Is the Bible the Word of God? Why this Question Matters to the Next Generation & Why it Matters NOW (Part 3/4)

Before reading this article please read part 1 and part 2.

Only a brief explanation concerning external justification or evidence shall be said during this section.  For a very good and brief synopsis of this, Paul Helm is a very helpful resource on distinguishing between external evidence and internal evidence.  He defines external evidence as the view that the Bible can only be said to be of divine origin if it meets certain criteria established independently of it; and internal justification as the view that the Bible ought to be believed to be of divine origin on its own evidence.[1]  David Gibson says this concerning Helm in his article on the roles of faith and evidence in believing the Bible,

At first glance the thought of external justification is appealing – it would seem to offer non-arbitrary and generally accepted grounds for concluding that the Bible is the Word of God.  However, there are at least three main reasons why we must deem external justification to be highly problematic.  Helm outlines these as: 1) Externalism assumes that there is some obvious, unquestionable test or criterion of what is appropriate for a divine revelation, or that there is some a priori standard of reasonableness that the Scriptures must meet.  But who is to decide what this standard is?  2) Accepting an external criterion as proof of the Bible’s divine origin is necessarily compromising – it makes the authority of the Bible and of God dependent on the other matters external to the Bible.  Acceptance of the Bible as God’s revelation is made to depend on other non-revealed matters.  3)… Even at its best, externalism can only offer the probability that the Bible is God’s Word – and this is not the kind of foundation on which Christian belief about the Scriptures is based.[2]

These specific problems with external justification or evidence lead us transitionally into why internal evidence is the foundational argument for the Bible as God’s Word.

Internal Evidence that the Bible is God’s Word:

This understanding of internal justification is found in the statement that the Bible ought to be believed that it is God’s Word because it says it is God’s Word.  2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”  This self-attesting evidence is known as the authority of the Bible, although this authoritative claim does not come without its difficulties.  This kind of argument for the Bible as God’s Word because it says it is God’s Word is often refuted as a circular argument.  John Frame rightly says in his work The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God that,

Criticism (of circularity) is effective only when the critic can suggest a better way.  But there is no alternative to circularity.  First, allegiance to our Lord demands that we be loyal to Him, even when we are seeking to justify our assertions about Him.  We cannot abandon our covenant commitment to escape the charge of circularity.  Second, no system can escape circularity because all systems – non-Christian as well as Christian are based on presuppositions that control their epistemologies, argumentation and use of evidence.  Thus a rationalist can prove the primacy of reason only by using a rational argument.  An empiricist can prove the primacy of sense-experience only by some kind of appeal to sense-experience…[3]

Wayne Grudem further makes the statement that, “It should be admitted that this is a circular argument.  However, that does not make its use invalid, for all arguments for an absolute authority must ultimately appeal to that authority for proof: otherwise the authority would not be an absolute or highest authority.”[4] 

The Role of Faith in believing the Bible as God’s Word:

In making the argument for the role of faith in believing the Bible as God’s Word, it must be seen alongside the work of the Spirit in someone’s life allowing them to believe the truths of the Bible.  In this section, the argumentative form of Christian presuppositionalism will be unpacked in terms that are more theological than philosophical.  As we have already seen our need for special revelation that would reveal to us who God is and what he created us for, why the Bible is necessary to tell us about Jesus and how he gives us a way for salvation, a brief history of the Bible and the double-Authorship it entails, and why internal evidence is most satisfactory, we will now continue to look at the internal evidence of the Bible and at the role of the Spirit alongside of faith in allowing someone not only to believe in the Bible as the Word of God but allowing them to believe in Jesus as the most important matter.

The Priority of the Gospel and the Testimony of the Spirit

When looking at Scripture, it is clear that the human mind is incapable of embracing faith in Jesus without the testimony of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. (i.e., Matthew 11:25; 16:16-17; John 3:3; 1 Corinthians 2:12-14; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; Galatians 1:15-16; Ephesians 4:17-18; 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5; 1 John 2:20, 27; 5:6-10).  As David Gibson states, the thesis can be simply stated here:  through the work of the Holy Spirit in illuminating the mind to the truths of the gospel, the Bible is accepted as true through faith.  We come to accept the truthfulness of the Bible because we have first had our minds enlightened to see the truth of the Gospel, which we embrace by faith.  This faith enables us to see that the words of the Bible purport to be God’s words and to grasp that God’s words are true words.[5]  As J.I. Packer explains further,

Having disclosed himself objectively in history, in His incarnate Son, and in His written scriptural Word, God now enlightens men subjectively in experience, so that they apprehend His self-disclosure for what it is.  Thus he causes them to know Him and his end in revelation is achieved… Historic Protestantism has regularly described this part of the Spirit’s ministry as His witness to divine truth.  It is a healing of spiritual faculties, a restoring to man of a permanent receptiveness towards divine things, a giving and sustaining of power to recognize and receive divine utterances for what they are.  It is given in conjunction with the hearing or reading of such utterances, and the immediate fruit of it is an inescapable awareness of their divine origin and authority.[6]

This extremely important because this shows that it is not on the basis of empirical evidence that we come to believe the Bible as God’s Word, but we come to believe in the Bible as God’s Word only through faith… as the Spirit calls.

Not only do we come to believe the Bible as God’s Word, but we only come to believe in the Bible as God’s Word because we first believe in Jesus.  Believing in the Bible is only an article of faith, something that takes place because of faith in Jesus.[7]  David Gibson continues,

In much the same way as one cannot prove the existence of God, given that it is a belief one holds through faith, so likewise one cannot conclusively prove the full truthfulness and divine origin of the Bible… in other words, if Scripture declares that God is a God of truth who speaks only truth, and if Scripture claims that it is the actual words of that God, then that is the ground of our believing the Bible to be true.  This is a belief we come to by faith because our belief in the God who spoke the Bible’s words is by faith.[8]

To sum up the following: the Bible is necessary because only through the Bible do we come to know about the saving work of Jesus and can hear the gospel in which we are to believe by faith (which is special revelation), the goal of the Holy Spirit stirring in one’s heart is not for them to believe the Bible but to believe in Jesus, who the Bible says is the Creator of all things and (John 1:1-3; Colossians 15:21), Sustainer of all things (Hebrews 1:1-3), and when one believes in Jesus by faith and repentance, they too can then believe in the Bible as God’s necessary and sufficient Word.

Why do we need the Bible?  First of all, we need the Bible to hear God’s special revelation found in the Bible of how to restore communion with a perfect, holy, and good God.  Secondly, we also need the Bible for obedience and guidance.  J.I. Packer states in his article on the necessity of the Bible concerning Psalm 119:105, which says, “Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,”

The psalmist’s cry is one of praise, thanks, admonition, testimony, and confidence – praise that God glorifies his grace by giving men so precious a gift as his Word; thanks because he knows how much he himself needed it, and how lost he was without it; admonition to himself and any who might read his psalm always to value God’s word at its true worth and to make full use of it for the purpose for which it was given; testimony to the fact that already in his experience it had proved its power; and confidence that this would continue.[9]

——————————————————-

 Don’t forget to check out:

• Part 1
• Part 2

[2]Gibson, David. “For the Bible Tells Me So? The Roles of Faith and Evidence in Believing the Bible.” RTSF.

[3]Frame, John. The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (Phillipsburge: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1987), 130.

[4]Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, 78-79.

[5]Gibson, David. “For the Bible Tells Me So? The Roles of Faith and Evidence in Believing the Bible.” RTSF.

[6]Packer, J.I., Fundamentalism and the Word of God (London: IVF, 1958), 118-119.

[7]Gibson, David. “For the Bible Tells Me So? The Roles of Faith and Evidence in Believing the Bible.” RTSF.

[8]Ibid.

[9]Packer, J. I. “Why Do I Need the Bible?” FGB Fall 94 Article 4.