The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God

2 Peter 1:20-21
"But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."

In the front of my Bible is written something one of my pastors used to say: This Book will keep you from sin; sin will keep you from this Book.

The Bible is God's Word, completely authoritative and without error- in the original documents. I can't vouch for every one of the hundreds of translations on the earth, but I'd say we at least got it pretty close.



A friend of mine recently had a dream- a disturbing dream, but one that speaks to all of us. She was faced with two books- one which was on fire, and looked like a Bible at first. She then realized it wasn't a Bible though, and picked up the real Bible, beating the other book with it to put out the fire. The Bible also was on fire, but that fire didn't burn her. When she touched the other burning book, however, she was burned by its fire.

Beloved, we must remember that although there are many good books out there, nothing compares to the Holy Scriptures, the Word from God's own mouth, written and preserved for us. Some books rise in power in our perspectives because they have greatly impacted us personally- that's a good thing. I believe that God does inspire authors to help the brethren. The founders of the faith, John Calvin, Martin Luther, St. Augustine, John Wesley and others, have all written great books of theology and doctrine, and we should learn from them. We must, however, filter everything by the Spirit who is in us. The Bible is "living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." [Hebrews 4:12]