The Bible shows us that God transmits His word in a way that transcends all human concepts. According to our concept God can spread His word and make His speaking known in at least two ways.
First, He could create something in nature similar to a tape recorder that would convey His word to man. If man can invent a tape recorder, God certainly can create something in the universe which would faithfully convey His word verbatim. With such a device, every word of God could be captured. Then every so often, it could be turned on and God’s word could be played back to man. If God were to convey His word to man this way, there would be no possibility of mistakes; everyone could hear God’s pure word. God, however, has not chosen to do this.
Second, God could commission the angels to spread His word. The Bible tells us that angels can carry God’s messages to man. However, the occurrences of this are rare. In every case, God did so because there was no other recourse. The use of angels was an exception; it was not God’s ordinary way of communicating with man. If God had intended to use angels as His messengers, He could have dictated His words as ordinances, like the Ten Commandments. Such documents or ordinances would not have any tint of human experience; they would contain no human error. Some may think that this kind of speaking would eliminate many theological arguments, debates, and heresies. They think that if God’s word were to be spelled out line after line, man would have no problem understanding it. It would be a simple thing if God spelled out His word in five or six hundred clauses that resembled the law. But our God would not do this. Some people wish that the Bible had been written as 1,189 well-organized dogmas instead of 1,189 chapters. When a man picked up such a Bible, he would have a manual of Christianity, which would tell him all about Christianity at a glance. God, however, has not chosen to do this.
If God used something like a tape recorder to transmit His word, there would be very little chance of error, and God could continually repeat His word. His word would not become rare, and no one could say that His vision was fading. His word could continue to go forth on the earth. But the basic problem with such a word is that it does not carry any human element with it, and only God could fully understand it. Even though the word would be of God, there would be no ground for mutual communication; there would be no connection between God and man. God would only be speaking God’s word, and man would not understand it. If God’s word does not contain human characteristics, it would be the same as thunder to us; we would not know what it meant. Clearly, God could never speak to us in this way.
Furthermore, God does not organize His word into doctrines and ordinances. While there are doctrines in God’s word, His word is not merely written for man’s understanding. Many people like to pick out the doctrinal parts of God’s speaking. They cherish these parts. Many unbelievers find the Bible tasteless, being full of common words such as we, you, and they. To them the Ten Commandments are much more interesting. Man always wants to arrange God’s word into sections, with some parts being spoken by angels, some parts being spoken by God, and some parts being revealed through thunder and lightning, with no human element whatsoever. But we must remember that God’s word always bears the mark of human traits. This is a characteristic of the word of God. No book is as personal as the Word of God. In writing his Epistles, Paul repeatedly used the personal pronoun I. We ordinarily avoid using the personal pronoun I too often in a letter, lest our letter become too personal. But the Bible is full of human elements. God selected men to be ministers of His word, and He wants His word to contain human elements. This is a basic principle.