“The Word of God” The Word of God as a Person: Jesus Christ Sometimes the Bible refers to the Son of God as “the Word of God.” In Revelation 19:13, John sees the risen Lord Jesus in heaven and says, “The name by which he is called is The Word of God.” Similarly, in the beginning of John’s Gospel we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). It is clear that John is speaking of the Son of God here, because in verse 14 he says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” These verses (and perhaps 1 John 1:1) are the only intances where the Bible refers to God the Son as “the Word” or “the Word of God”, so this usage is not common. But it does indicate that among the members of the Trinity it is especially God the Son who in his person as well as in his words has the role of communicating the character of God to us and of expresing the will of God for us. ‘The Canon of Scripture’: What Belongs in the Bible and What Does Not Belong? If you have never read any parts of the Old Testament Apocrypha, perhaps you would want to read some sections. Do you feel you can trust these writings in the same way you trust Scripture? Compare the effect these writings have on you with these effect Scripture has on you. You might want to make a similar comparison with of perhaps with the Book of Mormon or the Qur’an. Is the spiritual effect of these writings on your life positive or negative? How does it compare with the spiritual effect the Bible has on your life? A good recent translation is The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (RSV), ed. Bruce M. Metzger (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965). There is also a collection of nonbiblical writings from the time of the New Testament called “New Testament Apocrypha”, but these are much less commonly read. When people speak of “the Apocrypha” without further specification, they are refering only to the Old Testament Apocrypha. How then does a Christian, or anymore else, choose among the various claims for absolute authorities? Ultimately the truthfulness of the Bible will commend itself as being far more persuasive than other religious books (such as the Book of Mormon or the Qur’an), or than any other intellectual constructions of the human mind (such as logic, human reason, sense experience, scientific methodology, etc.). It will be more persuasive because in the actual experience of file, all of these other candidates for ultimate authority are seen to be inconsistent or to have shortcomings that disqualify them, while the Bible will be seen to be fully in accord with all that we know about the world around us, about ourselves, and about God. The Bible will commend itself as being persuasive in this way, that is, if we are thinking rightly about the nature of reality, our perception of it and of ourselvel, and our perception of God. Sumber: Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2007), pp. 47, 69, 79.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:11:00 +0000