Is it possible to have Church and Christianity without the Bible constantly thrown to the forefront? Can a church set aside the Bible as God’s authoritative Word and still be a church? Can those persons and denominations who claim to be representing Christ and Christianity do so while claiming that God’s word is not authoritative enough to set standards by which we should live? To some this question may seem ridiculous to ask, while others ponder the thought with high hopes of coming up with a yes.

  There are many issues tied to the authority of God’s word and this newsletter is not the forum to address this to any great depth. Literally hundreds and hundreds of works have been written on this subject over the past 1900 or so years. Subjects such as “inerrancy” , “inspiration” , “form criticism” , and many others enter into this arena. If you desire to read on these subjects, email us and we will recommend some reading material. The real issue comes to this, “If not God’s word then, what are you offering?”

  Lets examine a few things that those who deny the Bible it’s place in the Church and have replaced it with something else. You will find that the Bible is seen as more or less of a storybook. Some try to disguise their contempt for God’s word by calling it a “good moral guide” or “ancient stories that we can learn from”.  The next step that usually happens with these people is denying the deity of Christ. Once this occurs, then the virgin birth, the atonement, forgiveness for sin, and justification by faith, and the resurrection go out the window just to mention a few. Following this, you then have to deal with what was it that Jesus died for? If he wasn’t God in the flesh then it was really meaningless. All that preaching Paul did was, well, a pack of lies!

  The Bible is God’s word to humankind. There was no way for man to reach God and to find these things out. God revealed to us what we needed to know. David, in Psalm 119:19, had a good grasp on the reality of the situation. It reads “ I am a stranger in the earth: do not hide your commandments from me.”

  A point comes to mind that has always been confusing to some. Jesus commissioned the church, as recorded in the pages of the Bible. It seems to be slightly irrational to be a part of an institution that you say was founded on erroneous, non-authoritative documents by someone who was either a liar, lunatic or a terribly misunderstood political revolutionary.

  The prevalent mindset today is that “there is no absolute truth” so this is why people deny that the Bible is authoritative. If the Bible is not authoritative then one must rely on manmade opinion and facts. Since these are not authoritative by their own admission “because there is no absolute truth”, then it must be asked, why bother at all? It really does not matter.

  This introduces a subject that the Christian Apologist and Philosopher Francis Schaeffer called “being below the line of  despair”. In denying the truths of the Bible, humanity and all of its accomplishments, cultures and future become meaningless. If we deny that the teachings of the Bible are true and we substitute them with anything else, we introduce a dark and foreboding world. This is what is offered by any organization that does not adhere to the Bible as truth.

  The following are a few examples some of the considerations that must be made: Welcome to a world where you are not unique or special. You are a product of a great cosmic accident that happened a few billion years ago. You are actually insignificant because you will die someday and that is that. Whatever you leave for posterity will not matter because some day in the far distant future the sun will go supernova and wipe out the earth and there is a possibility that the universe will collapse back in upon itself and that will be the end of the universe as we know it. 

  If you believe that you go to an afterlife when death comes, then you go to a place where there maybe a god. You go to one that did not care enough about you to even to bother speaking to the world you lived in to provide it with a basis for truth and knowing how to make it to where he was. This god did not care enough about you to pay the way for you so that all you would have to do is believe in the Son He sent. Most likely you will try to earn your way there with your works and good deeds. You will also have to guess about this since there is no absolute truth.

  Your church would be little more than a social club and a platform for teaching socially convenient morality. You are told what to believe and to evaluate right and wrong according to societal norms. You are tolerant. You believe everyone is right and everything is right, except not believing everyone is right and everything is right.  Whatever people decide moral standards are, is right! For example: killing unborn children, Roe vs. Wade in the US 1973 or killing Jewish people, Hitler in Germany 1940. These were decision made by the societal norms. You may think that abortion is different or that what Hitler did was wrong because that was murder. Who said murder is wrong? A few laws were passed and murder was legal.  On what basis was this decision made? It goes along with “what most people think.”

  You can be offered no hope because no one can tell you much of anything for sure. There may or may not be a God or a heaven or a hell. If there is there is no way for sure to go to one and avoid the other. You can offer no hope because you have no basis on which to offer hope. You are more like an ant on an anthill. You are just one of billions. You are born, you live, and you die. 

  On the other side of the issue, you have those persons and churches that hold to the Word of God and offer the Good News of Jesus Christ God’s son to the world. Eternal life, a life that is as long as it is good. There is a God who loves you and wants to spend eternity with you. Jesus Christ took on humanity to pay the price for our salvation on the cross. God  did not want us to be in the dark about God, man, or salvation. He gave us His Word so that we would know. There is a God who is interested in us and desires to establish a personal relationship with us. 

   This is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2: 9  

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 

Think about this. What God has prepared for those who love him is so wonderful that we cannot begin to understand it. 

  Can a church set aside the Bible as God’s authoritative Word and still be a church? Can those persons and denominations who claim to be representing Christ and Christianity do so while claiming that God’s word is not authoritative enough to set standards by which we should live? The answer is a resounding NO!!! What are they offering?

  The next time someone mentions that their denomination or church has taken “a more enlightened view” of the Bible and they now realize that it is just a bunch of stories. Ask them a few questions.

1. If that is so then why bother?

2. If the Bible isn’t authoritative and reliable then what is it your church is based on?

3. If God’s word isn’t authoritative, who is it that is making the rules your church lives by? Are they authoritative?   Who said so?   What makes them qualified to say who is authoritative? What qualifications do they have?