Concerning the authority of the Holy Scriptures there has bean much debate. Let us have a look on what is written about the Power of God’s Word and its authority in a well-known encyclopedia of the Bible.
The Power of God’s Word.
The Gutenberg Bible displayed by the United States Library of Congress, demonstrating printed pages as a storage medium. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Bible remains the most extensively printed, widely translated, and frequently read book in the world. Its words have been treasured in the hearts of multitudes like none other. All who have received its gifts of wisdom and promises of new life and power were at first strangers to its redemptive message, and many were hostile to its teaching and spiritual demands. In every generation its power to challenge persons of all races and lands has been demonstrated. Those who cherish the Book because it sustains future hope, brings meaning and power to the present, and correlates a misused past with the forgiving grace of God, would not long experience such inner rewards if Scripture were not known to them as the authoritative, divinely revealed truth. To the evangelical Christian, Scripture is the Word of God, given in the objective form of propositional truths through divinely inspired prophets and apostles, and the Holy Spirit is the giver of faith through that Word.
View that the Bible is the Word of God and as such should be believed and obeyed.
Image from the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old book. Category:Illuminated manuscript images (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Western civilization is in a severe “authority crisis” which is not confined solely to the realm of religious faith, nor is it specially or uniquely threatening to Bible believers. Parental authority, marital authority, political authority, academic authority, and ecclesiastical authority are all being deeply questioned. Not only particular authorities — the Scripture, the pope, political rulers, and so on — but the concept of authority itself is vigorously challenged. Today’s crisis of biblical authority thus reflects the uncertainties of civilizational consensus:
Who has the power and the right to receive and to require submission?
Revolt Against Biblical Authority.
As the sovereignCreator of all, the God of the Bible wills and has the right to be obeyed. Judge of men and nations, the self-revealed God wields unlimited authority and power. All creaturely authority and power is derived from that of God. The power God bestows is a divine trust, a stewardship. God’s creatures are morally accountable for their use or misuse of it. In fallen human society God wills civil government for the promotion of justice and order. He approves an ordering of authoritative and creative relationships in the home by stipulating certain responsibilities of husbands, wives, and children. He wills a pattern of priorities for the church as well: Jesus Christ the head, prophets and apostles through whom redemptive revelation came, and so on.
The inspired Scriptures, revealing God’s transcendent will in objective written form, are the rule of faith and conduct through which Christ exercises his divine authority in the lives of Christians.
Revolt against particular authorities has in our time widened into a revolt against all transcendent and external authority. The widespread questioning of authority is condoned and promoted in many academic circles.
Philosophers with a radically secular outlook have affirmed that God and the supernatural are mythical conceptions, that natural processes and events comprise the only ultimate reality. All existence is said to be temporal and changing, all beliefs and ideals are declared to be relative to the age and culture in which they appear. Biblical religion, therefore, like all other, is asserted to be merely a cultural phenomenon. The Bible’s claim to divine authority is dismissed by such thinkers; transcendent revelation, fixed truths, and unchanging commandments are set aside as pious fiction.
In the name of humanity’s supposed “coming of age,” radical secularism champions human autonomy and creative individuality. Human beings are lords of their own destiny and inventors of their own ideals and values, it is said. They live in a supposedly purposeless universe that has itself presumably been engendered by a cosmic accident. Therefore human beings are declared to be wholly free to impose upon nature and history whatever moral criteria they prefer. In such a view, to insist on divinely given truths and values, on transcendent principles, would be to repress self-fulfillment and retard creative personal development. Hence the radically secular view goes beyond opposing particular external authorities whose claims are considered arbitrary or immoral; radical secularism is aggressively hostile to all external authority, viewing it as intrinsically restrictive of the autonomous human spirit.
Any reader of the Bible will recognize rejection of divine authority and definitive revelation of what is right and good as an age-old phenomenon. It is not at all peculiar to the contemporary person “come of age”; it was found already in Eden. Adam and Eve revolted against the will of God in pursuit of individual preference and supposed self-interest. But their revolt was recognized to be sin, not rationalized as philosophical “gnosis” at the frontiers of evolutionary advance.
If one takes a strictly developmental view, which considers all reality contingent and changing, where is the basis for humanity’s decisively creative role in the universe? How could a purposeless cosmos cater to individual self-fulfillment?
Only the biblical alternative of the Creator-Redeemer God, who fashioned human beings for moral obedience and a high spiritual destiny, truly preserves the permanent, universal dignity of the human species. The Bible does so, however, by a demanding call for personal spiritual decision.
The Bible sets forth the superiority of humans to the animals, their high dignity (“little less than God”—Ps 8:5) because of the divine rational and moral image that all bear by reason of creation.
Print 3330 in volume 27 of the Bowyer Bible in Bolton Museum, England. From page 12 of Volume 1 of “A-Z of Artists in the Bowyer Bible” by Phillip Medhurst. Photo 4 of 117. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the context of universal human involvement in Adamic sin, the Bible utters a merciful divine call to redemptive renewal through the mediatorial person and work of Christ. Fallen humanity is invited to experience the Holy Spirit’s renewing work, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and to anticipate a final destiny in the eternal presence of the God of justice and justification.
Contemporary rejection of biblical tenets does not rest on any logical demonstration that the case for biblical theism is false; it turns rather on a subjective preference for alternative views of “the good life.”
The Bible is not the only significant reminder that human beings stand daily in responsible relationship to the sovereign God. He reveals his authority in the cosmos, in history, and in inner conscience, a disclosure of the living God that penetrates into the mind of every person (Rom 1:18–20; 2:12–15). Rebellious suppression of that “general divine revelation” does not wholly succeed in suspending a fearsome sense of final divine accountability (Rom 1:32).
Yet it is the Bible as “special revelation” that most clearly confronts our spiritually rebellious race with the reality and authority of God.
Title page from the Great Bible published by Grafton and Whitchurch in 1539. It depicts an enthroned Henry VIII receiving the Word of God and bestowing it upon his bishops and archbishops (top third), who in turn deliver it to the priests (middle third). Finally, the laity hear the Word and loyally recite, “Vivat Rex” and “God save the kynge” (bottom third). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the Scriptures, the character and will of God, the meaning of human existence, the nature of the spiritual realm, and the purposes of God for humankind in all ages are stated in propositionally intelligible form that all can understand. The Bible publishes in objective form the criteria by which God judges individuals and nations, and the means of moral recovery and restoration to personal fellowship with him.
Regard for the Bible is therefore decisive for the course of Western culture and in the long run for human civilization generally. Intelligible divine revelation, the basis for belief in the sovereign authority of the Creator-Redeemer God over all human life, rests on the reliability of what Scripture says about God and his purposes. Modern naturalism impugns the authority of the Bible and assails the claim that the Bible is the Word of God written, that is, a transcendently given revelation of the mind and will of God. Attack upon scriptural authority is the storm center both in the controversy over revealed religion and in the modern conflict over civilizational values.
Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (pp. 296–298). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
God has used people to write down His Words. Those Words are collected in several scrolls or books, we call the “Bible” (from Biblia = collection of books) or the Holy Scriptures or book of books.
The books of the Judaic Scriptures or Old Testament, showing their positions in both the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible, shown with their names in Hebrew) and Christian Bibles. The Deuterocanon or Apocrypha are coloured differently from the Protocanon (the Hebrew Bible books which are considered canonical by all). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Roman Catholics add apocryphal books (from the Greek ἀπόκρυφος, apókruphos, meaning “hidden” or apokruptein ‘hide away’) to those adopted by other Christian bodies. By the Eastern Orthodox per the Synod of Jerusalem those books are called anagignoskomena. By protestants those books are also sometimes called deuterocanonical books.
The Apocrypha include the following books and parts of books: First and Second Esdras; Tobit; Judith; the Additions to Esther; Wisdom of Solomon; Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus); Baruch; the Letter of Jeremiah (in Baruch); parts of Daniel (the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men; see also Bel and the Dragon and Susanna1); First and Second Maccabees; the Prayer of Manasses (see Manasseh). All are included in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions but not in the Hebrew Bible, with the exception of 2 Esdras (4 Ezra). However, they were not included in the Hebrew canon (ratified c.C.E. 100), being considered Sefarim hizonim (extraneous books).
Jewish and Christian works resembling biblical books, but not included among the Apocrypha, are collected in the Pseudepigrapha. {The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2016; The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006}
Anglican and Protestant translations of the Bible have, since the 16th century, placed books of the Apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments.
Those books are given to mankind so that he can come to see what the Divine Creator wants from him and what the Plans are. In all those writings man can find God’s revelation of what all people need to know about their origins, rebellion against God, sinful nature, salvation, spiritual development, and destiny.
The idea of a collection of holy writings developed early in Hebrew-Christian thought. Daniel in the 6th century B.C. E. spoke of a prophetic writing as “the books” (Daniel 9:2). The writer of 1 Maccabees (2nd century B.C.E.) referred to the Tanakh or Old Testament as “the holy books” (12:9).
Master teacherrabbi Jeshua, in the present world better known as Jesus Christ used the scrolls to show people the way to God. He alluded to the Tanakh as “the scriptures” (Matthew 21:42), and Paul spoke of them as “the holy scriptures” (Romans 1:2).
Matthew 21:42 (RNKJV): Yahushua saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is יהוה’s {Jehovah’s) doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
Romans 1:1-3 (RNKJV): Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant of Yahushua the Messiah, called to be an apostle, separated unto the glad tidings of יהוה, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Yahushua the Messiah our Saviour, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Several Christians talk about the Bible and then think only of the New Testament, but they should know that the New testament cannot be without the previous Old Testament. Because rabbi Jeshua constantly refers to the Judaic Scripturesfollowers of Christ should also have to know the Pre-Messianic Scriptures or the Old Testament. Actually “testament” is the translation of a Greek word that might better be rendered “covenant.” It denotes an arrangement made by God for the spiritual guidance and benefit of human beings. Through the ages many covenants were agreed between God and man. As such we can find an Edenic, Mosaic, Abrahamic, Old and New Covenants. The covenant is unalterable: humankind may accept it or reject it but cannot change it. “Covenant” is a common Old Testament word; of several covenants described in the Old Testament, the most prominent was the Law given to Moses, often referred to as Mosaic Law. While Israel was chafing and failing under the Mosaic covenant, God promised them a “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31).
Jeremiah 31:31 (RNKJV)
Behold, the days come, saith יהוה, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
The term “new covenant” appears several times in the New Testament. Jesus used it when he instituted the Lord’s Supper; by it he sought to call attention to the new basis of communion with God he intended to establish by his death (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
Luke 22:20 (RNKJV): Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
1 Corinthians 11:25 (RNKJV)
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
The apostle Paul also spoke of that new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6, 14; Hebrews 8:8; 9:11–15).
2 Corinthians 3:6 (RNKJV):Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2 Corinthians 3:14 (RNKJV)
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in the Messiah.
By the offering of Jesus, giving his body for the sins of allpeople, and God accepting his ransomoffering, for those who will come in Christ the veil shall be taken away whilst the Jews still face the Old or Παλαιος (ancient) in contrast to καινος (fresh, verse 6) arrangement. The detailed description of Gods new method of dealing with people (on the basis of the finished work of Christ at the stake) is the subject of the 27 books of the New Testament.
From the older works we come to hear how God got on with and arranged matters for people in anticipation of the coming of this Messiah (Hebrew equivalent of “Christ,” meaning “anointedone”). His promise made in the Garden of Eden (long before Abraham was born) presenting a solution against the curse of death, is certainly the major theme of the 39 books of the Pre-Messianic books or Old Testament, though they also deal with much more than that.
Latin church writers used testamentum to translate “covenant,” and from them the use passed into English; so old and new covenants became Old Testament and New Testament.
At least the first half of the Old Testament follows a logical and easily understood arrangement. In Genesis through Esther the history of Israel from Abraham to the restoration under Persian auspices appears largely in chronological order. Then follows a group of poetic books and the Major (not meaning important, but meaning the books that are relatively long) and Minor Prophets (meaning the books that are relatively short), known as the Shnem Asar, i.e. ‘The Twelve’.
The Second Writings, variously called the Netzarim or Nazarene Writings, the Messianic Writings, Kethuvim Bet, the New Covenant, haBrit haHadasha or the New Testament, also follows a generally logical arrangement. It begins with the presentation of the personal views from Jeshua his chosen disciples. As personal representatives those chosen ones describe the birth, life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in four Gospels.
In that first part of the New Testament we witness already how Jesus trained his disciples to carry on his work after his ascension. How they carried on is further shown in the Book of Acts. It details the founding of the church and its spread through Mediterranean lands.
In the latter part of the Messianic writings the spotlight focuses on Saul of Tarsus better known as the apostle Paul and his church-planting activities. In the Paulineletters or epistles Paul addresses the churches he founded or young ministers he tried to encourage. Following the Pauline Epistles comes a group commonly called the General or PastoralEpistles.
The last book, Revelation of John, also called Book of Revelation (Lat., revelare, ‘to unveil’) or Apocalypse of John or Vision of John, is an apocalyptic work, using the epistolary, the apocalyptic, and the prophetic genre. It is perhaps, by its extensive use of visions, symbols, and allegory, including figures such as the Whore of Babylon and the Beast, culminating in the Second Coming of Jesus, the most difficult book of the collection. It is itself also a collection of separate units composed by unknown authors who lived during the last quarter of the 1st century, though it purports to have been written by an individual named John — who calls himself “the servant” of Jesus — at Patmos, in the Aegean Sea. The text includes no indication that John of Patmos and John the Apostle are the same person. It begins with John, on the island of Patmos in the Aegean, addressing a letter to the “Seven Churches of Asia“.
Three languages were used for the Holy Scriptures: Hebrew with a few isolated passages inAramaic in the latter books of the Old Testament and mainly Greek for the Messianic writings which are therefore also often called Greek Scriptures or Greek Writings.
The first books, or the Pentateuch, were written by Moses by about 1400 B.C.E. (provided one accepts the early date proposed for the exodus). If the last of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets was written by Malachi (a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “my messenger”, before 400 B.C.E.), composition took place during a thousand years of time. All the writers (some 30 in number) were Jews: prophets, judges, kings, and other leaders in Israel.
If James was the first to write a New Testament book before the middle of the 1st century and if John was the last (composing Revelation about C.E. 95), the New Testament was written during a 50-year period in the latter half of the 1st century. All the writers (probably nine) were Jews, with the exception of Luke (writer of Luke and Acts of the apostles), and they came from a variety of walks of life: fishermen, doctor, tax collector, and religious leaders.
In spite of great diversity of authorship in the Hebrew Writings or Old Testament and the Greek Writings or New Testament, and composition spanning over 1,500 years, there is remarkable unity in the total thrust. Christians believe that God must have been superintending the production of a divine-human book that would properly present His message to humankind.
We believe the library of books from those people God chose Himself to write down His messages bring not only the history of mankind but also a divine revelation.
The Old Testament starts with the beginning of the universe and describes man and woman in the first paradise on the old earth or old world; the New Testament concludes with a vision of the new heaven and new earth or new world.
The Old Testament sees humankind as fallen from a sinless condition and separated from God; the creatures themselves having chosen to go against God’s Wishes and damaging their relationship with God. The Hebrew Writings then focus on how God offered mankind a solution for their act of rebellion. Throughout the 39 books of the Old Testament there is regularly spoken of a coming Redeemer who will rescue men and women from the pit of condemnation.
In the New Testament is revealed how those Words spoken by God in the garden of Eden become a reality and as such all those words from God ‘become flesh’. From the beginning all things came into being by the Word of God and after long waiting the world could find that now there came a new opportunity to have life. That life was the light of mankind which shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it. The books after the major and minor prophets give us the words of the send one from God, the prophet whom God declared to be His only begotten beloved son.
John 1:1-5 (Ref.B.): John 1
1 In [the] beginning+ the Word*+ was, and the Word was with God,*+ and the Word was a god.*+ 2 This one was in [the] beginning+ with God.+ 3 All things came into existence through him,+ and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.
What has come into existence 4 by means of him was life,+ and the life was the light+ of men.* 5 And the light is shining in the darkness,+ but the darkness has not overpowered it. (Ref.B)
In most of the Old Testament the spotlight focuses on a sacrificial system in which the blood of animals provided a temporary handling of the sin problem; in the New Testament, Christ appeared as the one who came to put an end to all ritualsacrifice — to be himself the supreme sacrifice.
In the New Testament Jesus refers often to what was told in the Old Testament. He gives more information and helps people to understand those previous writings better. His actions and his words should people come to realise that Jeshua, Jesus Christ, is that in numerous predictions foretold coming Messiah who would save his people. In the New Testament scores of passages detail how those prophecies from the Tanakh were minutely fulfilled in the person of Jeshua, Jesus Christ: the “son of Abraham” and the “son of David”.
Matthew 1:1 (RNKJV)
The book of the generation of Yahushua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
As Augustine said more than 1,500 years ago,
“The New is in the Old contained; the Old is in the New explained.”
The Bible, like other scriptures, is open to interpretation depending on an individual’s religious background, personally-held beliefs, general understanding and many other factors. But we do have to be aware that it is God’s message to the world. It is His Word He has given to His creatures so that they might find Him and build up a good relationship with Him. It is the source which can bring us out of darkness.
Those assembled 66 books form the guide we are asking you to take with you on your trip to finding God. On the third component of the Flemish Triptych around looking for and finding God, the aim is to help those who have managed to do the first steps, namely looking for God (Op zoek naar God) and secondly finding the way which can bring us to God (De Weg naar God).
The blog on the third panel of the triptych opens with saying that we only can find something when we looked thoroughly “Vinden komt pas na goed zoeken“. Already in the first component of the triptych, as on our pages on the Relating to God site, we told our readers that we must know that our Creator Himself is ready to be found. He calls us. He wants to be found (De Schepper God wil gevonden worden).
Whilst the second component has its focus on the way to come to God, the final shutter looks at affirming the decisions which a person has to take when looking for God. Parts of texts published here in English shall be presented over there in Dutch. As such you may find the series on the seen and unseen, the touchable and untouchable, the transient and the imperishable, in Dutch on that site as well in different episodes.
The God of Israel said that Israel’s closeness to Him will be seen by the nations around about and it is Him Who all people in the world should come to find and worship. Him alone, and no other God. The God of gods warned people that He wants to relate to them only when they do not make any graven images of Him. Yes He Who demands not to make an idol for ourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth, is calling His creatures to come to Him and to give only worship to Him. the act of revering or adoring with dignity and high standing should only be done to the AlmightyDivine Creator, the ElohimJehovahHost of hosts.
Exodus 20:1-7 (RNKJV)
Exodus 20
1 And Elohim spake all these words, saying, 2 I am יהוה {Jehovah} thy Elohim, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other elohim before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I יהוה thy Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of יהוה thy Elohim in vain; for יהוה will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
In that third section shall be given much attention to That One Who cannot be seen by man.
Exodus 33:19-20 (TS2009)
19 And He said, “I shall cause all My goodness to pass before you, and I shall proclaim the Name of יהוה {Jehovah} before you. And I shall favour him whom I favour, and shall have compassion on him whom I have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You are unable to see My face, for no man does see Me and live.”
The Way to God, God His only begottenson, the Nazareneman of flesh and blood, who really died, can be seen and it is him that we should follow. Whilst in the second component the focus is on Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the third component brings all knowledge together and looks at our relationship between Jesus, God, other people and other created elements like the plants and animals.
Our main focus over-there shall be on the one Who is Spirit and has nothing to do with gold or silver that man wants to use to portray Him.
Acts 17:29 (TS2009)
“Now then, since we are the offspring of Elohim, we should not think that the Elohim is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by the skill and thought of man.
John 4:24 (TS2009)
“Elohim is Spirit, and those who worship Him need to worship in spirit and truth.”
In the first two components we show how we may not be limited on our thinking, to what is going on in the world around us. All panels of the triptych show how we do have to become transformed. Transformed to God sensitivity, understanding the Awesomeness of His Presence around.
Galatians 4
1 And I say, for as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and trustees till the time prearranged by the father. 3 So we also, when we were children, were under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved. 4 But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah, 5 to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, Elohim has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir of Elohim through Messiah. 8 But then, indeed, not knowing Elohim, you served those which by nature are not mighty ones.
Romans 8:9 (TS2009)
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Elohim dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Messiah, this one is not His.
Romans 8:16 (TS2009)
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of Elohim,
Romans 8:24-28 (TS2009)
24 For in this expectation we were saved, but expectation that is seen is not expectation, for when anyone sees, does he expect it? 25 And if we expect what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance. 26 And in the same way the Spirit does help in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray, but the Spirit Himself pleads our case for us with groanings unutterable. 27 And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the set-apart ones according to Elohim. 28 And we know that all matters work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are called according to His purpose.
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In het Nederlands is er de triptiek die ook op deze site gebrachte teksten in het Nederlands vertolkt over de drie componenten.
Het derde deel “God vinden” concentreert zich op het eindpunt van misschien een lange weg, warbij wij meerdere keren voor een keuze zullen geplaatst worden.
In de voorziene artikelen zal aangetoond worden dat wij ons betere concentreren op die dingen die niet kunnen gezien worden maar die als wij willen wel waar genomen kunnen worden. Want ook al is God niet zichtbaar voor de mens kunnen wij Zijn wonderwerken en Zijn Kracht wel waar nemen. Wanneer lezers bij het derde deel van de trilogie komen zouden zij op het punt moeten staan waar zij bereid zijn God in zich te laten nestelen. Want pas als wij ons zelf over geven aan God kunnen wij opgenomen worden als kinderenvan Hem. Hiertoe moeten wij echter het kinderschap met de wereld opgeven en bereid zijn om die hechte relatie met de EnigeWareGod aan te gaan die geen verering duldt van andere goden.
Several 
Relating to God 