What God Says

We have already established that we know God exists and that we can trust what God says over what people say because God has always been there. God’s Word is true, timeless, and perfect. Over the centuries since Jesus came, people have tried to burn Bibles, keep It away from common people, miss-interpret God’s Word, and persecute those who preach God’s Word. Yet through it all, God has preserved His holy Word so that He can use It to change lives in our present day and age.

Many people in our present day and age have been taught to think that all religions are basically the same, and that the Bible isn’t more significant than any other “religious” writings. Biblical Christianity is different from all other belief systems because we believe that salvation can only come through the grace of God to suffer and die to take our punishment for sin, not our own righteousness. We never can earn our own salvation from the punishment we deserve (eternal separation from God in Hell) because God is just and must punish sinners, regardless of what we try to do to make up for it. All other religions teach that we have to earn our own righteousness and earn our way to Heaven.

What the Bible teaches is very different from all other belief systems, but there’s more that makes the Bible significant. The Bible says that It is the Word of God over and over again in the Scriptures. Jesus claimed to be God, and the Bible claims to be the Word of God. I know this may sound like circular reasoning to say that we know the Bible is the true Word of God because It says that It is, but that’s because the Word of God must be our ultimate foundation. There is nothing we can hold above the Word of God to judge It, but we do know that The Bible re-affirms itself. Furthermore, the Bible has never been wrong. For example, God knew about germs so He instituted hand washing long before humans figured it out. The main point is that the Bible is God’s Word, and can be trusted above everything else – God and His Word is all we can really depend on, for everything and everyone else will let us down.

“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say, than to you He hath said – to you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, for I am they God, I will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

When thro’ fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; that soul though all hell shall endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”

“How Firm a Foundation” from Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787