Today we started with the Doctrine of the Word of God, focusing on its Origin, Authority and Inerrancy.
They all go together, really, because the words of the Bible are God’s very words–thus, they carry with them his authority. “What the Bible says, God says.” And, since God is not (nor can be) a liar, his words are always inerrant (or, more simply, true). Since what the Bible says, God says to disbelieve or disobey any of the words of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God himself (Grudem, Systematic Theology
Scripture is the absolute authority because God says it is–and he says that in the Bible. (This raised a few eyebrows, as it should.) We come to know that the Bible is absolutely authoritative (that is, that it does not inherit its validity from literary methodology, from science, from reason, logic, etc. simply because God doesn’t inherit his authority from anything “other.”) The point was made that it is, indeed, a type of a circular argument. However, it must be understood that every argument for an absolute authority will end up appealing to the very authority it’s trying to validate. An argument for the absolute authority of reason will, ultimately, move up the hierarchy of authority and land back on reason itself. (This is the essence of what’s called presuppositional apologetics: no person enters an argument without presuppositions.)
So that section got a bit technical and academic, but it seemed very helpful as people began to realize that bringing people to believe in the authority of scripture cannot be done except by their reading scripture, and having the Holy Spirit open their eyes to its absolute authority. So, fewer dollars wasted on “proof” books for unsaved friends–and more encouragements to just read the Bible for themselves, coupled with prayer for the Holy Spirit to open up their eyes.
The overall theme and manner of presentation was, however, an attempt to impart a reverance and an awe that God speaks to us at all. He didn’t have to. He could’ve been a cruel, cold, and distant tyrannical God. Yet, he has written billions of testimonies to his greatness and goodness in creation and providence and in our consceinces and especially in the Bible: our God speaks to us! What wonder! We imagined how differently we would react to hearing the very words of God speak to us from a burning bush as they did to Moses, or from the lips of Isaiah at Mt. Carmel, compared to how we react to hearing his very words spoken to us through the Bible. We came to realize that, in preferring that God would speak to us with a big and impressive light and smoke show, we were grumbling about the means by which he has graciously chosen to speak to us. We repented, thanked him for his amazing Word, and prayed that we would grow to tremble before his Word as the prophets did–no matter what the means of transmission.
I went over about 5 minutes, and there was far too little time for questions and discussion (~50 min.), but I think (overall,) it went pretty well. I guess we’ll see…
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