Thinking on Scripture with Dr. Steven R. Cook
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word βίβλος biblos which means scroll or book. The Bible is a library of sixty-six books, composed by approximately forty human authors spanning nearly fifteen hundred years. “The purpose of God in providing the Bible is that man, to whom the Bible is addressed, may be possessed of dependable information regarding things tangible and intangible, temporal and eternal, visible and invisible, earthly and heavenly.”[2]
God has provided general revelation about Himself through nature (Psa 19:1-2; Rom 1:18-20), and special revelation directly (Ex 19:9; 1 Sam 3:1-14; Isa 6:9-10). God’s special revelation came through dreams (Gen 28:12; 31:11; Dan 7:1; 12:8-9), visions (Isa 6:1; 1 Ki 22:19), angels (Dan 10:10-21), Jesus Christ (John 1:1, 14, 18; Heb 1:1-3; cf. Acts 10:9-16; 27:21-26), and the written Word (Psa 119:160; John 17:17; 1 Thess 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16-17). Paul equated the writings of Moses and Luke as Scripture (1 Tim 5:18), as Peter did the writings of Paul (2 Pet 3:15-16). There are some Christians today who believe God continues to reveal Himself through all these avenues (i.e. Henry Blackaby, Rick Warren). However, other evangelical Christians believe God reveals Himself today only through nature, the Bible, and providentially through circumstances (the latter being discernable only by the Christian mind saturated with Scripture). Concerning faith and practice (orthodoxy & orthopraxy), the Bible alone guides the Christian. “He is a Biblicist, namely, one who not only regards the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice, but as the only dependable source of information in realms wherein divine revelation speaks.”[3]
Scripture reveals there is one God who exists as three distinct Persons within the Trinity (Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14; 1 Pet 1:2): God the Father (Gal 1:1; Eph 6:23; Phil 2:11), God the Son (John 1:1, 14, 18; 8:58; 20:28; Col 2:9; Heb 1:8), and God the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Cor 2:11-12; 2 Cor 13:14). All three are co-equal, co-infinite, co-eternal, and worthy of all praise and service. The Bible also reveals the origins of the universe (Gen 1:1), mankind (Gen 1:26-27), marriage (Gen 2:18-24), sin (Gen 3:1-8), moral absolutes (Ex 20:1-17), Israel (Isa 43:1), salvation through Jesus (John 3:16; Eph 2:8-9), the church (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor 10:32), the existence of Satan (Job 1:6-12), angels and demons (Heb 1:13-14; Rev 16:14), heaven and hell (Rev 4:1-2; 20:14-15), and the future (Rev 21-22). The Bible does not reveal all there is to know about God or His plans and actions, but only what He deems important (Deut 29:29; cf. John 21:25).
Though the Bible was written by fallible men, each was superintended by God the Holy Spirit, Who guided them in such a way that what they wrote, without compromising their personal choices of words and literary style, penned God’s inerrant Word (verbal plenary inspiration). There is a parallel between the written Word and the Living Word. Just as God took a sinful woman, Mary, and supernaturally produced a sinless and perfect Person, Jesus; so God took sinful men and used them to produce a perfect book that accurately reflects His thoughts and will for mankind. The human authors—without forfeiting their personal literary style—wrote under the direction and superintending care of God the Holy Spirit (Ex 17:14; 34:27; Isa 30:8; Jer 30:2; Luke 1:3; 1 Cor 14:37; Rev 1:11), so that what is written is the inerrant and infallible “word of God” (1 Thess 2:13; cf. Psa 12:6-7; Rom 15:4; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:20). Some of the various literary styles include historical narrative, law, poetry, psalms, proverbs, parables, and symbolism. The Bible is a dual authorship.
Scriptural claims:
Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures [equating Paul’s writings with Scripture], to their own destruction. (2 Pet 3:15-16)
[1] Lewis S. Chafer; John F. Walvoord; Major Bible Themes (Grand Rapids, Mich. Zondervan Publishing, 2010), 30-31.
[2]Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, Mich. Kregel Publication, 1993), 105.
[3] Ibid., 7.
[4] Lewis S. Chafer, “Bibliology” Bibliotheca Sacra, 94 (1937): 398-399.
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