First Things First
Framework for understanding the word of God
Six years ago I self-published a book titled Cows in the Pews And the Atheists Too. It’s available on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble. To be clear, I’m not here necessarily to promote my book, but in the name of full disclosure wanted readers to be aware that that’s where this all started. If you want to know where Without the Camp will take you, Cows in the Pews And the Atheists Too will give you a very good overview. Consider it a crash course in understanding the word of God in context of time and circumstance as I mentioned in my first post.
Friends and family who have read Cows in the Pews and the Atheists Too say that it is somewhat overwhelming due to the shear amount of biblical references cited throughout the book. I attribute their comments mainly to the fact that much of what is presented in the book is unfamiliar to many people. As I’ve said, it’s not that the information is itself new, it’s just new to many people because it’s not presented in a traditional church attendance kind of way.
I say all of this primarily for your awareness and to offer it as an alternative to those who would like to jump to the punch line of what I will be writing about going forward.
With that said, allow me to introduce the framework for everything else I’ll present in future articles:
First, an important definition:
Faith from Webster’s 1828 First Edition Dictionary:
Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence (emphasis mine); the judgment that what another states or testifies is the truth.
The word faith and its definition, knowing whether we truly have faith, and what our faith is in, are some of the most important aspects of our standing with God. I’m starting with its definition to make sure everyone understands what it is, and what it isn’t. It is a deliberate exchange of the declarations and testimony of God written on the pages of the bible to our minds to allow us to judge for ourselves if we believe him or not. It is not a feeling or an experience we may have from attending church service, a revival, what have you, where a preacher tries to work everyone up to some heightened spiritual awakening at a scheduled time on Sundays.
Second, here is a passage that defines how we are to obtain faith:
Romans 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Third, here are several passages describing the Word of God and his infallibility:
Psalms 12:6 and 7
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 Peter 1:20-21
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Revelation 22:18-19
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
So, per the definition of the word faith, our belief is to be based on our individual judgment that what someone says or testifies to be true, is true. Obviously, in the case of the bible, it is presented as the word of God and as such is offered to the world as his testimony of all the events and circumstances between God and man from the beginning to the end of time. Moreover, our decision, i.e. judgment to believe or not is to be based solely on the words contained within the bible “without other evidence” or proof that what God declares to be true, is true.
Knowing what faith is and that it is obtained by hearing the word of God, the framework for hearing him is captured in the Psalms, John, II Peter, and Revelation passages above. In summary, his words are pure, he will preserve them forever, he is the word, his word requires no private interpretation, and if any man adds to or takes from the word of God, consequences will follow.
Now, I’m certainly not expecting anyone to suddenly find God or believe him since we’ve only scratched the surface of all that is contained in the bible. The definition of faith, and what the word of God says about the word of God is important to know and understand before going any further. I’m sure many Christians are familiar with these passages, but my approach here is to communicate to everyone, believer and non-believer alike, the overarching premise of how we are to approach the information contained in the bible.
In other words, the aim here is to establish how we are to handle the word of God as individuals. We are each responsible to make a judgment about what God is testifying to the world. Our judgement is to bring us to conclude whether God is telling the truth or is he lying based only on the words on the page and nothing else. After all, it’s a choice we all make one way or the other, whether we’ve considered God’s testimony or not.
It’s worth saying that I realize many people who might read these posts are very familiar with the passages above and many I will reference in future articles. I also realize most, if not all people know something of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that through his death, burial, and resurrection, salvation has been offered to all who believe.
Regardless of which protestant denomination’s doctrinal statement you consider, they all have that version of the gospel in common. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, sacrificed for mankind, raised from the dead, and faith in that “good news”, anyone can be forgiven their sins, and have the blessing of eternal life. However, when you dig a little deeper, each denomination has some type of variation in their doctrine about salvation. It’s too much to get into in this post, but we will compare some of the differences as we get further along.
I mention these denominational differences here because that’s what I hope to call your attention to in these articles. We have one bible, different versions aside, one God, one saviour, and one gospel, yet there are so many denominations preaching and teaching something different; in some cases, slight differences, in others, huge differences. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Can we know? The answer is yes. Stick with me and you’ll see for yourself.
In the next post, we’ll start looking at Old Testament passages establishing the nation of Israel and its early relationship with God.