Is It Accurate To Call The Bible The Word Of God?

[Selah]

I always here Protestants, even Catholcs, call the Bible the Word of God. But, isn't that a title reserved for Jesus? Just something I was thinking about.

[KnightofChrist]

[quote name='Selah' date='03 July 2010 - 06:52 PM' timestamp='1278197564' post='2137498']
I always here Protestants, even Catholcs, call the Bible the Word of God. But, isn't that a title reserved for Jesus? Just something I was thinking about.
[/quote]

Christ is the Word of God. The Bible is the inspired word of God.

[Jesus_lol]

I always thought that it should be plural. The Words of God.

[Winchester]

[quote name='Selah' date='03 July 2010 - 06:52 PM' timestamp='1278197564' post='2137498']
I always here Protestants, even Catholcs, call the Bible the Word of God. But, isn't that a title reserved for Jesus? Just something I was thinking about.
[/quote]
Where is "here"?

[Selah]

[KnightofChrist]

[quote name='Selah' date='03 July 2010 - 10:07 PM' timestamp='1278209260' post='2137541']

[/quote]

It's ok I do it all the time!

Edited July 4, 2010 by KnightofChrist

[southern california guy]

[quote name='Selah' date='03 July 2010 - 04:52 PM' timestamp='1278197564' post='2137498']
I always hear Protestants, even Catholcs, call the Bible the Word of God. But, isn't that a title reserved for Jesus? Just something I was thinking about.
[/quote]

I agree that the teachings of Christ should be considered the word of god -- over the Old Testament. Like Jesus disagreeing with what Moses taught about divorce and remarriage. Jesus definitely had some disagreements with the Pharisee's.

In college I was involved with every "Christian" group I could find. I loved all of the socializing. But I actually learned some things wrong... And if I were a better Christian I would have known the bible better and known that it was wrong. An example is John 3:16 which I've heard misquoted as:

[color="#000080"]"Jesus died on the cross that whomsoever shall believe on His name shall not perish but have eternal life".[/color] (This is wrong!! This misquote would lead you to believe that this was something taught by one of his disciples.)

The actual John 3:16 is a teaching from Jesus himself -- while he was still alive!

[color="#8B0000"]"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life"[/color]

The misquote seemed to add a piece from John 3:18. [color="#8B0000"]"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not [b]believed in the name[/b] of the only begotten Son of God."[/color]


And I find it interesting that Jesus -- in John 3:19-21 -- seems to emphasize that deeds are connected with belief.

[b]19[/b] [color="#8B0000"]"And this is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their [b]deeds[/b] were evil.[/color]

[b]20[/b] [color="#8B0000"]"For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his [b]deeds[/b] should be exposed.
[/color]
[b]21[/b] [color="#8B0000"]"But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his [b]deeds[/b] may be manifested as having been wrought in God"
[/color]

Edited July 5, 2010 by southern california guy

[southern california guy]

Selah sorry that I went off on a tangent. Your question is a good one. Other than the part that quote Jesus, how do we know what to believe or follow?

[Geras16]

I do not think it is a matter of accuracy. It is a matter of grace. What if anyone calls the Bible the Word of God? There are various levels of spirituality in people. A Christian can call the Bible any good title, but it is vain, if he does not live a holy life. It can be moreso unfortunate for those who observe that particular hypocrite.

[kafka]

[quote name='Selah' date='03 July 2010 - 06:52 PM' timestamp='1278197564' post='2137498']
I always here Protestants, even Catholcs, call the Bible the Word of God. But, isn't that a title reserved for Jesus? Just something I was thinking about.
[/quote]
usually Sacred Scripture is referred to word of God with a little 'w.' Like knight said Jesus is the Word of God, and Sacred Scripture is not Jesus rather the expression of Jesus who is the Word. So it is a fitting title. Also word of God is used in the broad sense (in Dei Verbum) to refer to Divine Revelation or what is called the Sacred Deposit of Faith which is Sacred Tradition (the deeds of God wrought in salvation history) and Sacred Scripture.

[quote name='Jesus_lol' date='03 July 2010 - 07:42 PM' timestamp='1278200560' post='2137507']
I always thought that it should be plural. The Words of God.
[/quote]
it could be plural (with a little 'w'), yet the singular expresses the truth that the sum total of 73 books of Sacred Scripture and all their parts are a one whole and indestructible expression of God. Sacred Scripture is like one word uttered from the mouth of God. Sacred Scripture as a whole is a reflection of Jesus the Word of God.

[Apotheoun]

Jesus Christ is the eternally subsistent Word of God made man; while sacred scripture is merely the record of God's salvific deeds consigned to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

[thessalonian]

[quote name='Selah' date='03 July 2010 - 06:52 PM' timestamp='1278197564' post='2137498']
I always here Protestants, even Catholcs, call the Bible the Word of God. But, isn't that a title reserved for Jesus? Just something I was thinking about.
[/quote]

Christ is the word. The word was made flesh. The Bible does use the phrase "word of God" in a context where it is at least in part refering to scripture. It also uses the term scripture and never equates them. Your question gets at a bit of a puzzle for me here in the term "sola scriptura". It is never clear in scripture that Word of God = scripture. Certain scripture is part of the Word of God. But it is clear for instance that if one has the scriptures yet has a false understanding of some passage, they do not have the word of God in its entirety. As an example the Mormons have the passage in 1 Cor 14 I think it is that speaks of baptizing the dead. They have developed a whole doctrine and practice out of this passage using it to justify baptizing in proxy for the dead so they can get to heaven. Now they have the scripture but do not have the Word of God because they have a false "tradition" of what the passage means. This implies that there is something beyond scripture that must illumenate scripture. I think it proper to call the bible the Word of God in the Catholic context where we understand it to be hand in hand with Sacred oral tradition. I don't see how in the protestant understanding that lacks this how they can say it is the WOG as it does not take in to account the interpretive part of the equation, guided by the Church, magesterium, Sacred Oral Tradition etc. This problem manifests itself in the thousands of conflicting denominations. Maybe a bit more a an answer than you were asking but my thoughts.

[thessalonian]

A little help fomr the Catechims.

101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."63

102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely:64

You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time.65

103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.66

104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God".67 "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."68


ONe cannot separate Christ from his word and so the scriptures can rightly be called the WOG. However again so can Sacred Oral Tradition.

[thessalonian]

Sorry for the multiple postings. I think maybe this passage sheds light a bit on what you are getting at.

John 5
[39] You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me;
[40] yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The scriptures are intended to reveal whom Christ is. All that is in the word speaks about him and thus he is the Word. The scriptures about coming to know the true Christ but only in the context of the Church can he be fully known. They are not simply a recipe for salvation.