God in the Universe

     I have encountered many Christians who follow the Sola Scriptura idea.  This idea pretty much means that they refuse to consider any truth outside of scripture.  You will commonly hear comments like, "If it's not in the Bible, then I don't believe it!" from them.  You will also hear them say, "You can't shove God into a box." or something along those lines, yet they want to shove Him into a book?  I don't see the logic in that.  If God created the universe, then anything that is found to be true in the universe is His truth whether it is in scripture or not.  If we pursue truth, then are we not pursuing God because He created truth and Jesus said that He is truth*, therefore pursuing truth is honoring God's creation and pursuing Jesus.  Why would God give us the capacity to think, reason, and comprehend things if He did not want us to use those abilities?  I believe He gave us these abilities so that we could honor and worship Him by using them.  When we take the time to appreciate His creation and study it to better understand it we are honoring Him.  Artists of every kind want people to study and admire there work because that is why they made it, so what makes the potter any different**?

     To take this further, the Bible says that we are not to live by bread alone, but by God's words***.  If we think critically about this scripture we can make connections to other scripture.  If we are not to live by bread alone and Jesus is the bread of life<> and Jesus is the word made flesh><, then we can conclude that we are not to live by scripture alone.  You may see that as a stretch, but there is still more in this.  The scripture goes on to say that we are to live by God's words as well as bread(scripture).  In the beginning, God created the entire universe with just His words.  If God created the universe with His words, then would we not be studying His words by studying the universe?  God does not wish for us to be ignorant, otherwise He would not have created us in His own image.  To believe in Sola Scriptura is to deny all of the marvelous things that God has created.  One of the things that many people forget is that to the first Christian churches the Bible was only the Old Testament and they were living out the New Testament.  This means that the Bible can't contain all knowledge and all truth because it was still being formed while the church was already established.  All that is in the Bible is truth, but not all truth is in the Bible.  I think that it is important to remember that scripture without the church's tradition has no foundation and the church without scripture has no message.

     *John 14:6 - "Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me."  New Living Translation

     **Romans 9:20-21 - "20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?  Will the molded say to it's molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?"  New Living Translation

     ***Matthew 4:4 - "Jesus answered, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.''"  New Living Translation

     <>John 6:35 - "Jesus replied, 'I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.  Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.'"  New Living Translation

     ><John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."