We Need the Bible! Part 1

The Bible is a believer’s guidebook for life; not just for one’s spiritual life but it provides the answers to emotional, physical, and intellectual problems as well. We need to apply logic and reason to our understanding as well as tradition, both to the Bible’s words and ideas and our modern culture.

If God is the ultimate subject of theology, then he is also the ultimate source of theology. Every theological statement must be traceable back to the reality of God himself; this is the only way to ensure its truth. This raises the question of the sources of theology, i.e., how is it possible for us to have access to the reality of God and thus to true knowledge about him...Precisely speaking, theology is the reflection upon the analysis of something within our own consciousness. (Jack Cottrell, The Faith Once For All, 2002, page 17)

God can be found in the Bible but the Bible is not the only source of God. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20, TNIV) “When it comes to spiritual growth the Bible obviously plays a major role. According to the apostle Peter, it contains everything we need for life and godliness.” (Larry Osborne, The Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God, 2007, page 64) I consider myself a disciple of Christ; however, even though I confessed Christ some 15 years ago I have not behaved as a disciple for 15 years. I was one of those Christians that started reading the Bible as soon I confessed Christ as Lord and Savior. I have read the Bible in a year three times now and have studied it just about every day for most of that time.

But the problem is that the Bible is a big book. Few of us know all the answers or life principles it contains. If you’re like me, you’ve probably turned to it for help more than once only to be frustrated by the I-know-it’s-there-somewhere-but-I-can’t-find-it syndrome. (Osborne, 2007, page 64)

In my opinion, this is exactly why we need a theology of Christian life. In the book of Acts of the Apostles, Peter gave one the most famous of all sermons ever given. (Acts 2:14-41) At the end of this message many repented and were baptized. But what they did next is the thing that one could overlook when thinking and developing a way of life to be modeled for the church. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42, TNIV) Many have been converted to Christianity because of some testimony of another, or to some event in a small group setting or to a lunch or dinner where “bread was broken.” So the church needs people as much as it needs the Bible. And it needs people that are devoted to all those things identified in Acts 2. More Next week…

Creed Branson, Executive Minister