The Word of God is bound by an attitude of mind which no longer trusts the Scriptures as a revelation of God’s truth because much of the church has been taught to view them as the product of human minds and natural forces. This state of mind has not happened suddenly, nor has everyone concurred in its judgements, but it has gradually fashioned the outlook of many until it has become the general consensus of opinion both outside and inside the church.

How then can the Word of God be freed for our generation? How can its power and truth be felt once more?

 It can happen when we begin to adopt a new attitude towards Scripture. The false assumption has been that you may approach Scripture as you do any other book. But if we do this, it will not reveal its secrets to us. The Bible must be approached in a special way, as Moses learned when he stumbled into the presence of God and was told, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground.’ Or as Jacob, who similarly was surprised to find himself in God’s presence, said, ‘How dreadful is this place!’

Those who have rediscovered the power and truth of God’s word and have been instrumental in setting it free in the past, have testified to this truth. Archbishop Cranmer, for example, in his preface to the English Bible, wrote ‘. . .The learning of the Christian man ought to begin with the fear of God and to end in matters of high speculation; and not to begin with matters of high speculation and to end in the fear of God. . . the fear of God must be the first beginning, and as it were an ABC or an introduction to all them that shall enter into the very true and most fruitful knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.’

So, unless we are prepared to begin here, how can we hope to go further and make any progress in understanding the Bible? God has explicitly closed all other paths to the knowledge of his Word. However useful the tools of human study are when combined with this attitude of reverence and respect that we must have for the Word of God, when they are employed apart from it they are absolutely worthless. We may not think that we can wrest the secrets of God’s Word from the Bible in any other way than that which He Himself has appointed, for should we try do so, we shall be like the Roman soldiers who forced their way into the Temple, only to find to their confusion that there was nothing there! Here, then, is the beginning we must all make if we are serious about this matter. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’

The spirit of the age has taken hold of our minds and our approach to the Bible. Our outlook and attitude to it have been fashioned unconsciously by the age of Enlightenment and as a result, the truth of its revelation has been hidden from us. We cannot rediscover it until there is a change of attitude — metanoia — a new mind with which to approach God’s Word. The tools of criticism have come to be regarded as the principal means of elucidating the meaning of Scripture, whereas in fact they have securely locked up its truth, and the hubris of an age which has brought this about is the very opposite of the reverent, humble, and teachable mind to which the truth is revealed. ‘I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.’ So it has been and so it will always be!

 The power and truth of God’s Word will be disclosed to us when we come to it with a fresh attitude of mind, when we are willing to regard Him who speaks to us in it and to stand in awe of His revelation in the written Word.

We must each decide before God what our attitude is, whether it is one of serious submission and reverence to God’s Word, or of superficial interest and unconcern. If we fail to approach God’s Word in the right way, we not only obstruct its work and progress in ourselves, but in the Church and in this generation. We then ensure that the Word of God remains bound and bring upon ourselves that most terrible indictment of our Lord: ‘Ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.’

– Anonymous