The God Breathed Scripture
Dr. John K. Mathew
The word ''Bible'' comes from the Greek word 'biblos', which means "book". In a sense, the Bible is one unified book. God speaks with one voice throughout His book, calling us to accept His offer of eternal life and follow His commands.
But the Bible is also made up of individual books. Thirty-nine (39) in the Old Testament and twenty-seven (27) in the New Testament. These books were written under God's inspiration by many different authors over a period of many centuries.
In the words of George W. Knight, "Most writings end up on the ash heap of history within a few generations. But the Bible is different. About two thousand years after the Bible took its final form with the writing of the New Testament books, God's Word is still speaking to His world. Such staying power cannot be explained in human terms. God brought the Bible into being, and He has preserved it across the centuries as a guide for human belief and behavior." Perhaps the best definition and description of the Bibles is found in the Bible itself: For all people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.(1 Pet.1:24,25).
The influence and inspiration of the Word of God are incredible. John Piper in his book, "The Supremacy Of God In Preaching" describes how he experienced the power of the word of God in his life in the following words, "In September 1966, I was a junior at Wheaton College. I was a pre-med student majoring in literature. I had just finished a chemistry course in summer school, was head over heels in love with Noel (now my wife of more than thirty-five years), and was sicker than I have ever been before or after, with mononucleosis. The doctor confined me to the health center for three weeks - three of the most decisive weeks of my life, for which I do not cease to thank God. Back in those days, the fall semester began with a 'Spiritual Emphasis Week'. The speaker in 1966 was Harold John Ockenga. WETN, the college radio station, carried the sermons, and I listened as I lay on my bed two hundred yards from his pulpit. Under the preaching of the Word by Pastor Ockenga, the direction of my life has permanently changed. I can remember my heart almost bursting with longing as I listened to him longing to know and handle the word of God like that. Through those messages, God called me to the ministry of the Word irresistibly, and I believe, irrevocably. It has been my conviction ever since that the subjective evidence of God's call to the ministry of the Word. When I got out of the health center, I dropped organic chemistry, took up philosophy as a minor, and set my face to get the best biblical and theological education I could."
Millions of people around the world will testify how the Word of God transformed their lives.The Word of God and the power behind it are still at work.
"For the word of God is alive and active. sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."(Heb.4:12).
