Bible Discussion Thread

The light, as James stated in 2010, is the Word of God. But John, the gospel writer, is not referring to The Bible as "the Word of God". He is referring to God's living communication, the person of Jesus. That written book, The Bible, gives an account of Jesus, and the way he communicated God's message in actions and words. It gives an account of life before Jesus' incarnation, and an account after Jesus incarnation. But Christians should never lose sight of the fact that it was Jesus who was God's message to the world (God's Word), not the written book that gives testimony to the life of Jesus, and the struggle by people like the apostles, most notably Paul, to make sense of the events and base a theology on them.

Today, we have whole schools of theology, and churches that have grown out of them that worship "The Word of God" in the form of a written text. Sure, it provides the only record we have of Jesus' teaching and life. It also informs us of the prophecies that heralded him and the church that followed. But mistaking the written words of fallible man as God's dictation leads to all sorts of problems. Jesus, incarnate, crucified and risen is sufficient. He was, is and will remain "The light that shineth in the darkness".