Isaiah 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isaiah 52:8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
We ran across this idea of Sola Scriptura while researching for an article on the inspiration of the scriptures. Our idea is to show some aspects of what the Lord has revealed to us on the nature of his Word. And on of the topics involved there is inerrancy.
There are several theories of inspiration. Instead of listing them all and getting side tracked, we present this quote from Ron Rhodes which summarizes the correct view.
What Is Inspiration?
Biblical inspiration may be defined as God's superintending of the human authors so that, using their own individual personalities (and even their writing styles), they composed and recorded without error His revelation to man in the words of the original autographs. Inspiration means that "the Holy Spirit of God superintended the human writers in the production of Scripture so that what they wrote was precisely what God wanted written."
The Inspiration of Scripture (by Ron Rhodes)
This is called the dictation or indication theory of biblical inspiration. You can easily show that it is true by quotes from the bible.
Side note: Critics will say you can just as easily prove the Koran is the word of God by quoting the Koran. Well you can prove that the Koran is the word of Allah by quoting the Koran. The catch is that Allah is not God. Mohammed was not a prophet. And the Koran is a book of lies. [Just in case you wondered where I stood on that issue.]
And for those who demand an unshakeable logical proof, I say, If any man have ears to hear, let him hear Mark 7:16 .
So what is this idea of Sola Scriptura and what does it have to do with inspiration of the Scriptures. Here is a good definition and some background.
Sola scriptura (Latin ablative, "by scripture alone") is the assertion that the Bible as God's written word is self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader, its own interpreter ("Scripture interprets Scripture"), and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine.
Sola scriptura was a foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation held by the reformer Martin Luther and is a definitive principle of Protestants today (see Five solas)
Sola scriptura may be contrasted with Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox teaching, in which doctrine is taught by the teaching authority of the Church, drawing on the "Deposit of Faith", based on what they consider to be "Sacred Tradition", of which Scripture is a subset.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sola scriptura - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Now back to Ron Rhodes.
The Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Authority of the Bible
by Ron Rhodes
What Is Inspiration?
Biblical inspiration may be defined as God's superintending of the human authors so that, using their own individual personalities (and even their writing styles), they composed and recorded without error His revelation to man in the words of the original autographs. Inspiration means that "the Holy Spirit of God superintended the human writers in the production of Scripture so that what they wrote was precisely what God wanted written."
When you break the doctrine of inspiration down to its essential elements, there are seven key factors:
· Divine origin and causality;
· Human agency;
· Written verbally (in words);
· Plenary (all of Scripture is inspired, not just parts of it);
· Only the "Autographs" (the original documents penned by the biblical authors) are inspired;
· Because Scripture is inspired, it is inerrant; and
· Because Scripture is inspired and inerrant, it alone has final authority.
The word inspiration literally means "God-breathed" in the Greek. And because Scripture is breathed out by God, it is true and inerrant. Consider the following syllogism:
Major Premise:
God is true (Romans 3:4).
Minor Premise:
God breathed out the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16).
Conclusion:
Therefore, the Scriptures are true (John 17:17).
As illustrated above, the inerrancy of Scripture can be inferred by premises that are themselves taught by Scripture.
We read in Scripture that truth is an attribute of God (Jeremiah 10:10; John 1:14; 14:6; 17:3), and that God speaks truthfully - that is, He does not lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2; Romans 3:3-4).
We also are told that Scripture is "breathed out" by God (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Word of God, then, is true (John 17:14,17; cf. Psalm 119:142; 151; 160; Revelation 21:5; 22:6).
http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Inspiration.html
Now the link between these two ideas is in the phrase final authority. Remember that this idea was developed to counter the teaching that the church was the final authority.
The problem with this all is that even with the Scripture as final authority, there is so much disagreement among believers.
Rhodes presents us with some clear straight forward logical thinking. This is fine. I believe that God expects us to use our minds. As we meditate on the word, we find there are logical connections between it’s themes.
There is nothing wrong with his logic at least at first glance. But logical thinking is just an example of man’s wisdom. In this case, the logical thinking fails because we have neglected the Whole counsel of God.
Acts 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
By this I mean that there are certain scriptures that you have to take into account when considering this doctrine of Sola Scriptura. What if we could use the bible to prove that it is not the final authority?
So here we are, challenging the foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation. Is this heresy or chutzpah?
Nevertheless what saith the scripture…. Galatians 4:30
Here we go.
Second Corinthians 3 tells us that the letter of the law [sola scriptura] kills. It is the ministration of death.
2 Corinthians 3:6-7
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
The New Testament i.e. the Holy Spirit gives life. New testament ministers do not minister the letter of the law. They minister the Spirit. So the New Testament, that is the Covenant, not the Book, is synonymous with the Spirit. If you minister the Spirit, you are ministering the New Covenant. Doesn’t this tell us that the Holy Spirit is the final authority? The author of the scripture has to be the final authority.
Now look at the temptation of Christ and put on your spiritual goggles.
Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
The phrase bread alone signifies the written word, sola scriptura. Jesus contrasts that with the spoken word. In both verses, word is used to translate the Greek rhema, which means utterance, that is something spoken.
God is saying we can’t go by just what the written word [sola scriptura] says, we need him to explain it to us.
Looking back on the idea of inerrancy, it simply tells us that there are no mistakes. The bible contains exactly what God intended for it to say. But God did not want to make everything plain and obvious. He wants it so that we have to seek for that wisdom from above to understand the written word.
1 Corinthians 2:12-16
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
This is very close to what Proverbs 3:5 says.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
To accept the doctrine of Sola Scriptura is to lean on our own understanding.
To be fair, most of those who teach sola scriptura acknowledge the need for the Holy Spirit’s illumination. But this is usually superficial; lip service. More often than not they will resort to some principle such as grammatico-historicaI exegesis. This let’s them get back to using man’s wisdom. And man’s wisdom, plus sola scriptura has given us some 20 thousand protestant denominations as a result.
If we have the written word. And if we have the Holy Spirit to guide us, then there shouldn’t be so much division in the church. Could it be that we don’t really have much access to the Holy Spirit? Could it be that our denominations do not get much input from the Holy Spirit? Could it be that we are not willing to face that fact and wonder why it is? Could it be that there is a lack of faith involved?
Often we hear about disputes over what the bible says. With all the many translations, dictionaries and commentaries, it’s not a problem to know what the bible says. That’s sola scriptura. We know what the bible says.
We rarely agree on what it means. One of my favorite sayings is this.
When two Christians meet the first thing they will do is greet one another in the Lord. Secondly they will find something to disagree about.
Many writers invoke the principle that Scripture interprets scripture. Well exactly how does Scripture interpret scripture? Believe me, it doesn’t use the literal hermeneutic or grammatico-historicaI exegesis. It does it by quoting other scripture and showing logical or thematic connections. For example:
Here is a series of verses dealing with how the Spirit gives us the faith to receive the meaning of the scriptures. This is a case of connecting the dots so you can see the picture.
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
This quote from Hebrews tells us that the word, sola scriptura, must be received with faith, or it is worthless to us.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Here Romans 10 is saying faith comes by hearing. That is through your spiritual headphones.
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, ….
Second Timothy tells us we need to have the scripture given to us by God. Sola scriptura is not enough.
Matthew 19:11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
Matthew 19 here is telling us we can’t receive the scripture unless it is given to us. That would be by the Holy Spirit naturally.
To sum it all up here, Sola Scriptura is not enough. Scripture alone is the letter of the Law that works death.
What else is needed?
First the word must be rightly divided. That is rightly handled and analyzed; and logic carefully applied.
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
And then the word must be given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and received with faith.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
He rewards those who seek him, by letting them find him. He reveals himself.
He that has eyes, has he seen?
He that has ears, has he heard?
Man does not live by bread alone
But by God’s spoken word
End note:
I said earlier that there was nothing wrong with Rhodes’ logic at first glance. But if you look deeper, you can see there is really a problem with it. He is saying everything in the bible is true, therefore it is the final authority. This is an invalid conclusion; it is a fallacy known as a non sequitur, which means not following.
“Because Scripture is inspired and inerrant, it alone has final authority.” Ron Rhodes
How do you get from it being true to concluding that it is the final authority. All that does is prove the bible is a true and accurate authority. Not a final authority. So in this case of faulty logic. It’s unscriptural too.
When the bible says ‘the law’ it is speaking of itself as the written word. Then we can easily show that the bible itself tells us that it is only an intermediate authority.
Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Christ is our final authority. Since we have mentioned that the word must be ‘mixed with faith’, consider the role faith plays as you look at the larger context of this quote.
Galatians 3:23-25
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Galatians 5 says nearly the same thing.
Galatians 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Sola Scriptura Not!