So we’ve discussed our opinion.
It’s time you joined the discussion and provided us with your opinion.
Rob
-
Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!
What Does God Mean When He Says His Word Is Alive
- Thread starter JD731
- Start date
It’s time you joined the discussion and provided us with your opinion.
Rob
The simple statements of God are easy to understand most times, but they are hard to believe. I believe the word of God is alive because he says over and over that they are. Jesus comes to his prophets as “the word of the LORD. He claims in John 12 that the words he speaks come from the Father. In John 6 they are spirit and they are life. Those who reject them will die in their sins, he says. Why believe anything else?
No one seems to be very interested in this thread so I will make an observation about the living word while I wait.
this post will help one understand the personification of the Word of God and his divinity and perfection.
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Verse 4 says the WORD has life in him.
He says in John 6:63 that the words he speaks is Spirit and they are life. Peter says to the strangers to whom he wrote in 1 Peter 1 that the word of God is able to save their souls. This was just a few verses after he says they were begotten again by the resurrected. Lord Jesus.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
according to this verse it is God the Father who is doing the begetting.
1 Peter 1:22-23
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
this verse says one is born again by obeying the Word of God.
Psalms 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
Acts 17:24-31
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
God has provided everything needed to save sinners and has provided perfect testimony through his prophets, including Jesus Christ, and has commanded men to be saved.
this post will help one understand the personification of the Word of God and his divinity and perfection.
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Verse 4 says the WORD has life in him.
He says in John 6:63 that the words he speaks is Spirit and they are life. Peter says to the strangers to whom he wrote in 1 Peter 1 that the word of God is able to save their souls. This was just a few verses after he says they were begotten again by the resurrected. Lord Jesus.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
according to this verse it is God the Father who is doing the begetting.
1 Peter 1:22-23
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
this verse says one is born again by obeying the Word of God.
Psalms 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
Acts 17:24-31
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
God has provided everything needed to save sinners and has provided perfect testimony through his prophets, including Jesus Christ, and has commanded men to be saved.
Logos - John 1:1
Amen! He 4:12 doesn’t say it is a sword, it just says it is sharper than any two edged sword.
However there are passages that do.
Ephesians 6:17
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Actually, I didn't say it was a metaphor. A metaphor is a "Figure of speech in which a word of expression normally used of one kind of object, action, etc. is extended to another" (P. H. Matthews, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, p. 243). So Jesus as the "Lamb of God" is a metaphor, but the Word of God as living is not.
The Bible as living, IMO, is a different figure of speech, called personification. This is a "Reference to something general or abstract as if it were an individual" (Ibid., p. 296). So the Word of God as "living" is attributing to it life as if it were a human. It's a figure of speech, true, just not a metaphor.
Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt in about 1440 BC. It is thought that he wrote the Torah (under the inspiration of God) after that. Therefore, if we think of a 6000 year old earth (for the sake of the discussion, God was ministering to men 1000s of years before that, not "at least 400."
But the biblical statement that the Word of God is living (Heb. 4:12) was not written about that, but about the Old Testament. If you look at the context of that verse, beginning back in Hebrews 3:4 up to 4:12, it is talking about the Torah, the Word of God given to Moses, and so by extension the written Word of God.
In the earlier verses of Heb. 12, the OT is quoted several times. Then in v. 11, the verse right before, it says, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." This is very clearly referring to the Promised Land of Israel, applying it to the faith it takes to walk the Christ walk.
John 1:1 is clearly talking about Christ as the Word, not the written Word of God. And of course Christ was and is alive.
Now this is a metaphor.
I did not say that he is "merely" using a metaphor. (Of course I said "personification," not metaphor, as I already observed.) I don't refer to metaphors in the Bible that way (and there are many).
Metaphors are not to be discounted. God invented them because He invented language. Every wonderful parable of Christ is an extended metaphor.
Christ Himself is referred to in Scripture by many metaphors, most often said by Christ Himself:
The Lamb of God
The Bread of Life
The Light of the World
The Good Shepherd
The True Vine
And many others. All of these metaphors help us to learn more bout our blessed Savior. So never, ever discount a biblical metaphor as being "merely a metaphor."
Yes, I am aware of metaphors, similitudes and figures and types. If one did not take these things into account the scriptures would be a closed book.
Hosea 12:10
I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.
My point was concerning the scriptures. The terminology "word of the LORD" preceeds the term "word of God" in scriptures by hundreds of years. The word of the LORD in the OT is the personification of the word of Jehovah and he often appears to his prophets. The first time we have that title in scripture it is so (Ge 15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying). In the NT, it was the word of the Lord who revealed the "mystery of Christ," which is defined in Ephesians in chapter 3:6. It is recorded in the scriptures that Paul saw Jesus Christ three times after he rose from the dead.
Ministering to men was not my point. My point was a transition in his ministering. I noted the things that were new and different already. No use of of repeating repeating.
I mentioned He 4:12 but my focus was on 1 Peter 1 and what he said to the strangers. The emphasis was on being born again because he was drawing off of a 700 year old prophecy and promise of God to them particularly in the prophesy of Hosea. They were cut off from the covenants of God and dispersed from the land and said to be "not my people." However, in the same prophesy God promised that they would be called the sons of the living God. This of course requires a new birth. This age is a partial fullfilment of that prophecy.
Hosea 1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
1 Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
The seed of this new birth for these strangers is his promise in the prophesy of Hosea.
Context is very important in the word of God. There are universal truths in all scriptures but one must know who is being addressed. Not everything applies to every one.
Last edited:
I'm really not sure if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me.
At any rate, you are correct that 1 Peter 1:23 says " the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." But Hebrews 4:12 also says the Word of God is living ("quick" in the KJV). The Greek word in both passages is the verb zao, "to live." So the figure of speech is exactly the same.
There are some things on which we agree but our understanding of what it means when God says his word is alive indicates we have arrived at some different conclusions. God is generally the Father in the scriptures and the word of the LORD is his expression of his will among the sons of men. If Jesus Christ as the word of the LORD in either testament had ever spoken one word that was not given to him of the Father then the word would not have been alive in the sense it is now. Since the words of God must come to pass exactly as he has stated, there must be a means to test those words. Fulfilled prophesy is the way God has given for us to test them. This is why Israel in the gospels were cursed. It was because they had the pure words of God and the fulfillment of the prophesy in Jesus Christ and did not believe. If they would have swallowed them they would have lived.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Okay, it looks like I am not getting any more participation. Thank you Deacon and John of Japan for your contribution so far.
The phrase “ word of God” only appears in the OT four times. I will make mention of a couple of them where the scripture is clear that the word of God has personality. He can be seen and he can speak. I will quote verses but there is a context. I trust it will be read and considered. Check it out:
1 Chronicles 17:3-4
3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
4 Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
There was a vision. This means the word of God could be seen. He could speak.This is a pre incarnation appearance of Christ.
Here is another instance from the OT that is very instructive.
1 Kings 12:22
But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
In this passage the word of God is identified. See below.
1 Kings 12:23-24
23 Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying,
24 Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.
The word of God is the word of the LORD. We first learned about him in Gen 15. There we learned his name. It is Lord GOD. The word of God is a person. He is alive. He can be seen. He can speak. He is Jesus Christ of the NT. This gives new meaning to the following.
John 1:1-2
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
Do you agree, and if so, how does that impact your view of the living word of God today?
The phrase “ word of God” only appears in the OT four times. I will make mention of a couple of them where the scripture is clear that the word of God has personality. He can be seen and he can speak. I will quote verses but there is a context. I trust it will be read and considered. Check it out:
1 Chronicles 17:3-4
3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
4 Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
There was a vision. This means the word of God could be seen. He could speak.This is a pre incarnation appearance of Christ.
Here is another instance from the OT that is very instructive.
1 Kings 12:22
But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
In this passage the word of God is identified. See below.
1 Kings 12:23-24
23 Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying,
24 Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.
The word of God is the word of the LORD. We first learned about him in Gen 15. There we learned his name. It is Lord GOD. The word of God is a person. He is alive. He can be seen. He can speak. He is Jesus Christ of the NT. This gives new meaning to the following.
John 1:1-2
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
Do you agree, and if so, how does that impact your view of the living word of God today?
Last edited:
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
1 Samuel 3:7
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
1 Samuel 3:19-21
19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
20 And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.
21 And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
The light went out in Israel because they did not have the word of the LORD.
1 Samuel 3:3
And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;
The more English translations the darker it gets for us English speakers because there is no life in them .everybody knows it. If there is no life there is no light.
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
1 Samuel 3:7
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
1 Samuel 3:19-21
19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
20 And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.
21 And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
The light went out in Israel because they did not have the word of the LORD.
1 Samuel 3:3
And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;
The more English translations the darker it gets for us English speakers because there is no life in them .everybody knows it. If there is no life there is no light.
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Alive- the Word of the Lord is alive because it stems from the Living God of Glory. It is seminal (life giving) because it is the means by which God has chosen to reveal Himself, His Gospel Message and His eternal Son Jesus Christ.
it is the Holy Spirit who emblazons that Gospel Message and knowledge of God upon our hearts at the point of regeneration bringing us alive to Christ, and sustaining us in our a Christian Walk
I’ll stop now
it is the Holy Spirit who emblazons that Gospel Message and knowledge of God upon our hearts at the point of regeneration bringing us alive to Christ, and sustaining us in our a Christian Walk
I’ll stop now