Is Belief in the Bible Tantamount to Belief in God?

On the second day of our meeting, I asked Brother Yang, “Brother, through our last meeting and fellowship, I came to understand that Paul’s assertion that, ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God’ is not in keeping with the facts. The Bible contains God’s word, but it also contains the words of people—not everything in the Bible is given by inspiration of God. However, there is one point I’m still confused about. Our pastors often said to us, ‘The Bible is the foundation of Christian faith. The Bible represents God, and only abiding by the Bible constitutes belief in God. If we depart from the Bible, we will be unable to practice faith in God.’ We also hold this to be true. I’m not sure if this idea is right or not. Could you share your understanding with us?”

Brother Yang replied: “Many people in the religious world espouse this belief. They accord the same privileged status to the Bible as they do to God. Some even place the Bible on a higher level than God. However, is this understanding of the Bible in keeping with God’s will? With regard to this question, let’s read a few passages of God’s word to gain clarity. God says, ‘From the time when there was the Bible, people’s belief in the Lord has been the belief in the Bible. Instead of saying people believe in the Lord, it is better to say they believe in the Bible; rather than saying they have begun reading the Bible, it is better to say they have begun believing in the Bible; and rather than saying they have returned before the Lord, it would be better to say they have returned before the Bible. In this way, people worship the Bible as if it were God, as if it were their lifeblood and losing it would be the same as losing their life. People see the Bible as being as high as God, and there are even those who see it as higher than God. If people are without the work of the Holy Spirit, if they cannot feel God, they can carry on living—but as soon as they lose the Bible, or lose the famous chapters and sayings from the Bible, then it is as if they have lost their life’ (‘Concerning the Bible (1)’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘They believe in My existence only within the scope of the Bible. For them, I am the same as the Bible; without the Bible there is no Me, and without Me there is no Bible. They pay no heed to My existence or actions, but instead devote extreme and special attention to each and every word of Scripture, and many of them even believe that I should not do anything I wish to do unless it is foretold by Scripture. They attach too much importance to Scripture. It can be said that they see words and expressions as too important, to the extent that they use verses from the Bible to measure every word I say, and to condemn Me. What they seek is not the way of compatibility with Me, or the way of compatibility with the truth, but the way of compatibility with the words of the Bible, and they believe that anything that does not conform to the Bible is, without exception, not My work. Are such people not the dutiful descendants of the Pharisees? The Jewish Pharisees used the law of Moses to condemn Jesus. They did not seek compatibility with the Jesus of that time, but diligently followed the law to the letter, to the extent that they ultimately nailed the innocent Jesus to the cross, having charged Him with not following the law of the Old Testament and not being the Messiah. What was their essence? Was it not that they didn’t seek the way of compatibility with the truth? They obsessed over each and every word of the Scripture, while paying no heed to My will and the steps and methods of My work. They were not people who sought the truth, but people who rigidly followed the words of Scripture; they were not people who believed in God, but people who believed in the Bible. Essentially, they were watchdogs of the Bible. In order to safeguard the interests of the Bible, and uphold the dignity of the Bible, and protect the reputation of the Bible, they went so far as to nail the merciful Jesus onto the cross. This they did merely for the sake of defending the Bible, and for the sake of maintaining the status of each and every word of the Bible in people’s hearts. So they preferred to forsake their future and the sin offering to condemn Jesus, who did not conform to the doctrine of Scripture, to death. Were they not lackeys to each and every word of Scripture?’ (‘You Should Seek the Way of Compatibility With Christ’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“God’s word exposes the most biased and erroneous aspects of our belief in God. Reflect, for a moment, upon how, ever since we began believing in God, we have always prized the Bible as our greatest treasure, thought that by often holding and studying the Bible we have God in our hearts and that if we could memorize and interpret the Bible, we would have the greatest knowledge of God. We’ve believed that acting according to the Bible in all situations is the form of practice most in line with God’s will, and yet we very rarely seek God’s will in His words, and focus even less on practicing and experiencing God’s words in real-life situations. As a result, despite believing in God for many years, we still don’t understand the truth, and have very little experience in practicing God’s word. What’s worse, we blindly worship and believe in the Bible, and think of it as being greater and higher than God Himself. We even believe that the Bible could replace God and His work. Upon hearing that God has arrived to carry out the work of the last days, we don’t seek and investigate to see if it is the work of the returned Lord Jesus and don’t pray and investigate through God’s words, but, rather, restrict God’s words and work to the Bible, thinking that anything beyond the Bible could not possibly be God’s work. Is this kind of belief in God in keeping with His will? Are we not resisting God? The Lord Jesus said, ‘He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad’ (Matthew 12:30). In their time, the Pharisees upheld the Bible above all else and placed great importance on the literal words of the Bible. When the Lord Jesus appeared to do His work, they didn’t investigate to see if the Lord Jesus’ words and work arose from the Holy Spirit, but used the words of the Bible to build up a case against Jesus. Because His words and work went beyond the scope of the Bible, they even condemned and eventually crucified Jesus, offending God’s disposition. From this, it is clear that worshiping and blindly believing in the Bible does not mean we believe in God, are practicing and experiencing God’s word, nor does it mean we fear and submit to God, and it certainly doesn’t mean we have knowledge of God. Quite the contrary, by upholding the Bible and delimiting God’s word and work, we are more likely to resist and blaspheme God as the Pharisees did before. As you can see, our blind belief in and worship of the Bible is erroneous and will under no circumstances be commended by God.”

Through listening to Brother Yang’s fellowship and the passages he shared, I realized that, all along, I’ve been putting my faith in the Bible and not really believing in God. The above two passages, especially, exposed our worship of and blind belief in the Bible and left me utterly convinced, as well as ashamed. I reflected on how I had believed in God without placing any importance on seeking God’s will and practicing His words, but only pursued a literal meaning of the Bible. I thought of how I had even believed the words of the pastors and elders, restricting God’s words and work to the Bible and thinking that belief in the Bible was tantamount to belief in God—was I not just repeating the mistakes of the Pharisees? Having realized this, I felt even more ashamed and acknowledged in my heart and mind that the words my brother had shared were deeply incisive and had allowed me to understand the relationship between the Bible and God. What’s more, I also realized that if, in my faith, I only worship the Bible and don’t seek God’s will and practice God’s word, I will grow further and further apart from God and my faith in God will be ever more uncertain. Due to blind worship of the Bible, I might even deny God’s new words and work. In the future, I had better not worship and exalt the Bible. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration and praise for the words Brother Yang had shared. I thought to myself: “How are these words able to describe the essence of the Bible so incisively? How is it that they are even able to reveal the contents of our hearts in such stark clarity? Could these truly be the words of God?”

Only by Receiving God’s Words in the Present Can We Attain Life

Brother Yang continued his fellowship, saying: “The purpose of this fellowship is not, however, to deny the value of the Bible, but rather to allow us to have a proper orientation toward the Bible. The Lord Jesus said, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And you will not come to Me, that you might have life’ (John 5:39–40). The Lord Jesus clearly told us that the Bible is merely a testament to God’s previous work. In our faith, no matter how many times we’ve read the Bible, or how well we’ve memorized prominent chapters and verses from the Bible, we cannot attain life through these things alone. Through the Bible, we can learn how God created the world, and we can acquaint ourselves with God’s work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. However, if we think of the Bible as being equal to God, and even believe that the Bible can represent God, does this not constitute blasphemy and disparagement of God? God is the Lord of creation, He is the source of humankind’s life, the ever-flowing spring of the water of life. God’s abundance is boundless and inexhaustible, but that which the Bible records is but a portion of God’s words and work. The two cannot be placed on par, much less can the Bible represent God. If we don’t understand this, we may very easily delimit God within the confines of the Bible and replace God with the Bible. This will lead us to condemn God’s new work and be deprived of God’s salvation for all of time. The Lord Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by Me’ (John 14:6). Only God can give us the truth and life and show us the way. In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus incarnated in the flesh, was nailed to the cross to redeem all of humankind, and brought forth the new way to which we must adhere in the new age. In addition, He prophesied that He would return again in the last days to issue His words, do the work of judgment and impart to us all the truths we’ve yet to understand. Just as the Lord Jesus prophesied: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come’ (John 16:12–13). ‘He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John 12:48). Recently, the Lord Jesus has returned in the flesh as Almighty God, Christ of the last days. Almighty God has issued many truths in the last days and has done the work of judging and purifying humankind, completely fulfilling the prophecies of God’s return. Only by keeping pace with the footsteps of the Lamb, accepting Almighty God’s work in the last days and reading the truths that God has issued may we attain the truth and life.”

Brother Yang then read another passage of God’s word: “God’s life is ever-present, and His truth and life coexist. If you cannot find the source of truth, then you will not gain the nourishment of life; if you cannot gain the provision of life, then you will surely have no truth, and so apart from imaginations and conceptions, the entirety of your body shall be nothing but flesh, your stinking flesh. Know that the words of books do not count as life, the records of history cannot be feted as the truth, and the doctrines of the past cannot serve as an account of words presently spoken by God. Only that which is expressed by God when He comes to earth and lives among man is the truth, life, God’s will, and His current way of working. … Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life, and will never be able to gain the perpetual way of life. That is because all they have is dirty water that they have clung on to for thousands of years, instead of the water of life that flows from the throne” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Brother Yang fellowshiped, saying, “God’s word says clearly that the truths issued by God in the last days are the way of life. Only by accepting God’s current words and work may we attain the truth and life. If we only have knowledge of the words of the Bible, we will be unable to attain life. On the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, Almighty God, Christ of the last days has issued all the truths which allow humankind to be cleansed and gain salvation. Examples of these truths include, how to come to know God and God’s work, how to discern the methods by which Satan corrupts and afflicts people, how to recognize the reality of one’s own corruption by Satan, and how to cast off one’s corrupt disposition and achieve a transformation in one’s life disposition. Almighty God’s truths also teach us how to truly submit to, fear and love God through pursuit, etc. Through experiencing the judgment and chastisement of Almighty God’s word, many brothers and sisters have come to understand some of the truth in God’s word, recognized the true face of their corruption and the source of their resistance to God, become acquainted with God’s righteous disposition and holy essence, and have learned to fear God in their hearts. Their life dispositions have all seen varying degrees of transformation and they live with some semblance of a real person. Thus, if we wish to achieve a transformation in disposition, and attain truth and life from God, we must keep pace with the footsteps of the Lamb, read more of Almighty God’s word, accept the judgment and chastisement of God’s word, and practice the truth in everyday life—this is our only path to the attainment of truth and life.”

When Brother Yang had finished, I excitedly replied, “Brother, I understand now. The Bible does not represent God—though the Bible may be a record of God’s past work, it is not the source of life. Only God is the source of our life. The Lord Jesus said He still had some things to tell us—these things are certainly not in the Bible. Only by coming out of the Bible and accepting God’s current words and work can we receive the truth and life. Brother, where can I find God’s current words? I would like to read them.”

Brother Yang happily replied: “All the words we’ve been reading during the meeting and the passages that I’ve shared with you are the words issued by Almighty God—that is, God’s words in the current era!”

When I heard this, I was extremely excited. This confirmed to me in my heart that Almighty God’s words are the words of God in the current era. These words provided a very penetrating analysis of people’s notions and imagination as well as an inside account of the Bible. They must be God’s words and utterances—how could any human be capable of saying such things? I felt as though my spiritual eyes had finally opened after a long slumber. I was so moved that I couldn’t even speak. God really is among us and has performed a new stage of work and issued new words. Also, during my time investigating Almighty God’s work in the last days, I felt the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If it weren’t for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, I never would have come to understand God’s work in the present day, nor would I have understood these truths. I felt a sense of lucidity in my heart.

In the following days, whenever I had time I would meet with my brothers and sisters to fellowship Almighty God’s words and savor their watering and supply. Slowly I began to understand the truths related to the mystery of God’s incarnation, how God judges and cleanses people in the last days, what kind of belief in God is in keeping with His will, and humankind’s ultimate outcome and destination, etc. I became sure that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus.

Thanks be to Almighty God, who guided me back into the family of God, rectified all of my erroneous beliefs concerning the Bible, and allowed me to realize that not all of the Bible is God’s word and that God is the Lord of the Bible. Only by accepting God’s guidance and the truths that God issues in the last days may we gain life. Thanks be to God!

Source From: Eastern Lightning Website

If you want to learn more about the mystery of the Bible, please watch:

Faith Based Movie | Is Life From the Bible or From God | "The Bible and God"