3. The Attributes of Holy Scripture Flashcards
Number of books in OT?
39
The Bible’s attribute #1
The Bible’s necessity
Number of books in NT?
27
Number of biblical books?
66
The Bible’s attribute #2
The Bible’s inspiration
Criteria to determine canonicity
- Apostolic (authored or endorsed by an apostle)
- Antiquity (written in apostolic age)
- Orthodoxy (is the book doctrinally correct?)
- Catholicity (universally accepted throughout the church?)
- Lection (widely used in churches?)
- Inspiration (is the book inspired?)
The Bible’s attribute #3
Biblical infallibility
Definition of infallibility
The Bible is true – devoid of and incapable of teaching falsehood or error of any kind in all that it intends to affirm.
Definition of inerrancy
The Bible does not err in any of its affirmations, whether those affirmations be in the spheres of spiritual realities, morals, history or science, and is therefore incapable of teaching error.
Objection to inerrancy: The Bible writers do not claim inerrancy.
They do:
John 17:17
2 Peter 1:20–21
Objection to inerrancy: It leads to bondage to a book and therefore spiritual bondage.
Inerrancy guarantees the truthfulness of Scripture, and truth never binds one unwholesomely. Truth sets us free from bondage to sin – John 8:32.
Objection to inerrancy: it denies the human element (all humans err, therefore scripture must err)
A fallacious argument. Humans may often err, but it is not intrinsic to human nature to always err. It is possible to say things that contain no errors, and the Holy Spirit ensures human erring is not present in scripture. Compare to Jesus, fully human, who did not err.
Objection: Inerrancy makes Scripture the object of the Christian’s worship.
A groundless charge – no evangelical has ever worshipped the Bible, but is convinced we must never separate Christ’s words in scripture from Christ himself.
Objection to inerrancy: it is a ploy to justify a narrow theological stance.
Biblical inerrancy flows out of a submission to the Scripture’s teaching about the nature of God – by nature God is trustworthy, he cannot lie. It the Bible is God’s word, the Bible must be likewise trustworthy and true.
The Bible’s Attribute #4
The Bible’s Authority
Why ought the Bible to be believed?
…it is to be believed because it is the word of God.
WCF I/iv
What do classical apologists put forward to argue for the Bible’s authority?
They progress from the premise of the Bible’s basic or general reliability to the conclusion of its infallibility and hence of its divine authoritativeness.
What is the issue with the classic apologetic argument for the Bible’s authority?
It relies upon human authority to declare the Bible as generally reliable. This is a herculean task to undertake, and will not convince the sceptic.
The Bible’s Attribute #5
The Bible’s Self-Authentication
What is meant by the Bible’s self-authentication?
The Bible shows itself to be the Word of God – self-authenticating, self-evidencing, self-attesting, self-validating.
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #1
The heavenliness of its subject matter
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #2
The efficacy of its doctrine
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #3
The majesty of its style
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #4
The consent of all its parts
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #5
The purpose of the whole, namely, to give all glory to God
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #6
The full disclosure it makes of the only way of salvation
If the Bible is self-authenticatingly the Word of God, why do not all men believe it as such?
Because all men have spiritual blindness and require the inward work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the heart.
How does the Holy Spirit enable us to receive the Bible as God’s infallible Word?
The testimony of the Holy Spirit is not so much the final ground of faith, but rather the means of faith – the final ground of faith is the authority of God impressed upon the believer in the testimony of Scripture.
Illustration that demonstrates how the Bible can be infallible, yet not recognised by men as such.
The radio transmitter and home receiver.
The Bible is like a radio transmitter that sends out a perfect signal. The problem is with the home receiver – the heart – that scrambles the message and does not allow us to hear it clearly.
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #6
The Bible’s Sufficiency
Definition of cessation
The revelatory gifts embodied in the living organs of revelation (apostle, prophet, glossolalist etc) passed out of the life of the church with the completion of the inscripturated canon.
Evidence for cessation
- Ephesians 2:20 – Apostle and Prophet are the foundation of the church.
- 2 Tim 3:16–17 – Scripture thoroughly equips the man of God for every good work
- Biblical theological suggestion that a shift took place in the first-century church from living prophets to reading and studying the Word (1 Thess 5:20 –> 1 Tim 4:13)
- List of qualifications for officers shows selection by prudent discernment and not prophetic word (1 Tim 3, Titus 1, cf. Acts 13:1–2)
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #7
The Bible’s Perspicuity
Scripture evidence for the Bible’s perspicuity
Psalm 119:105
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
The self-authenticating attribute of the Bible #8
The Bible’s Finality
What is meant by the Bible’s finality?
It is the only revelation of the mind and will of God available to us. It is the only extant revelatory Word of God. It answers the question “what should be our final authority in all religious controversy?”
What does the Bible’s finality militate against?
a) Rome’s appeal to tradition and the ‘living voice’ of God in the pontiff
b) the claim to special revelation by means of mystical inner light
c) Islam’s claims about the Koran
d) Mormon claims respecting the Book of Mormon
Why is the Bible final?
a) We no longer have prophets,
b) nor our Lord here on earth
c) we do not have new organs of revelation as in apostolic times
What kind of authority do translations of the Bible possess?
Bible translations have derived authority, to the extent that they capture the authorial intention of the autographs.
Define inerrant autograph
An inerrant autograph is the original written Word of God. We no longer have these originals.
Define errant apograph
An errant apograph is a copy of an inerrant autograph.
Biblical evidence for the Bible’s necessity
Romans 1:20 – All ‘the light of nature’ can do is leave men’s idolatry without excuse. The Bible is necessary for salvation.
