IS GOD BREATHLESS?

IS GOD BREATHLESS?

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

 

  The Bible, God breathed and written by man. The supernatural combined with human words. [2Tim.3:16-17] Scripture is the very life and Word of God. While there are many approaches in discerning these words, one approach stood out to me, the naturalistic approach. Within the naturalistic walls there lies no room for the supernatural.

  Does this approach leave God breathless? Within the realm of the naturalistic approach stands the rationalist who gives a refusal to be persuaded by an argument for the theory of creation over evolution because that argument violates a rule of logic. This can be attributed to mans step into the

science stairwell which produced theories the rationalist, in discerning the meaning of Scripture, grasped onto.

  To the rationalist, human reasoning is the foundational base. Can they build a sound house with a foundation such as this? Human reasoning in interpreting inspired Scripture without the supernatural would be as one building a house with no structural support. Without the supernatural, Jesus would not have walked among us. To deny the full inspiration of Scripture is to set aside the fundamental witness of Christ Jesus. Jesus is the foundation.

  The rationalist cannot accept the miraculous in Scripture because he has not personally experienced the miraculous, and also because reports of miracles cannot be verified by experimentation. With this manner of thought it couldn’t have happened that way, therefore it can’t be true. The miraculous is a part of the history of God’s people and a large portion of the Old Testament.

  In the rationalists view, some teachings in the Bible have been considered morally unworthy of God.

“Behold, I [God], even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish." (Gen.6:17) Our God is a just God who gave us sound doctrine with which to purpose our lives. He would not lead us down an immoral path. “He is the rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does

no wrong, upright and just is He.” (Duet.32:4)

  The Bible can only be understood when we are in keeping with the Holy Spirit. It is He who opens our minds to understand it’s meaning. He breathes life into the words. “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1Cor.2:12)

  In using the naturalistic approach to interpret Scripture one would omit the very breath of life. Without our spirit, which is of supernatural origin, one is internally dead. A touch without feeling. It would be structure without foundation. I would say the advancement of man by those who delve into the sciences are not progressing man , but rather, they have deemed our spirit useless. Our God breathless.

Tonda L. Tavernier

 

PS: Tonda has been DT subscriber and participant for some years. She originally wrote this essay May 2, 2014 for a seminary class.