The Fundamentals of the Faith (Part 3)
The Bible and the Bible alone is God’s Word.
The Bible is eternal (it stands forever Is. 40:8; 1Pet. 1:24-25).
It is inerrant or infallible in it's original autographs (there are no mistakes in it 2Sam. 22:31; Ps. 18:30; Ps. 19:7; Ps. 12:6; Prov. 30:5).
It is plenarily (i.e. all, or every portion of the Bible) and verbally (i.e. the Holy Spirit led in the choice of each word) inspired (i.e. lit. breathed out from God 2Tim. 3:16-17).
As such it is the final authority of God to man (Rev. 22:18-20).
The Bible alone, and in its entirety, is the Word of God. This applies to all 66 canonical (recognized) Books from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, and every matter of which the Bible addresses (2Tim. 3:16-17; 2Pet. 1:19-21; Is. 40:8; Prov. 30:5; Jer. 30:2; Matt. 5:18; 1Pet. 1:24-25).
God gave us His Word to reveal Himself and His love to us and that is why there are so many warnings in the Bible not to trifle with its sacred contents.
Parts of the Bible do not “become” God’s Word selectively as one reads and studies them; the Bible is God’s Word. The Bible does not only contain God’s Word, it is His Word through and through.
The Bible is the supreme truth, over-ruling human reason, tradition, experience, and knowledge. All other writings and experiences should be evaluated as they line up with Bible. Mankind has no “inner light” nor anything else within... that will add to, or take away from what has been revealed in Scripture already. There is no authority given to any church, clergy leader, man or woman that goes beyond, above, or even equal to the authority of the Bible. This not only includes other books and writings, but also so-called visions, dreams, tongues, and what one might think is a direct (spiritual) revelation, (eg. “God told me such and such.” (cf. Rev. 22:18- 19).
The doctrine known as Sola Scriptura, (Scriptures alone), is a fundamental truth which many have defended and died for. It is a doctrine that has been under attack since Genesis 3, and today the DaVinci Code seeks to undermine its riches. What about you, is your confidence in God's Holy Book alone apart from other man made inventions, traditions, and ideas?
The Bible is eternal (it stands forever Is. 40:8; 1Pet. 1:24-25).
It is inerrant or infallible in it's original autographs (there are no mistakes in it 2Sam. 22:31; Ps. 18:30; Ps. 19:7; Ps. 12:6; Prov. 30:5).
It is plenarily (i.e. all, or every portion of the Bible) and verbally (i.e. the Holy Spirit led in the choice of each word) inspired (i.e. lit. breathed out from God 2Tim. 3:16-17).
As such it is the final authority of God to man (Rev. 22:18-20).
The Bible alone, and in its entirety, is the Word of God. This applies to all 66 canonical (recognized) Books from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, and every matter of which the Bible addresses (2Tim. 3:16-17; 2Pet. 1:19-21; Is. 40:8; Prov. 30:5; Jer. 30:2; Matt. 5:18; 1Pet. 1:24-25).
God gave us His Word to reveal Himself and His love to us and that is why there are so many warnings in the Bible not to trifle with its sacred contents.
Parts of the Bible do not “become” God’s Word selectively as one reads and studies them; the Bible is God’s Word. The Bible does not only contain God’s Word, it is His Word through and through.
The Bible is the supreme truth, over-ruling human reason, tradition, experience, and knowledge. All other writings and experiences should be evaluated as they line up with Bible. Mankind has no “inner light” nor anything else within... that will add to, or take away from what has been revealed in Scripture already. There is no authority given to any church, clergy leader, man or woman that goes beyond, above, or even equal to the authority of the Bible. This not only includes other books and writings, but also so-called visions, dreams, tongues, and what one might think is a direct (spiritual) revelation, (eg. “God told me such and such.” (cf. Rev. 22:18- 19).
The doctrine known as Sola Scriptura, (Scriptures alone), is a fundamental truth which many have defended and died for. It is a doctrine that has been under attack since Genesis 3, and today the DaVinci Code seeks to undermine its riches. What about you, is your confidence in God's Holy Book alone apart from other man made inventions, traditions, and ideas?
posted by J. Wendell at 5:15 AM
4 Comments:
What about the perspicuity of scripture? To what extent can the Bible be understood by just anyone?
I think it is insufficent to maintain that Inerrancy is limited to the orignal autographs. I beleive the true text of Scripture is preserved in the Received Text and in our King James Bible.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
By
Matthew Celestine, at 28/5/06 4:13 PM
DF, you have brought up two excellent topics. Let’s work through them together, if you please.
It was William Tyndale who said, “…it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.” I think it was Tyndale, while in a carriage with a bishop (of the high church variety) pointed out a poor farmer working in a field and said to his companion, “There will be a day when commoners will know more of the Bible than the parish priests.”
When dealing with the perspicuity or clarity of Scripture we may agree that to the extent Scripture may be understood by “just anyone” depends on several presuppositions: salvation, illumination, acceptance, and obedience. This idea is contrary to the RC view which asserts that Scripture is imperspicuous (unclear) apart from the interpretative framework of the Catholic Church and tradition.
Christians who love and promote the clarity of the Bible encourage others to read it for themselves. Those who deny the perspicuity of the Bible have not historically encouraged a personal devotional time of studying the Bible, and have even prevented others from free access to the Scriptures.
DF as you may know, we do not have the complete Autographe'. On the issue of preservation, follow what I said very carefully. I did not say that “the KJV or Textus Receptus are NOT without error.”
You have said, "I beleive the true text of Scripture is preserved in the Received Text and in our King James Bible." ( italics mine)
Do you mean to say God's Word is ONLY preserved in the Texus Recepus and in the KJV?
Let me put this aside for a moment and ask you a question.
Do you consider word variations tampering with holy writ? For clarification, do you see changes of phrases such as “They went to Jerusalem…” and “They went unto Jerusalem…” as a threat to preservation, on inerrancy?
By
J. Wendell, at 29/5/06 9:14 AM
I am glad you can see the importance of the perspicuity of Scripture. I do think the heavy weight which Evangelicalism places on scholarship can lead to a practical denial of this doctrine.
"DF as you may know, we do not have the complete Autographe'."
What use is an Inerrant Bible that we do not have?
"Do you mean to say God's Word is ONLY preserved in the Texus Recepus and in the KJV?"
No. There is more than one edition of the TR and the KJV departs from these on points.
However, essentially there are distinct textual tradtions. Either one of them is reliable and the object of divine preservation or else both contain much error and we are left in the dark as to where to find God's word.
"Do you consider word variations tampering with holy writ? For clarification, do you see changes of phrases such as “They went to Jerusalem…” and “They went unto Jerusalem…” as a threat to preservation, on inerrancy?"
No, but there are other more significant textual variations than this.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
By
Matthew Celestine, at 29/5/06 1:09 PM
EC: DF as you may know, we do not have the complete Autographa’.
DF: What use is an Inerrant Bible that we do not have?
EC: Yes, you are sharp to notice this apparent discrepancy, good job, and good point! What we do have is many fine authentic manuscripts MSS (hand written copies, or copies of a copy of the autographa) and many fragments that all agree with each other. What I should have clarified is that the term “autographa” is a misnomer because as far as we know (please note this well) there was never a time when all of the original manuscripts were put together at one time.
DF: "…essentially there are distinct textual traditions. Either one of them is reliable and the object of divine preservation or else both contain much error and we are left in the dark as to where to find God's word." (boldface EC)
EC: Brother this does not need to baffle us, with the TR, the Critical Text, the Codices B, and Aleph, the Byzantine texts, the Masoretic Hebrew Text, and the majority texts; we have the Word of God in our MOTHER TONGUE(to me this is most exiting). We have some English versions that follow more of a formal dynamic (i.e. NASB from the Critical text, and the KJV from the TR), but we are also blessed to have versions that are more aligned with an equivalent dynamic too (eg. NIV). I have recently heard of a very early Hebrew text that has surfaced. This discovery, that while it agrees with the Greek, it is much more suited to the Hebrew culture. Sadly, I do not read Hebrew well enough to appreciate it though.
I find nothing in either one of the Greek texts that diminishes any doctrine over all and I do affirm preservation of the Scripture.
I will be addressing this in this series on the fundamentals, and if one is patient I will circle back to this in much more detail when I post on Bibliology in the future.
It is remarkable what the translators of the 1611 KJV said. I feel it is to long for me to post, but if you don’t have it in the front of your Cambridge Edition of the KJV (if that is what you have), or if it is not provided in the Oxford Edition of the 1769 KJV (the edition most Americans have) you may read it here.
Thanks for your interest.
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J. Wendell, at 31/5/06 1:09 PM
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