THE BIBLE

'...these are not stories and words from a different family, with different ancestors, but from our family, from our ancestors. For the Bible is about the one people of God in every generation, and the Bible is for the one people of God in every generation.'

Peter Adam, Written for Us, p.198.

GOD'S WORD

'It is often the case that evangelical discussions about the nature of the Bible focus on its truth and authority. However, these topics are not a major preoccupation of the Bible itself. When it describes or refers to itself, it is more often in terms of its power, trustworthiness, and reliability. God's words are powerful, because God is powerful; God's words are trustworthy, because God is faithful. This is not to deny the authority of the Bible, but it does mean that we should understand that authority in the context of the Bible's power and reliability.'

Peter Adam, Wriiten for Us, p.93.

GOD'S WORD

'It is a sign of God's great desire to relate to different people from every human background and culture that he uses such a rich variety of literary forms and styles in the Scriptures. What we don't like, someone else will like, and what we find hard to read, others will read easily and naturally. We should rejoice in the varied literary forms of the Scriptures...

...God has given us many different ways of helping people come to faith in Christ, including the gospel of Romans, the search for wisdom in Proverbs or Ecclesiastes, the stories of the Gospels, the warnings of the prophets, and the powerful visions of the book of Revelation (along with many others). We should use all of these in turn if we want to help all kinds of people come to Christ. God would not have given us so many ways if they were not necessary. The danger of using one way is that we will win only one kind of person. Ring the changes!'

Peter Adam, Written for Us, p.63.

GOD'S WORD

'To deny that God can use human language to communicate divine truth is to imperil the incarnation of God in Christ. If God can be incarnate, surely God's thoughts can be expressed in human words. This is an argument from the greater (incarnation) to the lesser (inspiration). If God cannot use human words, then the incarnation of God's Son, Jesus Christ, seems less likely.'

Peter Adam, Written for Us: Receiving God's Word in the Bible, p.27.