Did GOD Truly Say? This is the silent question Satan suggested in Genesis 3.
All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.” – Charles Spurgeon
A pastor says the Bible is not the Word of GOD. When Satan lied in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3), he accused GOD of lying and tempted Adam and Eve to question The Creator, The Most High. Did GOD truly say ? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word? Yes, GOD did say and Yes, The Holy Bible is the Word of GOD. Quotes, excerpts and paraphrasing below are from an article in Christian Post by Leonardo Blair, unless otherwise noted.
The pastor of a so-called ‘progressive’ Christian church in Nashville Tennessee made a public statement about the Bible in a recent sermon. Seek the Narrow Gate believes the pastor was wrong. You may ask by what authority I make this claim? The Bible is useful for reproof and correction (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Seek the Narrow Gate recognizes the Bible as GOD’s Word and part of the mission here is to gently and kindly point out places where error lies. Christians claim to follow Jesus Christ; Jesus recognized the scriptures as inspired by GOD. Remember that the scripture Jesus refers to in the 1st century is what we call the Old Testament. This is one part of the Bible many modern members of Christendom protest against, as evidenced by this pastor taking issue with things like “genocide … divinely sanctioned” and others1. According to the article in Christian Post, when the pastor described what he thinks the Bible actually does say, there is no mention of the doctrine of salvation through belief in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. The entire Bible points to the Messiah and His mission on earth to redeem us from our sin through that single pivotal act on the cross.
-. . . “GracePointe Church, led by Pastor Josh Scott, shared a recap of the day’s message on Facebook, discussing the Bible and the question: “What Is Progressive Christianity?” “As Progressive Christians, we’re open to the tensions and inconsistencies in the Bible. We know that it can’t live up to impossible, modern standards. We strive to more clearly articulate what Scripture is and isn’t,” the church noted before stating what the Bible is and isn’t.” . . . “The Bible,” the church said, “isn’t: the Word of God, self-interpreting, a science book, an answer/rule book, inerrant or infallible.” Rather, it is: “a product of community, a library of texts, multi-vocal, a human response to God, living and dynamic.”
Quoted from an article1 in Christian Post2 by Leonardo Blair3.
Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word? The Holy Bible IS the Inerrant and Infallible Word of GOD
Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word? The pastor makes claims about what the Bible is and isn’t and shares some of the reasons why he doesn’t like part of what he reads there. Those are the main points of the conversation, which were also presented in a graphic and posted on Facebook. Seek the Narrow Gate (STNG) holds the position that the Holy Bible, in its original autographs, is the actual, directly inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of GOD. For purposes of this article and all discussions on STNG, we stand on the truth claim that GOD’s revealed truth is found in the 66 books of the Protestant Bible, in the original languages and autographs. You can read a larger discussion about what truth is here in a previous post. Let’s dig into the statements by this pastor from several different perspectives and see what we find.
This post is the first of several on this subject and each will address that question: “Is the Bible the Word of GOD?” from a different viewpoint. Let’s begin with the pastor’s statements, which are quoted in this article by the Christian Post and also here by the Christian News Network. As we work our way through this article and respond here, we will pull out the specific points mentioned above and respond to them. This post will focus on the statements from that perspective. Future posts will show evidence in defense of the Bible’s authenticity, inerrancy and authority. These will include prophetic evidence for the Bible as GOD’s Word, why the Bible must stand as a whole and cannot be divided into GOD’s Word plus man’s writings, what the Bible says about its origin and others.
What is Progressive (?) Christianity?
Pastor Josh Scott refers to the theology of his church as ‘progressive Christianity’ and his church members as ‘progressive Christians’. This link will take you to a YouTube video where so-called ‘progressive Christianity’ is discussed – or explained – or something. A response to that video may – or may not – be the subject of a future blog post. Christianity, true Christianity and true Christians, is a term and a group of people that is not compatible with any adjective. A person either is a Christian or they are not. The word progressive does not fit with Christianity any more than any other modifier does. A Christian is by definition, someone who has trusted and believed in the saving grace and substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, regardless of any other view(s) they may hold.
A person may be progressive in their political, social or other views but the only accurate and true view of Christian faith is not determined by any person or persons, any social convention, or anything else except the truth GOD revealed to us through His Word. GOD ordained Christianity in the form He wished before the foundation of the universe (Matt. 25:34 and Hebrews 9:22-28) and no human viewpoint can change that. We are either in Christ or we are not, as Paul makes clear in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Those who are saved are a new creation and this creation is of GOD and not of us (Gal. 2:19-21 and Eph. 2:8-9). This has nothing to do with culture, skin color, language, denomination, profession, status, past or future sin, Bible translations we read or anything else.
Christians and Christendom
We’ll take a side track here for a minute; Seek the Narrow Gate distinguishes between Christianity and Christendom and also between churches and GOD’s Church. See the forthcoming Seek the Narrow Gate dictionary for definitions of terms as used here. Christendom has people in its ranks who are not Christians, people who go to a church but are not part of GOD’s Church. Jesus makes this very clear in the parable of the wheat and tares in Matt. 13:24-30 and Matt. 36-42. True Christianity, not some fanciful expression of religion or an appeal to faith which GOD will not recognize (Matthew 7:22-23), neither needs an adjective nor is any adjective acceptable for use with this term. A person is either in Christ or they are not.
Did GOD Truly Say? The Bible claims to be GOD’s Word
Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word? The Bible claims to be the Word of GOD in many places, some direct and some indirect. We will look first at 2 Tim. 3:16; this verse is part of a letter Paul wrote to his protégé’ Timothy. He urges Timothy to remember that the scriptures are not of human origin. He uses the Greek word θεόπνευστος (theopneustos), translated in the KJV and NKJV as ‘given by inspiration of GOD’ and in the ESV as ‘breathed out by GOD’. The Bible claims to be inspired by GOD in other places, including: 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Hebrews 4:12, Zechariah 1:5-6, Matthew 24:35, and 1 Peter 1:24-25. This presents quite a dilemma for someone who says that some but not all of the Bible is GOD’s Word. What standard should be used to determine what parts are GOD’s inspired Word and what parts are simply man’s writing of poetry, musing or something else? Do we throw out the part that tells the ugly history of Israel, or throw out the parts that are difficult to understand, or do we just keep all of it and ignore what we want to? Is there a difference between ripping out pages and ignoring them?
The subject of “How We Got Our Bible” is longer and more involved than we will go into here but you can look forward to some history and other insight on that subject in future posts. For now, please consider reviewing the discussion in this YouTube video from the 2018 G3 Conference between Dr. James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries and Dr. Michael Kruger of canon fodder as they discuss the canon of scripture . The issue, and the challenge for Pastor Scott, centers around the idea that GOD gave mankind His Word, whether or not we recognize that word. GOD protected that Word because it is His specific revelation to us. Belief in the Almighty necessarily leads to an understanding that He has the power to ensure His revelation to mankind is sufficient and complete. We may find tension within the text but GOD never said it would all be comforting.
The pastor said there is a tension in the Bible. This is somewhat true but perhaps it is not the kind he is thinking about. The tension, or opposing views held in balance, includes such things as the balance between grace and wrath. Specific to this post is the balance between the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in GOD’s direct revelation and use of human authors through whom the original autographs were divulged, penned and passed down. We should never forget that the Bible contains both GOD’s viewpoint and also mankind’s viewpoint of some things.There is however, no inconsistency or contradiction in the Bible. Some things may be appear inconsistent but a careful and thorough evaluation of the scripture through diligent study will reveals in every single case, the rock solid internal consistency of the entire Bible. The consistency of the Word has been upheld repeatedly by scholars for the better part of 2000 years. There is a long tradition of Biblical scholars opposing claims about what the Bible is and isn’t. This is not the first time a person has asked “Did GOD Truly Say”?
Did GOD Truly Say? The Bible “isn’t” . . .
Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word? According to the pastor of the Nashville church, the Bible:
“isn’t: the Word of God” – STNG’s response: The Bible says it is the Word of GOD. If someone does not agree with this yet claims to worship GOD as presented in the parts of the Bible they happen to like, the parts that make them feel good, this raises questions for me. Why don’t these people just rip out the pages they don’t like and make their own god in the image they choose? It might make them feel good about their religious views but that is NOT Christianity. Remaking GOD in man’s image might, just maybe, violate one or two of GOD’s commandments.
… [isn’t] self-interpreting – STNG’s response: It is helpful to understand the cultural and literary context of the Bible (in fact it is essential for good exegesis) but that in itself will not decipher the more subtle truths in the scripture. Each part of the overall message is scattered throughout all 66 books. The message remains whole and consistent – even to the extent that the things dimly seen, the types and shadows – the foreshadowed events and persons – remain consistent representations of future events. The future incarnation of Jesus Christ is only one of these events; there are others.
… [isn’t] “a science book” – STNG’s response: It was never intended to be a science book but strangely (or not?), it includes scientific facts which were not known to mankind until many hundreds of years later. This in itself shows that the scientific data represented in some of its passages is accurate, and I challenge anyone to dispute these findings or explain away how the Bible accurately described these facts long before humans were able to do so ourselves.
… [isn’t] “an answer/rule book” – STNG’s response: It answers many questions and absolutely gives us a series of rules to live by, either by explicit instruction or by example. There is a division of these rules however. The Masoretic law does not apply to Christians or to modern times; it was intended for a theocratic society as planned by GOD and includes sacrifices and other requirements that no longer apply under the new covenant. These portions of the law were rendered no longer necessary by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. For a person to read the Bible and say it does not contain answers or rules seems beyond the pale. Perhaps the pastor means it doesn’t answer all his questions; it provides the answers GOD wanted us to have (Luke 8:17). Perhaps he means we should not follow some or all of the rules found there. Jesus said some of those laws no longer apply but affirmed others; examples include Matthew 15:11 and 19:8.
… [isn’t] “inerrant or infallible” – STNG’s response: Superficial reading of the text may lead one to think it is full or errors or flaws. The Holy Bible has by far the greatest level of textual evidence for its authenticity of any manuscript from antiquity. The entire text could also be reconstructed from quotes by the early church fathers. This speaks to its faithful transmission. Careful study reveals some amazing things as well. Roughly 25% of the Bible is prophecy about future events. Some prophecies remain in the future and have not yet happened. Many of those prophecies however, have been fulfilled accurately, down to incredible levels of fine detail. The track record of proven prophecy seems to indicate the infallibility of the text; what does that tell us about what the Bible is? There are also mathematical patterns, such as multiple representations of the number 7 that are only evident when all the 66 books are examined as a whole. There are others but that is the subject of another post.
Did GOD Truly Say? The Bible “is” . . .
Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word? According to the pastor of the Nashville church, the Bible:
It is: “a product of community” – STNG’s response: It was penned by forty or more human authors over 1500 – 1700 years (perhaps close to 2000 years, depending on the actual date when Job was written) and yet fits seamlessly together as though it is a single manuscript that includes different stories, recorded by one person, even though the styles and genres of literature included in its passages are varied. This is little different than an author today writing about history, philosophy, spiritualism and other subjects through their lifetime. The Bible has one theme that the author approached from many angles however. The Bible tells us it was authored by The Holy Spirit and Jesus repeatedly references the Old Testament scriptures with words such as “… have you not read what was spoken to you by GOD …” (Matt. 22:31). There is, so far as I am aware, zero credible evidence that scripture was written by any sort of editing committee. Claims have been made but have never stood the test of time. When Jesus Himself points to scripture as being the Word of GOD however, this sort of leads away from the idea of community authorship.
… [it is] “a library of texts” – STNG’s response: This is somewhat related to the point above and in a way is true. It is not merely a library of texts however; it is the most unique library or collection of writings in history. The Bible has changed the world and the people of the world remarkably for as long as it has existed. The central theme of the Bible also meshes perfectly from book to book. There is conjecture that the Pentateuch was compiled from multiple sources and that Matthew, Mark and Luke had a single common source. That is the subject of a future post however. As Frank Turek of Crossexamined points out, we already know there were multiple human writers across those centuries and if GOD chose to use that method to transmit any single part of the text, it in no way means it was not GOD breathed.
… [it is] “multi-vocal” – STNG’s response: only in the sense that the cultures it was originally written within have varied over the 1500 – 2000 years it took for it to be written down. The language, culture and circumstances of the human writers and audience changed over this time. Careful multi-disciplinary scholarship shows evidence of a single divine author throughout the text. Superficial reading and picking out individual verses to attack is a simplistic way to argue against scripture. It is also not consistent with how we evaluate other difficult writings. It is intellectually dishonest to apply different standards to the Bible than we apply to other books. A thorough analysis that acknowledges the linguistic and cultural changes reveals the Bible is internally consistent to a miraculous degree.
… [it is] a human response to God – STNG’s response: The Bible records some human interactions with GOD but is by no means restricted to this. The patterns in the text show that the written Word is a consistent message to humanity from the Creator. It can be applied to our lives today just as it could be applied to the lives of those living when it was written. The truths within it are just that, truths, and of such a nature that they are timeless. There are numerous examples but let’s take one in particular as an example: Psalm 82. How can a reader draw the conclusion from this passage that humans are speaking to GOD through this writing? Does it seem like this was a letter penned by a person to be put in the heavenly mailbox?
… [it is] living and dynamic – STNG’s response (edited for clarity on 3/18/21): This phrase may have more than one meaning. Without knowing exactly what Pastor Scott’s intent is with this, we will respond with two points. There is a modern sense in which people say something is a living document, such as interpretation of the US Constitution. Any document means exactly what it says and that meaning may be more apparent when we know the mind of the author. The meaning does not change and in that sense, it is not alive or dynamic. It is no more living and dynamic than any letter I write to someone today. Once written, it is finished, just as the Word of GOD says that it is finished (Deut. 4:2, Prov. 30:6 and Rev. 22:18-19). This is important to remember when Bible studies often involve reading a few verses in a group and then asking each person to share what it means to them. A letter or any other written word means what the author intended it to mean, whether or not the reader understands it or agrees with it. It is not alive, it is not changing, it is not moving, it is complete in its work and its meaning, as originally written by the author. This does not mean the Word of GOD is static or ineffective however (Isa. 55:11).
There is real power in the Word of GOD, which is very evident by the lives it has changed through twenty centuries. The book of Hebrews teaches us several things about the Word of GOD. It is “… living and powerful …”, “… sharper than any two-edged sword …” and “… a discerner of thoughts and intents …” (Heb. 4:12). Jesus prayed “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:1-26). It would be hard for the Word of GOD to accomplish something if it was merely a lifeless letter written by human beings. The pastor says that some of the Bible is GOD’s Word while we here at STNG say ALL of the Bible is GOD’s Word. Maybe the pastor could suggest which parts we should read in order to receive sanctification, as Jesus prayed? How would a person go about picking out those parts anyway?
The pastor who made these statements in his sermon says this is a conversation that is happening and needs to happen in the broader scope of Christendom today. He is essentially asking these questions: “Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word?” He then answers the questions by stating openly that some parts of the Bible are not GOD’s Word, are not GOD breathed. This Nashville pastor alleges that the Bible promotes atrocities and has been used to justify wrongdoing in various ways and seems to be saying this part could not possible be GOD’s Word since He would not condone such things. GOD’s Word is no more responsible for these acts than Shakespeare’s plays can be held accountable for two young lovers who live out a real life version of the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet. I wonder if he has thought about how that conversation will play out with our Creator one day, as it is clear in James 3:1 that preachers will be held accountable for what they say and do. Preachers will also be accountable to a higher standard than the average person or church member. Perhaps however, this pastor thinks that particular verse is one of the parts that GOD didn’t write.
I will pray for this pastor and his congregation and they will remain in my prayers. I urge every reader here to add them to your prayer list as well.
GOD Bless and Seek the Narrow Gate . . . . .
Join us soon for the next installment in this series: Did GOD Truly Say? – Is the Bible GOD’s Word?