The Bible―Just a Spiritual Book, Right?

October 20th, 2023

"The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me . . ." brings back echoes of days gone by as a youngster in Sunday School. Yes, the Bible is the book for me―for us―but why? Is it just a spiritual guidebook, or is there more to its substance? Join us today as Bob Gillespie gives us a clearer, broader picture of the content and counsel of the inspired Word of God.

Some say that the Bible is only a book of spiritual ideas. Even many church constitutions say that the Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct, meaning that the Bible only gives spiritual and moral truth, having nothing to say about real-life things like science, politics, economics, etc. Some might even say, the Bible is a collection of subjective spiritual musings of goat herders thousands of years ago with no practical value today.

To deal with this thinking, we need to start with a proper view of God. God is a spiritual, nonphysical being. He is the almighty first cause of everything Who created a perfect earth for the first people. These people were different from the animals in that they were created in God’s image. People are, therefore, nonphysical beings living in a physical body. Unlike animals, people have intrinsic value; each one is important to God. Each one will live forever, and each one must be free to respond to their Creator. It is a good reflection on the Creator when people willingly submit to Him.

Furthermore, our Creator not only wants people to know how to connect with Him in a spiritual way, but He also wants people to know how to function in a God-created world. You see, in a God-created world, He makes the rules, and He designed us to function best in a certain way. In a God-created world, we cannot make up our own truth and expect to function well, much like we can’t decide to put sand in our gas tank and expect the car to function well. Through the years, our Creator has given us the truth about Himself, who we are, and how to live in this world. This truth was given to us in written form and preserved down through the ages. Today we can be sure we have the truth, just as it was imparted many years ago.

The Bible is, therefore, quite unique. It is the real history of the universe, and God reveals Himself to us in these historical accounts of His dealings with people down through time. The whole Bible is an account of how God created people to live forever in a perfect world with perfect fellowship with their Creator. Unfortunately, the first man sinned, and now all those born in Adam’s race are condemned to physical death and eternal spiritual death, separated from their Creator. The rest of the Bible chronicles God’s plan to buy back sinful people by sending Jesus Christ to take our punishment. This history starts with God creating a perfect world, and how those who have placed their faith in Him will be brought back to fellowship with their Creator forever. This is the spiritual part of the Bible, the real account of God’s dealings with mankind.

Is the Bible, therefore, just a spiritual book? Remember, God wanted His image bearers to know how to function well in the world He created for them. This is why the Bible addresses things like politics and economics. Today’s political ideas are simply different ideas on how to make the world a better place than this God-created world.

Many say that to eliminate war and poverty and bring about a utopian world of peace and prosperity, we need to get rid of the idea of individual countries. If the whole world was ruled by very wise people, we could eliminate competition between countries and have world peace. Many also say that to eliminate poverty, we need a very powerful government ruling from the top that will take from the rich and spread it around to everyone else. In this way, there will be no more competition for possessions. As Klaus Schwab said, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy about it.” These ideas mostly come from well-meaning people who just want to make the world a better place.

If God does want people to function in the best way, with each individual in their own way making their world a better place, wouldn’t God have given us guidelines on how to do this? Actually, He did.

What about the idea of very wise people ruling the whole world and bringing about world peace. One thing we know from the Bible is that everyone is born with a sinful nature, a bent toward selfishness and sin. What is the only thing that keeps people from being as bad as they could be? It could be the threat of someone else more powerful who will put a stop to their evil ways. It may be surprising to some, but governments are made up of people who have sinful natures.

Let’s imagine a one-world government where there is no competing power to curb its behavior. What would happen if that government went bad? There would be no stopping the evil, and the world would soon be as bad as it could be. Did you know that the very first attempt to start a one-world government was at the Tower of Babel? Genesis 11:6 reads: “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

In other words, if there is one unified people with one government, and that government goes bad (like it was before the Flood), there will be nothing to stop them from being as bad as they could be. So, God gave different family groups different languages, causing them to migrate all over the world, thus creating different nations. Now when one nation rises and does bad things, the other nations will put a stop to it. The concept of nations is a good thing; it keeps the world from being as bad as it could be.

In the same way, when it comes to the government of individual nations, the biblical principle would be to spread the power out rather than concentrate it in the hands of a few. This is the foundational principle of the American Constitution: to ensure a check-and-balance system on the power of government and give the people as much freedom as possible. That is the reason the US Constitution has lasted longer than any other in the world. It is based on biblical principles.

As for economics, wouldn’t Jesus be a Socialist? He would want to help people, wouldn’t He? What does the Bible say? Back to the idea that all people have a sinful nature: What if people come to realize that in a socialist economy, you don’t have to work? All you need to do is elect people who will take from the rich and give it to you. Practically, that is not a sustainable plan. That is why every attempt to produce a utopian socialist government always ends up in a brutal dictatorship. Some of the biblical principles of economics are individual freedom, individual responsibility, and private ownership of property―all in conflict with socialism. To learn more about biblical principles of economics, I would recommend the book Godonomics by Chad Hovind.

To conclude, the Bible is so much more than a book of spiritual ideas. It is our literal history containing God’s plan to bring us back into fellowship with Him. Until then, God wants us to function in the best way possible in His created world. He has given us biblical principles to follow that speak to science, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, etc. For a comprehensive look at these biblical principles, I suggest the book, Understanding the Times by David Noebel as one of the resources offered by Summit Ministries.

Too many people get their political, economic, etc., views from the world, and they relegate the Bible to just spiritual things and try to make up their own truth. They don’t realize that God revealed to all of us the best way to function in this world. Let’s conclude these thoughts with words of wisdom from two of the men instrumental in influencing the birth of this great nation.

Author Bio:
Bob and his wife Lois graduated from Cedarville University in Ohio. Bob then received his master’s degree at Clark’s Summit Seminary in PA. They spent 14 years teaching in Christian schools in Ohio and another 10 years teaching missionary kids in West Africa. Upon leaving Africa, the Gillespies felt God’s calling to go into full-time apologetics ministry. Learn more about Bob and his ministry by clicking HERE.

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