Quotes About Scripture

Scripture is the Word of God because the Holy Spirit witnesses in it of Christ. This understanding of the relation between the Spirit and Scripture opens up a perspective that is not locked in the past.

Faith is decisively determined by the object of faith, namely, God and His Word. This does not ... imply that Scripture ... derives its authority from the believer's faith: this idea is already rendered untenable by the very nature of faith, which rests on and trusts in the Word of God.

The authority of God's Word is not an arbitrary, external authority. It is a wooing and conquering authority. Scripture's authority does not demand blind obedience, rather a subjection that spells redemption, a subjection to Christ whereby he is never out of view in which acceptance occurs with joy and willingness.

God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are asserted side by side in Scripture (Acts 2:23; 4:27–28). Whether or not we can put them together in our minds, we must accept both truths.

The Founders believed liberty came directly from God. With their knowledge of Scripture, they knew each child was made in the image of God. That is why everyone had dignity, value and worth.

The way it interprets Scripture is based upon Christ's and the NT writers' understanding of the Old Testament (OT) Scriptures in explaining the outworking of God's will on earth (Matt. 6:10).

Abraham's servant prayed for success: "O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham" (Gen. 24:12 NASB). This is the first time in Scripture that we read of someone asking God for specific guidance.

What's so fascinating about all of this is that what we need to develop to enjoy an intimate marriage — commitment, tenacity, perseverance — is exactly what Scripture says we need to develop as faithful servants of God. This isn't a coincidence. It makes sense that God would design the fundamental human relationship — that between a husband and wife — as a relationship that complements our spiritual walk.

The role of the canon as scripture of the church and vehicle for its actualization through the Spirit is to provide an opening and a check to continually new figurative applications of its apostolic content as it extends the original meaning to the changing circumstances of the community of faith (cf. Frei, Eclipse, 2–16). These figurative applications are not held in isolation from its plain sense, but an extension of the one story of God's purpose in Jesus Christ.

Deut. 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." Psa. 82:1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.

The geocentric picture in Scripture is a depiction through man's ancient perspective of God's purpose and humankind's significance. For a modern heliocentrist to attack that picture as falsifying the theology would be cultural imperialism. Reducing significance to physical location is simply a prejudice of material priority over spiritual purpose.

Annas responded quickly, "My colleague Joseph is taking Scripture out of context. David was speaking metaphorically, and Isaiah's Suffering Servant is Israel, not Messiah." A voice interrupted their debate. "I can see my tardiness has inspired you to discuss the matter of Messiah in my absence." Pilate paused at the entrance of the chamber, with his personal guard. Everyone stood in respect.

If we want to understand how the ancient Jews understood the terms they used, we should look at how they themselves interpreted the texts. If one uses only Scripture to interpret Scripture without its cultural context, then one is not actually using Scripture to interpret Scripture, but conforming Scripture to one's own cultural bias and preconceived ideas.

For us to demand that the Biblical text be scientifically or historically "accurate" as we define those terms is not a high view of Scripture, it is a low view of Scripture. It is in fact imposing our own prejudices upon the text by refusing to understand it within its context. This is called cultural imperialism and it is the height of hubris, or human pride.

Sometimes a piece of literature is intended to be factual or historical, sometimes poetic or figurative, oftentimes both. So it is the literary context that determines how a scripture should be understood, not our expectations that we bring to the text. Since the Bible is literature with different genres and styles of writing, we should be literary in our interpretation, not literal.

It is like the indictment of the prophets: I hate your solemn assemblies, because you neglect the poor.5 If we really believe Scripture, then we have to face the very real possibility that our experience of church, where the majority of people have neglected the poor and have refused to make disciples, might mean the withdrawing of the tangible presence of God from our gatherings.

The Word of God needs to saturate our minds if we want to know and follow God's will.

And so, for the first of many times, I said the Prayer of God's Smuggler: 'Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture that I want to take to Your children across this border. When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.

She began by reminding me of the scriptural injunction that the ox grinding the corn must not be kept from enjoying the grain. Did I think God felt less about His human workers? Hadn't I better examine myself to be sure I was not nursing a Sacrificial Spirit? Wasn't I claiming to depend upon God, but living as if my needs would be met by my own scrimping?

In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and prophets. True it is they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine, for the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to me that they are true, and it is now as though the Lord had revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard his voice and know his word.

Ultimately, preaching accomplishes its spiritual purposes not because of the skills or the wisdom of a preacher but because of the power of the Scripture proclaimed (1 Cor. 2:4–5).

Without an ultimate authority for truth, all human striving has no ultimate value, and life itself becomes futile. Modern trends in preaching that deny the authority of the Word 8 in the name of intellectual sophistication lead to a despairing subjectivism in which people do what is right in their own eyes— a state whose futility Scripture has clearly articulated (Judg. 21: 25).

Scripture does not merely provide answers to some questions we may have; it also provides the very questions we should ask.

Long ago Augustine simply summarized, "When the Bible speaks, God speaks.