The Bible is the PERFECT, COMPLETE, and TRUE word of God!
If our faith is questioned or mixed up in wrong teaching, it is the duty of spiritual leadership to correct it and teach pure doctrine.
Our faith and doctrine are given by God, and it is pure and reliable.
The Bible is the unchangeable, unquestionable word of God.
In these series of sermons, I am going to respond to some false statements people use to talk about the Bible. Some of them were recently publicly spoken in blunder by a famous preacher and spread on social media.
Theologically, these teachings are termed heresy and are as follows:
1. The combined OT & NT Bible is incomplete.
2. The OT is not the Word of God.
3. There is no revelation of God in the OT.
4a. The OT is the instructions of a man named Moses to the people of Israel.
4b. The OT people are not a saved group of people.
5. Jesus Christ removed the OT, so we do not accept it as the Word of God – hence, there’s no need to read it nor need to preach it.
These kinds of teachings mislead and confuse believers who trust God and His Holy Scriptures as the foundation of their faith.
Imagine that you are traveling on a plane, the flight was well inspected by an expert engineer and the pilot was well experienced. The flight had almost reached its destination, but all of a sudden, a co-pilot suddenly goes crazy, comes out of the cockpit, and announces that the engine is not in proper condition and is unreliable, and the pilot is not well trained to land the flight safely.
There is no doubt that all the passengers will panic and lose their peace of mind – the same way people trust the Bible as God’s word – but when all of a sudden, a random preacher makes false statements about the Bible, people are disturbed and confused.
Let us go to these false statements one by one and find out the true answer for each:
FALSE STATEMENT 1: The combined OT & NT Bible is incomplete - FALSE
Let us look at our Lord’s statements about the Old Testament and the New testament scriptures.
Matthew 5:17-18. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."
Jesus never criticized or denied the authority of the Old Testament, instead, He said no one, not even himself, could remove any parts of the Old Testament which means it is the perfect and complete Word of God.
Let us look at what God Almighty says about the Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 4:2 – “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”
Deuteronomy 12:32 – “See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.”
Notice the phrase – “I command” – this means these words written in the scriptures came out of the mouth of the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
Revelation 22:18-19 – “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”
Because the Bible is perfect and complete, God warned the people not to touch it.
No one has the right to edit the word of God, rather we are obligated to obey and share it.
The Bible itself claims to be perfect.
Psalm 12:6. “And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times”.
Psalm 19:7. “The law of the Lord is perfect”.
Proverbs 30:5. “Every word of God is pure” (KJV).
These claims of purity and perfection are absolute statements.
Note that it doesn’t say God’s Word is “mostly” pure or the scripture is “nearly” perfect.
The Bible argues for complete perfection, leaving no room for “partial perfection” theories.
We believe that the God who created the universe is capable of writing a book.
And the God who is perfect is capable of writing a perfect book.