Question 5: Paul made it very clear in 2 Timothy that “the entire Bible is inspired by God” (2Ti 3:16), This means that every word in the Bible is the word of God, and that the Bible represents the Lord. Believing in the Lord is believing in the Bible. Believing in the Bible is believing in the Lord. Moving away from the Bible means not believing in the Lord! Our belief in the Lord only requires us to hold firm to the Bible. Even if we do not accept Almighty God’s work in the last days, we’ll still be able to be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven. Is there anything wrong with this understanding?
Answer: The majority of the religious world rely on the words of Paul that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” in determining that everything in the Bible is the word of God, and that as long as one holds on to the Bible they will be taken up into the kingdom of heaven. Especially in the last days, most believers in the Lord still believe in this. But is this viewpoint in conformity with the truth and facts? Did the Lord Jesus ever say “All scripture is given by inspiration of God”? Did the Holy Spirit ever testify to this? They did not. This was said by Paul. Many believers use these words from Paul as the basis of their belief that every word in the Bible is inspired by God and is the word of God. Is this not a huge mistake? Some people also believe that even if spoken by a human being, it is the word of God as long as it is recorded in the Bible. Isn’t such a viewpoint very fallacious and absurd? Believers in the Lord should all be very clear that the Bible is just a testimony of God and a record documenting God’s work. The creation of the Bible was based on the work of God’s salvation of mankind. Every stage of God’s work is filled with the battle between God and the evil forces of Satan, which is why God’s word is not the only thing recorded in the Bible, as there are also words from various people and even Satan. This is a clear fact. Is it a tenable argument to say that every word of the Bible is the word of God? Isn’t this distorting the truth and confounding black and white? How can people still develop such erroneous beliefs? Why can’t they speak according to the facts? Anyone who has read the Bible knows that the Bible contains conversations between God and Moses, between God and Job, between God and His chosen people, and between God and Satan. So could the words spoken by the person God is conversing with become the word of God? Isn’t that too absurd? Therefore, the saying that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is the word of God” cannot possibly be tenable! Some absurd people have arbitrarily insisted that man’s word in the Bible is the word of God. This is completely at odds with the truth. This purely tarnishes God, blasphemes against God, and seriously offends God’s disposition! God’s words are God’s words, man’s words are man’s words, and Satan’s words are Satan’s words. Why do people mix them up? God’s words will always be the truth. Man’s words can never be the truth and at most can only conform with the truth. Satan’s words will always be falsehoods and lies. Even if uttered ten thousand times, they will still be lies and falsehoods! Wise people should admit this fact. Only foolish people will insist on false viewpoints. We will be even clearer on this issue after reading another passage of Almighty God’s words.
Almighty God says, “Today, people believe the Bible is God, and that God is the Bible. So, too, do they believe that all the words of the Bible were the only words God spoke, and that they were all said by God. Those who believe in God even think that, although all of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament were written by people, they were all given by inspiration of God, and a record of the utterances of the Holy Spirit. This is the erroneous comprehension of man, and it does not completely accord with the facts. In fact, apart from the books of prophecy, most of the Old Testament is a historical record. Some of the epistles of the New Testament come from people’s experiences, and some come from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit; the Pauline epistles, for example, arose from the work of a man, they were all the result of the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, and they were written for the churches, and were words of exhortation and encouragement for the brothers and sisters of the churches. They were not words spoken by the Holy Spirit—Paul could not speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit, and neither was he a prophet, much less did he see the visions that John beheld. His epistles were written for the churches of Ephesus, Philadelphia, Galatia, and other churches. And thus, the Pauline epistles of the New Testament are epistles that Paul wrote for the churches, and not inspirations from the Holy Spirit, nor are they the direct utterances of the Holy Spirit. … If people see the epistles or words like Paul’s as the utterances of the Holy Spirit, and worship them as God, then it can only be said that they are too indiscriminating. To speak more harshly, is this not simply blasphemy? How could a man talk on behalf of God? And how could people bow down before the records of his epistles and of the words he spoke as if they were a holy book, or a heavenly book? Could the words of God be casually uttered by a man? How could a man talk on behalf of God?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Concerning the Bible (3)).
Many believers think that “The Bible represents God, represents the Lord Believing in the Bible is believing in the Lord, believing in the Lord is believing in the Bible.” Such a viewpoint doesn’t sound wrong, but for people who have experience, such a viewpoint is wrong in itself. This shows that people believe in God but don’t know God, and moreover aren’t clear on the relationship between the Bible and God. If anyone still insists that the Bible represents God and believing in the Bible is believing in God, then let me ask you: Does the Bible save people or does God save people? Can the Bible replace God to do His work? Can the Bible replace the work of the Holy Spirit? God created the heavens and earth and all things. Can the Bible create the heavens and earth and all things? Is God greater or the Bible greater? Did God come first or did the Bible come first? Has everybody considered these questions? If people still can’t see through these common sense things that believers must understand, then are they people who experience God’s work? Haven’t they experienced any of the Holy Spirit’s work at all? Don’t they have any knowledge of God’s almightiness and wisdom? We all know that God is the one true God, the Lord of creation. God can speak words, created the heavens and earth and all things, and rules over all things. God is Spirit, and yet He can become flesh as the Son of man to speak and work among man, redeem man, and save man. God is real and alive, the Almighty, who is, and who was, and who is to come. The Bible, on the other hand, is merely a record documenting the two stages of God’s work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. It is a history book. How can the Bible possibly compare to God? That is why, no matter from which perspective, the Bible cannot represent God, believing in the Bible is not believing in God, and clinging to the Bible is not following God. The Bible is the Bible, God is God. The Bible and God are completely separate things. This is a fact that no one can refute!
—The movie script of Break the Spell