Religion, God, Bible, Church

Wise thinking requires correct assessment of the proper place and varying importance of Religions, God, Bible, Church.

Let’s begin with religions, which are man seeking after and trying to elucidate the Transcendent, the divine, the Absolute. This is expressed in a variety of particular doctrines, traditions, and practices proposed or imposed on believers. All religions except Christianity issue from the spiritual creativity of pious minds; but sadly, piety does not guarantee the truth of a religious philosophy. In the Bible God relativises the various religions and their gods: “They are all a delusion” (Isaiah 41.29 ESV) but “I made the earth” said the Lord, “and created man on it” (Isaiah 45.12).

God himself, therefore, is infinitely more important than human beings and their religions. It is vital to discover that he is there, and to know what he is like in his infinite Being, his majestic holiness, his divine wisdom, his immense power as Creator… As we hear from God himself, we have access to his revealed truth; that will enable us to discern what is true or false in all human thinking about him. He is well capable of making himself known. It is enlightening to read chapters 40 to 46 of the book of the prophet Isaiah, where the Lord himself speaks a lot about himself.

God makes himself known through the Bible. It is a book totally unique in the world, written over more than a millennium by about forty different writers – yet all inspired by the same Spirit of God and therefore able to convey a harmonious understanding of God. Much of the Bible expresses the very words of God himself, as in Job chapter 38, of which Rudolph Otto said, it “may well rank among the most remarkable in the history of religion”. In the Bible God gives his commandments, teaches his wisdom, reveals his love, and calls us to know him. All the Bible is centred on Jesus, the incarnate Lord and teacher, the Saviour of mankind, the Son of God sent by the Father to attest to God’s truth. The Bible itself claims to be God’s Word, inspired by God’s Spirit. By the holiness of its commandments, the profundity of its concepts, and the realism of its treatment of human nature, it certainly appears to be God’s Word. And it proves to be God’s Word when one puts it to the test of personal experience, committing oneself to the living Saviour who calls us through its pages. We find that God does in us what he promises in his Word; so we know it’s true.

The church is the worldwide family of believers, a vast brotherhood of men and women who, having heard or read of God’s self-revelation in Christ and realising he offers fullness of life to all who believe, have been led to agree that he is trustworthy. They do not, for that, make themselves the guarantor of religious truth; rather they merely testify that having received it, they have been intelligently persuaded of its Truth. Hence they do not set themselves up as authorities on religious issues; rather they bear witness to what they see as truth in the Bible. No Christian is infallible; we are all mere disciples, learners in Jesus’ school, followers of our Lord and Saviour. We simply want to know God better through studying Scripture, to please him by the way we live, and serve him by loving our neighbours and by sharing with them the wondrous offer of eternal life and fullness that God in his goodness offers to all.

Clive Every-Clayton