Sunday Sermons
Thy Word is Truth
Thy Word is Truth
The Bible claims to be the Word of God, “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16), the product not of human wisdom, but Divine inspiration, “Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21). Jesus viewed the Word of God, the Scriptures, not as man’s interpretation of the truth, nor man’s version of the truth, but “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). Jesus also viewed the Scriptures as being what God actually said and not what someone thought God said, “Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God” (Matthew 22:31). He also viewed that what had been written in the Scriptures was authoritative, the final word on the matter (Luke 10:25-26; 16:29-31; Matthew 5:18; John 10:35 “and the Scripture cannot be broken”). “‘Notice that He says this, not in connection with some declaration which might be regarded as among the key declarations of the Old Testament, but of what we might perhaps call without disrespect a rather run-of-the-mill passage” (John, Morris, p. 526). Not even the most “ordinary” can be broken. Every passage stands equally authoritative and equally inspired. “If the Scripture speaks, the issue is settled once and for all…The contemporary existential and subjective validation of the Word (i.e. various passages become or do not become the Word of God in the mind of the reader) is crushed by this statement”(Butler p. 127).
Modern Trends
In the book Jesus at 2000, Marcus J. Borg notes that he is a mainline Christian and that he no longer believes that Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity are the only way of salvation. Rather he believes that Christianity is one of the ways humans have responded to God. In addition he no longer believes that the Bible is literally the words of God, as if it were a divine product, unlike any other piece of literature. He then notes, “I do not think the Bible must be literally true in order to be true; we should not confuse ‘truth’ with ‘literal truth’ or ‘historical fact’” (p. 122). He claims that many mainline Christians believe the above view. Before we move on, it is always interesting for me to read the works of religious scholars and then ask if their theories would work in the real world. In the business world if there any difference between truth and literal truth? How about in construction? Or contracts and legal documents? Can a student in college or high school argue that while his answers are not literally truth, they still are the truth? Does the same distinction apply to things that are lies? Falsehood and literal falsehood? Mr. Borg does admit that the reason that many people rejected the Bible during the Enlightenment was because of a skepticism about supernatural intervention (p. 126). More accurately, we could note that it was a prejudice against supernatural intervention, yet if there is a God for whose existence the universe abounds with proof (Psalm 19:1-2; Romans 1:20), then we would expect supernatural intervention.
Arguments Against the Bible
The Creation: It is argued that the opening chapters of Genesis are a view of the beginning that was borrowed from Babylonian thought. Yet these early chapters do not read like they were borrowed from a culture in which many gods were worshipped. The order of Creation is very logical, nothing weird or mythical happens in these verses, and there is nothing contrary to science. Before plants are created, we have the formation of light and dry land. Before animals are created, we find that food for them has already been prepared. Before man is created, a finished planet and solar system has been already provided. We should not be surprised that other cultures would have Creation stories or flood stories, seeing that all ancient cultures were the descendants of Noah and his sons (Genesis 10). The Babylonian account of Creation is simply an illustration of what happens when truth becomes corrupted due to man’s departure from God (Romans 1:18ff).
Genesis Chapters 1 and 2: Borg argues that there are two different stories of creation (Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Genesis 2:4b-3:24). From this argument he attempts to prove that more than one voice is speaking in the Scriptures, therefore it is a purely human product. In contrast, Jesus believed that both chapters harmonized (Matthew 19:4-5). In one breath Jesus quoted verses from both chapters as making sense together. “Chapter two zeroes in on the events of the sixth day, detailing the creation of the sexes. The former pictures the creation of male and female as simultaneous, while the latter puts the creation of the sexes into a time-frame” (Women, Creation and the Fall, Mary. A. Kassian, p. 14). “Man is now the pivot of the story, as in chapter one he was the climax. Everything is told in terms of him. It is misleading to call this a second creation account, for it hastens to localize the scene, passing straight from the world at large to ‘a garden in the east’; all that follows is played out on this narrow stage” (Kidner p. 6).
Exodus 14:21-29: He claims that this section teaches two different accounts of the crossing of the sea at the time of the exodus from Egypt. I have read this section many times and there is no “second” or different account. Obviously someone would have to have a definite agenda to find any contradiction in the above verses.
Job and Proverbs: He claims that sometimes the biblical writers disagree with each other. “A classic example: the author of Job challenges the claim of the book of Proverbs that God has set things up in such a way that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer. Not so, the author of Job says. There seems to be more than one voice speaking in the biblical tradition”(pp. 125-126). Actually, Job prospered both before and after his trials (Job 1:1-3; 42:10). Nowhere does the Bible teach that bad things will never happen to God’s people, in fact the opposite is often asserted (Matthew 5:10-12; Acts 14:22). It is also false to claim that the book of Proverbs teaches that bad things never happen to the faithful or that the wicked never succeed(Proverbs 29:2 “when a wicked man rules”; Proverbs 28:11-12 “The rich man is wise in his own eyes”, “when the wicked rise, men hide themselves”—in the context this rises is one of triumph and prosperity. In fact, there is a prayer in chapter 30:7-9 in which a righteous man prays that prosperity would not corrupt him and that poverty would not move him to steal, thus he prays that God would simply give him the food that is his portion.
The Gospels: The claim is made that the gospels reveal a developing tradition of how early Christians viewed Jesus. That is, the Gospels do not reveal what Jesus actually did or said, but what early Christians thought. Borg notes, “The Gospels are not biographies, and their concern is not historical factuality; rather, they seek to express what Jesus had become in the life and thought of early Christian communities” (p. 129). Yet this statement conflicts with what the Gospels actually said about themselves. Luke claims that he had investigated everything carefully, solicited eyewitness testimony, arranged it in consecutive order so that Theophilus would know “the exact truth about the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1-4). To claim that the Gospels are not written as a biography or what actually happened is to deny what they actually say, (Luke 1:5 “In the days of Herod”; 2:1; 3:1 “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar”). The gospel of John has these words,“This is the disciple who bears witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true” (John 21:24).
It is argued that prior to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John there existed an earlier gospel (which is called “Q”). Even though there is no evidence for such a document, liberal scholars assure us that it existed and that it contained no narratives about Jesus, no miracle stories, no stories about Jesus’ birth, journey to Jerusalem, or death and resurrection. Why do they know exactly what was not in this supposed gospel? Because they already have decided that there has never been any supernatural intervention in this world and therefore Jesus was not God in the flesh, He did not work any miracles, and He never rose from the dead. This is not scholarship, rather this is determining beforehand what you will believe and not believe before you even hear any of the evidence.
Jesus Walking on the Water: (Mark 6:45-52; Matthew 14:22-33). It is contended that Matthew copied from Mark, and he changed the ending of the story because he found the way Mark told the story unsatisfactory, which proves that a human author was at work who felt free to modify the story. These scholars especially do not like it when Matthew writes that the disciples said, “You are certainly God’s Son!” (Matthew 14:33). They argue that in Mark’s gospel Jesus never claimed to be God’s Son and that this is something that was added as time passed. The truth of the matter is that Mark begins his gospel with the phrase, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). In this chapter we have an account of Jesus’ baptism where He is declared to be God’s Son (1:11). Mark has the Old Testament confessing the true nature of Jesus(1:1-2), and demons confessing His true nature (1:24); “And whenever the unclean spirits beheld Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, saying, ‘You are the Son of God!’” (3:11). In addition, Jesus performing a number of miracles in this very first chapter (1:31,34,39,40; 2:1-12; 3:1ff). In fact, Mark records Jesus answering “yes” to the question, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61). The fact that Mark does not record a statement that Matthew records does not mean that Matthew was adding his own preconceived ideas, rather even John admits that he did not write everything that Jesus did or said (John 20:30), therefore it should not surprise us that each Gospel may have a little more information on certain points than another.
Double-Talk
“The denial that the Bible is a divine product is sufficiently startling to some people that a few clarifying words may be helpful. This claim need not involve a denial of either the reality of God nor the activity of the Spirit in people’s lives. It is completely possible to affirm both the reality of God and the activity of the Spirit without also affirming that the Bible is the unique and direct revelation of God. This position is not atheistic. Moreover, it is possible to hold this position and still regard the Bible highly as the Word of God. The Bible as God’s Word suggests that it is a means whereby God becomes known to us. One can affirm the Bible is the Word of God without seeing it as the words of God” (p. 126). This statement is consistent, if the Bible is a human product, then the “words” are man’s words, not God’s words. Secondly, to claim that there has been no supernatural intervention into our world is to deny any activity on the part of God or the Spirit. I suspect that the reason for this sort of back-peddling is because if these scholars really came out and spoke from their pulpits or classrooms that the Bible is a book of lies (which is really what they are saying), very few people would listen to them. In contrast to the above double-talk, Paul noted that if he was preaching something that was not true, then he would be guilty of being a false witness (1 Corinthians 15:15). Either the Biblical writers were moved by the Holy Spirit to infallibly write what actually happened, or they were liars, there is no middle ground.
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
