AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE 1
– As we already know, the Bible is the only source that helps us to build up our faith in Jesus Christ and from the Bible we can find answers for any question relating to our faith. With help from the Bible we Christians can also understand about God and His plan for humankind.
– That’s why Christians in all ages usually quote Bible verses when talking about something or deciding to do this or that.
– But the way Christians quote the Bible is often for our own ideas or to make our explanations of something look biblical legitimate. It’s rarely to see Christians let the Bible to explain itself. But that is the way it must be, as the Lord Jesus Christ has said:
JOHN 16: 13 – However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
GIĂNG 16: 13 – Lúc nào Thần Lẽ Thật sẽ đến, thì Ngài dẫn các ngươi vào mọi lẽ thật; vì Ngài không nói tự mình, nhưng nói mọi điều mình đã nghe, và tỏ bày cho các ngươi những sự sẽ đến.
JOHN 17: 17 – Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
GIĂNG 17: 17 – Xin Cha lấy lẽ thật khiến họ nên thánh; lời Cha tức là lẽ thật.
– Thus, as Jesus has said, the Bible is truth, that means it’s the Word of the Holy Spirit, because He is the Spirit of Truth. So, also as Jesus has said, the Holy Spirit will explain the truth in the Bible by His own words (by the Bible other verses).
– I want to stop here for a moment in order to repeat what I just said, hoping that you will understand it and remember it with me all of the times.
– According to what Jesus has said, the Bible is the Holy Spirit’s Word and whenever we want to understand a verse, a passage or a truth in the Bible, we must use the book own verses to explain it or to interpret it.
– For example, if we want to understand what true faith means, the Bible has over 200 verses to help us understanding exactly what it means, and we must use all of them, not just a few verses relating to it.
– Christians often mistakenly think their own thought and ideas as the voice of the Holy Spirit and happily acting on them in the pretense of guiding by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to make certain that we understand the Bible truth and principles rightly, we must let the Bible explains itself with its own verses.
– That’s why God has forbade anyone to add or delete anything from the Bible in order to keep the Bible as God intended it to be.
DEUTERONOMY 4: 2 – You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
PHỤC TRUYỀN 4: 2 – Các ngươi chớ thêm chi và đừng bớt chi về điều ta truyền cho, để giữ theo các điều răn của Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời các ngươi mà ta đã truyền.
– But there are some arguments being said from time to time that because the Bible was combined by Catholic monks under the rule of Constantine, so they should have the authority to change or to add some religious ordinances or sacraments into it. But that idea is completely wrong.
– I do not want to go into historical fact about that claim. I just want to quote the Bible to explain that it is a wrong idea, after all.
– When a person or a group of people or a nation was used by God for His plan, no one could, because of that, claimed any authority, big or small, over the Bible, regardless of their positions or statuses in this life.
– Let us look into this example to help us understand what we are talking here: There was a man who owned a house with front and backyard. He hired a gardener to cut the grass. After lawn mowing the yards and receiving his payment, the gardener said because he mowed the yards so now he owned them and wanted to put thing in them according to his idea. It’s so wrong and the same with Catholic monks’ idea that they should have authority over the Bible because they helped to combined its books.
– God owns the whole universe and He can use anyone to do His works. Everyone, especially Christians, must understand that it’s a blessing from God to be in His use. If anyone thought otherwise and arrogantly claimed some authority over God’s works, they would suffer the consequences of a wicked one.
– I am going to give you two proof in the Bible to illustrate what I has said above.
– The first one is the ancient kingdom of Babylon. When the Israelites turned away from God and worshipped idols, and after repeatedly rebuking them with no result of repentance, God used a Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar and his army, to destroy Jerusalem and put the Israelites into captivity in foreign land.
– Even so, the Babylonians could not claimed any authority over the Israelites or their nation, but instead they were punished by God for not showing mercy to God’s people and God has since eliminated the nation of Babylonians from the face the earth:
ISAIAH 47: 5-6 – Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms. I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.
Ê-SAI 47: 5-6 – Hỡi con gái của người Canh-đê, hãy ngồi làm thinh, trốn trong nơi tối tăm! Vì từ nay về sau, ngươi sẽ không được gọi là chủ mẫu của các nước nữa. Ta đã nổi giận nghịch cũng dân ta, làm ô uế sản nghiệp ta, và phó hết chúng nó trong tay ngươi. Nhưng ngươi chẳng từng dùng sự thương xót được chúng nó; đã tra ách nặng trên người già cả.
ISAIAH 13: 19-22 – Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks. But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds, jackals will be in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
Ê-SAI 13: 19-22 – Ba-by-lôn, là sự vinh hiển các nước, sự hoa mĩ của lòng kiêu ngạo người Canh-đê, sẽ giống như Sô-đôm và Gô-mô-rơ mà Đức Chúa Trời đã lật đổ. Nó sẽ chẳng hề có người ở nữa, trải đời nọ sang đời kia không ai ở đó; người A rạp không đóng trại tại đó, những kẻ chăn cũng chẳng cầm bầy mình ở đó. Song những thú rừng sẽ đến ở, và nhà cửa đầy những chim cú choán làm chỗ mình, dê đực lấy làm nơi nhảy nhót. Sài lang sủa trong cung điện, chó rừng tru trong đền đài vui sướng. Kỳ nó đã gần đến, ngày nó sẽ không được dài nữa.
– It will be the same for anyone who dares to claim authority over the Bible and add into its content what was not there before, as God has warned the whole world with this sentence in the book of Proverbs:
PROVERB 30: 6 – Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
CHÂM NGÔN 30: 6 – Chớ thêm chi vào các lời Ngài. E Ngài quở trách ngươi, và ngươi bị cầm nói dối chăng.
– Please do not think lying is a minor offense to God. It’s more serious than that. So, people should seriously take heed of this warning, because it concerns to the punishment in hell, as it was written in Revelation:
REVELATION 21: 8 – But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
KHẢI HUYỀN 21: 8 – Còn những kẻ hèn nhát, kẻ chẳng tin, kẻ đáng gớm ghét, kẻ giết người, kẻ dâm loạn, kẻ phù phép, kẻ thờ thần tượng, và phàm kẻ nào nói dối, phần của chúng nó ở trong hồ có lửa và diêm cháy bừng bừng: đó là sự chết thứ hai.
– The second proof is the story of Cyrus when that king of Persia helped the Israelites to rebuild God’s temple in Jerusalem:
EZRA 1: 1-2 – In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.
E-XƠ-RA 1: 1-2 – Năm thứ nhất đời Si-ru, vua nước Phe-rơ-sơ trị vì, Đức Giê-hô-va muốn làm cho ứng nghiệm lời Ngài đã cậy miệng Giê-rê-mi mà phán ra, nên Ngài cảm động lòng Si-ru, vua Phe-rơ-sơ tuyên truyền trong khắp nước mình, và cũng ra sắc chỉ rằng: Si-ru, vua Phe-rơ-sơ, nói như vầy: Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời đã ban các nước thế gian cho ta, và chính Ngài có biểu ta xây cất cho Ngài một đền thờ tại Giê-ru-sa-lem, trong xứ Giu-đa.
– Nowhere in the new temple that the Israelites rebuilt after coming back to Jerusalem from captivity had the name of Cyrus as a benefactor of it. He faded into history as everyone else and his name only appeared in the Bible for the sake of recording that event truthfully.
– Therefore, even the Catholic monks helped to combined the 66 books into the Bible, the Catholic church cannot claimed any authority over it and no one should be attempting to do that ever.
– When God allowed a person to be part in His plan for mankind, and if that person truly feared God and respected His will, he or she should be extremely grateful with this kind of blessing from Him, as Mary did.
– When Mary knew that God had allowed her to be part in His plan to bring Christ into the world, she was so humbly glad and grateful to God, as it was recorded in the Gospel of Luke:
LUKE 1: 46-50 – And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, holy is His name. His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
LU-CA 1: 46-50 – Ma-ri bèn nói rằng: Linh hồn tôi ngợi khen Chúa, tâm thần tôi mừng rỡ trong Đức Chúa Trời, là Cứu Chúa tôi. Vì Ngài đã đoái đến sự hèn hạ của tôi tớ Ngài. Nầy, từ rày về sau, muôn đời sẽ khen tôi là có phước; Bởi Đấng Toàn Năng đã làm các việc lớn cho tôi. Danh Ngài là thánh, và Ngài thương xót kẻ kính sợ Ngài từ đời nầy sang đời kia.
– Mary was a woman of faith and she had understood well this principle of God’s use, that’s why nowhere in the Bible indicates that Mary had ever claimed any authority over the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry or His salvation for mankind. We Christians should follow her example in this matter.
– But people often cited the wedding at Cana in order to give her some roles that were never mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but we will talk about that at another time.
– But on the other hand, there are also some people saying that they would rather not be in God’s use if they did not have their ways with Him. They claimed they had their freedom to refuse serving God. That kind of thinking or saying is also wrong basically.
– Let look back at the example of the home owner above. As he wanted to hire someone to cut his yards’ grass, if the mentioned gardener refused to work for him, the owner could hire someone else and that gardener would loose an opportunity to work and earn his payment. The same kind of reluctance to be in God’s use has been mentioned in the Bible when Mordecai warned Queen Esther of the consequences of it:
ESTHER 4: 14 – For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?
Ê-XƠ-TÊ 4: 14 – Vì nếu ngươi làm thinh trong lúc nầy đây, dân Giu-đa hẳn sẽ được tiếp trợ và giải cứu bởi cách khác, còn ngươi và nhà cha ngươi đều sẽ bị hư mất; song nào ai biết rằng chẳng phải vì cớ cơ hội hiện lúc nầy mà ngươi được vị hoàng hậu sao?
– As we know it as a reality of life, working is an opportunity to get pay. No work, no pay as it’s simple like that.
– So, in the spiritual world, it’s the same. Serving God and agreeing to be in His use is an opportunity to receive blessing from Him. So, when people, either Christians or unbelievers, refused to serve God, they would miss their chance to be blessed in this world and might dangerously miss the chance to get into Heaven after this life. But it’s still a personal choice. We Christians hope that we always be ready to serve God whenever, wherever He wants us to be.
– May God see in us Christians as ready and faithful servants to give us a chance to serve Him so that we can express our gratitude to Him because of His love for us, and to earn His blessing much more in the days to come. Amen.