“If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak” (Numbers 24:13, KJV). WHERE NO OPINIONS EXIST A bumper sticker reads: “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.” These sentiments are commendable, but someone has suggested that it would be more accurate if the middle phrase were omitted so that it simply said, “The Bible says it …, that settles it,” on the basis that what the Bible says about something settles it, whether anyone believes it or not! Because the Bible is God’s word, nothing it says needs human confirmation. The Bible itself affirms this: “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89, NASB). “Settle” is “to stand or plant one’s feet,” and then “to set or make firm.” This means God’s word is fixed, immovable, unshaken, unchangeable. What the Bible said two thousand years ago is what it says today, and what it says today it will still say in another two thousand years or more. God, by His very nature, is unchangeable. “For I, the Lord, do not change …,” He says (Mal. 3:6). He does not need to; He knows everything and gets it right every time. T o say that God does not change is to say that His words do not change. This is why the Bible asserts that He cannot lie (Tit. 1:2). It twice expresses this fact in the statement, “Thy word is truth” (Psa. 119:160; Jn. 17:17). This was the basis of the absolute certainty that God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants would be fulfilled, but He stressed it even more with an oath: “… God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement …” (Heb. 6:17,18). Thus, God’s word was, is, and always will be true. It requires no change. It does not need to be scrutinized under human judgment as if it might need adjustment, correction, or improvement. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isa. 55:8). James says it is the disobedient who judge God’s law: “… If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it” (Jas. 4:11). Where God does not declare Himself on a subject, people are free to entertain their opinions. However, where matters on which God has spoken are concerned, it is different. One becomes a Christian when he has determined, on the basis of the evidence he has carefully studied, that the Bible is God’s word. From then on, he ceases opining on issues addressed by the Bible. He dare not differ with God. It is now his duty, not to form his own thoughts, but to conform to God’s. Independent study, musing, and reasoning end. The ideas in his mind are replaced by God’s words. No room is left for his own thoughts. When he knows God’s word, he knows that he knows all he needs to know. In effect, then, he has no opinions. His thoughts now so closely coincide with God’s thoughts that they become his own and the two are indistinguishable. So, if asked his opinions about abortion, homosexual marriage, lying, the virgin birth of Christ or His resurrection, the Bible’s inspiration, or a myriad of other subjects, he has none. There is nothing left for him to decide about the rightness or wrongness of anything God calls a sin. When confronted with questions answered by the Bible, his only concern is what the Bible says about them, and all his focus is turned on finding those answers. He has nothing left to say except what God has already said. God tells him what to think, and that is all he thinks. On such topics, his head is, otherwise, empty and his mind a blank. Like Balaam, when God speaks, he has no thoughts of his own and nothing else to say. God’s word is settled — and so is his mind!