And I agree that people hear a misleading common usage of the phrase Word of God in many churches, where it is attached to claims that about what the Bible is and does that go well beyond what the church and the Bible itself have traditionally been interpreted to mean by affirming that special revelation is God’s word to us. I just don’t think the solution is ditching the label entirely. Without a lot of institutional power and control of media, you can’t effectively change how people use language. And just changing the label would not change people’s wrong ideas; other words would just become their preferred label for their mistaken concepts.
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@Dale, I have no problem with the Christian’s Confidence.
My concern, (and it need not be shared by everyone, but I wish someone from your “side” would agree that it is or at least could be a valid concern) is that some people think that they are Christians not because they believe in Jesus Christ, Who the Bible says is the Word of God, but because they believe in the Bible, which is the Book of God or even the word of God, but is not God. It is my observation after talking to YEC Christians that this is a real issue.
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Hi, Roger. Yes, I think that there are people in churches who believe that.
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Even from the outside that has often seemed to be the case from my perspective. And I’ve heard many here share that same concern, though more often referred to as biblicism.
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The New Testament is full of severe warnings to test yourself against scripture to see if you really are one of Father’s children. C.H. Spurgeon calls any in the church who is not a believer, but claims to be, a ‘mere professor’ – my term is ‘believist’. There were those even in the early church.
AMEN, Sister. The best way to overcome poor theology is with good theology and we need to begin where we are at BioLogos, particularly when BioLogos has the Word/Jesus in its name. The message is Jesus Christ is the Word, not the Bible is not the Word. The message should be the same as the John 1 that the universe was created by God the Father through the Logos, rather than in 6 days de novo.
Jesus Himself said that neither He or the Father rested on the sixth day. They continue to create the universe to this day. John 5:18 Version:1.0 John 5:17-18 (NIV2011)
17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
I apologize for using Johannine theology. The capitalization of Father is in the NIV text.
As it deserves to be, if for no other reason than to make a distinction from his apparent earthly father. And it is referring to God, after all.
Nothin wrong with that. John’s gospel is my favourite of the four, and I adore 1 John. If I gave them impression his theology was off-limits earlier in this thread then I sincerely and humbly apologise. Without reopening old wounds, what I took issue with was reading John’s use of a word into Paul’s use of a word. Again, sorry if I didn’t make that clear Roger. Go in peace, brother, to live and quote from John! 
Agreed. We don’t need to pit Jesus against the Bible to do that.
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You could be right about that.
Of course, but those of us who understand islam know that the word of God has a different meaning. in Christianity we believe scripture is the inspired word of God. other religions believe the text is dictated by their god. It is different,.
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No, many of us who are Christians do not believe the Bible is the “Word of God.”
It is composed of writings, words of men and possibly women, that were written by men and women inspired by God to write.
The scriptures, in general, claim to be the writings of humans.
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And by “many of us,” Vance mostly means himself. He was not very successful in showing that aversion to the term “Word of God” is all that widespread.
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I think ditching the label “the Word of God” for the Bible is a good first step in diminishing the negative effects of Biblidolaty.
As long as we are reenforcing error with our words, we are setting people up for failure.
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You are very sure of your views in your insular environment, but I disagree.
Nevertheless, you should be concerned about the damage such inaccurate nomenclature ignites.
I am back from my cruise for a couple of days before my wife takes me off again.
I work for an international Evangelical organization. I’m pretty confident I regularly interact with a far more diverse group of Christians than you do on a regular basis. I don’t know where you get the insular environment thing. Just this week I have heard people from Canada, the Netherlands, Britain, Ghana, Honduras, and Peru all refer to the Word of God, meaning the Bible. No one objected or misunderstood.
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Talking with people who agree with you in other countries is geographical diversity, not diversity of opinion.
I say your views are insular because you do not seem to know the damage that is caused by mischaracterizing the Bible as the “Word of God.”
You think the people did not misunderstand because the misunderstanding is insidious, creating a misconception that can yield a crisis of faith.
And once again, you have done nothing to show that calling the Bible the Word of God is actually causing damage or that any representative contingent of Christianity has identified this as a problem. It is a bare assertion.
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If you can’t or won’t see that declaring writings of people, writings which have minor errors, the “Word of God,” a name the writings do not call themselves, sets people up for a potential crisis of faith when they find what they thought was the “Word of God” is imperfect, then I can’t convince you.