Mark Dever
Story of a friend who’d attended a meeting during which everyone simply cried out to God to speak to them. Bibles remained closed.
In this generation there is a mindset of “this life”… Importance of our own good work. J.I. Packer once criticized theological liberalism of last century. “Reduced grace to nature… divine revelation to human reflection… receiving new life to turning over a new leaf… thin mixture of morals and mysticism.”
Question for you today: What do you believe? How will you answer those questions? The question of authority is vital for all Christian. We see Paul rebuking the Galatians for even beginning to believe a teaching that is false. Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“The problem of authority is the most fundamental problem the church ever faces. This is because Christianity is built on truth…. faith in Jesus Christ is possible only where the truth concerning him is known.”
What should we believe/do? This is the issue of authority. It affects everything we think and do.
The earliest Christians were taught to believe the Bible as their authority. Rival authorities have spring up – tradition of the Church, reliance on own revelations and experience, but Christians insist that the Scriptures must be their authority.
How can we have confidence, and what does that confidence mean?
Bibliography. Three books – three of them are very good. If you buy them, read them.
- F.F. Bruce – The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
- J.I. Packer – Fundamentalism and the Word of God
- John Winnom (sp?) Christ and the Bible. Out of print, but there are libraries and used-book sites
First we will consider the more apologetic question of the reliability of the Bible, and then ask if the Bible is to be our authority. First question is for those who are not Christians or doubtful, the second question is for those who are Christians and who are wondering what the Bible teaches about this.
The Reliability of the Bible
“How can we honestly receive a book like this as an authority in our lives?”
I don’t know everything about the Bible, but there are things we can consider together that will be helpful. At one point in my life, for years I denied the reliability of the Bible. Through continued study I became someone, by God’s grace, who believes in the reliability in the Bible. So I have some things to share that you might find useful.
To skeptical friends: Concentrate on the Gospels for figuring out why we treat the Bible the way we do. If you find that they are basically historically reliable and that what they claim is true, then you’ll find there are other ways to establish the authority of the rest of the Bible that will save you a lot of time.
4 components of the question “Is the Bible Reliable?”
First, people could be referring to all the different translations and interpretations. “Which Bible?” people ask. My response is – all the different translations should not cause you to miss the fact that translation is possible. There are a lot of good translations of the Bible. Committee translations involve scholars from every part of the world working for 10-20 years reviewing again and again and again. We rely on translations in all of life. People understand it and it works. There are different translations; by and large they all say the same thing.
Second, people could be asking “Is this really what was written down all those years ago?” Those Hebrew and Greek documents – are they the same things that were written down all those centuries ago? Yes! We have an amount of evidence for the NT that is unheard of with any other literary work. We have parts of the NT going back to only a few decades after they were first written. Not only are the copies incredibly old, but we have so many of them! We have 22,000 manuscripts of parts of the NT. There isn’t anything else out there like this. The Bible is the gold standard for history and literature – even in the secular world! The Bible is about the best historical evidence you can have. Archaeology keeps backing it up as well.
Third, people could be asking “What was originally written – is it accurate?” In the modern West, we’re not familiar with the power of memory. It’s amazing when Braden memorizes Psalm 19. But there are people in the world who memorize vast amounts of text. Village historians in Africa who remember back hundreds of years. It’s possible that people could remember this for decades and then write it. OK, so you ask, that’s possible, but is it really probable? Weren’t they propagandists, like Churchill (“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it”)? A good answer here would be to find specific concerns and address them individually. There were many times when the Bible was ridiculed by secular academia, but then vindicated by archaeological finds. There’s just a relentless traffic in archaeology confirming the Bible. Christianity has an understandable obsession with being historically accurate (as especially evidenced in Luke and John’s writings).
Many Christians are confused by Paul’s writing the Lord’s word and then going on to say “I, not the Lord.” What he’s really doing is referring, by the Lord, to Jesus Christ. He quotes the teachings of Jesus on earth, but then he doesn’t go on to B-level inspiration. He is still inspired by the Holy Spirit to instruct the church. It wasn’t an academic letter he was writing to the church. But he was concerned that Jesus Christ would be represented with exact accuracy. When you worship a God whose word is truth.
Example: the exact Aramaic words of Jesus on the cross (Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani)
The New Testament relays a lot of facts that would not have been fabricated. You don’t have a crucified Messiah. You wouldn’t have women as the first witnesses of the Resurrection when Romans said women’s evidence was not presentable in court. These things would not be made up. There is a constant appeal to eyewitnesses of the truth of these words. These letters were written during a time when their claims could easily be refuted by anyone. But you don’t see refutation. Nobody takes on the facts of the Resurrection. Why not? Maybe because too many people knew it’d actually happened.
The gospels show the faults of community leaders. Peter’s denial, the power struggle with James and John, Jesus not always performing miracles when asked, Jesus’ sadness – none of this would have been made up. We’d probably have edited out all kinds of stuff, if we were trying to start a religion, that these books have left in. Why? Because those things actually happened and these books are true!
A fourth question about reliability: Is what the Bible (truly and correctly translated and accurately written) – Are Jesus’ claims actually true?
That’s the question you really want to spend time on. All the other questions you can answer pretty quickly. This is an accurate account. The question for your life: Is it True?
What began to stump me (Mark) as I read the accounts was why all the disciples followed Jesus for three years, then when the Rabbi was lynched they all fled – didn’t want any part of it – but why, then, did they three days later begin telling everyone that He had been raised from the dead? Why did they start telling this story? Then, why did they scatter from England to Russia to India to Africa telling everyone this strange story and almost all of them are KILLED for telling it?
Well, they must have at least thought it was true. Why would they think that?
I was always proud to not be an atheist. Agnosticism was what I considered the more enlightened viewpoint. “Do tell!” “Really!” “Could be.” “Have you read…?”
But as I read the Gospels I realized I was reading as an atheist, as if I knew there was no supernatural and knew that it couldn’t happen the way it was written. So I decided to read it as if it were all true. I didn’t know that it wasn’t true. There could be a God like this. And at that point, reading through the gospels, God converted me. Everything – the Scriptures, history, and my life – started to make sense.
The claims of the Gospels are where you need to place your attention. Who was He?
But however you work through that question, I am convinced that the Bible is reliable.
The Authority of the Bible
The Bible agrees with itself. It says that there is a God, and that this God speaks.
Just because I don’t know EVERYTHING doesn’t mean I don’t know ANYTHING.
That is important. You’ve got people who teach philosophy who are saying “Because you can’t know everything, you can’t know anything!” All truth works in knowing things, but knowing them partially. In Christianity we have more than that – our understanding of God is not based on our knowledge, but on His revelation to us. This is what makes it so deeply satanic to suggest we can’t know anything. We are made in God’s image so that we can know him! We know him because God Himself has decided that HE will know US.
By His Spirit He reveals to us the truth about Himself.
OT, NT, and finishing with Jesus.
Exodus 24:4. The God of the Bible is a speaking God! He reveals himself to man. Moses wrote down everything he said. John 1 – the Word of God comes and is made incarnate. Romans 10 – faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. God has inspired the Bible by His Spirit. This is the Christian perspective on the Bible. You can’t make Christianity out of only parts of it, or something else. Without the whole Bible, you don’t have Christianity.
Deut 4:1-2. “Do not add, do not subtract….” There’s a whole section in Deut 17 about how each king should write his own copy of God’s laws, read it every day. When Joshua succeeded Moses he read all the words of the law to the assembly of Israel. Psalm 19:7-10 – the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul…
The longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, is all about the word of God.
God’s commands are things that Christians are to believe in. Acts 1:16. “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas.” Chapter 2, Peter goes to the prophet Joel to explain what’s going on. You have to rely on Scripture. “They examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” How can we tell if this guy is speaking Truth? Judge him against the Scriptures.
Romans 15:4 – Everything… was written in the past to teach us, so that… we might have hope. Bible study is one of the main things that can encourage you in your faith. The Scriptures are prophetic. James 2:8- they are to be kept. Acts 4:25 Peter quotes David in Psalm 2, but He attributes the words to God through the mouth of David.
When Paul’s about to quote Genesis 12:3 about all the nations being blessed, in Gal 3:8 – “the Scripture foresaw!” He portrays the Scriptures as having the attributes of God – revealing Him and what He was going to do.
“All Scripture is God-breathed…. suitable for every good work.” All Scripture is ultimately of His creation, whatever humans may have been involved. The Sovereign God is assigning human authors to record and proclaim this truth. Hebrews 4:!2 “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.”
God is active in His Word!
When you read the Bible, far more is going on than you realize. God is speaking to your soul. God uses His Word in our lives. He has fashioned it himself to do that. 2 Peter 1:20-21 “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God.” This includes the NT. In John 16 Jesus had promised to give His Spirit to guide His disciples into all truth. Peter even refers to some of Paul’s letters as Scripture!
Jesus accepted being a rabbi and being brought up under the Law. He responded to temptation by quoting Scripture, including Deut 8:3. Even while he was quoting that, he was exemplifying it! That’s what believers do. Trust God and His word. Be sustained by it! Matt 5: “not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the Law…” Luke 21-23 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
He cites “For this reason a man will leave,” etc. quoting Genesis 2. This was just a statement by Moses, but Jesus attributes it to God!
John 5:46-47. “If you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” John 10:35 – “and the Scriptures cannot be broken.” This is a fundamental presupposition in Jesus teachings.
John 17: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth.”
Luke 24:44 “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me.” Jesus knew the Scriptures were true and he taught as much. When we believe the Bible, we follow the example of Christ. He treated the Scriptures as the argument-ending Word of God. If I am to be His disciple, I must treat Scripture as Jesus treated Scripture.
The Bible teaches truth. That’s how we know it is to be our authority as Christians. God gives us truth about Himself, teaching us by his word. We are to live seeking God’s truth in His Word, hearing it read, explained, and applied in local churches. It should reform your beliefs, your understanding, and your practice.
Eph 5:10 we’re told to find out what pleases the Lord. Why do you want to know about the Bible? Well if you think God exists and this is actually His Word – if you want to please him, then it makes sense that you’d study the Bible to know Him. It’s not to know all the right answers. We want to know the Bible in order to be transformed increasingly into the image of Christ.
“You cannot read too much into Scripture, what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you can not understand to well, what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well.” Martin Luther.
If you think you’re following Jesus, if you read his words but don’t put them into practice, you might be deceiving yourself. Be careful. Talk to a friend. Don’t be the man who hears the words but doesn’t put them into practice.
One of the main means the Spirit uses to change us is His Word. The authority for our lives is God’s Word. If this is true, are we not to believe what Scripture teaches! Scripture is our authority.
I lectured at a church in London long ago, giving lectures on Puritanism on a Saturday. At one point I asked if anyone had ever seen these iron brackets on pulpits that made a circle. Those were actually gifts of the congregation given to the preacher in the late 16th century. They were hourglass holes! The preacher would be given one or two turns of the hourglass in which to preach. The crowd gasps and asks “What time was there left for worship?”
These people were desperate to hear what God had said! Some of them probably still remembered the persecution of Christian translators. They considered nothing more important than hearing this Word and knowing how to live by it.
And we don’t know that we will always be able to worship in the freedom we have now!
There is no promise about how long that privilege will remain. We know the Church will survive until Christ returns. But it seems that persecution will only increase as time goes on. Is God’s Word precious to you?
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What part of the Word am I not putting into practice?
1 comment:
Wonderful! Thanks for blogging this!
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