A Challenge Against Scripture
“Randy,
How would you respond to this argument that the Bible is not always correct and should not be the final word? Please refer to the BioLogos link below.
https://discourse.biologos.
If you don’t want to link through and read the comments, the basic idea is that the system of justice God set up in Deuteronomy 22 was unscientific and unjust, therefore the Bible is faulty.
How Do We Know?
Accusations against the character of the Old Testament is a common argument for those who reject the Authority of Scripture or relegate it to a “small category of acceptable items. Whether it is this passage or another, people interpret it one way and then judge inspiration and inerrancy of all scripture from their own interpretation of that text.
The doctrine of the Inspiration does not give us an automatic method to interpret the Scripture. Just because it is Inspired does not mean we are going to understand it.
Ultimately, the doctrine of inspiration asks the question: who is the final authority over life and thought? If scripture is not the final authority, then who is?
Am I? I don’t think so.
Are the great and unerring scientists the ultimate authority? I don’t think so.
What most of the Inspiration deniers are saying is that we can trust scripture about “spiritual truth” but not scientific and historical truth.
Heavenly vs Earthly Things
Jesus’ answer to judging God based on our limited understanding is “how can you believe in heavenly if you don’t believe in the earthly?”
Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater. Theologians who want to deny scripture’s authority want to deny the lesser and claim the greater. This doesn’t work; they eventually deny the greater as well and end up with no authority but themselves.
I did not understand the Divine authority of the Scripture when I became serious about following Jesus but I knew it had the power to change people’s lives.
Over time I grew to appreciate scripture’s authority in other areas.
At some point, like Nebuchadnezzar, an individual has to decide who is in charge of life. You can tell from the original article and its responses that people don’t even have the same idea what they are discussing. The comments are all over the place from ancient law, manuscript evidence and evolution.
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe we are the ones being tested and not God’s Word?
What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man [be found] a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”
The Bible is as simple as you need it to be and as deep as you want it to be. It is a book of mysteries, revealed to us by the Spirit of God himself. There are many, many passages in the Bible that are hard to understand, but God wants to engage with us as we read his Word. He wants us to know him, not just know about him. My one question as I read God’s word is “Who are you , God? Who are you?” As I have been researching the Old Testament in order to write policy on sexual harassment for my school, I am stunned and comforted to find how high the God of the Bible’s standards really are. They are far higher than man’s ever could be. For example, He regards rape as on the same level as manslaughter. In addition, the Bible tells the story of Tamar who was raped by her half brother. She was silenced by a family member because the perpetrator was her brother. As a result, she lived out her life in loss and sorrow and pain. This is recorded in the Old Testament so that we can learn from it. God even has a zero tolerance policy regarding verbal abuse, and the Bible says that if you so much as lust after a woman in your heart, you have committed adultery. According to the Bible, adultery is criminal activity. That makes pornography criminal activity. If the Bible’s criteria regarding sexual immorality is this high, can I trust the the Bible be the absolute authority in my life? Absolutely! Knowing these things, the only reason why I wouldn’t take Scripture as my authority is because I would not want to be held to such high principles.