the true and only word of God?

From a visitor to this site, I received the following email:

Dear Andre, For quite some time, I have been reading your articles, written by you, on GoedBericht, with much amazement. With amazement, I mean positive amazement. I grew up in a Baptist family and I have been given the necessary information. Obviously, we have a loving God, but…hell is also a reality. Maybe I had, for myself, already placed a question mark (after the latter), but never said it out loud. I therefore feel it like a fresh breeze when I read your articles. Quite regularly, I must as it were, swallow things, because I learned them differently. Are we lied to in the church and did that happen on purpose? I have two additional questions. How can we be sure that the Bible is the true and only word of God? And what are your thoughts on what info is left in Rome? Thank you for reading this and keep up the good work. Sincerely, …

The contents of this email will be familiar to many readers. What is given with one hand in most of the preaching (a loving God) is with the other hand again taken away (the reality of hell). Such a contradictory arrangement obviously raises many questions. Even if they are not spoken aloud, the questions are no less penetrating. What a soothing, fresh breeze it is, when these questions are answered clearly. Right from Scripture, perfectly logical, and also satisfying for the  heart. Of course, it is confrontational to hear that so much what you always were taught simply is not true and that you were “lied” to. Very often, not even knowingly- They did not know any better. Although… traditionally, the theologians may not tell everything they know; bound as they are to religious confessions. But in an age when information is freer and more readily available than ever, mature and articulate church members can now easily see through them. The questions at the end of the writer’s email, cannot easily be answered in a blog like this. Suffice a starter. That the Vatican keeps a lot of information under wraps, I readily accept. Everywhere indeed, “the truth is suppressed in unrighteousness” (Rom.1:18); in politics, in the religious world and even in science and in journalism. That makes this eon especially an “evil eon”, in which the (father of) lies rules. And the most important question is: how can we be sure that the Bible is the true and only word of God? Actually, this is a double question. How do we know the Bible is the true word of God, and how do we know this is the only word of God? Regarding the first question, Peter, in his second letter (2Pet.1:16-21) gives a brilliant answer. He points out that he and his fellow apostles, did not follow cleverly devised stories, but were eyewitnesses of the (risen) Lord Jesus Christ. With hundreds of other eyewitnesses, they have had to pay for their testimony (i.e. what they have seen and heard) with a martyr’s death. This is the ultimate hallmark of their testimony. The second thing that Peter points out is the unity of the Scriptures (2Pet.1:20,21). “No prophecy of Scripture has its own interpretation,” he writes. “That is to say, the prediction of one Scripture finds its fulfillment in the other Scriptures and its explanations. As pieces of a puzzle, the Scriptures come together. Anyhow, the foretelling of the future, belongs to God. The apostles have also, according to their own words, completed the Scriptures. Paul writes that the ministry was given to him to perform or complete the word of God (Col.1:25). Therefore, Peter and Paul, at the end of their life, have been busy bringing the Scriptures together and to bundle them (2Pet.1:15; 2Pet.3:16; 2Tim.4:13). Who else but they were, as representatives of Christ, authorized to do so? According to the Hebrew counting of the books, the Bible has forty-nine books: the twenty-two books of the Tanakh and the twenty-seven books of the “New Testament.” That is 7 x 7, the fullness, squared. The current count of sixty-six books of the Bible is wrong. This is based on the census of the Greek Septuagint, but forgets to count the Psalms as five books. So there are four books to be added. Also in this counting, the Bible becomes a fullness, 10 x 7. Anyway, the word of God is complete! So Paul was entitled to write that the man of God, may be equipped, fitted out for every good act. (2Tim.3:17).

Delen: