Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 131:524 (Oct 1974)
Article: The Contested Word of God
Author: Wilbur M. Smith

BSac 131:524 (Oct 74) p. 349

The Contested Word of God

Wilbur M. Smith

[Wilbur M. Smith, Professor Emeritus, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, San Marino, California.]

We need not be ashamed of the fact that in the Christian faith we have a book religion though this book is the living Word of God, and centers in God’s only Son, our Lord. The actual title of the book from which we get our inspiration, our knowledge of God, our hope of forgiveness and eternal life, contains this very word book. For Bible, as you know, is the English form of the Latin word biblia, and the Greek word biblos. The moment we open the pages of this volume of our faith we have, as it were, these books gathered together in a single book.

Moreover, for the adequate understanding of this book, we need a small library in itself. Recognizing that this original revelation of God to men was in the Hebrew language for Israel, and in the Greek language in the gospels and the New Testament writings, we acknowledge the need of lexicons, and translations into various languages (now over a thousand different groups) that are being multiplied more rapidly than ever before. We as Christians are not only identified with a religion which springs from an understanding of this book, which requires a small library of books for its understanding, but from the riches of this one volume, thousands upon thousands of volumes have been written, more numerous and more important than have been produced by any collection of books since the beginning of civilization. This book contains history but it is biblical history. It speaks of the free offer of redemption, but the Christology of this book is biblical or otherwise a myth. It is in this Word that we hope, but the eschatology is a biblical eschatology. How vast are the

BSac 131:524 (Oct 74) p. 350

possibilities of a library centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord, concerning whom in the last two hundred fifty years alone, more than twenty thousand volumes have been written! How vital and appropriate then, actually how absolutely necessary is a library for those being trained to preach the gospel and reveal the unsearchable riches of the grace of God.

Titles of the Bible

The very names which the authors of Scripture use in referring to these compositions are unique, and cannot be accurately used in reference to any other work, even a religious work. Here we have the word of promise (Rom 9:9); the word of the cross (1 Cor 1:8); the word of truth (2 Cor 6:7;