The concept of the bible being The word of God is corrupt, mainly because of a misunderstanding of the preposition "of" into English, mainly from the Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. In those languages "of" can also mean "by" OR "about." Hence it was a translator's prerogative, based on his or her own theology, to call the bible either the "word of God" or the "word about God."
In fact, when the books of the bible were finally gathered together into one printable volume, starting with Johann Gutenberg back in the 1500's, publishing houses began to compete with one another. One of the sales points they used in pushing their particular product was to say, "Our bible is the word of God" (as opposed to what our competition is printing). As time went by people simply accepted that as fact, rather than understanding that the bible is simply words about God that the Church collected together and declared "sacred scripture," even though even the main branches of Christianity haven't even agreed upon a single list of books that should be included to this very day!
The bible, itself, does not even declare itself to be God's word! But, indeed, there are passages in scripture where a prophet may say that the word of God came to him. But, those are only the prophet's account of an experience he had.
But, the bible does say what the word of God is. Speaking of Jesus, the gospel of John makes it very clear that the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. On top of that, the gospel says that the word (the Logos in Greek) was with God in the beginning and that everything that was created was done so by the power of the Logos, God's word.
Hence, the Logos, Christ, and nothing more, is God's word. To declare that anything else is God's word might even be called an act of idolatry.
So, our problem is understanding where our knowledge of God is coming from. More than anything else, it has to be from, yes, a study of the sacred scriptures, but also from what all of us within the Church have said about those scriptures in our tradition, experience, and reason.
Through that prayerful association and fellowship we can and do often feel the loving presence, power, direction, and inspiration of God's word -- the Logos -- the Christ. That makes our faith a living faith and is one of the main reasons we do many things in our life together that may sometimes even seem contrary to various literal interpretations of scripture that were frowned upon by the church even fifty years ago, such as the ordination of women.
In fact, when the books of the bible were finally gathered together into one printable volume, starting with Johann Gutenberg back in the 1500's, publishing houses began to compete with one another. One of the sales points they used in pushing their particular product was to say, "Our bible is the word of God" (as opposed to what our competition is printing). As time went by people simply accepted that as fact, rather than understanding that the bible is simply words about God that the Church collected together and declared "sacred scripture," even though even the main branches of Christianity haven't even agreed upon a single list of books that should be included to this very day!
The bible, itself, does not even declare itself to be God's word! But, indeed, there are passages in scripture where a prophet may say that the word of God came to him. But, those are only the prophet's account of an experience he had.
But, the bible does say what the word of God is. Speaking of Jesus, the gospel of John makes it very clear that the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. On top of that, the gospel says that the word (the Logos in Greek) was with God in the beginning and that everything that was created was done so by the power of the Logos, God's word.
Hence, the Logos, Christ, and nothing more, is God's word. To declare that anything else is God's word might even be called an act of idolatry.
So, our problem is understanding where our knowledge of God is coming from. More than anything else, it has to be from, yes, a study of the sacred scriptures, but also from what all of us within the Church have said about those scriptures in our tradition, experience, and reason.
Through that prayerful association and fellowship we can and do often feel the loving presence, power, direction, and inspiration of God's word -- the Logos -- the Christ. That makes our faith a living faith and is one of the main reasons we do many things in our life together that may sometimes even seem contrary to various literal interpretations of scripture that were frowned upon by the church even fifty years ago, such as the ordination of women.