12/20/23 UNDERSTAND THE INTEGRITY OF THE BIBLE

12/20/23 UNDERSTAND THE INTEGRITY OF THE BIBLE

What should be our reason for believing doctrines in the Bible?

Our belief should not be based on what we want to believe or disbelieve.
Our belief should not be based on what is popularly believed.
Our belief should not be based on human argumentation.
Our belief should be based on what the Bible says, and what it says consistently with itself, and what is consistent with the nature of the God of the Bible.

It should be based on what the words say and what they mean in the passages.
It should be based on the language of the Bible.
It should be based on the historical and cultural records of the day in which it was written.
It should be based on the immediate context as well as the broader context of the Bible.

Simply stated, we should base our beliefs on the Bible, based on what God said, rather than what men say that God said and it should be based on what God meant rather than what men say God meant, which means we need to know the word, understand the word and have a right relationship with God.

Our faith and faithfulness concerning the Bible should be based on pleasing God rather than pleasing personal preferences, or pleasing a system of beliefs, or pleasing a popular view of the Bible.

The Bible is not an accumulation of worldly wisdom or moral precepts or religious observations.
The Bible is God's word, given to us in order to reveal the true and living God and show us the steps in being reconciled with Him.
It is God's message and it is not left up to any private or corporate interpretation.
It is what God intended for it to be and it is to be understood in the way God intended us to understand it.

The Bible is God's revelation.
God taught it to His messengers.
God has preserved it.
God communicates His word to His people by His Spirit.

Since the Bible is a spiritual revelation from the Spirit of God, we must seek God with the whole heart, mind and strength.

If a teaching does not agree with the basic message of the Holy Bible...
If the teaching does not agree with the nature of the God of the Bible...
If the teaching does not lead us to walk in loving, faithful obedience to Christ...
Then the the teaching is not the teaching of the Bible.