What the Bible says about Jesus Christ as Spokesman
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Matthew 8:3 God's Word is obvious in this miracle. If something requires cleansing, "the washing of water by the word" must be actively present (Ephesians 5:26). God does not work apart from His Word. From the creation of the world to the present, the place of God's Word in His work has been essential: "In the beginning was the Word [the One who became Jesus Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:1-3). In addition, the phrase "God said" is found ten times in the creation account (Genesis 1). The Bible is God's written Word, as the Father had the Word (Jesus Christ, the Spokesman) inspire and reveal it. Many professing Christian churches have pushed Scripture to the back burner, into irrelevance, taking an a la carte spiritual meal from it as if they have the authority to choose which doctrines to swallow and which to refuse. If the true church is to do a work for God, it must be established and built on God's Word rather than on tradition. Martin G. Collins The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Leper (Part Three) Related Topics: Cleansing | Cleansing by the Word of God | God's Word | God's Word as Cleansing | Jesus Christ as Spokesman | Washing of Water by the Word

2 Timothy 3:16 The phrase "inspiration of God" is in Greek theopneustos, literally "God-breathed." Scripture, then, is a direct product of God's mind and being. The words "all Scripture" (pasa graphe) can be rendered "every text," "every scripture," "the whole scripture," "all the writings," etc., meaning the whole canon of Scripture. In other words, nothing crept into the Bible that God did not want there, and conversely, nothing He wanted to be in it has been left out. This is backed up by II Peter 1:21: ". . . for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." God employed His Spirit to inspire His servants, the prophets and apostles. At some point, they wrote down what God had revealed through them, passing His Word on to successive generations. Hebrews 1:1-2 informs us that God's inspiration occurred in a number of ways: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." God is not limited to revealing Himself in any one manner. Sometimes, He spoke directly (see Genesis 12:7; 16:7; Exodus 3:2; etc.). At other times, He spoke in visions and dreams (see Isaiah 1:1; Ezekiel 1:1; Daniel 2:1, 19; Acts 10:10: Revelation 1:10; etc.). He once even spoke through a donkey (Numbers 22:28)! On one occasion, He spoke through the casting of lots (Acts 1:23-26), much as He did through the Urim and Thummim to Israel (Numbers 27:21). Most importantly, He spoke through His Son, Jesus Christ, who came to reveal the Father (see John 1:18; 14:7-11; 17:25-26). He is uniquely qualified to speak for God because, as the apostle John describes Him in John 1:1-2, 14, 17, He is God! As the Word (Greek logos), He is the Spokesman for God, communicating to humanity, and specifically to His people, the will of God and the way to live in a relationship with Him. Since He came to reveal the Father, Jesus must have been the God Being that the Israelites worshipped in Old Testament times, who spoke to them and led them. In this vein, John 1:3 specifically claims that the Word is also the Creator (see also Colossians 1:16; Ephesians 3:9). The Being, then, who made all that exists is the same One who inspired the words of Scripture! Since we owe our existence to Him, we also owe obedience to His Word in our Bibles. As for its content, the Bible claims that it provides truth to humanity. Jesus Himself says in His great prayer to His Father on the night He was arrested, "Your word is truth" (John 17:17). This is an echo of Psalm 119:160: "The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever." God considers every word He speaks or inspires to be true. It is His guarantee that we receive only the best instruction from Him. In fact, He would not be God if He spoke anything other than the truth (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). The Bible also claims, "Every word of God is pure" (Proverbs 30:5). David writes in Psalm 12:6, "The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (see Psalm 19:8; 199:140). The Hebrew word behind "pure" means "tested," "refined," or "proven of the highest quality." Our God has given us only the best information to propel us along the path to His Kingdom. We can take great confidence in that. Jesus comments on the authority of Scripture in Matthew 5:18: "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." The jot (iota) and the tittle (keraia, "little horn" or "point") are the smallest parts of written Hebrew. Christ was so sure of Scripture that He claimed that all of it would be fulfilled—down to the minutest parts. He affirms in John 10:35 that "the Scripture cannot be broken," which means its authority cannot be "loosened," "unbound," "destroyed," "annulled," or "taken away." Our Lord and Savior says that no one can diminish the authority of God's Word! The Bible presents many proofs of its validity and authority; what we have seen so far only scratches the surface. The most convincing and most lasting proof, however, resides in the relationship we build and foster with God. In a way, we can say that our proving of Scripture extends throughout our Christian lives as we see God in action, working in and through us to bring us into His Kingdom. The real proof is in the doing. Richard T. Ritenbaugh The Bible's Claims About Itself Related Topics: Casting of Lots | Dreams | God's Word is Truth | Jesus Christ as Spokesman | Jesus Christ as the Logos | Logos | Scripture cannot be Broken

Revelation 11:6 These verses contain explicit references to types of events, people, and miracles in the Old Testament. This prophecy is constantly looking back to the Old Testament and the prophets and what they did to give us clues about the Two Witnesses. These identifications with the miracles of Elijah and Moses mean that we should look back into the Old Testament for further clues about them. Certain things, like these miracles, have forced many commentators to conclude that the Two Witnesses will literally be these two prophets, Elijah and Moses. But God has never worked that way! God has never resurrected somebody from far in the past and brought him to a time of which he knew nothing about and given him authority to preach. Every time God acts, He uses someone from that particular time—from that particular era—who has grown up in that milieu, that environment, so that he is prepared for the work that he needs to do. If God is going to be consistent, He will not resurrect Moses and Elijah to do this end-time work. They would be "fish out of water." They would not understand what was happening in the world at the time of the end. Some have said the Two Witnesses will be Enoch and Elijah because those two were both translated, and their deaths are unrecorded. The Bible does not say how they died, where they were buried, or even how long they lived. In verse 4 is another one, as it specifically compares the Two Witnesses to Zerubbabel and Joshua. It is also said that the Two Witnesses are like John and James, the sons of Zebedee, in having a fiery zeal to do a spectacular work for God. My view is that the Two Witnesses are actual men of the time, not resurrected saints, not angels from heaven, not prophets brought back after living in heaven for a few thousand years. These are all things that people have thought they might be. However, they will fulfill types, roles, or patterns that God has used in the past to proclaim His Word and to pronounce His judgments. It is rare that God springs something on us He has not done in the past or that He has not at least alluded to or prophesied about. He is consistent; He works the same way. This consistency is one way that we can have faith in Him because we can always recognize the way He works. We can be suspicious of anything that does not fit God's patterns because His mind is always the same. Malachi 3:6 says that He does not change. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). For instance, God has worked in twos, pairs, or couples, if you will, from the beginning. The ultimate type is the Father and the Son (the Spokesman, the Logos, the One who appears, speaks, and manages affairs). They are the ultimate Dynamic Duo. While the Son is seen or heard, the Father is always there too—giving His guidance and governing from His throne. These pairs always work together to accomplish a goal. When He created mankind, He created them as a pair—a male and female, and they worked together to build the human family. Married couples today do the same thing on a smaller scale. There are various other pairings in the Bible of prophets, kings, priests, or what have you throughout the Old and New Testaments. Consider Deuteronomy 19:15: "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established." God will need two witnesses to convict the world of sin at the time of the end. They will speak the same thing, and they will back it up with miracles and signs. This is the way God works. He follows His own law, and it says that two witnesses are needed. So, He provides them—Two Witnesses at the end time. Richard T. Ritenbaugh The Two Witnesses (Part Six) Related Topics: Division into Two Groups | Dualism | Enoch and Elijah | Establishing a Fact Requires Two Witnesses | God's Patterns | God's Two Witnesses | Identity of Two Witnesses | Jesus Christ as Spokesman | Jesus Christ as the Logos | Joshua | Logos | Patterns of God | Patterns, God's | Spokesman | Zerubbabel

 

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