What an outlandish and heretical assertion to claim that to
receive the Bible is to receive Jesus Christ! One can only
give mental assent to sentential statements and
propositional premises of written material in a book. To
receive Jesus Christ involves spiritual receptivity of faith,
which is far more than mental assent.
"Invariably, those who reject the Bible as God's Written Word also
reject Jesus Christ as the Living Word." "...to reject one is to
reject both..." 28The first statement is an overly inclusive assumption. The
second statement is simply fallacious. The continued
capitalization of "Written Word" in reference to the Bible
alongside of "Living Word" in reference to Jesus Christ,
evidences the author's deification of the scriptures.
"Perhaps our devotion to the Written Word sometimes gives the
impression that we are worshipping a book..." 29It most certainly does! If the author means what he says
by the words that he uses, then he is indeed guilty of
bibliolatrous worship of the Bible. The "devotion" of our
worship is to be directed toward God alone. "God is Spirit,
and we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John
4:24).