Understanding Inerrancy

Bible-aloneJustin Taylor writes: The word inerrant means that something, usually a text, is “without error.” The word infallible—in its lexical meaning, though not necessarily in theological discussions due to Rogers and McKim—is technically a stronger word, meaning that the text is not only “without error” but “incapable of error.” The historic Christian teaching is that the Bible is both inerrant and infallible. It is without error (inerrant) because it is impossible for it to have errors (infallible).

In his chapter on “The Inerrancy of Scripture” in The Doctrine of the Word of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010), John Frame offers some important distinctions and clarifications on the doctrine. He points out that inerrancy suggests to many the idea of precision, rather than its lexical meaning of mere truth.

Frame points out that “precision” and “truth” overlap in meaning but are not synonymous:

A certain amount of precision is often required for truth, but that amount varies from one context to another. In mathematics and science, truth often requires considerable precision. If a student says that 6+5=10, he has not told the truth. He has committed an error. If a scientist makes a measurement varying by .0004 cm of an actual length, he may describe that as an “error,” as in the phrase “margin of error.”

Frame then reminds us that truth and precision are usually more distinct when we move outside the fields of mathematics and science: Continue reading

Miscellaneous Quotes (85)

quotes“The nature of the Divine goodness is not only to open to those who knock. but also to cause them to knock and ask.”- Augustine

“The best of men are only men at their very best. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, – martyrs, fathers, reformers, puritans, – all are sinners, who need a Savior: holy, useful, honorable in their place – but sinners after all.” – J.C. Ryle

“O that I could do more for Him! O that I was a flame of pure and holy fire and had a thousand lives to spend in the dear Redeemer’s Service. The sight of so many perishing souls affects me much and makes me long to go if possible from pole to pole, to proclaim redeeming love.” – George Whitefield

“It has been rightly said that the greatest joy is knowing Christ and the second greatest is making Him known.” – Steven Lawson

“By definition, the big difference between mercy and justice, is that mercy is never, never, never, obligatory.” – R.C. Sproul

“By taking upon Himself the punishment of our sins demanded by the Law, the Lord Jesus Christ was establishing the Law.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans – Atonement And Justification)

“He who believes the truth enters on the enjoyment of a happiness which is of the same nature, and springs from the same sources, as the happiness of God. Jehovah rests and rejoices in the manifestation made of His all-perfect character in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And he who believes enters into this rest and participates in this joy.” – John Brown, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1862), I:210.

“Heaven would be hell to me without Christ.” – Thomas Goodwin

“Without God upholding the universe from moment to moment, nothing could continue to be.” – R.C. Sproul

“…the whole counsel of God must be proclaimed by men who are clothed in humility, bathed in tears, and who have endured through difficult trials.” – Rick Gamble

“Men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. They think it is a boldness to eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving. I speak of saints. They can judge him hard, austere, severe, almost implacable, and fierce (the very worst affections of the very worst of men, and most hated by God). Is not this soul-deceit from Satan? Was it not his design from the beginning to inject such thoughts of God? Assure yourself, then, there is nothing more acceptable to the Father than for us to keep up our hearts unto him as the eternal fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus.” – John Owen, Works (Edinburgh, 1980), II:35. Slightly updated.

“A Christian is distinguished by his conversation. He will often trim a sentence where others would have made it far more luxuriant by a jest which was not altogether clean. If he would have a jest, he picks the mirth but leaves the sin; his conversation is not used to levity; it is not mere froth, but it ministers grace to the hearers. He has learned where the salt-box is kept in God’s great house, and so his speech is always seasoned with it, so that it may do no hurt but much good. Oh! commend me to the man who talks like Jesus, who will not for the world suffer corrupt communications to come out of his mouth. I know what people will say of you if you are like this: they will say you are straight-laced, and that you will not throw much life into company. Others will call you mean-spirited. Oh, my brethren! bold-hearted men are always called mean-spirited by cowards. They will admonish you not to be singular, but you can tell them that it is no folly to be singular, when to be singular is to be right. I know they will say you deny yourselves a great deal, but you will remind them that it is no denial to you.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Clean and the Unclean, 1863.

“The Lord knows very well that you cannot change your own heart and cannot cleanse your own nature. However, He also knows that he can do both. Hear this and be astonished. He can create you a second time. He can cause you to be born again.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The true way of salvation can be summed up like this: it is entirely the result of God’s election. There is only one explanation of why any single person has ever been saved, and it is the action and the choice of God. There is nothing in us that contributes to salvation – nothing at al!” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans – Saving Faith)

“Satan can do only what the sovereign God allows him to do.” – R.C. Sproul

“Pray that I may be very little in my own eyes, and not rob my dear Master of any part of his glory.” – George Whitefield

“The greatest danger to the pilgrim is growing to love something, anything, more than one loves the celestial city.” – Voddie Baucham

These Are They; No More Night

Revelation 7: 9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

These are they:

Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

No More Night:

Ten Basic Facts About The New Testament Canon

Mike Kruger, author of Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Crossway, 2012) and the forthcoming The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate (IVP, 2013), has a helpful series on the New Testament canon, linked below, “designed to help Christians understand ten basic facts about its origins. This series is designed for a lay-level audience and hopefully could prove helpful in a conversation one might have with a skeptical friend.” Here are the ten facts he covers:

1. “The New Testament Books are the Earliest Christian Writings We Possess”
2. “Apocryphal Writings Are All Written in the Second Century or Later”
3. “The New Testament Books Are Unique Because They Are Apostolic Books”
4. “Some NT Writers Quote Other NT Writers as Scripture”
5. “The Four Gospels are Well Established by the End of the Second Century”
6. “At the End of the Second Century, the Muratorian Fragment lists 22 of Our 27 NT Books”
7. “Early Christians Often Used Non-Canonical Writings”
8. “The NT Canon Was Not Decided at Nicea—Nor Any Other Church Council”
9. “Christians Did Disagree about the Canonicity of Some NT Books”
10. “Early Christians Believed that Canonical Books Were Self-Authenticating”

Here’s a link to the links:

HT: Jastin Taylor

Poem – The Book of Life

bookoflifeThe Book of Life, by John Piper

Before the night he was betrayed,
The Lord of glory died;
Indeed before the world was made,
The Lamb was crucified.

Before the sin, the spear, the lash
(Eternal was the flood!)
God put his inkwell at the gash,
And filled it with his blood;

Then with his crimson ink and quill,
A holy world compiled,
And wrote his kind and costly will:
The name of ev’ry child.

Then, finally, with tears, he took
A blade to foreordain,
And graved the title of the book:
The Life, the Lamb, the Slain.

* * *

And if your name is written there,
Though you may be the least,
You will not fall to any snare,
Nor bow before the Beast.

You will not marvel when it roars,
Nor any feat admire,
Nor drink the poison that it pours,
Nor taste the Lake of Fire.

But you will live forevermore,
Where dusk and dawn are done.
The Lamb will be the moon, and soar
Around an endless Sun.

And if, lamblike, you taste his shame
And finish life abased,
Remember, written one, your name
Will never be erased.

* * *

And so you ask, “How may I know
My name is in the Book?
May I beseech my God to show
The page where I may look?”

No. None may peer within by prayer,
Nor if he wait, or strive.
You know your name is written there,
Because you are alive.

Rejoice, my child, all heaven sings
When you make demons fall.
And yet to be inscribed with kings
In heav’n surpasses all.

* * * * * * *

Revelation 13:7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear…

Purgatory, Indulgences, the Treasury of Merit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

purgatory2As you may have heard in the news this week, the new Pope (Francis), wishing to make use of the new social media announced that indulgences would be granted not only to those who attend the upcoming Roman Catholic Youth Day celebration in Brazil (a week-long event which starts tomorrow, July 22), but also to those who follow the event online, and especially follow his tweets on twitter. Some people seem very surprised by this announcement and yet the only thing new about it is the twitter component. The doctrine of Indulgences remains a central teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

PURGATORY: (Latin: purgatorium; from purgare, “to purge”) – the condition, process, or place of purification. This is a place of PURGING or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven.

The doctrine of purgatory is an integral doctrine to the Roman Catholic understanding of redemption. It is the place where the vast majority of even professing Christians go upon their death.

As recently as the Roman Catholic Catechism, the Church declares that if a person dies with any spot or blemish or stain on their soul – any impurity – instead of going directly to heaven they must first go to this place of purging which is this intermediate state between earth and heaven. Rome makes clear that purgatory is not hell. It is not a place of the punitive wrath of God, but it is a place for the corrective wrath of God, as it were, where the sanctifying process is continued through the crucible of fire.

A person may be there for two weeks or they may be there for two hundred million years – as long as it takes for a person to become truly righteous – inherently righteous, and once that process is completed, they can be declared justified by God and released into heaven.

I’d now like to go through all the Bible verses that teach the doctrine of purgatory ________________________.

Ok.. well that did not take long, because there are none! That’s right, we do not find either the word or the concept of “purgatory” in the Bible. It is a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church that developed over a long period of time. Continue reading

Miscellaneous Quotes (84)

quotes“Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” – Martin Luther

“Have thou ever in thy mind this seal, which for the present has been lightly touched in my discourse, by way of summary, but shall be stated, should the Lord permit, to the best of my power with the proof from the Scriptures. For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell thee these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.” – Cyril of Jerusalem, 313 – 386 AD – Catechetical Lecture 4, 17)

“We love people by telling them the best news in all the world: The God against whom you have committed treason, offers complete amnesty, freely. He will commute your death sentence. He will forgive your treasonous intentions and actions and feelings. He will put away his just and holy anger against you. And not only that, he will adopt you into his royal family and make you an heir with his Son. And lest you doubt that this is possible for him to simply justify the wicked, he put forward his Son to bear the death sentence and duty that you have failed to perform, if you would have him. He raised him from the dead so to show that the death of his Son was sufficient. He offers you now all of this through his Son. It is all free. You cannot earn it. You cannot deserve it. The condition is to lay down the arms of treason, the arms of rebellion, and bow in humble helpless dependence on free mercy from the King and receive his full pardon and amnesty and acceptance. We preach that, indiscriminately, to everybody.” – John Piper

“Christ did not die on the cross for us because we are so valuable. We are so valuable because Christ died on the cross for us.” – R. C. Sproul, Jr.

“‘Be still and know that I am God’ is not first about inner peace but about beholding God’s self-exalting work among the nations.” (Ps 46:8-10) – Justin Taylor

“…the higher purpose of the cross was that the Father would be glorified by the satisfaction of His justice.” – R.C. Sproul

“What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is lack of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercise. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterward be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you, and in particular yours.” – John Wesley, writing to a younger minister, quoted in D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, Letters Along The Way (Wheaton, 1993), page 169.

“He that will play with Satan’s bait, will quickly be taken with Satan’s hook.” – Thomas Brooks

“My God, I have never thanked you for my thorn! I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed to you by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.” – George Matheson // “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:9).

“Salvation isn’t about praying a special prayer, walking an aisle, or any other ritual. It’s about bowing to the Lord in repentance and faith, submitting to His Word, and worshiping Him in spirit and truth. Anything short of that is empty religion.” – John MacArthur

“Advice to aspiring ministers: Get in the Word. Stay in the Word. Master the Word. And for heaven’s sake, preach the Word!” – R. C. Sproul

“There will be three effects of nearness to Jesus—humility, happiness, and holiness.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The first act of redemption was God stooping to cover the shame of his creatures.” – R.C. Sproul

Not God, Not Christ

and I will never forget him.

After his death in 1976, my dad, who was his pastor, received Prof. Smith’s personal New Testament. Upon my dad’s death in 2007, I received this same New Testament. I find it marked up by Prof. Smith in personal ways.

For example, on the Romans 8 page, where the King James Version says, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?”, Smith jotted in the margin, “Not God!” And where it says, “Who is he that condemneth?”, he noted, “Not Christ!”

Does that seem too obvious to mention? To me, it is significant. Here’s how. Smith’s clear this-and-not-that way of thinking is categorical, even simple, and very apostolic. When I listen to some preachers, it’s not just that I disagree with their conclusions; it’s that I disagree with their mode of thinking. Not all considerations in theology are blindingly obvious. But then, when we preach, we do not make those more difficult matters our great message. We are not there to proclaim a grand maybe-ism. The apostles certainly weren’t. We are there, as they were, to declare a sure word of hope to desperate people for whom everything is on the line. They need to hear a word from God himself, through us, that this is what the gospel is, and that isn’t. Then their hearts can come to rest in the authority of it.

People need and deserve apostolic clarity.

TULIP Summation

From a series of short blog articles at ligonier.org entitled “TULIP and Reformed Theology” by R C Sproul:

Just a few years before the Pilgrims landed on the shores of New England in the Mayflower, a controversy erupted in the Netherlands and spread throughout Europe and then around the world. It began within the theological faculty of a Dutch institution that was committed to Calvinistic teaching. Some of the professors there began to have second thoughts about issues relating to the doctrines of election and predestination. As this theological controversy spread across the country, it upset the church and theologians of the day. Finally, a synod was convened. Issues were squared away and the views of certain people were rejected, including those of a man by the name of Jacobus Arminius.

The group that led the movement against orthodox Reformed theology was called the Remonstrants. They were called the Remonstrants because they were remonstrating or protesting against certain doctrines within their own theological heritage. There were basically five doctrines that were the core of the controversy. As a result of this debate, these five core theological issues became known in subsequent generations as the “five points of Calvinism.” They are now known through the very popular acrostic TULIP, which is a clever way to sum up the five articles that were in dispute. The five points, as they are stated in order to form the acrostic TULIP, are: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.

I mention this historical event because it would be a serious mistake to understand the essence of Reformed theology simply in light of these five doctrines—the Reformed faith involves many other elements of theological and ecclesiastical confession. However, these are the five controversial points of Reformed theology, and they are the ones that are popularly seen as distinctive to this particular confession. Over the next five posts, we are going to spend some time looking at these five points of Calvinism as they are spelled out in the acrostic TULIP.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY
The doctrine of total depravity reflects the Reformed viewpoint of original sin. That term—original sin—is often misunderstood in the popular arena. Some people assume that the term original sin must refer to the first sin—the original transgression that we’ve all copied in many different ways in our own lives, that is, the first sin of Adam and Eve. But that’s not what original sin has referred to historically in the church. Rather, the doctrine of original sin defines the consequences to the human race because of that first sin. Continue reading

Grace Finds Us

grace02This is just brilliant! I so wish Christians could understand this.

In an article entitled, “We Don’t Find Grace, Grace Finds Us” Tullian Tchividjian writes:

I love the introduction to Sally Lloyd-Jones’ Jesus Storybook Bible. A piece of it goes like this:

“Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but…most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean. No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne – everything – to rescue the one he loves.”

She’s right. I think that most people, when they read the Bible (and especially when they read the Old Testament), read it as a catalog of heroes (on the one hand) and cautionary tales (on the other). For instance, don’t be like Cain — he killed his brother in a fit of jealousy – but do be like Noah: God asked him to do something crazy, and he had the faith to follow through.

Running counter to this idea of Bible-as-hero-catalog, I find that some of the best news in the Bible is that God incessantly comes to the down-trodden, broken, and non-heroic characters. It’s good news because it means he comes to people like me — and like you. It’s very interesting to note that even the characters we think have spotless records (like Noah) need the direct intervention of the true “lamb without blemish.”

Noah is often presented to us as the first character in the Bible really worthy of emulation. Adam? Sinner. Eve? Sinner. Cain? Big sinner! But Noah? Finally, someone we can set our sights on, someone we can shape our lives after, right? This is why so many Sunday School lessons handle the story of Noah like this: “Remember, you can believe what God says! Just like Noah! You too can stand up to unrighteousness and wickedness in our world like Noah did. Don’t be like the bad people who mocked Noah. Be like Noah.”

I understand why many would read this account in this way. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that Noah “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:9)? Pretty incontrovertible, right?

Not so fast. Continue reading