Thinking Biblically

Bumper Sticker Theology

/ Veronica/

“God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” 

Trite, bumper-sticker theology?  Yes, maybe it is.  But, I have to say, that for the most part I agree with it.  The fact that “God said it” within the pages of Scripture is enough.  It is more than enough…or, it should be…  But, this seems to be a philosophy that is quickly disappearing among Christians…

My husband is currently reading John MacArthur’s new book The Truth War, which I am dying to get my hands (and highlighter) on, especially after my recent encounter with Captivating.  But, until he has finished (he has an aversion to books that glow in the dark), I must be content to settle for the little bits that he is willing to share aloud.  So, I was quite pleased to find Dr. MacArthur’s latest post over at Pulpit Magazine.  (I have already linked it in the sidebar, but it is worth mentioning again to be sure that it is not overlooked!)

Along with the message of Captivating, I have also been recently confronted with some individuals who claim that God speaks to them – exactly as Dr. MacArthur described

“through voices, strong impressions, or vague feelings which they interpret as direct revelations from the Holy Spirit.”

Do I believe that God still speaks to His children today?  Absolutely!  I believe that He speaks in the pages of Scripture!  John Piper wrote this on the Desiring God Blog a few months ago:

O how precious is the Bible. It is the very word of God. In it God speaks in the twenty-first century. This is the very voice of God. By this voice, he speaks with absolute truth and personal force. By this voice, he reveals his all-surpassing beauty. By this voice, he reveals the deepest secrets of our hearts. No voice anywhere anytime can reach as deep or lift as high or carry as far as the voice of God that we hear in the Bible.

It is a great wonder that God still speaks today through the Bible with greater force and greater glory and greater assurance and greater sweetness and greater hope and greater guidance and greater transforming power and greater Christ-exalting truth than can be heard through any voice in any human soul on the planet from outside the Bible.

(If you have not read this article in its entirety, please do so here.)

The problem is that people have stopped reading the Bible.  They want bells and whistles, audible voices…a “feeling”…“an experience”…a “burning in the bosom” as my father puts it.  Basically, they want a miracle.  They want something that would prove – to themselves, to the church, or to the world – that they are in some special way, in touch with God.  And, they rest in the imagined, self-sanctified authority of these things.

But, that is not what the Christian life is about.  We are not called to the emotional rollercoaster of one spiritual high after another – voices, impressions, experiences,  feelings.  We are called to walk by faith.  We are called to walk in humble obedience to the Word of God that has been revealed to us in the pages of Scripture.

“It is true whether or not we feel it’s true. It is true whether or not it has been validated by someone’s experience. It is true because God says it is true.” (MacArthur)

I think Elisabeth Elliot sums it up when she says (and, I cannot say it better – so I won’t try),

“…the important thing in life is not to be vindicated, nor to see miracles, but to walk by faith – that is, to take God at his word. So shall we live.  So shall we follow Christ, content to do without the startling, the dramatic evidences that God is God, believing instead – in the face of all the enemy’s taunts – the spoken Word of Him who calls Himself the I AM.” (A Lamp For My Feet, pg. 146)

My husband is currently reading John MacArthur’s new book The Truth War, which I am dying to get my hands (and highlighter) on, especially after my recent encounter with Captivating.  But, until he has finished (he has an aversion to books that glow in the dark), I must be content to settle for the little bits that he is willing to share aloud.  So, I was quite pleased to find Dr. MacArthur’s latest post over at Pulpit Magazine.  (I have already linked it in the sidebar, but it is worth mentioning again to be sure that it is not overlooked!)

Along with the message of Captivating, I have also been recently confronted with some individuals who claim that God speaks to them – exactly as Dr. MacArthur described

“through voices, strong impressions, or vague feelings which they interpret as direct revelations from the Holy Spirit.”

Do I believe that God still speaks to His children today?  Absolutely!  I believe that He speaks in the pages of Scripture!  John Piper wrote this on the Desiring God Blog a few months ago:

O how precious is the Bible. It is the very word of God. In it God speaks in the twenty-first century. This is the very voice of God. By this voice, he speaks with absolute truth and personal force. By this voice, he reveals his all-surpassing beauty. By this voice, he reveals the deepest secrets of our hearts. No voice anywhere anytime can reach as deep or lift as high or carry as far as the voice of God that we hear in the Bible.

It is a great wonder that God still speaks today through the Bible with greater force and greater glory and greater assurance and greater sweetness and greater hope and greater guidance and greater transforming power and greater Christ-exalting truth than can be heard through any voice in any human soul on the planet from outside the Bible.

(If you have not read this article in its entirety, please do so here.)

The problem is that people have stopped reading the Bible.  They want bells and whistles, audible voices…a “feeling”…“an experience”…a “burning in the bosom” as my father puts it.  Basically, they want a miracle.  They want something that would prove – to themselves, to the church, or to the world – that they are in some special way, in touch with God.  And, they rest in the imagined, self-sanctified authority of these things.

But, that is not what the Christian life is about.  We are not called to the emotional rollercoaster of one spiritual high after another – voices, impressions, experiences,  feelings.  We are called to walk by faith.  We are called to walk in humble obedience to the Word of God that has been revealed to us in the pages of Scripture.

“It is true whether or not we feel it’s true. It is true whether or not it has been validated by someone’s experience. It is true because God says it is true.” (MacArthur)

I think Elisabeth Elliot sums it up when she says (and, I cannot say it better – so I won’t try),

“…the important thing in life is not to be vindicated, nor to see miracles, but to walk by faith – that is, to take God at his word. So shall we live.  So shall we follow Christ, content to do without the startling, the dramatic evidences that God is God, believing instead – in the face of all the enemy’s taunts – the spoken Word of Him who calls Himself the I AM.” (A Lamp For My Feet, pg. 146)