The Scriptures

Any Systematic Theology must start with a solid foundation. And for Christ’s Church that is the Scriptures. We must go “ad fontes”, or “back to the fountain”. Back to the source of Divine revelation. Throughout this study, we will make some shocking claims; Jesus Christ is God and man, God is one One yet Three, salvation is by grace and not by works, faith is a gift, God decreed evil…etc. Most of us are familiar with these, but never let familiarity dull your amazement over what we claim is true! But, of course, it is not our belief that makes them true. They are true because God Himself has declared it in His written word.

And because of this, we start with the natural question of “what is Scripture?”. In other words, what can we deem as the authoritative word of God?

Because we stand on the shoulders of the giants of the reformation, we declare that Scripture is the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. Nothing more, nothing less. And because these books are God’s inspired word (2 Tim 3:16-17), we must define what inspiration is. As some of the Puritans used to do, we will start with a contrast; what inspiration is not:

Inspiration is not illumination: This literally means “to bring to light”. That is, to bring understanding to something. In relation to the word of God, each believer has different levels of illumination, or insight, into the text. Paul commands us to strive for this:

2 Tim 2:7
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

From this verse we also learn that illumination is a work that the Lord must do in us:

John 16:33
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

Jesus here begins to show that those who do not have the Holy Spirit cannot understand the things of the Spirit. Paul continues this thought:

1 Cor 2:14-16
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.

Peter even admitted that some of Paul’s writings were “hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). We receive an understanding of the inspired text from God, but it is not our illumination that makes the Bible inspired. Even if we do not understand the text, it is still God-breathed!

Inspiration is not revelation: These are connected, and do overlap, but they must stand on their own as well. Revelation is God communicating something that we could never otherwise know. To put it simply, inspiration is the perfect record of revelation.

Inspiration is not canonization: This is the process that the early church went through to declare what books are to be considered Scripture. It is important to note that God was sovereign over this process as He preserved His word, but canonization did not make the texts inspired. It simply gathered the texts that were already inspired.

Inspiration is not translation: The Old Testament, originally written in Hebrew, and the New Testament, originally written in Greek, needs to be translated into the language of the people so they may hear the living and active word of God (Heb 4:12). We are thankful for men like the Scribes at Qumran, and those such as William Tyndale who dedicated, and sometimes gave, their life for the translation of the text. But a translation starts with the inspired text to bring it into the common language of the time. The process itself does not inspire the text. And this process is not infallible. But as we will see, God’s hand is seen preserving His word in this process as well.

Finally, what it is: Inspiration is the work of the Holy Spirit who, through the human authorship of selected saints, perfectly recorded the words of God in the original manuscripts of the 66 books that make up the Old and New Testaments.

Because this was a sovereign work of God, we declare that the inspired text to be:

Inerrant: That is, it is free from any error or untruth. What we have in the Scriptures is exactly what the Lord wanted us to know. Nothing more, nothing less. And because its source is God Himself, it cannot be untrue:

Heb 6:18
… it is impossible for God to lie…

John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life”

Infallible: Not only is the text free from error, but it is incapable of having error. It is one thing to declare that there are no mistakes. It is even stronger to say that it is does not have the ability to be false. What a provision of our God! His word is true, and cannot be otherwise.

In our next installment, we will consider the canon. What books should be included as inspired texts? Why only 66? Does God still speak today? Will there be further revelation?

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A Systematic Theology; Introduction

Recently I began a Sunday School class for our church entitled “The Doctrines of the Bible”. We are eight weeks into the study, and it has proven to be a needed reminder, for all of us, of the importance of theology. In light of this, I was encouraged by Seth and our Pastor to make this class available on our blog. My first reaction was that it felt self-serving (even my reaction is an indictment to me). But, as we have grown in our perspective in regards to the ministry that is taking place on the blog, I speak for both Seth and I when I say we are sober minded about allowing this site to be an extension of the ministry in our local church. And, of course, we recognize that any work being accomplished is solely by His grace. For apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5)!


So, here is the format; I will give a distillation of the class while also providing a link to an mp3 of the full session and a copy of the outline in .PDF format (if you need a copy of acrobat reader, you can get it here).

To begin, we need to recognize the importance of doctrine itself. The term has almost become a byword in Christian circles today. “Doctrine divides!” and “we need to be practical!” seem to be the cries of those who are woefully misinformed of the importance of diligently studying the Scriptures. Consider:

Acts 2:42
“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

1 Peter 2:1-2
“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation”

Does doctrine divide? Yes! And it should always be proclaimed clearly and constantly to make a strong demarcation between truth and error. (And to assuage those who feel that I would not care about division between true believers, know that unless we disagree on the essentials such as salvation or the person of Christ, we should never be divisive but walk side by side while we let the word teach us who is wrong and where we need to repent.) “We need to read our Bibles!” most would admit, while cringing at the word "doctrine" or "theology". But the disconnect seems to be in the misunderstanding that reading and understanding our Bibles is doctrine! It is our theology to know the word! And as far as practicality is concerned, we know that as a man thinks, so he is (Prov 23:7). Or, in the words of Romans 12:1-2:

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Let’s be clear, however, that we are not talking about the power of positive thinking. We are to meditate on the word day and night (Ps 1:2). And as we train our minds to think like Christ (for in the Scriptures we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16)), then we will live the way Christ commands us to live.

This discipline, however, needs to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are not to think that what we read will magically make us different people. We cannot generate our own sanctification. It is the living and active word of God (Heb 4:12) empowered by the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18-21) that will transform us into the likeness of Christ (Eph 5:1, 1 Thes 1:6).

The goal: We are not attempting to amass information for the sake of information. For if we do that we run the risk of being prideful (1 Cor 8:1b). But we want to “prove (ourselves) doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). We seek to know God, not just know about Him. As we understand the Scripture, we will have an increased responsibility to live out its commands.

So, get ready to dig in. And, just to frighten you, this post covers about 1/4th of the first lesson! For the mp3 of the original class, click here. For a copy of the handout, click here. Also, if you want to “listen” ahead, I added a log of the audio on the left side of the page immediately under our Blog Archive.

Finally, as Seth and I always do after the other speaks, feel free to offer critiques as to how I can improve and grow as a preacher. I would challenge you, however, to not mention anything that is positive. This sounds strange, but anyone that has been placed by the Lord in a position to teach knows how easily the flesh can be prideful. I do not offer these lessons as a means to highlight myself. In the same way, I don’t need to hear what is “good” about the lesson. But I would welcome constructive criticism that will challenge and stretch me. Fire away!

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