The Message of the Cross (4) God the Author of the Bible
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December 08, 2019 |
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 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Bible tells us why God created man, how He has led human history, the beginning and the end of human cultivation, Jesus the Savior, the Holy Spirit the Helper, Heaven and Hell, and the duty of man. Then, who wrote this Bible?
1. God, the Author of the Bible
The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Thirty-four people, 26 from the Old Testament and 8 from the New Testament, are known to have written the Bible, which is written over a span of 1,600 years: 1,500 during Old Testament times and 100 in the New Testament era. Although more than 30 different people recorded the Bible, not one of them was its “author”. One might say that they all were ghostwriters.
Suppose a mother has 2 sons and she wishes to write a letter to the younger son. She has her older son write down in a letter what she wants to say to her younger son. Although the older son “wrote” the letter, that letter is from the mother. By the same token, God called on 34 individuals and led them to record the Bible in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Author of the Bible is God.
2 Peter 1:21 reminds us, “No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” Isaiah 34:16 also reads, “Seek from the book of the LORD, and read: not one of these will be missing; none will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them.”
For the almighty God has recorded the Bible in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is not contradictory but consistent throughout, even though many people wrote it.
2. The Bible Recorded in the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit
Since the Bible was recorded in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it must also be interpreted in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Attempting to interpret the Bible with human thoughts can lead people onto the path to destruction because such interpretation may not be in agreement with God’s will (2 Peter 3:16).
When it is interpreted in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, however, we learn that no verse in the Bible is without its mate (Isaiah 34:16). Just as it takes more than pearls to make a necklace, the spiritual significance in Bible verses can be explained when they find mates that are complements of each other.
For instance, Acts 2:21 tells us, “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The will of God on salvation, however, cannot be explained sufficiently with this verse alone. As Our Lord told us in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,” calling on the name of the Lord alone cannot satisfy the condition to receive salvation.
As we are reminded in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation,” only those who believe with the heart and end up in righteousness can receive salvation when they confess the Savior with their lips. What, then, does it mean for a person “to believe with the heart”?
James 2:14 asks us, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” When a person believes with the heart and it results in righteousness, we can see him striving to rid himself of his sins and live by God’s Word.
Moreover, Romans 3:28 reads, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” No matter how diligently you may seem to practice the truth your deeds cannot be perfected without faith. “Believing with the heart” means accomplishing a sanctified heart resulting in holy behavior or, in other words, accomplishing the circumcision of the heart.
Salvation is only for believers who circumcise their hearts as they believe with the heart, live by God’s Word, and confess the name of the Lord with their lips.
Without finding mates for such Biblical verses, people may learn the truth incorrectly and maintain that, “Salvation is for anyone who confesses that Jesus is his Savior” or “As long as you believe, you can still receive salvation even if you live in sin.” Such misunderstanding will lead people to sin and, eventually, to destruction. In order to correctly understand the will of God embedded in Bible, you must find their mates and interpret them in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
3. God’s Word the Eternal Truth
The Bible is God’s Word and everything recorded in it is true. Such historical evidence as the history of Israel, events in its neighboring countries and people, names of people and places, and custom, all of which we find in the Old Testament, attests to the truthfulness of the Bible.
The Bible also contains a variety of prophecies and all of them were fulfilled as written. For instance, Luke 19:43-44 prophesied on the fall of Jerusalem, “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side…and they will not leave in you one stone upon another…” And forty years later it was fulfilled in 70 A.D.
Throughout the Old Testament are God’s prophecies on Jesus’ birth, ministry, Passion, and resurrection, while stories and records of how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies abound in the New Testament. On Jesus’ birth, in Genesis 3:15 God foretold that the Savior would be born to the people of Israel. When God cursed the serpent, He said, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” It prophesied that the Savior would come as the seed of the woman and overcome death. Here, “the woman” spiritually symbolizes Israel, and Jesus was born in Joseph’s family of the tribe of Judah (Luke 1:26-33).
Isaiah 7:14 tells us, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel,” while Micah 5:2 reads, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” According to these prophecies, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in a manger belonging to an inn in Bethlehem.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, as Zechariah 9:9 had predicted, He was on “a colt, the foal of a donkey.” In addition, as foretold in Psalm 41:9, Jesus was betrayed and sold by Judas Iscariot. Moreover, there are countless detailed prophecies in many books throughout the Old Testament including Isaiah, Psalms, and Zechariah, concerning the Passion, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and every one of them was fulfilled in New Testament times.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you to believe the Bible is God’s Word for sure and act upon the commandments written in it. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will meet the living God all the time and receive blessings from Him and you will share love with Him forever as His true child.
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