Rev. David Holwick ZP
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 4, 1994
2 Peter 1:16-21
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I. Cleverly invented stories?
A. The Bible and its authority has been under heavy attack.
1) "Letters to Editor" in DAILY RECORD.
a) Many have a patronizing tone toward believers in Bible.
2) Even Liberal Christians are attacking it.
Robert Bratcher, an ordained Southern Baptist minister and
translator of the Good News Bible, is particularly strong.
At one of their conventions he spoke on the topic,
"Biblical Authority for the Church Today."
He said:
"Only willful ignorance or intellectual dishonesty can account
for the claim that the Bible is inerrant and infallible.
No truth-loving, God-respecting, Christ-honoring believer
should be guilty of such heresy.
To invest the Bible with the qualities of inerrancy and
infallibility is to idolatrize [sic] it, to transform it
into a false god."
#2871
3) Famous American atheist, Robert Ingersoll has said,
"In twenty five years the Bible will be a forgotten book."
He said this in 1899.
In fact, the Bible remains far and away the nation's
best seller.
#1632
B. The Bible is a hard book.
1) Honesty compels us to admit we don't understand much of it.
a) Obscure beliefs and outlandish visions.
b) (Dating Celeste - she hears story of Jonah and Big Fish
and exclaims, "You're kidding - THAT'S IN THE BIBLE?"
2) Christians should not accept things blindly.
a) God wants us to investigate our doubts.
b) If Bible is true, it will hold up.
C. The Bible is God's book.
1) We accept Bible not because we can prove every point, but
because we accept what God says about it.
2) The trustworthiness of the Bible matters.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, once said:
"If there be one error in Scripture, there might as well
be a thousand.
It would not be the truth of God." #347
II. Inspiration. 2 Peter 1:21
A. In some way the human words of the Bible have God behind them.
1) Paul says Scripture is "God-breathed." 2 Tim 3:16
2) Not merely human opinion, but God's Communication to us.
a) Some say 1:20 forbids private interpretation - the
church has to tell you what Bible means.
b) Better to see it pointing to the prophets themselves -
they didn't make it up.
1> God gave it to them.
2> Many times they didn't understand message.
B. Prophecy proves they were not just guessing.
1) Not vague predictions like "Psychic Hotline."
2) Fulfillment has unfolded for 3,000 years, even to this day.
3) Meaning of "Word of the prophets made more certain." 1:19
C. Inspiration doesn't have to mean dictation.
1) Writers were not just stenographers.
a) Their personality and culture shows up.
b) God's communication came in a variety of ways, and
they express it in many ways.
2) The Bible is simultaneously God's Book and Man's Book.
III. Inerrancy and infallibility.
A. Inspiration implies something about character of Bible.
1) Inerrant means "doesn't wander."
a) The Bible doesn't wander from the truth into what is false.
2) Infallible means "not capable of being wrong."
a) Stronger term. All of us can be right - sometimes.
b) Just as God cannot lie, neither can his Bible.
B. Terms mean we can trust the Bible.
1) We turn to our Bible and believe what we read there.
2) We don't pick and choose what in the Bible we can believe.
3) It is our final authority.
C. Infallibility is the historic creed of the Church.
Liberal professor at Harvard University, Kirsopp Lake:
It is a mistake often made by educated persons ... to suppose
that fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought.
It is nothing of the kind; it is the ... survival of a theology
which was once universally held by all Christians.
How many Christian churches in the 1700's doubted the
infallible inspiration of all Scripture?
A few, perhaps, but very few.
No, the fundamentalist may be wrong, I think that he is.
But it is we [liberals] who have departed from the tradition.
I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a
fundamentalist on the basis of authority.
The Bible is on the fundamentalist side."
#2870
D. What about the mistakes?
1) Hard to prove errors about science and history.
Example of Jericho:
The British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon dug up Jericho
and found that the city fell during a short attack.
Vast amounts of grain were found, which shows there was
not a long siege.
And the walls had fallen outward, as if in a sudden
collapse.
But Kenyon also concluded Jericho fell 150 years before
Joshua and the Jews arrived.
Time Magazine (March,1990) in its "Science" section, now
says Kenyon may have been wrong and the Bible correct.
It quotes archaeologist Bryant Wood, who says the city's
walls came tumbling down at just the right time, based
on pottery evidence.
#1228
2) Bible isn't a science textbook but is true in what it teaches.
IV. Jesus bears witness to the Bible's trustworthiness.
A. Christ clearly refers to Bible as Word of God. Mark 7:6-13
1) What Isaiah and Moses said is what God said. Mark 7:8,13
2) Jesus defended the full integrity of the OT. Matt 5:17-19
3) Human traditions - even in church - are secondary.
B. No part of the OT can be set aside as useless. Luke 16:17
1) Scripture cannot be broken. John 10:35
C. We believe the Bible because of our obedience to Jesus.
1) Basic question: "What do you think of Jesus?"
2) If we accept him as Lord, it is consistent to submit to
his teaching on the complete authority of the Bible.
3) Authority of Jesus comes first, authority of Bible follows.
V. The Bible is infallible; our interpretation is not. (CT 2/20/87, p14.)
A. Honest Christians have disagreed for centuries.
1) Must be humble, willing to learn.
2) Search past for wisdom.
B. Don't just honor Bible - obey it.
1) Correct views of the Bible's infallibility are not enough.
2) The harshest words of Jesus are not directed at those who
disbelieved in the Bible, but at those who believed yet
deliberately misinterpreted and disobeyed it.
C. If you believe it, study it.
1) It is the source of our knowledge about Christ and his will.
2) The Holy Spirit will guide us into biblical truth.
3) The Bible will help us live a life of joy and fellowship
with Jesus, the Living Word.
======================== NOTES =================================
Kenneth Kantzer Christianity Today, October 7, 1988, p. 22.
===============
I. All branches of the church have generally agreed on inspiration.
A. In past, opposition came from outside the church.
B. Today it comes from liberals inside.
1) Infallibility is dangerous because one error destroys
Christian faith.
II. Errors in the Bible.
A. Hard to prove errors about science and history.
B. Most effort goes into discrepancies among texts.
1) Differences in Kings/Chronicles, and Gospels.
a) But these have been recognized for centuries.
b) Should be expected from variety of writers in different
ages.
2) (Example of a traffic accident)
C. Discrepancies should be examined.
III. Inspiration.
A. Paul says Scripture is "God-breathed."
1) Often taken to mean dictation, but doesn't deny human
authorship.
2) Humanity of writers shouts at us. It must be understood
as a human book.
B. Humanity of Bible.
1) Embedded in Bible's own view of itself.
2) But not merely human, because they were guided by God.
C. Tension.
1) How can God sovereignly control writing of Bible if it is
truly a human book?
2) Requires a bigger view of God.
a) Analogy of deity and humanity of Jesus.
IV. Critical study.
A. Bible should not be analyzed like any ancient document.
1) Historical criticism can have valid use.
2) Date, setting, customs, etc.
B. Criticism by liberals often becomes psychoanalysis of
Bible writers.
1) Wrong to eliminate the miraculous.
2) Pseudepigrapha and JEPD make a difference.
V. Bible bears witness to trustworthiness.
A. Jesus contrasts human tradition to Scripture. Mark 7:6-13
1) What Moses said is what God said.
2) OT quotes are used in same way.
3) Jesus defended the full integrity of the OT. Matt 5:17-19
B. No part of the OT can be set aside as useless. Luke 16:17
1) Scripture cannot be broken. John 10:35
VI. Infallibility is not essential to salvation.
A. Many godly Christians have denied infallibility.
1) C.S. Lewis.
B. But it is essential to consistent Christianity.
1) Guards against a pick-and-choose mentality.
2) Jesus accepted Scripture and leaders should do so today.
C. We believe Bible because of our obedience to Jesus, not because
it has advantages.
1) Is Jesus Christ Lord?
2) Question of Bible as authoritative guide for life and
thought comes next (not first).
VII. Inerrancy and infallibility. [sidebar article]
A. Infallibility stronger than inerrancy.
1) Infallibility says it CANNOT have error, inerrancy that it
does not (but could).
2) Covers all of Bible, not just parts.
B. Church Fathers used terms in their full sense.
1) Irenaeus.
2) Augustine.
3) Luther.
4) Calvin.
5) John Wesley: "If there be one error in Scripture, there
might as well be a thousand. It would not be the truth
of God."
C. Liberals acknowledge the teaching of infallibility in past.
1) Liberal professor at Harvard University, Kirsopp Lake:
"How many were there, for instance, in Christian churches
in the eighteenth century who doubted the infallible
inspiration of all Scripture? A few, perhaps, but very
few.... It is we [liberals] who have departed from the
tradition.... The Bible and the "corpus theologicum" of
the church are on the fundamentalist side."
VIII. For more articles see sermon summary in #2872.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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