God’s Word . . . Well, almost
Jan. 30, 2001

The Whole Word

The single most important entity in the life of a believer is The Word of God. The Bible is the literary record of what God has said. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect; throughly furnished unto all good works. (II Timothy 3:16,17)

I am aware, even as I write, that there is a certain small number of readers who, seeing that the subject is The Word of God, and the opening paragraph is scripture, will not be stimulated to continue reading. That is unfortunate. However, even more unfortunate is the fact that there are people engaged in "The Lord’s Work" who do not have any more enthusiasm for an eager pursuit of the whole Word of God than does that minority to whom I have just referred.

We have recently kicked off a new discipleship training session. Filling out a questionnaire is always one of the initial activities in the course. It is a simple thing, but two of the questions are: Have you ever had any formal Bible training? And Have you read the entire Bible: if so, how many times? I am always impressed – although no longer surprised – when the answer is "yes" to the first question, and "no" to the second. Yes, I have formal Bible training, but No, I have never read the whole Bible.

This often means that one has come to conclusive doctrinal positions without having read everything that pertains to the subject, or would modify one’s conclusions about it. This resembles greatly the attitude of the children of Israel who told Moses, "You listen to God, and tell us what he said." They felt an obligation, somehow, to hear what God had said, but did not think it necessary, or even desirable, to hear him say it. In other words they were somewhat more interested in hearing about God, than they were in hearing God.

This is not an indictment of those who responded to the questionnaire. Most of them, having good attitudes, have remedied their deficiency. The indictment is of a growing attitude within the church at large that the Bible itself is excellent reference material to confirm our doctrinal position, or from which to preach sermons; but as an integral part of daily living it is, for many, losing its importance.

The practice of subscribing to some scripturally based doctrines, without practically embracing the importance of all scripture, leads to no discipleship at all or, at best, a lopsided kind of discipleship amounting to alignment with a theory, a method, a project, a denomination or a person, producing loyalty to a school of thought, rather than to the Lord himself. The result is sectarianism, schisms in the body of Christ, and misunderstandings between the saints.

Strip Mining For Nuggets

I have, from time to time, likened the practice of studying very deeply into certain specific doctrinal positions before reading the whole Bible, to shaft mining. That means we dig deep holes in our Bibles and become firmly convinced of a doctrinal position before we have read unbiasedly everything in scripture that would modify our conclusions. All scripture is profitable for doctrine. Therefore a continual, contextual reading of the whole Bible is an invaluable pursuit which I would liken to strip mining. As we read through the whole Bible – not only the delightfully familiar green pastures whose content we absorb so easily; but also the tedious desert portions that seem to be filled with unimportant facts, unpronounceable names, and incomprehensible ceremonies – everything is kept in context: and every once in a while, even the desert places blossom like a rose, yielding fruits and flowers that produce spiritual revelation so key to our understanding whatever else God is teaching us, which we would have otherwise missed. All scripture is profitable for reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness.

Making Wise the Simple

The writer of Psalm 119:105 said, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light to my path." Everyone who takes the Word of God seriously has found the truth of that statement: a lamp that reveals every potential stumbling block my feet could trip over, and a light that shines ahead to illuminate the path that I must follow. Furthermore, that writer added, "The entrance of thy Word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." (Psalm 119:130) He said, moreover, "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way." (Psalm 119:128)

For some it is a difficult thing to commit oneself to the idea that everything God has said about everything is right. It is certainly not a sophisticated proposition. Science, after all, has come so far since the scriptures were written. Surely adaptation of the scriptures to the knowledge modern science has supplied would be in order. Not so; notice to whom the Word gives understanding: to the simple. The apostle Paul, as learned as he was, had no problem with that concept. He wrote in I Corinthians 1:19-21, "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

The concepts of the Word of God are extremely intelligent; nevertheless they are not directed primarily to the intellect: when we think they are, we tend to err. Paul continued in I Corinthians 1:26-29, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in [God’s] presence.

Understanding Is By Revelation

When we approach the scripture as any other book, we may wonder at our difficulty to understand all that we read, and may blame its seeming opaqueness on the language in which it is written. The Bible, as God inspired it, is God’s complete revelation. There is nothing that can be added; nothing that can be safely ignored, and nothing that should be revised or taken away. It is the whole mind of God for us in this earth. No wonder, then, that we do not understand instantly all that we read there. Understanding requires revelation by the Holy Spirit, not simpler language. That is why Paul prayed, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: . . . (Ephesians 1:17) Although the revelation of God is complete in the scriptures, we need the spirit of wisdom and revelation that we might understand and apply it.

The Word of God gives light: it gives understanding to the simple. But modern man in his sophistication and arrogance, apart from the Spirit of God, has trouble understanding God’s simple ways. Therefore he is inclined to try to adapt the Word to the natural man’s almost non-existent ability to understand by revising it downward; while it is God’s plan to let the Word revise the man upward, and add to his spiritual stature, line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little (Isaiah 28:10), until he is conformed to the image of Christ.

Language Is Not the Problem

Many well-intentioned things in these last days have created serious problems in the church while trying to solve minor, or even non-existent ones. One of those things is the proliferation of modern English Bibles. While we understand the feeling on the part of some that we need a translation in modern English, it is apparent that the on-going proliferation of competing versions is doing nothing to improve upon the revelation of God’s truth. Based upon the idea that archaic language is the problem in understanding the Word, new versions in modern English are produced. But it is not the language that is problematic, it is the concepts. The scriptures themselves say, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (I Corinthians 2:14) To make a "Bible", therefore, that is understandable to the man in the street the concepts, not merely the language, must be revised. When that happens it is no longer the Word of God.

We fear that the main reason for perpetual revision is the sales it generates. Dollars, not divine direction, is the driving force behind the burgeoning bible revision business. However, the results, though perhaps unintentional from the human point of view, are catastrophic to the well-being of the church. The integrity of Scripture has been compromised, destroying the authority of "The Bible says." There are those who respond simply, "Which Bible."

Because the Word of God has power to make simple men wise, and to cause wicked men to hate every false way, this fountain of life is being tweaked here and adjusted there to appeal to the natural mind, and diminish that influence so distasteful to the god of this world. It is not easy to build confidence in a book that claims to be the Word of God when there are many competing versions, especially in a nation that is already beginning to regard itself as "post-Christian."

Approximating What God Said

The proliferation of competing versions of scripture does not seem to be a major problem in the reduction of godliness in the lives of individual Christians we may meet and fellowship with. However, taken as a whole, the church has suffered, and is suffering devastation in many areas: The main one being the universal confidence among believers that their Bible, in its entirety, is the verbally inspired Word of God. It was important to believers to know that their Bible contained God‘s words just as he said them or inspired them to be written. There was the sense that when reading the Bible, one is thinking God’s thoughts after him.

But somehow, in trying to adapt scripture to the understanding of natural man, dynamic equivalence became an acceptable norm for translators. That means that the words are not actually as important as the gist of the ideas. Therefore a translation should contain the ideas, not necessarily the words, expressed in the original. However, it seems evident that dynamic equivalence is not always equivalent to what God originally said.

Perhaps where that system is used, the resulting translation should be called God’s Idea rather than God’s Word. However, the ideas, when processed through the desperately wicked heart of man become deformed and modified – even mutated – ever so slightly, placing the reader perhaps a fraction of a degree off the true course. The ultimate result could be lethal error.

For over three hundred years the church was nourished by a Bible which, originally, was itself a modern English version. It was translated from the original languages by men who believed in the verbal inspiration of those original texts, and who endeavored faithfully to produce a verbal translation. In recent years, evidently, someone thought we needed a new translation. If indeed that dubious conclusion were of God, and the work was done with the same principles in mind, and the same integrity to verbal preservation, we would have a New Bible that would say the same thing as the old Bible using modern words. It would have been accurate, complete, and final; and there would have been only one.

But these are the last days, and no matter how sincere men may be, we have an adversary who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He will do everything he can to bring confusion, to discredit and imasculate the Word of God. I long for the days when we had one Bible. The atmosphere was different then. But then was then, and now is now. Now we must seek the Lord and be led by his Spirit, even in the selection of the Bible we use. And when we have determined which one is the Scriptures, let’s know that none of it can be ignored. God gave us the whole thing from Genesis to the Revelation, and he cannot quicken to our hearts that which we choose to ignore. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (II Timothy 3:16,17)