Words of Fire

Epistemic Theology Part 5
(Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4)

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

“Now that is just the problem with you Christians. All this logical talk, and then what does it really come down to? Circular reasoning! The Bible can’t prove itself! All your talking is just a bunch of…”

Oh pardon me, miseur. You misunderstand. The word of God in that passage is not the bible. The word there is Rhema, the living and present, verbal word of God. We have faith because God himself attests to the thing that we believe. I think you will find that this is perfectly acceptable. “Since He had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself” (Heb 6:13b).

Ok. Let me get this straight. God is the witness who testifies to the authority of the Bible. How does he do this?

Not exactly. But close.

In Luke 24:13, after Jesus had risen from the , some of his disciples were walking on a road to a city called Emmaus. This guy shows up and asks them what’s up, and they tell him all their doubts and concerns about whether Jesus was really resurrected. The guy expresses amazement that they just don’t get it, “and beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was in all the scriptures” about Jesus.

The disciples get to where they’re going, and invite this guy in to dinner. At the table, he decides to do the honors, and when he breaks the bread, they suddenly realize that he’s Jesus. Then Jesus goes “poof!” and he’s gone.

Now check what they said: “Didn’t our heart burn within us while talked with us on the road, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”

This is exactly how He confirms His word. When we open up that book, when he breaks the bread, His words burn in our hearts, and by that burning we know that it is his word. This is the same process you go through when you are converted to Christ. Someone proclaims the word to you, the Gospel (Literally, “God’s spell,” but that’s another teaching), and God’s Holy Spirit is present to ratify the word. He testifies, like a witness in the stand, that it is true. It says it in 1 John 5, “It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth… if we accept the testimony of men, God’s testimony is greater.”

Do you realize what this means? Just as God has made a commitment to individually ratify the truth of the Gospel, so that each man is individually saved by faith, so also he has made a covenant with His word, that He would confirm that it is his word to every individual who hears it. Simply put, there is no authority in heaven or on earth that can authorize God’s word to you as an individual but God Himself. The church can’t prove to you the word of God; archaeologists can’t prove to you the word of God. Saints and scholars, none of them can prove to you the word of God. But open the book, and read, and His words will burn in you like fire in your heart, and you will know that it is the very word of God.

Understand, this is no new doctrine. Calvin said pretty much the same thing 500 years ago. Back then, the fallacy was that the Church verified the scriptures, just as today the fallacy is that archaeology verifies the scriptures. The irony is that the reason we have a church is that it’s authorized by God’s word. But whether it’s authoritarian government or human knowledge, the mistake is the same: the idea that human agency can replace a revelation from God. It takes a lot of faith to believe that God will reveal the same basic set of understandings to every one who reads his word. But generally, he does.

Nevertheless, the idea that God proves his word this way is very radical. It’s intimidating to a lot of people, because it throws the power structure right out the window. Any attempt to verify that the bible is true because so-and-so says (and so-and-so is a noble gentleman) ultimately falls flat on its face—because only God can be a foundation sure enough to provide the kind of authority that the bible has in our lives. The reliability of men quickly fails, and ultimately knowledge and understanding (i.e. science) will cease—there’s only so much power an authority figure can have over a person’s life, and all science can do is prove a very very accurate history book. But the word of the Lord remains forever. “…Since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself.”

A little Application

The chapel services at my undergrad school always went in a certain order. I think it was the standard Presbyterian liturgy. I don’t really know. I had never had a liturgy before. Honestly, I had barely ever had an order of worship. But one of the things we did every service was to have a scripture reading from the Old and New Testaments. Our chaplain would stand behind the podium and carefully turn to the verse and read it with these strong round tones, always careful pause just exactly right to maximize the echo effect. Having finished her reading, she would carefully close the bible, and slowly look up, and then she would say, “God always blesses the reading… and the hearing… of His word.”

I never realized before how true that was. Quite literally, he stands behind his scripture and confirms the reality of it, the power of it, to each and every person who reads or hears His word. And the amazing thing is that, as radical as this idea is, you can bank on it. For instance Billy Graham, God bless him, doesn’t bother explaining anything in his evangelistic sermons. Heck, he doesn’t even bother giving chapter and verse. He doesn’t need to. He just lists whatever the standard worldly position is and rebuts it with a single phrase: “But the bible says…” And people who hear him speak get saved in the thousands. Why? Because God absolutely honors His word.

People don’t need to quickly thumb through to find the text and say, “Well lordy be, it does say that!” and then make a decision that will change their lives. They hear the word, God honors it, and their lives are changed.

Author: KB French

Formerly many things, including theology student, mime, jr. high Latin teacher, and Army logistics officer. Currently in the National Guard, and employed as a civilian... somewhere View all posts by KB French