What is God’s Word?

Everyone knows the answer to that one. God's Word is the Holy Bible, the Scriptures, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. So why should this be controversial?

Well, maybe a little controversial. Some denominations, such as the Catholics, add a few more books to the accepted canon of Scripture. We generally call these the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical Books. They would expand the canon to about 84 books (though some can hardly be called books, as they are quite small, like the 151st Psalm, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon). Most of these Apocryphal books are pretty much in agreement with Scripture and do show some signs of being “inspired” though perhaps not as inspired as the 66 books we all know and love.

Then of course there are the Gnostic writings, secret, esoteric “teachings of Jesus” supposedly written by the apostles James, Thomas, John, and others. Few today would accept them as Scripture, as there are numerous direct contradictions to Scripture and they include some pretty far out stuff.

I’m sure you see where I’m going, here. The (now closed) canon of the 66 books in the Old and New Testaments is without question the most authoritative, and anything else is judged on the basis of how well it agrees with the accepted canon. God does not contradict Himself, so if He has inspired someone with His Word, it had bloody well better line up with all that He inspired previously.

“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you and you be proved a liar.” (Prov 30:5) The Word of God we have received has been tested and proven to bring life. We can rest our faith upon it. And if someone adds some other word, some other way, some other gospel which perverts the purity of God’s Word, according to this verse, God Himself will reprove him as a liar.

 In other words, God is faithful to protect His Word. That is why we have a “Holy Bible” in the first place. God has both inspired and guarded the writing of the Scriptures – at the very least those 66 foundational books – so that we now have something against which everything else can be judged.

Whew. Now we’re back to no controversy, right?

Actually, no. This is where the controversy begins. What about the “everything else” that is judged against the Scriptures? What if it “passes” the standard we have set? Is it then also God’s Word?

 Let me give an example: my beloved NASB (New American Standard Bible) that I have used for the last 40 years. It is not the actual, inspired writings of the Apostles and Prophets; it is only an English language translation of some copies of those writings. And it has some errors – I’ve found a few myself, as I have in every other translation. It is pretty easy to come to the conclusion that every translation is a mixture of the divine with some human input, misunderstanding, bias, and fallibility. Yet it is surely the Word of God, just the same, for I have found much life there – divine life, as communicated to my heart by the Holy Spirit.

I have about twenty other translations or paraphrases of the Bible. Some are, to my mind, more accurate to the original; some communicate better; some have fewer mistakes; yet I insist that all are God’s Word, just the same. They generally line up with the standard I have set, and in every one of them I also find divine life as revealed to my heart by the Holy Spirit. Don’t try to tell me, for example, that the Good News Bible is not God’s Word! When I was a youngster having trouble understanding the King James, I got a Good News for Modern Man New Testament. Through it, for the first time, I heard the Holy Spirit speak, even though it is just a lowly paraphrase with its simplifications, omissions, and mistakes.

But wait. God’s Word is perfect, inerrant, for God cannot make mistakes. I believe that with all my heart and soul. More than that, I believe that God guided the hands of the writers He inspired, so that those original Scriptures were authoritative and foundational, literally word-for-word “God breathed.”

 Very true, my friend, but we can and do make mistakes. God uses fallible man to inscribe / transcribe / translate / interpret His infallible Holy Word. Then He comes along with His Holy Spirit to set everything right. So all my translations and paraphrases, even the ones with the most mistakes, are still God’s Word, if and only if I listen for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in them.

So, it’s not really the words on the page that are God’s Word. It is those words combined with the life of the Holy Spirit in a revelation to my heart that is God’s Word. Without the Holy Spirit, the words on the page can be interpreted by the human intellect and become nothing more than “good works,” fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Worse, they can be interpreted by the devil, who is really quite good at twisting the Word of God and deceiving us into believing it.

Now I can confidently read any of my translations or paraphrases, listen carefully for the Holy Spirit’s confirmation, and know that I have God’s Word. He will surely make it clear to me where the translator made a mistake - that is, if and when it matters. If He doesn’t reveal a mistake (yet) then it doesn't matter (yet). I totally trust my Lord to keep me safe from errors and heresies.

 But this is where it gets a bit dicy. What about someone’s sermon (based strictly on the Scriptures, of course)? Can anyone’s sermon be God’s Word?

Of course it can. Look at Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, and Paul’s sermon in Acts 17. “No fair!” you may complain, “They are already in Scripture!” Well, OK. What about Charles Spurgeon’s sermons, or George Whitfield’s, or D.L. Moody’s, or Billy Graham’s! Surely the Gospel came forth with power, and millions received divine life through them! Yes, I’m sure they made mistakes; they were fallible, just like the translators of the Scriptures. But as before, the Holy Spirit came through to set it all right as He revealed Himself to the listeners through the power of the spoken word. Yes, those sermons were just as much God’s Word as any of my translations.

 “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14) Yes, God certainly does send out His precious Word through His preachers.

The Apostle Paul understood this, for he stated that he was entrusted with the proclamation of the Word of God. (Titus 1:3) Whenever he spoke, he spoke with faith that God would speak through him, and that He did, as we see in his epistles. “… I am eager to preach the gospel… For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Rom 1:15-16)

“Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God… so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.” (1 Pet. 4:11) The utterances of God? Why, that’s God’s Word!

Right. That’s the point. God’s Word was never intended to be bottled up in a book collecting dust on the shelf. It was always intended to be spoken, passed from one to another, bringing life to all it touches by the Holy Spirit. Yes, mankind is very fallible, which is why we desperately needed the solid foundation, the written Word, to keep us from spinning off on a tangent. But, dear saint, if I may make the obvious conclusion, you (and I) are called to take the precious Word of God we have received, eat it, digest it so it becomes part of us, and then pass it on to those around us, trusting that the Holy Spirit will anoint it, straighten out our mistakes, and bring it to life afresh in the hearts of those who hear. That is God’s Word. It has been sent out, through you and me, and it never returns without accomplishing that for which it was sent. (Isa. 55:11)

“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. [This is not telling the future. This is telling God’s Word by His Spirit as He tells it to you.] One who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and consolation… if all prophesy, and an unbeliever… enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.” (1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 24, 25) That is God’s Word.