Devotion
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 10 months ago
“A pointed question must be put. If the prophets who spoke, if the authors who wrote, and if our Lord Himself, are mistaken about verbal inspiration, if they are mistaken these hundreds of times, what assurance may anyone have with respect to the other things they said and wrote? Is there any reason to suppose that men who were so uniformly deceived as to the source of their message could have had any superior insight and accurate knowledge of man’s relation to God? Still more pointedly: Can anyone profess a personal attachment to Jesus Christ and consistently contradict his assertion that the Scriptures cannot be broken?
Gordon H. Clark, Religion, Reason and Revelation
The answer to the last question is of course no, and the entirety of revelation is undermined when one undercuts the doctrine of the infallibility of Scripture. This is why modernism has gone to war with infallibility, reason, inspiration and the sufficiency of Scripture. If your epistemology doesn’t come from the Holy Writ, that means an end to truth.
The Westminster Confession of Faith.
Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable;(a) yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation.(b) Therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal Himself, and to declare that His will unto His Church;(c) and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing:(d) which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary;(e) those former ways of God’s revealing His will unto His people being now ceased.(f)
[The 66 books of the Bible are listed]
All which are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.(g)
[ … ]
The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.(i)
Note that the confession doesn’t say that the Bible “contains” the word of God. That’s a clever lie. It leaves the door open for some of it being something else. Nor does the confession leave the door open for additional revelations of any sort. The Bible is the word of God.
On February 22, 2021 at 1:50 am, Wayne said:
Excellent post.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16
On February 22, 2021 at 11:21 am, Fred said:
Nice. Drawing a parallel between Romans 1 and Hebrews 1 that I had never considered.
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” – Romans 1
BUT, those who hear God, and accept the evidence of His creation as something to pursue by searching for Him who created it all, are not making themselves fools. And further; those who search for Him through His word; the Law and the prophets and that Prophet which is Christ our High Priest, (“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”) to them, if they take all of Scripture as fact and read it cover to cover as though their life depended upon it (it does), to that man is the express image of Holy God, all three persons, showed.
As indicated by:
“1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:” Hebrews 1
And @Wayne above hit the exact conclusion to draw, therefore: All scripture!
There are places in the world where having a bible gets you 10 years in big boy prison, and big prison in those places doesn’t include 3 meals and cable TV. Americans have every advantage; time, comfort, electric lighting, and 3 or 4 or more bibles sitting on a shelf gathering dust. Purposeful reading at an appointed time daily and study such as Sunday school or men’s group or something every week is necessary, along with coming under sound preaching, this is how to know God. Want to know why you can’t understand the bible? Because you won’t read it.
This is important: You may have to read it cover to cover and study it out before you accept it all as true. In fact; that’s more likely the case. You know why you (and they) don’t take His word as fact; they’ve never opened the scripture to 1. read for comprehension, while 2. challenging the text to prove itself. (“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”) Romans 10:17 Romans 10:17 applies to infant faith born out of hearing a witness open the bible and explain how to saved. But it applies to the ongoing revelation of Holy God for a believer as well, that he grow in his love and understanding of Holy God and all that He has done.
People say that they don’t know God, or can’t get close to Him; well, have you read His book that He gave you? He’s in there. Everything He wants you to know about Him is in the book. Early Christians were referred to as people of the book. Now they are refereed to as, well, I won’t tell you what those who are in hot pursuit of Holy God call you fakers, as that would be untoward. And non-Christians call you worse than that.
On February 22, 2021 at 6:19 pm, John said:
I enjoy following religious discussions and reading the Bible for enlightenment and sometimes it is downright entertaining in its stories and lessons. I also think of the Bible scholars who spend their lives in deep study and research that goes way beyond my limits in several ways.
When I get lost in trying to find the point of what it all means, I remember what Jesus said were the two most important things to follow. “Love God with your whole heart, mind and soul, and
do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Just trying to be faithful to those two instructions is often beyond my abilities, though I will keep
doing my best until I die.