Where In The Bible Will I Find:

The Silence Of The Scriptures?

There are two marvelous aspects of the Holy Bible: what it says and what it does not say. The restraint of the Scriptures is very impressive to me. If I had been an eyewitness of the Lord's life and had been writing a Gospel account by mere human power, I would have been tempted to write details of His physical stature and appearance and other items that would have become spiritual distractions through the centuries.

But the Scriptures are complete (II Tim. 3:14-17). They say just enough and they do not say too much. Anything that I would do to "touch them up" would only defile them. Going beyond the Scriptures can be just as serious as falling short of them. The Bible warns against leaving out part of the Word, but it also cautions against adding to it (Rev. 22:18-19; I Cor. 4:6; II John 9-11).

During the Restoration period, a couple hundred years ago, those great men of that era, pleading for the return to the New Testament teaching for all our religious authority in belief and practice, pleaded, "Let us speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent." Man is not free to make up his own rules that go beyond the Word of God.

How many times have you heard someone defend an unscriptural practice like the use of instrumental music in the worship by saying, "The Bible does not say NOT to?" A doctor's prescription does not have to tell the pharmacist what NOT to put in the medicine. The prescription says what IS to be used and that eliminates everything else. To add unauthorized chemicals or elements is to alter the prescription. The same way instrumental music is an addition to what God has authorized in His command to make music by "singing." To make music by "singing" eliminates mechanical instruments.

While historically we have urged "Calling Bible things by Bible names and doing Bible things in Bible ways," many churches and preachers are bent on inventing catchy names, titles, phrases, programs, and ministries that are inclined to go beyond mere discretions of Biblical activities. They tend to add a whole new terminology to the work that clashes with the simplicity and the honest directness of the Bible.  They belie our appeal for pure Biblical terminology. 

Seems that man thinks that he can improve on the Word of God by adding what he likes and eliminating what he does not like. Respect for the Word of God involves appreciation for what it does not say, as well as for what does say. "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Rev. 22:18-19).

--Owen Cosgrove