by Rscott Stewart

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 17, 2009

Is the Bible really trustworthy? Is there a way we can actually know it is inspired by God?

Often a man or a woman limits what truths God will show them by refusing to act or to test what He has revealed to them.

But suppose we want to test God's Word. Suppose we want to test His true message, not the many possible opinions and creeds man may derive from it. To do this, it is vital to reach a point where we have a relative degree of confidence that we see the Scripture as God intended it.

To do this we must have strong faith in the Scriptures themselves.

The Word is Pure

In this study we are seeking the testimony that the Scriptures give of themselves.

If the Bible is a book recorded by men simply out of someone's good intentions, then we have only another nice book.

But if we have a book inspired of God that, when written, recorded exactly what God wanted recorded, we have the absolute Word of God.

If the Bible has the opinions of men that claim to speak for God, we have a book of lies.

But is the Bible is God's message to man, then we have a firm foundation for faith and practice.

We have either a book of fables or we have the doctrine of life.

If it is a fable, and we base our life upon it, we are indeed among the most pitiful of mankind, living in a dream.

But if it is the Word of Truth, and man can only know his true purpose in the pages thereof, a man or a woman who denies that Word will indeed face the greatest of loss.

The opinion one chooses to have of Scripture is therefore one thing a man or woman cannot afford to be wrong about.

This said, we go to the Word of God to see what the authors, or as many of us believe, the Author, of the Bible thought of the pages written.

"I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."

Psalm 138:2

The Psalmist in this verse reports that he will praise and worship God's name for His lovingkindness and His truth, for God has magnified above His name His "word." "Word" is the Hebrew word "imrah," and means "sayings." He magnified His sayings, His utterances, above His very name.

And in the Hebrew culture, one's name was symbolic of everything one was, had, and could do.

The Psalmist recognizes that the things God says are so true that they are magnified above even the name of God itself. That is the purity of that which God has spoken.

And to the degree the Bible is true to what God originally

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