Commentary on "Revelation"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 5: Wednesday, April 29, 2009

 

Overview

“How much time did you spend with your Bible during the past week?”

 

Problems

What a shame that the unfathomably great gift from God that is the Bible would be reduced to a series of questions regarding how much time you spend reading it instead of watching television.

The phrase quoted from 2 Corinthians 3:15 stops short of the truth. The entire statement is “which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Bible reading has nothing to do with saving us, but is a reflection of the relationship we have with Jesus. Reading the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 2) will cause our faith in Jesus to grow.

Why is this? Because the Bible is the only book that shows us the utter futility of trying to make ourselves righteous or acceptable to God. Only the Bible presents Jesus as the perfect substitute for man and as our source of eternal life. Where else but the Bible would you read “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3)! The reason for reading the Bible is to get to know Jesus better.

The quotation from My Life Today is a perfect example of this misunderstanding. Divine authorship of the Bible is not dependent on anyone’s experience while reading the Bible. The Bible is true and divinely written on its own merits, based on its own claims, not because some one or some group decided to declare it so. Part of the miracle of the Bible is that it remains so internally consistent in spite of all the committees sitting in judgment of it throughout history.

 

Summary

1. The Bible is defined to be on par with Jesus and the Holy Spirit as truth (see John 14:6, 16:13 and 17:17).
2. The Bible is true because it is God’s word, not because humans have declared it to be true.
3. Although anyone can learn what the Bible says, only someone indwelt by the Holy Spirit can understand what the Bible means. Spiritual things are Spiritually discerned.

 

 

Copyright 2008 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised April 25, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

Official Adventist Resources

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