The Bible is an Idol

"The Bible is an idol, Jesus Christ is the real word. You don't need the Bible." I have read this objection from some fringe Christian groups who declare that the "word", when used in the Bible, isn't actually referring to the Bible but to the Gospel as the apostles delivered it. While technically correct, the idea, ironically turned into an idol by these groups constantly badgering other Christians on the Internet, does not capture the nuance of the organic growth of what came to be the Biblical text as we have it today. If we simply follow out the chain of events logically to our time, we can see that what was called the word in the Bible, the Gospel, came to be the Bible itself over time. This didn't happen because of any church councils or ideological crusades among a certain school of thought within Christendom, it just happened because everyone recognized what words were authoritative.
Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, was the full revelation of God. He is the real, living "word". Colossians 1:19 says: "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell..." When he was here, he spent most of his time talking and teaching people about the Kingdom of God. Eventually, when the time drew near, he told his disciples the ultimate reason he was on Earth; to die for mankind so we could be reconciled to the Father. After his resurrection, he spent 40 days appearing to the apostles and teaching them, I assume more fully, about the Kingdom of God and then he ascended to heaven (Acts 1:3-11). This is the original "word" that is spoken of most often in the New Testament (see Romans 10:17). When Jesus was gone, what happened to it? He left it with the apostles, with a promise that the Holy Spirit would bring it to their remembrance (John 14:26) and a command to tell everyone (Matthew 28:18-20).
The apostles did just that. In the process they turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). What were they telling people? The word that Jesus had told them. They were sharing the Gospel with anyone and everyone who would listen. As the Gospel expanded, they taught the disciple community in Jerusalem, the Samaritans, Jews and Gentiles in Syrian Antioch, Galatia, Phrygia, Asia, Macedonia, Greece, and Rome. At first, as they evangelized, they did this in person. As they planted churches, they also wrote letters with more instruction about God's kingdom that was recognized as being more than just human writing. One example would be 2 Peter 3:15-16:

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Notice how Peter referred to Paul's writings; as scripture. Other examples would be 1 Thess. 2:9-13; Gal. 1:11, 12; and 1 Cor. 14:36, 37. This was recognized all over the Christian world, so these letters, and the Gospels/Acts being written at the same time, were copied, preserved, disseminated, and very widely read by the entire Church (with a big "C"!). So, Christ, the original word, taught the word to the apostles, who taught the word to the disciple community in the 1st century by mouth and letter. What happened when the apostles died off? As you have probably already figured out, the Church was already copying, preserving, disseminating, and reading the "word" in the form of letters and Gospels/Acts.
When we look just past the time of the apostles, circa 100 AD, we see that the early church fathers clearly distinguished between their words and the apostles preserved words in the copied letters, Gospels, and Acts. For example, here is Ignatius from about 110 AD:

I do not order you as Peter and Paul; they were apostles, I am a convict; they were free, I am even until now, a slave. (To the Romans 4:3)

By 170-180 AD, the Muratorian fragment counts 22 of 27 New Testament books as canon; leaving out only Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, and 3 John. By 250 AD, Origen lists every book we would call the New Testament in his Homilies on Joshua 7.1. This list is debated, but admirably defended by Michael J. Kruger here and by Edmon L. Gallagher here.
This history shows us that the Bible grew out of the authority of Jesus Christ (God!) himself. The apostles preached his word being commanded by him to do such; the disciples treasured the apostles teachings because they had immediately recognizable authority from Jesus via the witness of the Holy Spirit. These writings were preserved and organically came to be the standard of practice for Christian life by the second to third century AD. This is well before the official canonical list was "approved" in 393 AD. So to say that the word that Jesus taught back then is the standard and the word that we have today in the Bible is an idol, is extremely misleading. To say that we don't need the Bible is to ignore the providential organizing of the written word into the canon by God himself. Finally, Christ's authority followed his words all the way into the modern translations of the Bible. It is from Jesus' authority that we can have confidence in the Bible as "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16, 17)