Understanding and Owning Christian Theology
Week 3 (Aug 21): The Authority of the Bible – Why It Matters
The Sunday School Class was recorded and can be heard here: The Authority of the Bible – Why It Matters
God is relational, fully known to each of the members of the God-head, and He always acts consistently within His nature (always holy, good, loving, etc). We can only know God because of creation (He made us and all the creation), and His self-revelation (apart from which He would be completely inaccessible to us). By the fall – man is in rebellion to God and his revelation. Only in Jesus Christ are we restored to fellowship with God and able to think His thoughts about Him, ourselves and our world.
General Revelation in Creation
Genesis 1 & John 1 & Colossians 1: In the beginning, God said… and it was so. In the beginning was the Word (Jesus the Son, God) all things were made through Him. Col. 1:15-17. Jesus is the Word that was spoken that brought forth all of Creation.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1–3, NKJV)
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18–21, NKJV)
“and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”” (Acts 14:15–17, NKJV)
“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.” (Acts 17:26–29, NKJV)
The problem for men is not that God is utterly unknown – but that He is rebelled against and unloved and unworshpiped. Creation reveals God truly – but not exhaustively.
Creational vs. Natural: Men want to absolutize nature, to the exclusion of God. Nature is only truly understood as the creation of God. It points us to God. When it does not, when men use it to only point to nature – it is idolatry.
Creation is not an exhaustive revelation. It is only understood in terms of special revelation. It cannot stand alone. What are some of the things it cannot reveal? There are limits to what we can know about God, ourselves, and how to relate to the world and other men. It cannot give us ethics. We need special revelation. Men must have an absolute authority, which cannot be nature – no natural law. Natural Philosophy and materialist/natural science cannot give us true revelation and absolute authority. It assumes the primacy of man’s reason, innate goodness, “might makes right” totalitarianism, or mob rule (democracy?).
There is no error or miscommunication in nature/creation – but it is not sufficient as an absolute standard of knowledge or how to live in the world.
Special Revelation
RCC Confessional Statement:
“1. We hold the Scriptures, contained in the 66 books commonly referred to as the Old and New Testaments, to be God’s infallible commanding Word to His creatures. Accordingly, it is our sole basis of absolute authority. We believe the Scriptures to be inerrant in original manuscripts.”
How shall we then live? By what standard? If/since God is the Creator – He is absolutely sovereign over all His creation. His revelation is the absolute standard for all of life and thought.
After God made man He spoke to him about His purposes for man, and gave him His commands. History is the record of God’s works and Word to man.
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:1–3, NKJV)
God revealed Himself in theophanies (divine appearances, e.g. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses), dreams & visions (e.g. Jacob, Solomon, Daniel, Joseph-“husband” of Mary), miracles and signs (e.g. Noah, Lot, Moses & Israel, wilderness) the prophets – a forth-teller.
Writers of the Old Testament were inspired by God to put in permanent form what He wants the scriptures to be.
“All Scripture [the OT] is given by inspiration of God [lit. “God-breathed” by the Spirit], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, NKJV)
“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19–21, NKJV)
But in the middle of history – God sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus came to reveal God the Father. John 1:18; 14:9; Colossians 2:9
“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (John 1:18, NKJV)
“Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:9–10, NKJV)
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;” (Colossians 2:9, NKJV)
Scripture – The Bible
Now we have the New Testament also as our guide (all 66 books).
“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19–21, NKJV)
2 Peter 3:15-16 “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:15–16, NKJV)
To have any authority above scripture (i.e. man’s reason, natural law, science, government) is to be without God in this world. If/since God created all things and He has absolute authority over all things – to refuse to believe and submit to His Word to us leaves us without true knowledge in the world. We cannot know things truly – and we cannot know how to live in the world. We will have no basis for ethics and no ability to prosper in this world.
Do people generally think we need to have an absolute standard, like the Bible?
What are some of the problems we have in this world that result from rejecting the Bible?
RCC Confessional Statement:
“9. We believe that we are to proclaim the whole counsel of God’s Word at every opportunity, whereupon God, in His providence, may impart faith by the Word to the hearer, and that he may thereby be converted.”
Tags: Bible Classes, RCC, Reformation Covenant Church, Sunday School
