This chapter is very short and deals with the different in way in which God speaks to us. It is a great lead-in to the next chapter, which is on the Canon of Scripture.
The book of John describes the Word as God and as Christ. So God speaks to us in the person of Jesus Christ. God also speaks through direct decrees, words of personal address to man, and through His prophets who recorded His words. The Bible is a collection of all of these types of ways in which God speaks to us.
God has rarely spoken directly to anyone; as humans we could hardly bear it. When God spoke directly to the Israelites the pleaded with Him to stop because they could not bear his Holiness. At the end of the day we have to take on faith what God has given us and trust that the Bible is His Word to us.
So what is the Word of God? How do we know it is from God and that it is true? Would we be more willing to obey God if He spoke directly to us, and why doesn't He do that?
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Just for another account on the canon of scripture, I found this pretty informative:
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/xn-canon.html
Like he said, How do we know the canon is from God--the Holy Spirit testifies to this in our hearts.
The most interesting thing to me in that chapter was why Jesus was referred to as the Word of God--He is the word of God in human form. I never heard it like that before. Jesus is the Word of God.
Just as Larry Munson is the voice of the GA Bulldogs and Bill Roth is the voice of the VT Hokies, so Jesus is the word of God. As Larry Munson and Bill Roth are distinct individuals who are our eyes and ears when we cannot see or hear the actual game, so Jesus was the voice of God proclaiming the truth from God. I guess the major question is why didn't God himself actually come down and tell us--and this is the hard part for unbelievers to understand--Jesus was sent by God but fully God himself. This defies logic, but we must remember our logic is based upon a finite realm. We think we have the answers to all questions but we are finite beings incapable of understanding certain things without the revelation by the Holy Spirit.
You could also make the same claim for Moses and the other prophets. They were the voice of God in some respects. Really Paul and the other authors of the new testament meet the same analogy.
The amazing thing is that God DID come and speak to the people...and they were so afraid and terrified that they begged Him to speak through some other means. So God is His mercy used other mechanisms (prophets, etc...) to give us His Word.
But think about it, Jesus came and dwelled on earth and did amazing miracles that people had never seen before. Yet many people still did not believe. Think about how futile and depraved the theory of evolution is. Sin causes us to suppress the truth that we know innately (Romans 1). Christ is the Word, carried to us by the Spirit, and both are from God and ARE God. Only by faith granted by God can we believe that the Bible is God's Word.
Having said that I still think it is important to know why we believe what we believe; God doesn't ask us to believe in things that are illogical or chaotic, though some things are difficult to grasp. The Bible is verified by history, unlike the book of Mormon. No one disputes the accuracy of the old testament. Books that were exluded from the Canon were for specific reasons like they countered other parts of God that were already revealed to us. Jon I will check out the link and see what he has to say about the Canon.
Well guys, I have got to get better at this, because this is the second time I posted and then lost it. I will attempt to remember what I wrote. I was spurred on by the article you showed us on the canon of scripture. It was very interesting and informative. It reminded me how Martin Luther was not in full agreement with books like James being part of the canon based on a seeming contradiction with "soli fide". It states in James 2:24, "that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone". Taken within the context of the whole passage that phrase is more clearly understood. Also, I saw a documentary the other night that discussed the "Dead Sea Scrolls" and it was interesting to note that they found multiple copies of all the OT books except for the book of Esther. I do not know if that means anything or not. What I do trust completely is Gods sovreingty in all things. I know that he led men to put together exactly what he intended to do.
I am grateful for the fact that we stand on this side of the cross and that we have Gods completed word available to us. We just finished a study of Hebrews in Sunday school and it was an awesome book on the differences between the old and new covenant. God seemed so distant to them under the old covenant and now we see His word clearly.
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