained in the Church of England understand to be their life’s work. The Bishop asks various questions and they respond. Amongst the questions asked are the following,
“Do you believe the holy Scriptures as uniquely revealing the word of God and containing all things necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?” “I do.”
“Do you believe the doctrine of the Christian faith which this church has received, and will you expand and teach it with diligence?” “I believe it and will do so.”
“Will you be ready to banish error in doctrine with sound teaching based on the holy Scriptures?” “With God’s help, I will.”
“Will you be diligent in prayer, in reading holy Scripture, and in all studies that will deepen your faith and fit you to overcome error by the truth of the gospel? “With God’s help, I will.”
May all Christians return to this understanding that Jesus and his apostles had, to be ‘people of the book’. John Bunyan spent twelve years in prison in Bedford for teaching the Bible’s message to people. He admitted, “I was never out of my Bible.”
Jerome (347-420AD), spent much of his life translating the Bible into Latin and writing commentaries on the books of the Bible. His bible translation became known as the Vulgate version. He concluded,
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”
In recent years the exciting story of Pitcairn Island and the mutiny of the Bounty has been popularized in newspaper articles and books. There is one incident in that story which is worth retelling. The mutineers sank their ship and landed with their native women on the lonely island named Pitcairn. There were nine white sailors, six natives, ten women, and a girl of fifteen. One of the sailors discovered a method of distilling alcohol, and the island colony became debauched with drunkenness and vice. After a time only one of the white sailors who had landed survived, surrounded by native women and half-breed children. This sailor, Alexander Smith, found in one of the chests that had been taken from the Bounty a copy of the Bible. He began to teach its message to his fellow exiles with the result that not only did he become a Christian but so did the others on that island colony. In 1808 the United States ship Topaz visited the island and found a thriving and prosperous community, without whiskey, without a jail, without crime, and without an insane asylum. The Bible had changed the life of that island community.
This is the effect the Bible can have, which says,
“The unfolding of your words gives light.” Psalm 119:130
David L Edwards with a response from John Stott, ‘Essentials, a liberal – evangelical dialogue’, Hodder and Stoughton 1988 p. 104-105
