authority of Scripture

Deere’s Treatment of Scripture

“The Bible is the sacred Christian book. The fate of Christianity turns on its supernatural origin, the factuality of its redemptive history, and the validity of its teachings.”[1] The central and pivotal doctrine of Scripture is the doctrine of inspiration, it states that all Scripture is God-breathed and has God as its source. Since it is “wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all of its teachings, no less than what it states about God’s acts in Creation, about the events of world history, about its own literary origins under God, and its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.”[2] As a result of being from God, the inspired Scriptures carry with it the doctrines of inerrancy, authority, canonicity and sufficiency. This means that the Scriptures that God breathed out through the work of the Spirit to give us these trustworthy words come with His authority and are worthy of preservation so that His people may be equipped for obedience.

But what happens when someone starts to elevate a different revelation to have the same authority as the inspired Scriptures. What happens when we replace the authority of Scripture with our own experiences? What happens to God’s Word in a person’s life when they no longer look to it for revelation, but look to oneself? What happens when one starts skewing the lines to make the Bible fit into one’s life and theology instead of having the Bible provide one’s theology? In the next few sections, Deere’s treatment of Scripture will be examined against the doctrines of authority, canonicity and sufficiency to show how Scripture is mis-treated and his experiences have replaced Scripture’s primary revelatory role.

Authority of Scripture

Scripture is authoritative because it comes from God; it has God as its source. Since it is from God it has His divine authority and thus it is to be obeyed. God breathed out His instructions so that all who believe in Him will be “wise for salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15, NIV). Recalling that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16, NIV) means that Scripture is completely inspired. All of it has the authority of God. Some concepts or themes may not have the same importance as they once did or apply to the culture today, but that does not mean it is any less authoritative. There are some themes in Scripture that are more timeless or more important than others. Propositional truth is linked to a context in time and space because it uses language that is expressed in time and space of that certain culture. Even though some truths are more timeless than others, the Bible is still entirely authoritative because it is from God.

Deere argues that we have varying degrees of authority in Scripture. In discussing the present forms of prophecy and ongoing propositional revelation, he believes that visions, impressions and dreams have divine authority, but they do not have the same authority as Scripture. In making this statement, Deere suggests that all things that come from God have a varying degree of authority. Deere argues, “Nor am I saying that experience and Scripture are equal standards of authority for us.”[3] In his system, he is claiming that there are certain divine revelations that are more authoritative than others. This allows him to affirm that not only does Scripture have authority, but the experiences have authority as well. The issue is that if they are both from God, they should both have the same divine authority. God cannot be separated and neither can His authority.

In speaking of one’s obligation to obey spiritual promptings, Deere makes a contrast between the Bible having absolute authority over all believers and “divine personal guidance” having authority only over the person that it was given to.[4] In contrasting these two messages, he is stating that Scripture has one level of unique authority that applies to “all believers, everywhere, at all times.”[5] However, the divine messages have another level of authority because it applies to a limited time and place. Deere’s view of authority is significantly different from the view that sees all of Scripture having the authority of God. The commands in the Bible are not expressing God’s rules for all people, everywhere and in every time. There are some commands which are bound by time and others bound by culture. The Bible needs to be interpreted because some of it is relevant and applies to us today, while some of it does not, however it is all true and authoritative. The basis for his argument is that these visions, dreams and impressions have a different authority than the Bible.

Deere believes that the Bible is true but it does not help in interpreting the voices from God. “But probably more often than not, a naïve commitment to tradition often drowns his [God’s] voice in a sea of confidence in human methods and rules.”[6] What he is alluding to is that the extra-biblical voice of God is more reliable than the biblical voice of God. Deere is arguing that those who have incorporated a traditional form of Bible study are actually using a deficient method, while commending those who are supposedly interpreting the truth correctly because they are using the “voice” to know what Scripture is actually teaching.

In a warning about elevating interpretation above Scripture, Pinnock says, “The intent of the text is secondary to the needs of the interpreter. The Bible no longer rules us; we rule it!”[7] As believers, we can never allow our own interpretation or knowledge to have primary authority in our lives. While Scripture needs to be interpreted, it is Scripture that is authoritative.

[1] Carl F. H. Henry, “The Authority and Inspiration of the Bible,” in The Expositor’s Bible

Commentary, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 3.

[2] “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy,” in Inerrancy, ed. Norman Geisler (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980), 493.

[3] Ibid, 127.

[4] Ibid, 284.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid, 249.

[7] Clark H. Pinnock, Biblical Revelation – the Foundation of Christian Theology, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), 223.

The continuation of defining the doctrine of inspiration and the inerrancy of Scripture. This is part 2 of 3.

The Doctrine of Inspiration

Charles Ryrie defines inspiration as “the act by which God’s superintended the human authors of the Bible so that they composed and recorded without error His message in words of their original writings.”[1] Millard Erickson also defines inspiration by reminding us of the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiration, that is “the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation, or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God.”[2] One of the key hallmarks of inspiration is the work of the Holy Spirit and how the Scriptures were produced: the words of Scripture were conceived by our Lord and the writers using their human words when speaking “in the Holy Spirit,” by His initiative and under His controlling direction.[3]

Based on the definitions provided, we can understand that inspiration is used to designate the product, it is not about the process. It is the whole of Scripture given in the form of expression that is from God; but the whole of it has been given by God through the instrumentality of men.[4] Looking again at 2 Peter 1:21, that “prophecy” of Scripture was not spoken of the human writers or out of them, but it was from God.[5] Second Timothy 3:16-17 further describes Scripture and inspiration: “All Scripture is God-breathed (or inspired) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This points to how God did not just dictate the words or breathe in the words to the authors, but how Scripture was breathed out of the authors by the Spirit working in them. As Paul and Peter both suggest in these verses, we can see that they and other biblical writers didn’t view the production of Scripture as a “human product breathed into by the Divine Spirit, and thus heightened in its qualities or endowed with new qualities; but as a Divine product produced through the instrumentality of men.”[6] Moreover, these writers were moved by God’s “Divine initiative and borne by the irresistible power of the Spirit of God along the ways of His choosing to the ends of His appointments.”[7] “The main point about verbal inspiration is not that the words are inspired rather than their content, but that there is no such thing as the one without the other…. The content is not to be had without this form.”[8] This demonstrates that inspiration does not happen without the work of the Holy Spirit. To deny inspiration, is to minimize the work of the Holy Spirit. Warfield says that inspiration occurred not by the distant act of dictation, but that “it took place in a process in which the control of the Holy Spirit was too complete and pervasive to permit the human qualities of the secondary authors in any way to condition the purity of the product as the word of God.”[9]

Inspiration is, as Carl F. Henry states, “a matter solely of God speaking in His Word, supernaturally to and through chosen men, making his thoughts and message known to those who must have otherwise been strangers to them.”[10] Henry reminds us that God’s Word shares His “very own attributes” and cautions the Christian community that “without an authoritative Scripture, the church is powerless to overcome not only human unregeneracy but also satanic deception.”[11]

In trying to define inspiration, clarity must first be provided in an age that likes to use this word in many different ways. Nowadays, it could mean writing a song, or jumping off a cliff, or even killing an innocent person; if inspiration is to be used, we must be clear as to what it is. In Carl F. Henry’s definition, he not only indicates the Spirit’s part in inspiration, but also some of the by-products of inspiration in regards to inerrancy and preservation. He states, “Inspiration is that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit whereby the sacred writers were divinely supervised in their production of Scripture, being restrained from error and guided in the choice of words they used, consistently with their disparate personalities and stylistic peculiarities.” The doctrine of inspiration is made up of four separate doctrines: inerrancy, authority, canonicity and sufficiency. Each of these doctrines are all by-products or derivatives of the doctrine of inspiration.

The doctrine of authority can be defined as that which is to be obeyed. As authoritative, Scripture reveals God and His commands and promises. Since Scripture has God as its source, we can attribute it to being God’s Word and having all the authority of God, thus Scripture is to be obeyed.

Scripture points out the character of God, and reveals that He is worthy of all praise, glory and honor. The second doctrine, that of canonicity, could also be called worthy of preservation. The books of the Bible were collected and set apart as Scripture because those who had compiled them could see that they were worthy of preservation and were authoritative. As the early church read these books, meditated on them and collected them, they recognized them as Scripture. Why? Because these certain books came with the authenticity as being God’s inspired Word. They were recognized as being from God and worthy to be called God’s Word. Since they were God’s Word, they were worthy to be obeyed and put into a collection.

The third doctrine that resulted from the doctrine of inspiration is that of the sufficiency of Scripture. This doctrine affirms that Scripture is enough. Inside the pages of Scripture lies everything that is needed for the follower of God to be “…thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17, NIV); it provides all that is necessary for the Christian to live a godly life.

Finally, that leads us to the doctrine of inerrancy which will now be discussed in further detail before defining inspiration.

[1] Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1999), 82.

[2] Millard J. Erikson, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 199.

[3] Benjamin B. Warfield, “Inspiration 8-18” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Internet, available from http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Def.show/RTD/isbe/ID/4618/Inspiration-8-18.htm, accessed 13 April 2014.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid, Section 9.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Geoffrey Bromiley, “The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture,” Eternity, August 1970, 14, quoted in Carl F. Henry, “The Authority and Inspiration of Scripture,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank Gaebelein, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 20.

[9] Warfield, Section 8.

[10] Henry, 8.

[11] Ibid, 13.