The Bible was never intended to be some deep, dark mysterious book that the average man on the street must rely upon the so-called “experts” to interpret for him. Rather, the Bible is God’s revelation (something “revealed”) to all of mankind. In fact, even a casual reading of the Bible will show that the Lord almost always dealt with the “common” man long before He began showing things to the experts or to the intellectuals.
The Word of God – The Bible claims to be written by God while at the same time being written by men. This was accomplished according to 2 Timothy 3:16 by “inspiration” – this means that God used men to get the exact words He wanted onto paper! The Bible is therefore unlike any other Book in that it is written by God.
The Bible claims to be alive (Hebrews 4:12; I Peter 1:23), without error (Proverbs 30:5), and preserved (Psalm 12:6-7) among other things. Therefore we should never make any attempt to correct the Bible, rather we should let it correct us. To correct what God said is to correct God!
The Bible should be the believer’s final authority in all matters of faith and practice. The folks who lived in a city called “Berea” (Acts chapter 17) were commended for being very cautious. Rather than blindly accepting what every preacher that came along had to say, they checked out all that they heard by searching the scriptures daily. If the people of our day consistently did the same, many of the false teachers would quickly lose an audience.
Interpretation: One of the most common accusations hurled at the Bible is that everyone “has their own interpretation.” The reason so many different denominations, cults and sects exist today is because people have interpreted the Bible differently (unless they have thrown out the Bible altogether and made up their own teachings). This accusation however is not a valid accusation. 2 Peter 1:20-21 says, “Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
TRUST in God’s Word!