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Questioning authority
Continuing the discussion from last week on inspiration, biblical scholar Matthew Barrett warns, “If we reject inspiration, we are rejecting the Bible’s testimony concerning itself. . .. it is difficult to ignore the evidence that the Bible does affirm its own inspiration. Scripture is not silent on its identity and origin.” Therefore, based upon the historical fact that Jesus was raised from the dead by God, we should expect God to speak directly and inerrantly to us through His inspired Word.
Inerrancy naturally flows from a flawless God who “breathes out” Scripture. However, inerrancy is sometimes misunderstood, meaning that the Bible has no errors. However, that is not exactly what inerrancy means. “Inerrancy means that Scripture, in its original manuscripts, does not err in all that the biblical authors assert.” That is why the Bible is inerrant and at the same time has 400,000 variants. Nevertheless, the translations that we have are extremely accurate and faithful to the originals.
God’s general revelation through nature cannot bring one to salvation in Jesus Christ; only God’s special revelation in Scripture can do that. So, we can say that revelations from nature are insufficient while God’s special revelation through Scripture is sufficient. Sufficiency of Scripture simply declares that what it contains is sufficient; it is enough. We may, and most of us very much do wish we had more. Some of us wish we could know more about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so that we might have a deeper relationship with God. We wish for those things so that we might love God more deeply. In that way, both love and knowledge of God are progressively deepened. Even so, we are limited by “what can be known about God.”
I am here reminded of Norman Maclean’s words, “We can love completely what we cannot completely understand.” And so, it is a Christian doctrine that what can be known about God through His special revelation in Scripture is sufficient. It is sufficient for our knowing God and loving God, but more importantly, Scripture is sufficient for man’s salvation. Paul told Timothy; “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16). Sure enough, the sufficiency of Scripture adds one more piece of evidence for the Christian argument that God exists and Christianity is true.
Over the last year, this column has presented a cumulative case for the existence of God, and the truthfulness of Christianity using the cosmological, and teleological arguments, the moral argument, and the argument from mind, as well as the historical resurrection of Jesus, and an argument for the authority of the Bible. All considered, we have composed what can be called a Christian worldview of the facts: “There exists an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe, who in relation to the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful. The design, unity, order, and complexity of creation imply that the universe’s Creator is a highly intelligent Designer who purposefully designed and brought the universe into being. This Creator and Designer is the God of theism. The human beings that God freely chose to create consist of two substances: material and immaterial; one body being uniquely human, and one spirit being similar in substance to God, who is Spirit. Further, the Purposeful, Spiritual, Creator and Designer of the universe, God, is a Moral and Just Being who imparted moral values into the spiritual consciousness of human beings whom He created, with the expectation that they embrace and fulfill His Moral Law.
But man failed to uphold God’s Moral Law. To redeem mankind, God provided a propitiation for mankind in His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. By virtue of being raised from the dead, it can be said that Jesus was born of flesh, walked among men on earth, was crucified by the Romans, died, was buried, and was raised from the dead by His supernatural Father, the God of Christianity. And by virtue of His resurrection from the dead, the divine nature of Jesus is affirmed, including His sovereignty and divine authority regarding all matters. Exercising His authority, Jesus affirms both the Old Testament and the New Testament as God’s Word “breathed out.”
And what God’s Word says is that there is a Creator of all that exists; that there is design and intentionality present in the created world; that human beings were created with self-consciousness and that there is an innate moral law residing in the self-consciousness of man, created in the imago Dei Himself. Scripture says that Jesus of Nazareth was a man born of woman, but He is also the living Son of God who walked this earth, was crucified, died, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day.
Scripture tells us that His death was a propitiation of the sins of all people who would believe and that God would remember their sins no more. And that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, along with all your people who have died in Christ, are there, in heaven, waiting for you to get there. Amen; come, Lord Jesus, Amen.”
However, the critic remains! Join us next week as we press closer to answering the question: Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore, OK. You can contact him at dr.kerley@ isGoddead.com.
