enjoyment from the Winter School of Truth – the five main functions of the Bible

Every year towards the end we set aside a week to come together and get into the truth – we want to pursue the Lord together. It is such a great opportunity for saints and young ones from everywhere to get together and enter into the Word together, pray-read, enjoy the Lord, and be blended together. This last year we had the Winter School of the Truth in Bower House, and it was a great time, a memorable week with all the saints! Below is brother Reyno’s testimony of what he enjoyed the most in this past Winter School of Truth. [Read this portion also in Spanish / Puede leer esta porción también en español, testimonio del disfrute de la Escuela de invierno de la Verdad -las cinco funciones principales de la Biblia]

This was my 3rd time I went to London for the Winter School of the Truth, and for me this might have been the most enjoyable and the most touching young people’s conference until now. The Lord opened my eyes wide and I came to realise many things concerning the Bible, the God-breathed-out Scriptures!

When we preach the gospel to the people in this world, there will always be times when they ask you questions which are difficult to answer. In these situations we should not come up with theories or possible answers, but we must learn to say ‘I do not know’. God does not tell us everything in the Bible, but He does tell us everything that is related to us. Also, the central thought of the Bible is not only Christ, but Christ and the church. Just as a man needs a wife, Christ needs a bride. We are His Bride, the Body – we are the members with Christ as the Head: we are the church.

What really touched me was that the Word of God is able to make an unbeliever a complete God-man. This happens through five main functions of the Bible. Altough the Bible has many functions, it has five main functions. For example: you come to an unbeliever (maybe your friend) and you give him/her a Bible. You ask him if he just wants to read it a little bit. If he opens the Bible and starts to read, eventually he will read about the Lord Jesus. This is the first main function of the bible: it testifies concerning the Lord Jesus, which can be seen in John 5:39. Once he knows the Bible is about the Lord Jesus, and reads further, he will notice that there is such a thing as salvation. He may think: ”Oh, there is something like salvation, but how can I be saved?” The Bible reveals to us how God saves men in Christ and how men may be saved by faith so that we may know the way of salvation. This is the second main function of the Bible (2 Tim 3:15). Once he knows how to be saved (just by calling on the Name of the Lord!), the Bible causes him to be regenerated in his practical experience. Hallelujah! This is the third main function of the Bible. 1 Peter 1:23 says: ”Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God”. After our regeneration, we are like a little baby, so we need the Word as our spiritual milk to nourish us and make us grow in our spiritual life (1 Pet 2:2). Besides that, we also need Word as the bread of life, which can be seen in Matthew 4:4. Just as we daily need to eat food in a physical way, we must eat from Him every day to nourish our spiritual life to grow in Him. This is the fourth main function of the Bible.

Eventually, for our perfecting, the Bible is profitable to teach, convict, correct, and instruct us in righteousness, so that we, as God-men, may be complete (2 Tim 3:16-17). This is the fifth and last main function of the Bible. This is so wonderful.

During the Winter School of Truth we learned the song called: ”The Bible is God’s Breath”. This is a spiritual song, which really helps us to remember the five main functions of the Bible with all the verse references. Therefore I really enjoyed this song and the relating message during this conference. Hallelujah for the Word of God! The word is able! Amen.