Is the Bible God?

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Ok I have friend who is a fundamentalist. And in our discussion we were talking about the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist–how we believe the bread becomes the real Jesus. But then we were discussing the Bible as the Word of God and Jesus is the Word of God so is the Bible Jesus?

I don’t know if that is clear. I hope it is. What is the distinction between the Word of God made flesh and the Word of God as the Bible?
 
chypmonk said:
Ok I have friend who is a fundamentalist. And in our discussion we were talking about the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist–how we believe the bread becomes the real Jesus. But then we were discussing the Bible as the Word of God and Jesus is the Word of God so is the Bible Jesus?

I don’t know if that is clear. I hope it is. What is the distinction between the Word of God made flesh and the Word of God as the Bible?
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The Scriptures are Christ, the Eucharist is Christ, the “word of God made flesh” is also Christ, but in different forms.

‘All sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, “because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ”’(Catechism of the Catholic Church 134)
 
OK well the answer to your question is that the Bible is not God. They are two separate things, but they are also closely related. The Catechism helps explain the Bible by saying:

105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” “For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts on the grounds that written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.”

106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, mad full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written and no more.”

It is because God is the author of Sacred Scripture that the Bible is called the word of God. So it is right to call the Bible the word of God, but Jesus is also the Word of God. The Catechism says this about Jesus:

65 “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.” Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; the will be no other word than this one…

So normally when non Catholic Christians use phrases like “I believe in the Word of God” or “We preach the Word of God” they are referring primarily to the Bible, but when Catholics speak of Jesus we also call Jesus the Word of God. At times when Catholics and non Catholic Christians talk these terms can mislead us. So its totally OK to called the Bible the Word of God and Jesus the Word of God. Although normally we are referring to separate things the two (the Bible and Jesus) are closely connected. I suggest you read the Catechism paragraphs 65 and 101-108.

Hope this helps and God Bless.
 
The Word, the Logos, is not “the Bible”. But the Bible is part of the Divine Revelation, which exists fully in th person of Christ.
 
If the bible is God, it is worthy of worship. There is no biblical justification for this. Yet, among bible Christians, the bible is the only sign of Christ’s physical presence among them, so in some cases it has, in effect, become for them what the Eucharist is for Catholics. However, it can tread a fine line of idolatry in certain extreme cases. And, since no one eats the bible, they may have difficulty with the concept of eating the Eucharistic presence of Christ.

Catholics and Orthodox do not have to choose either scripture or the Eucharist, since for them it is always both/and.
 
No, the words are God’s, but the book is not physically God himself.
 
chypmonk said:
Ok I have friend who is a fundamentalist. And in our discussion we were talking about the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist–how we believe the bread becomes the real Jesus. But then we were discussing the Bible as the Word of God and Jesus is the Word of God so is the Bible Jesus?

I don’t know if that is clear. I hope it is. What is the distinction between the Word of God made flesh and the Word of God as the Bible?
Click to expand...
Hi chypmonk,

No, the Bible is not Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:16 RSVA
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Nice and simple answer to give your Protestant friend. 🙂

blessings,

CEM
 
The physical Bible is not God, but the Word is the incarnation of God, that is the Word is Christ.
 
The Bible is not God, nor is it Jesus. We do not worship the Bible. We worship God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but we do not worship the Bible.

God fully revealed himself when he took on flesh and became man in the person of Jesus. God had previously however, revealed himself partially through the prophets.

***In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways *to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, (Hebrews 1:1-2)

The Bible is part of God’s revelation to man, it is living and active, and the Holy Spirit is able to work through God’s words, but the Bible is not the fullness of God’s revelation to man. The fullness of God’s revelation to man is the person Jesus.

The fullness of God’s love for man was revealed to us in the form of Christ on the Cross. The Bible cannot be God because it cannot love.

-Tim-
 
If the bible were actually God, there would be unity rather than division. There would be orthodoxy rather than heresy.
 
Your fundamentalist friend is trying to find a reason to not believe in the true presence as Jesus wants us too.

Jesus himself told us that he was physically the bread of life. He held up a piece of bread too.

When the Gospel writers (John especially) described Jesus as the word made flesh, this word was a spoken word, not a written word.

Nobody held up a book and said that Jesus was a written word of God. The word of God refers to the oral tradition of the spirit within the words that Jesus spoke. Jesus himself never wrote them down.
 
chypmonk said:
Ok I have friend who is a fundamentalist. And in our discussion we were talking about the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist–how we believe the bread becomes the real Jesus. But then we were discussing the Bible as the Word of God and Jesus is the Word of God so is the Bible Jesus?

I don’t know if that is clear. I hope it is. What is the distinction between the Word of God made flesh and the Word of God as the Bible?
Click to expand...
Think of it this way: Christ is the source and summit of all truth in our existance. The Bible is a selected revelation of that total truth… so in a way, it is the word of God (lower case W). However, when we catholics refer to the Word of God (capital W), we refer to Christ, the source and reality of all truth, which is pointed to by the three pillars of church teaching: sacred scripture, sacred tradition, and magisterial teaching.

We do not worship any of these pillars of church teaching, because they are recorded partial revelations of Christ, not the Christ Himself (though we may reverence them, as per processing the gospels during mass)
 
Actaeon said:
Think of it this way: Christ is the source and summit of all truth in our existance. The Bible is a selected revelation of that total truth… so in a way, it is the word of God (lower case W). However, when we catholics refer to the Word of God (capital W), we refer to Christ, the source and reality of all truth, which is pointed to by the three pillars of church teaching: sacred scripture, sacred tradition, and magisterial teaching.

We do not worship any of these pillars of church teaching, because they are recorded partial revelations of Christ, not the Christ Himself (though we may reverence them, as per processing the gospels during mass)
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Thanks all. I liked this one the best but all were helpful. It made me think that the respect the Protestants have for the Bible is similar to what we have for the Blessed Mother. If I said that my protestant friend he worships the bible like God he would be offended. But he insists that I worship the Blessed Mother. as God. I told him many times that it isn’t true till he repeated it one time too many and I got mad and said “Are calling me a liar!? I’ve already told you a dozen times! She was only human and still is!” His response was “Oh I must have said something true because you are getting mad”

I mean really!! Sometimes I think Protestants just are so…I can’t say it, but they are!!
 
chypmonk said:
Thanks all. I liked this one the best but all were helpful. It made me think that the respect the Protestants have for the Bible is similar to what we have for the Blessed Mother. If I said that my protestant friend he worships the bible like God he would be offended. But he insists that I worship the Blessed Mother. as God. I told him many times that it isn’t true till he repeated it one time too many and I got mad and said “Are calling me a liar!? I’ve already told you a dozen times! She was only human and still is!” His response was “Oh I must have said something true because you are getting mad”

I mean really!! Sometimes I think Protestants just are so…I can’t say it, but they are!!
Click to expand...
Ask her if bearing false witness against another Christian is a sin. Get a copy of Catholicism for Dummies (about $12) and ask her to read it. Tell her that you do not expect her to agree with it, but she must know the truth, as God holds her accountable to the truth.
 
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