It is the basic foundation of the faith taught in the Bible that all followers of Jesus believe what they believe not because it came from the human mind of man but because it came from the holy heart of God! This is not a religion that was invented but revealed by God himself.
Therefore, I kneel before the inherent authority of the faith of Christians, the Bible. I believe God clothed His thoughts in words, He did not mumble or stutter in expressing Himself! He said it with authority and clearly, “… my word … goes out of my mouth …” (Isaiah 55:11) This is the all encompassing authority over the way I am to live and the things I am to say. “All Scripture is God-breathed …” (II Timothy 3:16) That is New Testament Christianity!
I admit it—I totally believe it, the eternal God has plainly disclosed what is in His mind by what came from His mouth! For us, it was then put into human words to be read and believed. And then supremely, the truth of God was unveiled in the person of Jesus Christ.
I have found a treasured colleague who shares my deepest convictions in C. H. Spurgeon. His comments capture it for me forever. None could say it with more authority and decisiveness:
“No man has ever been convinced of a truth by discovering that those who profess to believe it are half ashamed of it, and adopt the tone of apology.”
“By this cutting and trimming policy we shear away the locks of our strength and break our own arm. Nothing of that kind affects men, either now or any time.”
“We are not at all wishful to make our beliefs appear philosophical or probable: far from it! We do not ask that men should say, ‘That can be supported by science.’ Let the scientific men keep to their own sphere, and we will keep to ours. The doctrine we teach neither assails human science nor fears it, nor flatters it, nor asks it aid.”
“Let it stand as a world of wonders, marvellous beyond all things: we will not, for a moment, attempt to explain it away, or pare down the angles of truth.”
C. H. Spurgeon
Furthermore, I believe a God who disclosed Himself in human words did give them through chosen men to tell them to tell us. They wrote and spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (read II Peter 1:21) And also, after He spoke to us, He protected and guarded His Word from corruption by human hands who copied and translated His words faithfully into other languages.
It is not important to me how He did it—I believe that a God who revealed His Word could also preserve His Word historically so that the generations to follow could also know it. The Scripture comes to us pure as the day it was given. It exists in written form today. Legally all wills must be written—so God wrote. Nothing more needs to be said on this subject. “God has spoken,” and what He spoke, He still speaks; the same yesterday, today, and forever!
So then, I believe that today God exercises His Lordly authority by His Holy Spirit through His Holy Word related to His holy Son. And I write, not with the mind of a theologian but with the heart of an evangelist, meaning Scripture is not negatively defended by me but positively declared by me. My confidence in Scripture is because of what Jesus Christ Himself said about Scripture. He endorsed it without any reservation. For example, Jesus never doubted anything written in the Old Testament—not about Adam and Eve, not about Jonah and the big fish, not any Old Testament miracle. So then, how could I have a lower view of Scripture than He had? To me, that would be totally inconsistent and completely inconceivable.
If the followers of Christ are not above their Master and Lord, how in heaven’s name could I approach Scripture without the same attitude? Or, to say it another way, how could I say He was my Teacher and pridefully disagree with Him? I am resolute in declaring, His view of the world must be identical with mine, or I am a rebel. Mark it in your mind—from His first words spoken before people until His last, His approach was that “… he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)
And therefore, I believe as an evangelist my prime obligation is to preach the Word, telling people in the most simple way and with the most clear explanations what God has said about His Son, the Lord Jesus. It includes what He has done for their forgiveness, salvation, and how He must be received as their own personal Savior. As the Word is made plain, the evangelist must believe it is the Spirit of God that opens hearts, not his speaking skills. The act of proclamation of Scripture is both supernatural and super-cultural. None are inferior people and none are intimidating to a true evangelist. It must be the same to the handful as well as the church-full.
Never will we allow ourselves to tone it down or lower the standard of the gospel in order to be more acceptable to those before us. We never tamper with truth or compromise its teachings—we are humble messengers before God. So that, I believe, the moment we lose total trust in the truth of Scripture, at that moment the preacher loses his authority. An evangelist is not telling people about the Bible, he is telling people about Jesus! (II Timothy 4:2-5) Jesus told of a wedding. The people were invited to come immediately, but in the parable they “made light of it” (Matthew 22:5). Anytime a man stands in the pulpit and makes “light of” the Word, he has lost, then and there, all authority and all of God’s blessings on what he says.
My assigned task, as an evangelist, is to say what He said as clearly and concisely as possible; to proclaim the message with a Christ-centered focus. Case closed. I am a believer without reservations or secret conditions. I believe the Bible and will declare it to my end has come.
Michael Gott
“Let light shine out of darkness” (II Corinthians 4:6)
And now He has shined in our hearts by revealing Christ to us—it brought light and life.