God gave us a Book. And in that book He spoke, and what He said is exactly what He wanted to say. And He desired to say it in a way that we would understand it, because we are accountable for it. God has spoken, and He has not mumbled, and He has spoken clearly, and He has spoken precisely, and exactly, and directly to the matters that concern Him and concern us. And God has sworn in His revelation, the Holy Bible, that He has spoken the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
This is true, it is all true, and nothing in it is untrue. It is also all the truth that God desired to reveal to us. The rest is left for us to know in eternity. And the Bible alone is the true word of the one true God, who does not contradict Himself, who does not write other books that say other things that are contrary to what He has said in this Book. There is only one God, and He has spoken in one Book. All other supposed revelations from God are not at all from God; they are the concoctions of men. They are all wrong.
God has spoken, and He has spoken in one Book, and that Book is the Bible. Now, that simplifies the issue. It is not complicated to sort out the matter of religion. Most people think it is complicated to sort out the matter of religion because there are so many competing religions, and the idea today is to be tolerant of all of them, and to allow everyone to embrace their own religion, feeling that it’s all ending up in the same heaven of heavens, no matter how you approach it. But the Bible claims just the opposite; that anything that contradicts the Bible, anything that is a competing source of revelation to the Bible, is not from God. If it is not contained in the 66 books of the Bible, it is not the Word of God. If it’s not in the 66 books of the Bible, God didn’t say it.
For all generations through human history, what God has said He has put in this Book—one Book made up of two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, 66 specific books given to just over 40 writers over a period of about 1,500 years. The Holy Spirit authored it all, put it all together in what we know as the Bible, and it is established as the sole divine authority on God’s Word. This is why it is the singular duty of man to respond obediently to this one Book. It is the response to this one Book, and what this Book says God requires, that determines everyone’s eternal destiny, and nothing else determines it—nothing else. What a person does with the Bible determines Heaven or hell.
Years ago—many years ago now—Protestant denominations eliminated heresy. You might think that was quite an achievement. But the strange twist is that the way they eliminated heresy was not by crushing it with the truth, not by overpowering it with the Word of God, but rather, they eliminated the idea of heresy when they eliminated the idea of absolute truth.
If there is no such thing as absolute truth, then there can be no such thing as heresy. If there is no fixed truth, then there can be no discernible error. If everything is up for grabs, and the words of the Bible don’t matter, or are only suggestions, or are at best equal to other religious books, then you can believe whatever you want.
And now there is a comfort among old-line liberal Protestant denominations with anything and everything. And in our day, I’m afraid the movement is spreading. There is a new kind of inclusivism even in evangelicalism, a new kind of inclusivism that threatens to eradicate truth, and therefore eradicate any classification of error, and blur everything. And the only hope, of course, in the midst of all of this, is to go back to the Word of God. And all this sinful rebellion doesn’t change what the Scripture is.
Whether it’s attacked by rationalism, or whether it’s attacked by liberalism, or whether it’s attacked by what is called neo-orthodoxy, or whether it is attacked by pluralism, or mysticism, or inclusivism, or political correctness, or tolerance, or any other assault, it changes nothing about the nature of this Book. It was Jesus who said, “Not one jot or tittle would in any wise pass from this Book until all is fulfilled.” It is an eternal Book. It is an unchanging Book. It is the anvil in the old story of the man pounding the hammers, the blacksmith. After many years the anvil stood, but many hammers had been destroyed. The hammers that have hit the Scripture lie in the rubble; the Scripture still stands.
The Bible still is the truth of God, the only truth of God and nothing but the truth of God. ©2006 Grace to You
This article is adapted from a sermon preached Oct. 22, 2006, by John MacArthur. Used by permission of Grace to You.
John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary. His teaching is broadcast internationally through the Grace to You media ministry (gty.org).