Is Jesus or the Bible the (W)word of God?

     Which is the (W)word of God; the Bible or Jesus?  My answer depends on what you mean by word.  If you are using word as the means of communication (the way we generally use words) then it is definitely the Bible.  However, if you are using Word as the power that caused things to happen at God's "word", then my answer would be Jesus.  Too many Christians try to elevate the Bible into the fourth member of the trinity and you cannot do that.  The Bible has an important message, but it is about Jesus and is not the written form of Jesus.  The Bible explains why we are here and tells us of our purpose, but Jesus gives us what the Bible can't, life and power.  The Bible is not the fourth perfect member of the Godhead because that is reserved for the three-in-one.  The Bible is just the means of communication.
     In John 1, it can be seen that Jesus is the power of God. Power in this sense means authority or exousia in Greek.  When God spoke, Jesus was the word that came out and caused things to be*. This is why we see that Jesus had power on Earth during His life to speak things into being; He is the Word that God used. This is also why He told us that anything asked in His name would be done because He is the means of making it happen**.  Jesus is the power, God is the initiator, and the Holy Spirit is the Overseer.  I have already explained how Jesus is the power.  When I say, "God is the initiator", I am referring to the fact that everything was created from God's will and He had a perfect design for it, thus He initiated it***.  God is the one who starts everything.  In saying that "the Holy Spirit is the overseer", I am saying that the Holy Spirit is watching over what has been created and is guiding us in God's perfect plan for our lives.  The Holy Spirit was placed here to guide us and lead us in our following of Christ<>.
     To see the Bible's part in being the word of God, we must look at 2 Timothy 3:16. In this scripture we see that the Bible is the inspired word of God meaning that God revealed Himself in someway to the writers of the Bible and they captured what they saw, heard, or felt in writing that we now recognize as the Bible><. When reading the Bible we must realize that it is in the perspective of the writer of that specific portion of the Bible. If we heard, saw, or felt what God showed them, then we may have noticed and written down something different. If you would like proof of this, then read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and compare the four. All four tell the same story of Christ, yet all say something different because they saw things differently from one another. This does not mean that the Bible is flawed, but that everyone notices something different and the writers wrote down what they thought was most important.

* John 1:1-10 -- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not."

** John 14:13-14 -- "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it."

*** "The Lord God, the great initiator – the story begins One of the things that struck me as I reread the first chapters of Genesis is seeing God as the great initiator – or the central actor in this divine drama.  Watch Him move: “God said” – 15 times in Genesis 1-3 “God made” – 7 times “God saw” – 7 times “God blessed” – 3 times “God commanded” – 1 time  Starting in 2:15, though, is where the drama begins: 2:15 – God “took” and “put” man in the garden that he created for him (setting) 3:9 – God “called” to the man (the tension is building after the fall) 3:21 – God “made” for Adam and eve garments (sacrificial covering for their sin – at the height of climax) 3:23 – God “sent” them out of the garden (resolution)" http://r3cru.com/2010/01/god-as-the-great-initiator/

<> John 14:16-17 --  "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
<> John 16:13 -- "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come."

>< 2 Timothy 3:16 -- "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"

Life Is Beautiful

     In our modern culture we too often are too busy to step back and appreciate the beauty of life.  Have you ever just stopped and looked at the trees, flowers, animals, or even the ocean and just thought about how perfect all of those things are?  Have you ever thought about everything it takes for something to live and how beautifully perfect it is?  Look at the stars and take in the amazing sight that they are for they are the light in the darkness!  Look at the plants that live and grow into such beautiful things that give life to everything around them!  Look at the animals who live and do only what is necessary for survival!  There is such an awe striking quality in the complex simplicity of life!  Life gives life so that it can continue to live and grow!  Life never stops, it just moves on from one being to the next!  When one thing dies it provides life for the next, so is it truly dying?  When a living thing dies it can either decompose into the ground and become fertilizer for plants, or it can be eaten by animals and give them energy; both of these things are used to keep living things alive.  Life is the most complexly simple beauty that we have available to us!

 "Nothing.  Nothing cannot exist, because it is the opposite of existing.  To believe in nothingness is just that nothing.  Like death, death is not a state, its the absence of state.  Death to me is very unreal.  All I see is life.  In a dead body, I see simply life, the bacteria have already begun to decompose it.  Where then is death?" -- Chris Featherstone

     Biblically speaking God created all life.  Let that soak in for a moment.  God created all life!  Remember this next time you go outside soak in the life around you and recognize that God did all of it.  The next thing I want you to recognize is that God is life.  God breathed life into Adam and he became alive*.  Breath is commonly associated with spirit in ancient texts, therefore God gave Adam part of His spirit to bring him to life.  We all have God's spirit dwelling in us no matter who we are or what we believe!  God is in the plants and the animals.  God is life!  Therefore life cannot begin or end because God does not begin or end.  God is in all things and thus all things are Holy; this is why it is a sin to kill.  The Bible states that man is not to live by bread alone, but also by the words of God**.  God's words are what created all things and life itself, therefore we are to live by scripture and the world around us!  We are to love the world as God does because it His creation!

     *Genesis 2

     **Matthew 4:4

The Creation Account and The Big Bang

     If you look into what science and Christianity have to say about the origins of the world, then you may be surprised and you may realize that there must be a God. In the big bang theory everything began as a small dense fourth dimensional mass which can be seen as in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. God is timeless and so is the fourth dimension according to most science fiction writers; coincidence? I think not. Science doesn't know what cause this immensely dense fourth dimensional mass to expand(not explode), but they do know that the reason it did is because somehow light began to separate from the mass causing many chemical reactions. The Bible states that God said, "Let there be light". How would early Christians know that light came first without access to the amazing science that we have today unless God clued them in on it? Then the Bible says that God separated the waters of the Heavens from the waters of the Earth, thus the Heavens and the Earth separated and grew apart as the universe expanded. But wait, there is even more to these theories. Science states next that there was so much heat from the expansion of all of the molecules that the light was muffled by a dense fog-like state of the molecules and light would not return again until the sun and stars were formed. This explains why the Bible recreates the separation of light from dark and God creates the sun, stars and moon. As the stars appeared in Science everything began to cool and thus planets were formed. I don't think that it is a coincidence that everything lines up almost perfectly with the Bible. How could early Hebrews know the order that science has determined the world came to be in without divine enlightenment from God? I don't think they could have.  These are my thoughts on the topic and I know the two theories don't fit together perfectly, but they are close enough that you have to wonder how the Hebrews could have gotten so close without our modern advances.

     Genesis 1

Defending Christianity With Other Beliefs

    When someone questions, denies, or attacks your beliefs you are to defend them if you are a Christian*.  In order to defend your beliefs, you must know what the other person is saying about your beliefs.  To know what the other person is saying about your beliefs, you must know what they believe.  To know what they believe, you must research the ideas of their beliefs.  If you do not do this, then they will not listen to you because you will not be able to defend your beliefs against theirs.  Once you do know what they believe and the main points of their beliefs, then you will be able to have a conversation with them without looking(and sounding) like a fool.  Many Christians today would avoid everything about other religions at all costs because they believe that even discussing them will lead to confusion and the dangers of "falling off the path".  They believe that learning about these religions is a sin because you are somehow denying God.  These are the same Christians who are generally sola scriptura and they have no idea that they are denying the Bible by refusing to learn about other religions*.  The scripture reference that you will find on the bottom of this post tells us to always be ready to defend our faith, but to do it with care and respect.  This doesn't mean to tell them that we claim our faith because of something in the Bible or something that we have experienced.  Why, because they don't believe in the Bible and are not going to start because we can quote a scripture and if we try to use our own experiences they will write us off as crazy.  Once you realize this, you may ask what else you can do.  You can research their beliefs and find out what makes their beliefs so appealing to them.  Show them the common points in your beliefs and how they tell the same story and how their beliefs actually point to yours because that will affect them a lot more than mindless quoting of scripture.  Now you may ask how you would stay respectful and kind in doing this.  My answer is that you present your common points and show them that you understand where they are coming from and then explain how the Bible shows where everything adds up in the gray areas of their texts.  This won't offend them and the worst that could happen is they think their beliefs suit them better and then you can still talk to them regularly and gain a new perspective on the world.  Another way to share your faith is to not be disgruntled or angry when it is questioned.  So many Christians fall into the trap of non-Christians and get angry, defensive, and confrontational when their beliefs are disrespected or questioned.  Instead of going into a frenzy and trying to throw scripture at the attacker, defend your faith by showing that it is real.  How do you do that?  You do not get angry and throw insults back, you respectfully disagree and either move on or do as I have instructed above.

Lets face it, you cannot defend God, convincingly. You can offer explanations and all that but the truth is no one is bound or obliged to believe how you think your God is good. To an atheist, a Muslim praising his God, a Buddhist praising Buddha and a Christian praising Jesus is all the same.  Most atheists display a remarkable ignorance of faith and its inner working. And so very often if you are going to quote your bible, my bet is it is not going to work because to the atheist it is a “crap load of fabricated stories”.

 Regardless of what you believe, he is entitled to his opinion. But my point is, do not step into something you can not achieve, and that is you can not defend God and the truth is you are never asked in the scriptures to defend God. There is a difference, you are called to show how God changed your life. Don’t be pissed off, do not be angered, frustrating as it may be, do not give into it. God is more than adequate to defend himself, for that he doesn’t need you. But your faith is something that only you can defend and that is something you should always remember.

Read more:  http://johnadavid.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/defend-your-faith-not-god/

 

    The Bible calls us to defend our faith and argument against that are not Biblical.  Some will say that the word of God doesn't need to be defended, but in defining what the word of God is you are defending it.  If someone asks you what exactly the word of God is and you tell them it is the Bible, then you have just defended the stance that the Bible is the word of God.  If you claim that someone talked into faith can be talked out of faith and use that as a defense against reasoning someone into believing in God, then you need to read 1 Corinthians 15, for in it Paul gives reason for believing in Christ**.

Those who oppose these clear biblical teachings and examples may say, "The Word of God does not need to be defended!"  But which of the world's writings are the Word of God?  As soon as someone answers that, he is doing apologetics.  Some claim that human reason cannot tell us anything about God-but that statement itself is a "reasonable" statement about God.  If it's not, then there is no reason to believe it.  A favorite saying is, "If someone can talk you into Christianity, then someone else can talk you out."  Why is this a problem?  Did not Paul himself give a criterion (the resurrection) by which Christianity should be accepted or rejected in 1 Corinthians 15?  It is only misplaced piety that answers in the negative.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/defend-faith.html#ixzz2wnPOM2wf 

    There are countless other passages that would reinforce reason in the Bible and if you need more, feel free to ask me.

     *1 Peter 3:15 - "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect," New International Version

     **1 Corinthians 15