Is the Bible the Word of God?

"All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work. -2 Timothy 3:16, 17.


WHAT a powerful expression by the apostle Paul on the excelling value of the Bible!  He was, of course, referring  specifically to that part of the Bible available to him at the time-the writings that people sometimes refer to as the Old Testament.  But in principle his words apply with equal force to all of the Bible's 66 books, including those written by Jesus' faithful disciples in the first century  C.E.

Do you esteem the Bible as highly as Paul did?  Do you think that the writers of the Bible really were inspired by God?    First-century  Christians did.  That belief never wavered during the ensuing centuries.  Fourteenth-century English cleric John Wycliffe, for example, viewed the Bible as "the  infallible rule of truth."  The New Bible Dictionary, commenting on Paul's words quoted above, states that divine "inspiration, therefore, guarantees the truth of all that the Bible asserts."

Next time: Changing Attitudes Toward the Bible

Watchtower, 2010