Is the Word Key to Salvation?

There is almost no way for me to communicate the ideas that have recently developed surrounding the importance of the knowledge and TRUTH of God. This may seem fundamental to some, but maybe it will encourage others to evaluate their true love for and devotion to God. Please understand that I am not making an idol out of brain capacity, or subjecting those less knowledgable people to a contest of intellectual ability where the winner is the true Christian and the loser is the apostate. The DESIRE for God is the topic in question. Do you DESIRE to know God through his Word, and does that desire manifest itself daily, truly overwhelming all others? Is there anything in your life that if you lost it, you would be more dejected than if you lost God's Word? The following paragraph is my attempt at expressing the foundational importance of the knowledge of God found in the book we call the "Bible."

Think deductively with me about the importance of the Scriptures. Read each thought, accepting it as truth, building on each other for the complete idea.

Life without God is death. God is Life. Death is separation FROM God. Christians, by definition, are dependent followers OF God. To know God, in His Word, is to have more life. To be separated from God, in His Word, is to have more death. To claim to be a follower, but not yearn for Life in the Word is apostasy, even hypocrisy. Without the Word, the true believer descends into atrophy, giving way to every temptation of substituting God’s Holiness with idols. His life becomes a seedbed of idolatry, blaspheming the precious Name he claims to follow. If he is a true believer, God quickly brings Him back to continual fellowship with Himself in the Word, producing a true follower out of the apostate. If the believer is false in His discipleship, which is the majority in this nation, the sinner lives dead in hypocrisy and idolatry until he is either quickened to life through the Word unto salvation, or dies, deceived by the father of lies into thinking that he has OBTAINED salvation by placing his faith in the idol of his decision on the “gospel.”

So then, what am I saying? I am saying this: A true “disciple” of God will be in a state of continual “fellowship” with God by constantly learning about Him in His Word. If the “disciple” does not continue in the Word, He was never a true disciple (1 John 2:19), and needs to have His life examined by the true Gospel of Christ to show the idolatry it is permeated with .

To take this idea a step further, I want to address the common fallacy that commentaries and resources are a substitute for truth, or are relative. All commentaries are man's interpretation of God's perfect Word, so they will be fallible. However, if a man is in communion with God and is interpreting the text using original languages, and the historical-grammatical-literal interpretation of the Word, who is to say that these great men cannot help us understand the depth that otherwise we would not be able to grasp? Men who devote their lives to the furthering of the deeper doctrines and teachings of the Scripture are there so that we can learn MORE about God in our everyday lives. They do the long work of interpretation, we read and measure it up to the truth of the Bible like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12).

Therefore, do not hesitate to use a man's works (who is correct in his doctrine) to understand the Word greater. If anyone would like more material, or recommendations, I would love to help. My email is asetser@bellsouth.net.

I plan to do a post on the TRUE gospel soon, stay tuned.

In my studies of Greek and other specific material for preparation for Master's, our theology study will be slower, though I hope to continue it. I will keep you posted as to my projected plans.

Blogging for His glory, Adam Setser