Written within the span of 1500 years, by about 40 authors, and containing several genres of books compiled into a cannon, the Bible has proved to be a foundation of truth inspired only by God himself. The consistency of the Bible as a whole, despite being written by many authors, is truly remarkable. However, this is not clear to all, and despite its steadfastness in delivering God's message of holiness, salvation, and hope to mankind, many still remain doubtful of its authenticity. The question of whether the Bible is true or not, and if so, how much of it? Is indeed one that has been fired upon believers for centuries.
Even within the community of believers there is conflict regarding the innerancy of Scripture. Science has played a major role in this debate, particularly since the Bible was written from a human perspective long before the invention of satellites and other advanced tools humans now have to observe our universe. However, new scientific discovery does not equate to conflict with the Full Innerancy view of biblical doctrine which states that, "The Bible, when correctly interpreted in light of the level to which culture and the means of communication had developed at the time it was written, and in view of the purposes for which it was given, is fully truthful in all that it affirms."[1] What this simply means is that we can't fault the ancient authors for writing about the world as they saw it. If I look outside in the morning, I will see the sun rising on the East and traveling across the sky until it sets on the west, the same way they did. However, the church is not without a physical exhibit of its own as a defense. With the overwhelming archaeological evidence found, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the many verified historical accounts written by biblical authors such as Luke, the naysayers have accelerated their skepticism from the authenticity of the Bible to its authority.
The primary work of proving the authority of the Bible, as being inspired by God, is God himself.
He accomplished this in the Old Testaments with His prophets, such as Moses who led the people of Israel out of Egypt with miraculous signs and wonders (Exodus 14), and Elijah who went head to head with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40). In the New Testament God manifested his authority over death by resurrecting Jesus Christ. In our lives today, Godly inspired scripture is illuminated to us through the Holy Spirit. Millard J. Erickson believes that, "This is accomplished by an internal working of the Holy Spirit, illumining the understanding of the hearer or reader of the Bible, bringing about comprehension of its meaning, and creating certainty of its truth and divine origin."[2]
In addition to personal illumination, the recorded eyewitness testimony of the Apostles reassures us of the certainty of the life of Jesus Christ and all that he represents as the Son of God. John writes in one of his epistles, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life" (1 John 1:1). Paul (1 Cor 15) and Luke (Luke 1:1-4) also claim access to eyewitness testimony about Jesus Christ. If one were to ask why should we trust their testimony, the simple answer to that is the amount of persecution and hardship endured by the first century church, it would be counter-intuitive to think that they would endure such trials for something that was a lie. Chatraw and Allen state that, "The apostles could verify Jesus' bodily life among them, and thus the life-giving message John proclaimed was historical reality."[2] Their testimony encourages us to rely on the historicity of the Bible.
[1] Millard J. Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine, 3rd Ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 63.
[2] Ibid, 71
[3] Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen, Apologetics at the Cross: an Introduction for Christian Witness (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 40.
コメント