{"id":53,"date":"2006-02-09T18:13:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-09T18:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianmashburn.net\/?p=53"},"modified":"2006-02-09T18:13:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-09T18:13:00","slug":"the-bible-and-the-word-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"The Bible and the Word of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“<\/span>You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” — The Lord Jesus<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

“The fish trap exists because of the fish.  Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap.  The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare.  Words exist because they capture meaning.  Once you’ve got the meaning, you can forget the words.  Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?” — Chuang Tzu<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>It’s been quite a while since I’ve written, so I hope you’ve enjoyed the break! So here’s another honest expression from my (often imperfect) thinking, but beware….<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For life-long, Bible-believing Christians who have already settled into the truth that they are willing to discover and don’t want to figure out where they might be able to have a belief system that is a bit “truer” than what they already know, this email is rated R – Restricted. You’re not even allowed to read it without me sitting there with you. This is one of those emails that if Jesus was writing, I think he would give us one of those, “He who has an ear, let him hear”<\/em> things.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have known what I am about to tell you for a long time. And I have lived by it much longer than I’ve been aware of it, more unintentionally by God’s grace than by wisdom, smarts, and informed decision making processes.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To say it out loud, at least in the way that I’m going to say it to you in this writing, may be the most provocative way of doing so, but I want you to bear with me (because this is a deeply emotional part of my faith) and then read the explanation that follows (because, admittedly, it’s not as heretical as it sounds at first). Ready? Buckled in? Okay…here it comes…<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bible is not the Word of God.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, I said it out loud. I’m out there. Now let me explain.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Greek word for “Bible” is “graphe”<\/em>. The Greek word for “Word” is “logos”<\/em>. <\/font><\/span><\/span>The “graphe”<\/em> is not the “logos”<\/em>. When you read “Word of God” in Scripture, that is the word Logos<\/em> (except twice, where it is the word “rhema”<\/em>). When you read the word “Scripture” in Scripture, that’s the word “graphe”<\/em>. And graphe<\/em> and logos<\/em> are NOT synonyms.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The graphe<\/em> is the book full of pages that you can hold in your hand and contains a collection of writings and letters that have been assembled and then called the Bible. I have read every graphe (scripture)<\/em> there is in the New Testament that mentions the graphe<\/em>. The graphe, according to graphe, is here to be read, to be known, and to be believed. We are to search them, fulfill them, reason out of them, and learn from them. Graphe<\/em> is inspired by God, and they cannot be broken,  <\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As powerful as that is, the logos<\/em> is more so. The Logos<\/em> is what God is trying to get into your head and heart and soul and spirit in any way he can, which includes through the graphe<\/em>. The Logos, <\/em>according to the graphe, <\/em>is what has power! The Logos<\/em> (not the Bible) was with God in the beginning, the Logos<\/em> was actually God! The Logos<\/em> of God is what God means by the Bible, the Logos<\/em> of God is what God is, the Logos<\/em> of God is what He packaged in the flesh and told an angel to tell Joseph to name it Jesus. The Logos<\/em> of God, the Word of God, IS GOD!!! <\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know about you, but my mind has been programmed: When I read “Word of God,” I think “Bible.” As a tragic result, I started out my Christian walk relying on the Bible<\/em><\/strong> for things that I can only really rely on the Word of God<\/em><\/strong> for.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I know it seems a bit trivial, and God knows that I wish it was. But it is not…not for me, at least. When Scripture is relied on as “the Word of God” rather than as a means of pointing us to “the Word of God”, we start elevating the Bible to a place that the Bible is trying to elevate Jesus to. <\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t believe me? Then go back to the top of this email and tell me why Jesus said what he said there?<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The graphe<\/em>, according to graphe<\/em>, is the authority on (and one of many useful tools) for one ultimate thing…pointing us to the person of Jesus (the Logos) <\/em>for salvation.  <\/font> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So I am diligently studying Scripture right now to see what Scripture says about Scripture. And g<\/font><\/span><\/span>uess what? It is an invaluable, useful, potentially life-saving, life-giving agent for life transformation and eternal salvation! But only if it is used as words recorded for us from God which will point us to the true Word of God…Jesus Christ.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s the clarifying question…when you go before God, do you wanna go with your Bible in your hand or Jesus holding your hand? With one you can show God how you followed His rules. With the other, you can be saved.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” — The Lord Jesus “The fish trap exists because of the fish.  Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap.  The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}