The Importance of God's Word

Have you ever pondered the true significance of the Bible in your daily life? In this episode of Faithfullyliven, we discuss how it  the Bible provides a foundation for our beliefs, historical context for Christianity's origins, and a source of personal transformation. The Bible fosters unity within the Christian community, transcending cultural and denominational differences. Hopefully, this episode will deepen your understanding of why the Bible remains a vital part of our faith journey today.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast, where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hey everyone, welcome to Faithfully living, the podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for christ faithfully by offering guidance on how to study the bible, how to understand the bible better and how to remain faithful to historic christianity and a contemporary society. So let me ask you a question what is your view of the Bible? Do you trust it? Take some time to think about it. We're going to start a new series about all things Bible. The topics are going to vary to cover topics like how we got the Bible we have now, why the Bible is, and should be, an important part of our lives as believers. So I hope you stay tuned over the next couple of episodes to hear and learn more. So clearly we know that, as followers of Christ, that the Bible is important and what we believe about the Bible is essential to our life. In his book, the Doctrine of Scripture, an Introduction, mark Thompson says Christian interest in, and even devotion to the teachings of the Bible is integral to Christian discipleship. It is difficult to sustain the claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ if you do not take the words he endorsed the Old Testament and those he commissioned the New Testament seriously. So let's talk about the reasons why the Bible is important. The Bible is important, alright. First off, let me just say this is not an all-inclusive list. These are just some of them that come to mind. So why is the Bible important? It's God's divine revelation. You know we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It contains truths about God's nature, his will for us as people and humanity. It also chronicles the story of his interactions with his creation. It's God's message for her.

Speaker 1: 2:38

The Bible is also part of our foundation of faith. It serves as the foundation for our Christian faith and it provides a basis for belief, doctrines and practice of our faith. And then also, the Bible is a guide for our life. We often call it a guidebook. It gives us wisdom, provides us moral principles for navigating challenges or decisions we have to make that we want to be within God's will. The Bible is also a source of spiritual nourishment. It provides us encouragement, comfort, it gives us strength, you know, when we go through trials and difficult situations, and also as believers. It gives us a way to know how to be saved. It tells us the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ and how we as people can be reconciled to God through the atonement of Christ's sacrifice for us.

Speaker 1: 3:46

The Bible also helps us understand and know God's character. So as we read through the Bible, the stories, the teachings, its revelations, it helps us to know who God is, his character. We see things like his love, his justice, his faithfulness, his mercy to you know those people in the Bible, and the same God that's in the Bible is the same God that we serve today. The Bible also provides us with a historical context for understanding the origins of Christianity, understanding the origins of Christianity. It gives us the culture and social milieu of biblical times and the development of God's covenant relationship with humanity. The Bible can also assist us with personal transformation. You know, christ gives us a new life when we give our lives to him. The bible has the power to transform our lives, renew our minds. It can, it can convict our hearts and leaders toward repentance, faith and spiritual growth. And then also the last one, which is I I kind of like is that it provides a place for community and unity among believers. So it's kind of like a unifying source or force for us as christians that we have a common source of authority, belief and practice that can transcend culture, denomination and linguistic differences. So you see, there's a variety of reasons why the Bible is important for us as believers.

Speaker 1: 5:38

All right, on the other side of looking at the Bible is looking at the systematic theology, where there's a doctrine called bibliology. It is a doctrine of the Bible. There are various aspects of this doctrine. We have the inerrancy of scripture, the authority of scripture, the clarity of scripture, the necessity of scripture and the sufficiency of scripture and, of course, you know I always like to define terms. So I'm going to briefly define all of these for you and then in later episodes we're going to look at them a little bit more closely. So first of all we're going to look at the inerrancy of the word, the definition it says.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Paul Finberg defines the inerrancy as follows when all the facts are known, the scriptures in their original autographs, so the original in which they were written, and properly interpreted, will be shown to be wholly true in everything they affirm, whether it has to do with doctrine or morality or with the social, physical or life sciences. It is a belief in the total truthfulness and reliability of God's word. So just a side note that we don't have the original autographs anymore. We have copies of the scripture. There are multiple copies that were transcribed throughout the years. So there are hundreds and hundreds of copies of the Bible. We just don't have the originals in which the original writers wrote them. Just to get back on track, we should believe that the Bible is without error. That was in conferences, in errancy when it was originally written. So the doctrine of biblical errancy is essential because it's a matter of truth, it reflects on the character of God and is foundational to our understanding of everything that the Bible teaches. All right.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Next is going to be the definition of the authority of scripture, and the rest of the definitions are going to be from Wayne Grudem's systematic theology. So the definition of the authority of scripture. The authority of scripture means that all the words in scripture are God's words in such a way. So the authority of scripture depends on the power and supremacy of its author, which is God. So we know in scripture that scripture is God breathed, that scripture is God-breathed. 2 Timothy 3.16 says All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. Scripture is God-speaking and has a final word in all matters, whether we choose to submit to it or not. Next we have the clarity of scripture. The clarity of scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that it is able to be understood.

Speaker 1: 8:47

But right understanding requires time, effort, use of ordinary means, a willingness to obey and the help of the Holy Spirit, and our understanding will remain imperfect in this lifetime. So when we read and study the Bible, you know, I'm sure you come across passages that are easy to understand and then others that are more difficult to understand. So the Bible was written, so that a person can learn what is needed to be a follower of Christ and how to live as one. Then we have the necessity of scripture. It means that the Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life and for knowing God's will, but it is not necessary for knowing that God exists or for knowing something about God's character and moral law. So to be a follower of Jesus, we need the Bible. It's going to be our guide for life and what brings glory to God. And then our last, one last definition is going to be the sufficiency of scripture. It means that scripture contains all the words of god we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly and for obeying him perfect. So this kind of means that we need the bible to equip us for faith and service to god, so no other writings are necessary for this good news to be understood, or any other writings required to equip us for a life of faith. So what we believe about the Bible shapes how we view its place in our lives. I love this quote by Charles Hatton Spurgeon. It says a Bible that's fallen apart usually belongs to someone. It isn't so when we trust God's word completely, that means we're trusting God.

Speaker 1: 10:49

So the Bible has had, or has made, a broad impact in the world around. This. The impact of Bible expands a wide range of areas such as language, poetry, art, development of languages, music, films, global missions, humanitarianism, just to name a few examples. So let's kind of look at these a little bit more closely. So literature, art, if you, if you're familiar with michael angelo's creation of adam, which is a painting on the ceiling of the sistine chapel in vatican city city. It depicts the creation of adam from the book of genesis. So if you've seen pictures of it, you'll see like a man pointing and then a depiction of what is supposed to be God, you know, almost touching the finger of Adam. So that is the creation of Adam by Michelangelo. Then also another one would be the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. It's a mural painting that depicts Jesus and the disciples doing the Last Supper. So you know that comes from the New Testament.

Speaker 1: 12:17

In literature you have things like Paradise Lost by John Milton. It's a poem that retells the biblical story of the fall. So it draws heavily from the book of Genesis and other biblical texts. If you heard of the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, it's a series of fantasy novels about Christian allegory and it also is inspired by some biblical narratives and christian theology when you come to music. If you've ever heard of george frederick handel's, messiah is a oracle composed in 1741. In its text is taken from the king james bible and the Book of Common Prayer. So the Messiah focuses on the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

Speaker 1: 13:12

And then Johann Sebastian Bach he wrote an oratory called St Matthew's Passion. He wrote that in 1726, and it's based on the Gospel of Matthew. He wrote that in 1726 and it's based on the Gospel of Matthew and it recounts the events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. Then you have Themes. If you've never seen the Ten Commandments, with Charles Heston in it, it depicts the biblical story of Moses and the exodus from Egypt. Then we have more. Well, it's not recent, but you have the Passion of Christ by Mel Gibson. That depicts the final 12 hours of the life of Jesus and it focuses on his crucifixion and his death.

Speaker 1: 14:01

Other ways that the Bible has made an impact is through morality and ethics. The teachings of the Bible have informed the moral and ethical framework of pretty much worldwide, or it has guided people on matters of justice, compassion and personal conduct, how we relate, behave toward each other. So we know that God is the ultimate source for truth and good and all of the good that is in the world is innately given by God. Like I said, god is the ultimate source for right and wrong, because the opposite of wrong, opposite of right, is going to be wrong. So the standard you know helps us. The standard of good helps us to know. You know things that are not good and the Bible gives us a source of all that is right, true and good.

Speaker 1: 15:21

Then you have global missions, charitable work that goes out to relieve suffering and spread love and compassion to those around us, so doing good, helping others. It comes from the commandment that God tells us to love our neighbor. So you have relief organizations such as World Vision, samaritan Purse, catholic Relief Services that are inspired by poverty, natural disaster and conflict and disease. And then you have other areas such as history, culture, social justice, activism, personal growth and development, environmental stewardship. There are other areas in which the Bible has had some influence over, and it has influence over, believers and non-believers alike. All right, so now I hope you understand why the Bible is important, and this wraps up our episode, but stay tuned as we explore more about the Bible. Until next time, remember God is always good and he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.