Is the Bible the Word of God?

False Claims

To claim falsely to be speaking the Word of God is punishable by death (Dt. 18:20). Ministers not ordained by God are called false prophets, for they falsely claim to be speaking for God (e.g. 1Kgs. 13:18). Their message comes from their own imagination, not from the living Word of God (Isa. 8:20). They deny the Word when it is spoken because the Word is not in them, despite what they claim (Jer. 5:13; Jn. 5:38). The word of false teachers will eat at a person’s spirit like leprosy, slowly killing the feelings of the soul (2Tim. 2:17; 1Tim. 4:1-2), and those who believe the word of false prophets will die with them (Jer. 5:14; Ezek. 14:1-14).

God mocks those who falsely claim to speak His Word, saying that it will not come to pass (Isa. 8:10). God will, however, send his Word to a false prophet in order to accomplish a certain purpose (e.g. 1Kgs. 13:20). But even when a man’s word comes to pass, if he then attempts to turn the saints out of the right way, he is still worthy of death (Dt. 13). Such ministers, and those who hear them, scorn those who truly bear the Word of God (Jer. 20:8; Amos 7:10-13; 1Thess. 1:6; Mk. 4:17).

The Word of God is difficult for the self-willed to understand (Isa. 28:13). In fact, the ungodly are burdened by and ashamed of the true Word (Jer. 6:10). But only those with no light in them speak contrary to the Word of God (Isa. 8:20). Those who reject the Word of God are left with no wisdom and will fall into a trap (Jer. 8:9). In Jeremiah’s day, many professional prophets “stood on the Word”, as it were, and denied that Judah would be destroyed. But if the Word of God had been in them, those prophets would have known what was in store for the nation and would have helped Jeremiah turn the people’s heart again to the Law, and, together with him, would have prayed that God would not destroy them (Jer. 23:22; 27:18). It was principally because of men who falsely claimed to be speaking the Word of God that Jeremiah and other faithful men failed in their efforts to save the nation from disaster.

The Word of God can be hindered in its fruitfulness by the word of vain talkers (Mk. 7:13; 2Thess. 3:1). Jeremiah lamented the effect of the false doctrines of men whom God had not sent with His Word because by the word of those men, the Israelites were influenced not to believe the truth and be saved. “My heart within me is broken because of the prophets,” wept Jeremiah, “All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of His holiness” (Jer. 23:9).

Any man who has heard from God today must feel now, as did Jeremiah, the frustration of seeing their influence diminished among believers by men who have not heard from God. There is great trouble that lies ahead for us who belong to God, unless God sends us a revival of the living Word of God.

Men not ordained by God are condemned to proclaim nothing but what they have heard and read of other men. That is the only gospel they have to offer. And that is why they must teach that the Bible is the Word of God. They can rightly claim to have the Word of God only if the Word is a book. Doing so disguises their lack of an experience with the Word.

They have no Word of God to preach because God has not sent them. But he whom God sends is not confined to the words that God spoke to other men. He has his own commission, fresh from God, and he has an authority that no man can have except he be sent from God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is more than a “word only” gospel. It is not a mere repetition of past messages to past generations, however eloquent that repetition may be made. Paul thought little of a “word-only” gospel with no spiritual power (1Thess. 1:5; 1Cor. 2:4-5). The kingdom of God is not in word, Paul said, but in power (1Cor. 4:20). When Jesus spoke, his words were with power (Lk. 4:32,36), and God confirmed the fact that both Jesus and his disciples were speaking His Word by granting miracles and wonders to be performed by his hand (cp. Mk. 16:20).

Every man who is truly sent of God will lead others to the power and life of the Spirit that Jesus suffered for us to receive from God. Said Paul, “And brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. . . . And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1Cor. 2:1-2, 4-5). Amen.

The Spirit and Christ Jesus are both called the Word of God (Eph. 6:17; Rev. 19:13) because they communicate perfectly the will of God. They never act on their own or contrary to the divine will, and they never misunderstand or misrepresent anything. Jesus is the very expression of God’s will. The Spirit is His very life.