The Bible is Truth

The Bible is the Truth

"Outside" of Us

Excerpted from "How We Read the Bible"

The message of Scripture is objective rather than subjective. "Objective" means that which is true for all people at all times, not contingent upon one's individual opinions. "Subjective" refers to our personal, individual view or experience of things. For example, the "truth" that one had a dream about space travel is subjective. It is subjective because there is no way for any other person to prove or disprove it. On the other hand, the truth that the Sun exists is not subjective because its factual nature can be proven by billions of people. It is a truth objectively apparent to all. The fact of the Sun is a truth outside of one's head. This is the objectivity the Bible claims. The message of Scripture is embedded in historical facts. Its claims are claims of objective truth. The Bible is not an experience, impression or impulse in one's head. It is the record or report of what God has actually done in history. The fact that Jesus died on the Cross may be debated by some, but his death is a fact of history rather than the invention of a few Christian's minds.

The central point I wish to make is this: if we do not treat the Bible as objectively true, we thereby make it a relative truth. It is no longer absolutely true for everyone. It is only true for those who wish it to be so. The Bible becomes only true because I say so and not because it is true in and of itself. The prophets and the apostles presented their message as absolute truth. They preached truth outside of themselves. God's existence, Humanity's sinfulness, the judgment of the world, the Incarnation of Christ were all proclaimed as absolute truth. All of this is undermined and threatened by a mystical or subjective reading of the Bible. Turning the Bible into a mystical book, interpreted by subjective experiences and impressions runs counter to the prophets, the apostles, and Christ himself.

Illumination and Inspiration

There is an important difference between illumination and inspiration. The reader is "illumined," while the Bible is "inspired" - literally "God-breathed out." The Reformers and all good Bible teachers discriminate between "inspiration" and "illumination." The inspiration of the Spirit comes through the very words of the Word of God. It is not supplied through our personal "experience," born of personal enthusiasm, inserted or read into the text. The reader does not need to achieve an inordinate, heightened state of "spirituality" in order to make the words of Scripture "spiritual." What is needed is receive the words of the Bible as given and preserved by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is already spiritual before we read it. We don't need an elevated consciousness or altered state to receive Scripture's inspired message. What we do need is the Holy Spirit to pierce our souls, break our hardened sinful hearts, and bring us to repentance and submission to the message of Scripture. Rather than look inward to our personal impressions, the Holy Spirit must overcome our personal sinful impressions and lead us back to understanding, believing and following the objective, absolute, inerrant, and factual words of the Bible.