I have been blessed to stay with some old friends in Colorado Springs for the last few days, and part of the impulse for this blog has been our long and lovely conversations about the things of God. The joys of the conversations were in the fact that we are starting from the same critical assumption, that the Bible is the basis for our faith and ought to dictate what we believe, what we ponder, and how we act in the world. It is the grounds for our faith on which we agree truth to rest, and against which we test all other claims.

               It is absolutely necessary that we as Christians have an authoritative measure of truth lest we waiver into cleverly devised schemes and the wiles of the evil one. An important question must be raised about how we know God at all, and what authority dictates the tenets of the Christian faith. I will not enumerate the various positions here, rather, in earnestness I urge you to recognize only one absolute authority in the life of Christians – that of the Word of God.

               Now a large group of church goers will raise up their hands and claim that I have undermined God. Is He not our authority? The answer is of course, yes, but our God, has “no variation or shadow due to change”( James 1:17). He is immutable, immense, immeasurable, immovable. The Word that He has spoken in the last days by His Son (Hebrews 1:2) is to us silent in that we receive it written down rather than on high out of the flame and smoke and thundering of Moses on the mount or the loud wailing cries of the prophet Jeremiah. Yet His Word, though silent in its physicality is screaming out the glories of the Lord of Hosts on every single page.  He has spoken not only all that we required as some bare minimum – as if there is some poverty of God’s revelation in the modern world. Rather we are more blessed than any other of God’s chosen in any era of history because we have the complete revelation of Scripture. And with this complete revelation we have the foundational measuring stick to return to to test every theory, thought, and action. We can have unity in the body of Christ if and only if we agree that Scripture is the basis and that we must seek answers not in worldly wisdom but rather in Scriptural evidence.

               This digression may seem distracting, but this is about ensuring that when we discuss the things of God we go to the source which He has granted for our knowledge – His Word. When we go to His Word we do so in the humility and submission to the master of the Word, the wielder of the Sword – the Holy Spirit who “will only speak what he hears” from the Christ and the Father (John 16:13). This is why the submission to the written Word is submission to God Himself, for the written Word was given by God for the revelation of Himself to His people for His glory. If we want to recognize His voice, we must be in the Word that He has given – lest we stray away into sinister voices that seek to mislead the people of God.

               The Word of God can seem so unassuming yet is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and never returns void (Isaiah 55:11). The whispering wind of the Spirit of God is a warning and a wayfinder made concrete by the written Word which we must welcome wholeheartedly lest we worship not God but our own fabrications. The God we serve is not mocked, does not change, and certainly does not contradict Himself. There is a fancy Latin phrase for this principle of the scripture as the grounding for all our faith and practice – Sola Scriptura. From the Scriptures alone we derive the whole of the Christian worldview, and every experience, thought, practice, idea, or concept must be submitted to its authority in our lives.

               Now, for the practical. I challenged you to read the Word, pray on and through the Word, and to apply the Word to your life in the first post. Now I challenge you to redouble those efforts as you cultivate by God’s grace a deeper knowledge of the profound truth of God’s Word. Additionally, begin research of your own into the history of the Bible, translation, process of continuance, etc. Raise questions in comments, and let us discuss. Is it true of you that your whole worldview is submitted to God through His Word? Rather, how much of what you believe and how you act is actually the outflow of things entirely distinct from, and often in direct contradiction to, the Bible?

Let’s always remember that The Church is built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets (which are the writings of scripture) with Christ Himself as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). It is no accident that John calls him the logos – the Word (John 1:1). The Word of God testifies to Christ and is sufficient for all life and godliness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is the basis for our faith by which we can be sure of what we believe and why with regard to God, since He has graciously revealed it to us in human language.

This then is the First Fundamental Stance of Christian Swordsmanship, that the Word of God is the only absolute, infallible, authoritative guide for Christian life, love, and worship.