AUTHORITY (2)-5 Minutes Bible Study

5 Minutes Bible Study - Authority (2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9M8YpRaQNc&feature=related
Faith1316
November 16, 2009
AUTHORITY, 2 by Dr. Harold Sala
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the British expositor of bygone days, told the story of a poor woman who was confronted by an agnostic who asked, "What are you reading?" She replied, "The Bible, the Word of God." The agnostic said, "Who told you that is the Word of God?" She replied, "God told me so, Himself." "Told you so," he scornfully retorted, "Why, can you prove that?" Looking skyward the old lady replied, "Can you prove to me there is a sun up there in that sky?" He answered: "Why, of course! The best proof is that it warms me and I can see its light." "That's it!" was her joyous reply. "The proof that I have that this is the Word of God, is that it warms me and lights my soul!"

You would probably agree that the Bible does this, but is it enough to simply appeal to the subjective element of your experience? I've had people tell me the same thing in response to reading modern gurus, or eastern prophets who sit draped in a bed sheet hallucinating on drugs. Upon what does the authority of the Bible rest? Your experience, a warm feeling in your heart, or upon certain pragmatic facts which form a bedrock for your faith?

The Bible does bear witness to its distinctive and unusual authorship. It declares that it was given by holy men of God who wrote as they were moved or born along by the Holy Spirit. Gautama Buddha or Mohammed made no such claim. When the books of the Old Testament were written, they were immediately recognized as the Word of God and placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle. More than 3,000 times the prophets rang out the words, "Thus says the Word of the Lord." Authority wasn't an issue! They knew what gave these documents authority the voice of God heard on the mountain accompanied by bolts of lightning and claps of thunder. Isaiah wrote, "The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8).

There is little evidence that anyone questioned the authority of the Hebrew Old Testament when it was given. Men may have ignored it, spurned it, and violated its teaching, but they knew it was the Word of God. When Jesus was here, He fully accepted the authority of these books we call the Old Testament. He said, "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18, KJV), and He was referring to the smallest strokes of a pen in writing two Hebrew letters. He had no intention of taking the smorgasbord approach to sifting what he liked and rejecting the rest.

As God began to move upon the leaders of the early church, the New Testament gradually came together in the form that we now have it. Paul described this authority as he wrote, "All Scripture is God breathed [the word is often translated "inspired by God"] and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16 17).

At the same time this book derives authority from its unity as 40 men penned these books over a period of 1600 years, yet there is one beautiful and glorious theme and purpose. That could no more have just happened than an explosion in a print shop could have produced an unabridged dictionary. There had to be a master Author and plan, and that one is God. Another argument for the authority of the Word is that the blows of skeptics and agnostics have been non stop, yet the Word endures.

Resource reading: 2 Timothy 3