Monday, March 17, 2014
God's Perfect Word
God's Perfect Word
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Numbers 23:19
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
I want to start this blog with a post on the sovereignty of God and the Bible as His written authority, given to us (The Bible). I think that this is a huge stumbling block to new believers and unbelievers because submitting to authority is against our culture of rebellion and freedom. Our society also tells us that the words in a 2000+ year old book cannot be trusted because anything that old must be full of errors.
I am here to say that we can and should submit wholly to God who is sovereign and that we can trust that the Bible speaks absolute Truth down to each word and it has proven itself time and time again. Now, I am not going to say the Bible isn't up for interpretation because while divinely inspired, there are many theological concepts and theories that are up for debate. However, God has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us through reading through scripture and encourages to seek out council when we have questions (Hence, the purpose of this blog).
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16)
Luke 24:25 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
So it is clear that God thinks pretty highly of His book. But so what? The writings in it are as old as dirt and it's been re-written so many times over, over so many centuries by so many crazy people that we must not even know what it originally said, right?
Let me tell you, God is protecting His book. Christians, for a long time, had their backs against the wall when it came to defending the integrity and accuracy of scripture. However in 1947, shepherds found in some pots in an old desert cave in Qumran what we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls; essentially ancient Hebrew texts circa 250 BC to 70 AD that line up exactly with the Hebrew Bible we have today. For a book to be that important in shaping history and not having been changed by man over 2000 years is a miracle of God. Here is a link for more details:
http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=357
And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll. Revelations 22:19
Okay, so it's old but that doesn't make it infallible, right? I want to first say that if you read the Bible, it's incredible how fluid the message of God is going through each book. The Bible is written by about 40 authors over a period of 1500 years and the common message of our need for grace, the coming of Christ, and the salvation He offers is so incredibly underscored in every single book it's almost as if it had a single author to it. You can see the Spirit breathe into the writers so that while their writing style may differ, their message does not. It' really an awesome experience.
So is it infallible? Yes. There are no errors in Scripture and I can tell you that I have looked for them. I can also tell you that the Bible has been used as a historical outline for archaeological finds. The book of Luke alone names 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands without error. We found buildings and cities previously thought to have not existed that lined up exactly the way it was described in scripture. Suddenly, the Bible being thousands of years old seems to work in its favor.
There is historical proof that backs up the authenticity and integrity of the Bible and it's incredible.
That's all I've got for now. I would love to discuss this more!
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“We can trust that the Bible speaks absolute Truth down to each word and it has proven itself time and time again.” I don’t believe this statement, and I think the following two links explain my position quite eloquently: http://www.cresourcei.org/lewisbib.html ; http://www.rightreason.org/2009/no-i-am-not-an-inerrantist/ That position is, in short, that the message of the Biblical books is inerrant and authoritative-that has proven itself time and time again. There are many minor issues outside the central messages of the Biblical books that the holistic inerrancy stance has had a severe problem addressing with intellectual honesty.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting to sit down all day to get to this! I want to make two points.
DeleteFirst, that in order for there to be a fault of historical accuracy in the Bible (and thus make the Bible fallible), two statements cannot co-exist. So when the author of the second link you gave me said that in one Gospel the author says that Mary the mother and Mary Magdalene were at the tomb and another Gospel writer says that a group including Mary the mother and Mary Magdalene, there is no fault there. Those statements co-exist. The Bible does not contradict itself in that way. It should be of no surprise that 4 authors of the life of Christ give 4 accounts with different stories and different details. However, these accounts don't contradict each other. It was tough to see exactly where the author of that article landed in his point of view for me, especially when he wrote:
I know, I have not offered a detailed or robust case against inerrancy. That would take more time. I know, I haven’t considered the responses that could be made to my denial of inerrancy.
He seemed a bit all over the place.
Second, it's important to read a Biblical passage in its context. It is clear that Jesus's parables are meant to be taken as illustrations of a larger message. Whether they actually happened is irrelevant to the story (although it would be cool if they actually all did happen). The story of Esther and Jonah however, as referenced by CS Lewis in your first link, are referenced by Christ in a historical manner. Adam and Eve are also historically referenced by Christ. So it is tough to say, "Oh those are metaphors!" simply because you personally aren't sure if they happened.
Scripture has its context. The Psalms are David's pleas and prayers to God. The Songs of Solomon are the love letters of Solomon between him and an unnamed woman. The Gospels are the first hand accounts of the life of Christ written by his closest followers with the help of the Holy Spirit. Revelations in the written account of a prophetic dream given to the Apostle John by God...etc etc. When you read them in their context, they are far more personal and clear to read.
"Okay, so it's old but that doesn't make it infallible, right? I want to first say that if you read the Bible, it's incredible how fluid the message of God is going through each book. The Bible is written by about 40 authors over a period of 1500 years and the common message of our need for grace, the coming of Christ, and the salvation He offers is so incredibly underscored in every single book it's almost as if it had a single author to it. You can see the Spirit breathe into the writers so that while their writing style may differ, their message does not. It' really an awesome experience." I do have to give a thumbs up for this paragraph.
ReplyDelete