The Authority Of The

Living Word

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      During the ‘60s there was a period of revolution in America that still haunts us in many ways. This was not limited to our nation. In the spring of 1968, there were serious student riots in Paris which threatened to overthrow the French government. Students seized the Science division of the University of Paris. Shortly after the seizure, a student paused before a large "No Smoking" sign near the entrance of an auditorium. He crossed out the words "No Smoking" and in their place crudely lettered the words, "You have the right to smoke." But before long another student came by and added his own message, "It is forbidden to forbid." This slogan caught on and became the watch cry of the student revolution. It appeared in many places and became known as "the law of the 13th of May" —"It is forbidden to forbid."

      The spirit of lawlessness embodied in this slogan would destroy society of course, and unfortunately, this spirit seems to be increasing in the world today. Our brotherhood is not exempt from the damage being done. Whatever has been handed down from the past is suspect to many. “Traditionalism” has become a bad word. Our democratic way of life, the moral standards that have built western civilization, and the historic “faith that saves the soul” are all being questioned. It seems appropriate, then, that we who claim to “speak where the Bible speaks and remain silent where the Bible is silent” should speak out and come to grips with the authority of the Living Word of God, the Christ.

John 1:1 Challenged!

      The gospel of John begins with the familiar passage:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-14).

      The term Logos, which John used to describe Jesus, had a long history in Greek and Jewish thought. The Logos was the rational principle or impersonal energy which lay back of the universe, the creative principle of God, or in Philo of Alexandria, the thought and speech of God. But John used Logos in a personal sense to describe Jesus as the Word, one of the persons of the Godhead, incarnate in human form. Look at what John affirms of the Word. (1) He existed from eternity. "In the beginning was the Word." (2) "The Word was with God."He stands as a person distinct from the Father, yet in eternal fellowship with his Father. (3) "The Word was God." Christ is deity, a distinct person from the Father, but equally God. (4) The Word is the creator of the material world. "All things were made through him." (5) The Word is the source of our spiritual life. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (6) "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The man Jesus was the incarnation of the deity; God, without ceasing to be God, had become man to unite men with himself.

      Thus as the apostles walked and talked with Jesus, they saw beyond his manhood to his Godhood. Here is the way John expressed it: "That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life... that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellows hip is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (I John 1:1-3). Not only did John see Jesus as the Word of God, but he also knew that when Jesus taught, he spoke with the authority of God. John was one of the "inner circle" who accompanied Jesus to the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John into a high mountain apart (perhaps snow-capped Mt. Hermon in northern Palestine) and was transfigured before them. After Moses and Elijah appeared, a bright cloud overshadowed them and the voice of God spoke, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." (Matt. 17:1-5). Many years later Peter recalled the Transfiguration and declared:

We did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God, the Father, honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount (2 Peter 1:16-18).

      Peter and John had no doubts about the authority of Christ to make absolute demands on their lives, for they had heard God say, "Hear ye him."

      The Christian who lives in the twentieth century believes in the authority of the Living Word just as Peter and John did. But the Christian today cannot hear the words of Jesus in the same way that his first disciples did. Those first disciples were contemporaries in time. They spent three years with Jesus, they walked through Galilee and shared his hunger, they saw his miracles and heard his demands on their lives. But there is no way that we can do this. We can visit the same places, but there is a difference — Jesus is not there.

      Let’s take an imaginary trip to Galilee. Let’s be reminded of Jesus as he called the four fishermen, the parables that he taught from a boat, his calming the storm, and his walking on the water. We can know that we are at the very place where these events happened – but Jesus is not there. We are reminded of the beautiful song:

We saw Thee not when Thou didst come To this poor world of sin and death;

We saw Thee not when lifted high, Amid that wild and savage crew;

Nor heard we that imploring cry, "Forgive, they know not what they do!"

We gazed not in the open tomb, where once Thy mangled body lay;

Nor saw Thee in that "upper Room," Nor met Thee on the open way;

But we believe the deed was done, That shook the earth and veiled the sun;

But we believe that human eyes Beheld that journey to the skies.

      The apostles were contemporaries of Christ in time, and they knew Jesus in the flesh as one man knows another and heard his words with their ears. But today, we are separated from Christ by nearly two thousand years. We are contemporaries of Christ only by faith. This simply means that we can know the Living Word only through the Written Word.

The Authority of the Written Word

      Just as John 1 is used to emphasize the authority of the Living Word, 2 Tim. 3:16, 17 stresses the authority of the Written Word.

"Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work."

There are three affirmations about the Scripture in these verses.

      (1) The Scripture is inspired of God. Our English words "inspired of God" translate a Greek word theopneustos which means "God-breathed." This means that the Scripture is an expression of the mind or Spirit of God. As my thoughts are communicated by my words, so the thoughts of God are communicated through the words of these God-breathed writings. The word theopneustos is found only once in the New Testament (2 Tim. 3:16), but the idea of inspiration is found repeatedly in both testaments. The book of Hebrews begins with a declaration that God once spoke to the fathers through the prophets but now has spoken to us through his Son. Peter says of the Old Testament, "No prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). Jesus promised the apostles:

When they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you (Matt. 10:19, 20).

      This is what inspiration means —that the Spirit of God was speaking through the Biblical writers.

      The terms revelations and inspiration need to be distinguished from one another. Revelation is God's self-disclosure or unveiling of Himself. It refers to those acts of God by which he has communicated to men a knowledge of himself and his will. God disclosed himself at the Red Sea, at Mt. Sinai, and in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ — this is revelation. Inspiration refers to that guidance which the Holy Spirit exerted on the minds of selected men to enable them to give the world an infallible knowledge of God's revelation. I confess that I do not understand the mystery of inspiration. But neither do I understand the mystery of the Incarnation, how a man, Jesus of Nazareth, could be fully man and yet be the infinite God at the same time. I cannot understand it, but I believe it. Just so, I do not understand how God could use the minds of men, their vocabularies and personalities and modes of expression, and yet through them give the world a trustworthy knowledge of the mind of God. I do not understand how the Holy Spirit guided these selected men, but I believe that he did it.

      (2) The Scripture is authoritative. The inspired Word is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness." When Jesus was carrying on his ministry, he taught his hearers to respect the authority of the Old Testament. But he also taught them that his authority transcended that of the Old Testament. The words of the Sermon on the Mount illustrate this, "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, ... but I say unto you." Christ told the apostles:

All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Matt. 28:18-20).

Moreover, the apostles were promised the special guidance of the Holy Spirit in this work. "Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13). Filled with the Holy Spirit of God, these men spoke with the authority of Christ, and their written Word speaks to our lives with ultimate authority. One of the most abused statements ever uttered by Jesus, i.e., “whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Mat 18:18), has been used by deceitful merchandisers of false authority to indicate that whatever the particular proclaimer is saying now, Jesus will authenticate in Heaven. This is deception to gain authenticity for the speaker, and the message by Jesus that only what has already been given the apostles would be taught by them, is prostituted.

      When we affirm the authority of the written Word, we are not in any sense minimizing the authority of the Living Word. The good news of Christ now reaches us through the New Covenant Scriptures, and without the written Word there would be no access to the Living Word. Let us suppose that the events described in the New Covenant Record had all happened, that God revealed himself in Christ, that Christ did die on Calvary, and that he actually was raised from the dead. But what if no record of these happenings had been preserved? Or a record had been left so filled with mistakes that we could not separate the fact from fiction? The man who has never heard of Christ can not know his saving power, and the only knowledge we have comes through the written Word.

      (3) The Scripture is all-sufficient. "Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable... that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work." Three hundred years ago, William Chillingworth coined the famous statement, "The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants." This is still our faith — that the Bible discloses everything that God expects of us and provides every principle that governs our lives.

      The most basic difference between us and the Catholic Church is the sufficiency of the Scripture. The Catholic position is that the living voice of the infallible Catholic Church, rather than the Scripture, is the ultimate authority. Brethren who have attended schools of higher education where their professors were Catholics will hear, “The church teaches.... thus and so. " This is the basic question — what is the ultimate authority? Is it the “church,” yours or mine? Or, “the Word of God?” In our lifetime Gustave Weigel, a Jesuit, has been one of the leading Catholic theologians in the United States. Commenting on the question of ultimate authority, Weigel has written:

The Catholic does not say in the first instance, "What does the Bible say?" Rather he asks, "What does the teaching Church say?" The Church and the Book say the same things, and since the Book is in a peculiar sense God's Word, he will turn to the Book. However, this is not his ultimate recourse. He has only one ultimate recourse, the Church herself, and the Book is accepted from her hand and with her explanation.... Over the Book stands the Church, while according to the Reform conception, over the Church stands the Book.

      This is the basic issue between us and Catholicism (and in recent years several areas of “Protestantism.) Does the Bible stand in judgement over the church? Or does the church stand in judgement over the Bible? Nearly a century ago, James Cardinal Gibbons wrote:

We must, therefore, conclude that the Scriptures alone cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of faith because they cannot, at any time, be within the reach of every inquirer; because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of highest importance, and because they do not contain all the truths necessary to salvation.

This statement is diametrically opposed to what Paul affirms about the Scripture. Paul stated that the Scripture furnishes the man of God completely unto every good work; and by contrast Cardinal Gibbons stated that the Scripture does not contain all the truths necessary to salvation.

The Need For Bible Study

      The principles which I have been emphasizing — the inspiration, authority, and all-sufficiency of the Bible — constitute the foundation upon which the restoration movement was begun in America two centuries ago ago. The idea of establishing, confirming and strengthening New Covenant Christianity presupposes a conviction that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is the standard by which all men must be measured in every age. And this faith in the Bible is also the foundation upon which all congregations of the Lord’s people must be founded. We today are fortunate to be the heirs of a religious heritage that has emphasized quality religious education founded on the Word of God.

      As I travel around the country one can see cornerstones of comfortable and often elaborate buildings stating when that particular congregation was “established.” Better would it have been – by my judgment – to have seen engravings indicating that the people using the edifice “believe in the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures." Paul wrote to “the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus “ (Eph 1:2),

“And he gave some as Apostles, and some, prophets; and some, preachers of the good news; and some to give care and teaching (shepherds and teachers); For the training of the saints as servants in the church, for the building up of the body of Christ: Till we all come to the harmony of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full growth, to the full measure of Christ: So that we may be no longer children, sent this way and that, turned about by every wind of teaching, by the twisting and tricks of men, by the deceits of error; But saying true words in love, may come to full growth in him, who is the head, even Christ; Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love” (4:11-16 , BBE )

      The tendency in churches of Christ has been to drift away from their religious heritage, and to become more and more secular, possibly following the trend of our colleges and universities. A few years ago the Danforth Foundation made a study of 817 church-related colleges in America and concluded that church-related colleges are failing to achieve their religious purposes. The Danforth report stated:

It is our considered opinion that religion is not as strong in the programs of church-related institutions as one would expect. In fact, there is good reason to believe that these institutions are, by and large, stronger academically... than they are religiously.

But, there can be no “passing the buck” for shepherds of God’s people who have entrusted them with the watchcare of their souls. It will be the “shepherds and teachers” who will “give account” for the spiritual well-being of the saints (Heb. 13:17), and not the journals, colleges or schools of training pulpit preachers.

A Call for Commitment to the Word

      Today there is a great need for an inner renewal of our commitment to the authority of the Word of God. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of God shall not pass away. And as Jesus said, "The Scripture cannot be broken." We may ignore its demands, and in the end we may be judged and broken by the Word, but the Word of God cannot be broken. Shepherds and teachers need to reexamine their devotion to their “good work” (1Tim 3:1), and give due diligence to their commitment to live under the sovereignty of the Word, and to “equip the saints for the work of service.” The whole brotherhood claiming followship of Jesus needs to reaffirm its total commitment to the Word and the life of Righteousness that the Word produces. And perhaps we can become a more effective leaven to lead our great nation back to “the faith that saves the soul” (Heb. 10:39).

      We in this great nation have long shouted out that we are "One nation under God." We say it in our pledge of allegiance to the flag. One famous WW2 General has stated, "We have too many men of science, too few men of God; too much knowledge of the atomic bomb, too little knowledge of the sermon on the mount." I am concerned with what is happening to our nation, of course. But, we might be guilty of “putting the cart before the horse.” A better nation begins with better people, and a better people come from a stronger dedication to the Word of God. My concern is that our faith is becoming more and more faith in our favorite human leaders rather than faith in God’s favorite Son!

      Few spiritual leaders seem today to be calling for the devotion and dedication of the apostles and many of the great worthies who have brought us to the freedoms and spiritual life that we have enjoyed in our lifetime. To the contrary, the dedication to causes that threaten to destroy our life in Christ are loud and frequent. “Love not the world,” John said, but loving the world and having a form of religion is the easy lifestyle. We do not need to have much encouragement to follow it.

– BH / Edited / HT

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