Class #1: Importance of the Doctrine of Scripture Shoring up the Foundation: Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything 9/9/2012 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Introduction Introduction on importance It is said... Modern intellectual people cannot accept an ancient text A progressive society must have more flexible moral norms than what an old book written by oppressive, patriarchal Jews wrote A biblical worldview is intellectually stifling and undercuts cultural advances People and societies are too diverse and relative to be controlled by one book However, the one true God himself says... These words are to be on your heart (Deut 6) Sanctify them by truth your word is truth (John 17) Preach the word (2 Tim 4:2) This word is no empty word for you, but your very life (Deut 32) Simply put: Christianity and the biblical worldview stands or falls on special revelation and our doctrine of Scripture (Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation) This conviction is precisely the motivation for this class Prayer Nearly all current issues with regard to the church hinge on the doctrine of Scripture in some way Q: What are some of the biggest disagreements involving Christianity today? Q: How do each of these somehow relate to our view of Scripture? Homosexual marriage Rationale: society accepts it; Jesus didn't prohibit it; Paul was just expressing his own opinion; Jesus is a God of love; OT was archaic and misogynist ; etc. Scripture view this presupposes: OT lacks any moral normativity or continuity with NT revelation; schism between Jesus and Paul (internal inconsistencies in the NT); the authors simply got it wrong ; Bible does not norm culture Ordination of homosexuals e.g., PCUSA amending constitution to allow for homosexual ordination Moved guided by Scriptures from the beginning to end of G-6.0106b Removed the requirement for heterosexual monogamous marriage Rationale per the stated clerk: (a) presbyteries are ready to move on past the issue, which had been in debate since 1978; (b) American society has become more tolerant of same-gender relationships; (c) the new policy is more acceptable to the majority of presbyteries Abortion Rationale: sovereignty of a woman to control her own body the way she chooses Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 1
Scripture view this presupposes: denial of creation account (God does not determine personhood, your personal preference does); denial of Decalogue and definition of murder; denial of biblical view of man's moral autonomy vs. God's moral authority; etc. Others: ordination of women (whether TE, RE, deacon); sanctification and the role of obedience / 3 rd use of law; Insider Movement translations and the nature of plenary inspiration and accommodationism; rejection of the primacy of preaching / shift towards entertainment in worship; rejection of church discipline (e.g., a church not honoring another church's excommunication); shift in missions away from evangelism and towards social justice Motivation for this class Scripture is foundational: Christ is the center of our lives and faith, but how would we know him? How would we know who he was or what he was like? How would we know of his salvation or be able to embrace it? (Rom 10) Doctrine of Scripture is the presupposition of nearly every issue that is important Scripture is the primary way God has revealed to us matters of eternal importance The foundation is being attacked: Doctrine of Scripture is also in the crosshairs of attack both within and outside the church It is easy as a Christian to fall prey to attacks on the Bible and feel disoriented: What if they're right? I don't fully understand what they're talking about...can I really trust the Bible or not? Our goal, then, is to shore up the foundation. On the one hand, the Bible defends itself. On the other hand, we have a calling to defend, protect, and uphold it. We will aim to articulate a reasoned, faithful, biblical defense of the orthodox view of the authority and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures A. The Importance of Biblical Authority The battle within the church As mentioned, churches are engaged in a long-term battle (dating to the mid-1800s) over the authority of the Bible as the highest standard of truth Some churches have modified their view of scripture to elevate its human qualities : allowing for mistakes or, more importantly, downgrading its normative authority Substitutes: what man thinks; what the congregation thinks; what culture thinks; what is effective; what causes the church to grow; what causes tithe to increase Example: how would you preach if you believed the passage you were preaching lacked authority? What would you say? What is the point? The battle with the world World laughs and mocks our commitment to the Bible and will challenge it and try to destroy it Last 100 years have seen the rise in biblical criticism and serious attempts to discredit the scriptures Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 2
In recent years, this seems to be getting worse and more militant (e.g., members of our church who were persecuted during the Amendment One debate) We need to be ready to respond with an apologetic defense of the Bible. The battle within ourselves The ultimate question we all must face is: under what authority will I live? Everyone has an ultimate authority that provides us with a standard or criteria by which we make all decisions: morals, money, goals, truth The struggle we face is this: is the Bible my ultimate authority, or something else? Competing options: (a) other people; (b) cultural norms; (c) favorite political party or cause; (d) scientism / naturalism; (e) self; and so forth B. What the Bible Teaches About Itself Does the Bible actually view itself as divine and authoritative? A self-revealing, personal God The Bible indicates that the Triune God is personal, with mentality, volition, and capacity for relationship God created man with analogous attributes: namely, the capacity for relationship God, then, would work against himself if he did not provide a means for relationship with his creation (otherwise he wouldn't be personal) The chief means by which all relationships are developed is communication God has shown himself to be a self-communicating God. The very first thing he did was speak. Language is a supernatural gift that allows man to communicate with him. Thus, God is not distant. He has revealed himself. He is personal. The OT claims to be giving direct words from God Prophetic formula, Thus says the Lord (over 2,000 times) God himself inscribed the Ten Commandments: And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exod 31:18) The NT has a high view of the OT Jesus's teachings: John 10:35 - The Scriptures cannot be broken Matt 5:18 - Not an iota, not a dot. Referring to the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet (yod) and the serif of some of the letters. Luke 24:25-27 - And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. NT authors regularly interchanged God / Spirit with Scripture Rom 9:17; Gal 3:8; Matt 19:4-5; Acts 4:24-25; Acts 28:25; Heb 3:7 Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 3
The NT has a high view of itself The Apostles viewed themselves as commissioned by Christ to serve as his representatives, including through the written form 1 Thess 2:13 - And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 2 Thess 3:14 - If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. Col 4:16 - And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. The Apostles viewed each other as divinely commissioned 2 Pet 3:16 - as [Paul] 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. 1 Tim 5:18 quotes Luke 10:7 as the authoritative words of Jesus The NT teaches a clear doctrine of divine inspiration 2 Tim 3:16 - All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness God breathed verbal inspiration Theopneustos: hard to determine exactly what it means, but in general the impression is that God has directly breathed out or expirated the very words of Scripture This means that all the words themselves, not just the concepts, are inspired All Scripture plenary inspiration Not just partial inspiration (e.g., just the moral parts but not the history) But full inspiration 2 Pet 1:21 - For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Men spoke from God organic inspiration The prophets and biblical authors of OT and NT were used by God to speak his very thoughts on his behalf; they were his mouthpiece This miraculous concurrence of Divine expiration and Human inspiration: God spoke + Man spoke. This means the very words are from God, but they are set forth using the personalities, cultures, etc. of the writers. E.g., personal details of Paul's letters; multi-perspectival nature of the 4 gospels; 1 John's personal letters; genre differences within the OT; etc. Carried along by the Spirit direct inspiration by the Holy Spirit Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 4
Though the human authors were indeed active, they were not working out of their own wisdom and ability. God did not just inspire them through their upbringing. They were carried along like a ship being carried by the wind. Doesn't mean that men were unconscious as they wrote, or in a trance, or that God dictated the words to them. Rather it means that the Holy Spirit oversaw the entire process so that they would speak the truth. The Bible provides the expectation that God's revelation would be written in covenant documents Essential to covenants are their documentation (both biblical and other ANE covenants (see Meredith Kline) We see this concern in numerous places in the OT, such as (a) Moses documenting the Book of the Covenant; (b) the Ten Commandments and the Book were deposited and cared for in the ark; (c) the covenant renewal under Nehemiah/Ezra, in which the Law was read and explained; (d) Jeremiah's concern to re-record his prophecies after Jehoiakim had his original writings burned (36:32) The OT predicted a new covenant would be made at the Messiah's coming (Jer 31) Thus, we have every reason to believe that the NT audience (Jews) would expect new writings that would document the new covenant NT authors had the understanding that they were recording covenant documentation since they were part of new covenant revelation The Bible, then, is the written record of God's special revelation, which he set forth for the salvation and instruction of his church in perpetuity Summary: What Scripture says, God says C. Goals of this Series: Addressing Six Key Challenges to the Bible The remainder of this series will flesh out the above doctrine through the addressing the six main attacks on it. Accepting the Bible as inspired is merely circular reasoning or special pleading. Q: What is behind this challenge? Postmodernism : (a) wholesale rejection of totalizing metanarratives, or explanations of all of reality that claim to be right ; (b) deconstructionism, in which the locus of authority of a text shifts from the author / text to the reader, thus destabilizing any ability to determine a fixed meaning ; (c) relativization of all norms, especially epistemological normativity (there is no absolute truth, or there is no ability to ascertain it) We will question the presuppositions of this particular attack and outline a more sound, biblical understanding of how we know and think (epistemology). Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 5
The Bible clearly bears marks of human authorship, and divine authorship requires a pre-modern view of the supernatural. Q: What is behind this challenge? Modernism / Enlightenment : rise of the age of reason and the jettisoning of special revelation from any sort of divine reality (theism deism atheism). Naturalism / Scientism : the view that all reality must be explained via appeal to empirically measurable, material entities ( everything boils down to physics and chemistry ), which entails a strident rejection of the supernatural or any transcendent personal absolutes. Higher biblical criticism : concurrent with both of the above has been the rise and dominion of (largely German, at least initially) higher biblical criticism that has completely questioned everything about the Bible's origins and transmission, rejecting wholesale any trace of divine authorship. The Bible as ancient near eastern religious propaganda or devotional literature, and nothing more. We will defend a fully biblical outline of the core doctrines of supernatural inspiration, divine and human authorship, inerrancy, etc. There are so many religious books what makes you think the Bible is right? Q: What is behind this particular challenge? Religious pluralism (and its cousin, moral relativism): all religions are equally valid expressions of the metaphysical realm (or, in the worst case, your own wishful thinking), and thus all are equally true and, thus, equally untrue Battle of the books : this is not a new issue. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, [Darwinism?], and, more recently, Mormons have been engaged in a centuries-long battle over the sacred books Surface similarities: essentially all sacred texts offer some perspective on the key issues of human existence (origins, destiny, humanity, salvation, ethics, and the text's own authority), and in many areas they genuinely do overlap (e.g., Golden Rule and variants C. S. Lewis' concept of the Tao ). Significant differences: all of them also manifest huge areas of divergence along those same issues. So we will explore what to make of this apparent plurality of texts claiming sometimes mutually reinforcing, sometimes mutually exclusive authority. The process by which we received the current OT / NT was a messy, human process, with numerous disagreements. The selection of the books by church councils was a powerplay, and there was little agreement until the fourth century. What lies behind this particular challenge is, quite simply, biased historical studies combined with the modern / postmodern skepticism about evolutionary power struggles behind everything (which originated with Karl Marx and, before him, Hegel). We will discuss how the OT and NT canon emerged and articulate a more historically accurate and biblical understanding of (a) how God's covenant revelation attests to its own inspiration and canonicity and (b) how God providentially guided the messy, human, ecclesiastical process of recognizing (not selecting ) the canon. Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 6
The Bible is known to be replete with errors and contradictions. How many angels were at the tomb? Who got there first, Mary or Peter? Did Paul and James disagree on justification by faith? Should we answer a fool according to his folly or not answer him? Oddly, this issue of errors / contradictions is both The most common challenge your everyday guy on the street will throw at you (usually because he read a Time Magazine article about it!) And a huge stumbling block for some of the smartest biblical scholars throughout the past several centuries. If you have read up on these kinds of issues or noticed them yourself, you may often be left scratching your head: what exactly do I do with this kind of issue? We will discuss a 5-part taxonomy or categorization of how we can approach these alleged errors / contradictions. Our goal is not to come up with some farfetched solution to every problem but simply to develop a framework in which we can rationally (and biblically) attempt to resolve many of these hard challenges. We must, however, recognize that with some conundrums, the right answer is simply that we do not yet have a full understanding. Other models for understanding the Bible are more rational and valid according to modern / postmodern standards. In our final class, we will address several competing models proposed by biblical scholars or popular theologians in which they modify the traditional view (inspiration and inerrancy) in order to overcome all these challenges. These include the following: classical and modern liberal view, academic / scholarly consensus, neo-orthodoxy (Barthianism), the incarnational analogy, and the infallible but not inspired view. Conclusion We will not be able to answer all challenges or tie up everything neatly. Even if we had time (which we don't!), it is likely an impossible task this side of eternity. Thousands of people much smarter than us have tried, and we've made a ton of headway within the orthodox church. But we are ultimately weak, fallible, limited creatures attempting to scale the peaks of God's self-knowledge. However, we do hope to achieve at least one main goal: shore up the foundations of your confidence in Scripture. Peter profoundly anticipated this issue centuries ago: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Uptown SS Biblical Authority in an Age that Questions Everything, Class #1 7