Subject: Praying to Mary isn't worship? |
Bible Note: Hi, graceful; God and the Bible are not the same. The Bible is a book - the most important book, a priceless book, a book whose authors were uniquely inspired by God, a book provided by God for our guidance and edification, a book that is the standard for spiritual truth, a book that is the only reliable witness to Jesus, but it's still a book. Neither is it God's truth; it is a representation of God's truth. God's truth is bigger than the Bible; it exists outside the Bible and existed before there was a Bible. The Bible is a book whose original manuscripts are long lost, a book that has been copied and translated countless times. Not one word in my NIV (or KJV, or NASB, or Latin Vulgate, or Textus Receptus, or any other existing version) was actually spoken by Moses, or David, or Jesus. The book that we have represents the work of legions of human scribes, scholars, and translators doing their best to preserve these words and more over a period of three or four thousand years. I don't believe that God would allow the preservation of his inspired words to drift very far astray during this long handing-down process. I believe that God has always provided the people and tools to keep the Bible close to what the original authors wrote. Indeed, I think that the Bible as we know it is an accurate representation of God's truth, even if it may not be a perfectly accurate representation of the original manuscripts. I think God would see to that. So I read and study the Bible with confidence that the Holy Spirit will take those imperfect patterns of ink on paper and transform them into the truth of God that my mind and spirit can absorb and feed on. But the Bible is still a book, a representation. Just as the tabernacle was but "a copy and shadow of what is in heaven" (Heb 8:5), so the Bible is but a copy and a shadow of God's truth. "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves." (Heb 10:1) I hope you don't find my views too shocking.... Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones |