Word of God

Word of God or God's Word may refer to:

Word of God (community)

The Word of God is an ecumenical, charismatic, missionary Christian community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The community began in 1967 as an evangelistic outreach to students at The University of Michigan. Initially the group was made up of Catholics, but expanded to include Presbyterians, Lutherans, Baptists, and Christians of the free church tradition.

Origins 1967-1976

The Word of God was founded in 1967 by four young Catholics, Ralph Martin and Stephen Clark (formerly involved in the Cursillo Movement office in Lansing, Michigan) and Jim Cavnar and Gerry Rauch who were involved in Charismatic renewal work at the University of Notre Dame. They came to carry out evangelism in Ann Arbor, Michigan after their encounter with the Catholic Charismatic movement at Duquesne University that year.

The men began having prayer meetings in their apartment near the University of Michigan’s main campus with four people. The meetings began to grow and soon there was a sizable group coming to every meeting. They moved to Saint Mary's Church in Ann Arbor to accommodate the growing numbers. By 1973 the numbers had grown to 1000. They started to organize the gathering into groups of people to meet together. As meetings grew so did their venues. Soon there were many meetings throughout the week. Membership had grown to 3000 by 1976.

Authorship of the Bible

Few biblical books are regarded by scholars as the product of a single individual, and while modern scholars such as Elliot Rabin believe that all the books of the Hebrew Bible have not simply been edited to correct errors of transmission but revised to produce the work known today, there are a wide variety of conflicting textual theories developed by critical scholars and contentions against them. The following article outlines the conclusions of the majority of contemporary scholars, along with traditional views, both Jewish and Christian.

Divine authorship

Jews, Samaritans, and Christians have, in different ways, regarded the Bible as being the "Word of God", or as having been authored by the Jewish/Christian God. In many Christian liturgies, the words "This is the word of the Lord" will follow a Scripture reading. As Saint Thomas Aquinas stated, "The author of Holy Scripture is God".Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) asserts that the Bible's authority depends "wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God".