WEBVTT 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:16.019 Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:20.059 or to give online, go to connect .hcv .church 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:23.839 or give .hcv .church. If at any point during 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:26.000 this message you feel called to make a change 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.920 in your life, text CHANGEME to 9700. Thank you 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:32.820 and enjoy the message. Welcome to the Teaching 00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:36.359 Tuesday session for May 2025. Today we're talking 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.109 about the theology of the Bible. Not the events 00:00:39.109 --> 00:00:41.689 or information in the Bible, not how the Bible 00:00:41.689 --> 00:00:44.609 is preserved or translated, not even how to interpret 00:00:44.609 --> 00:00:47.149 the Bible, all of that is for other sessions. 00:00:47.390 --> 00:00:49.490 Now today we're talking about the book itself, 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:52.049 and in particular two properties of the Bible, 00:00:52.189 --> 00:00:56.009 inspiration and inerrancy. Taken together, these 00:00:56.009 --> 00:00:58.390 two attributes inform us as to why the Bible 00:00:58.390 --> 00:01:00.369 is the most important book in human history, 00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:03.009 and the most important book for every individual 00:01:03.009 --> 00:01:06.379 human. The information we're looking at today 00:01:06.379 --> 00:01:09.060 is built from dozens of scripture verses, so 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:10.760 it's time to pull out that systematic theology 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:13.599 book again. You can find everything we're talking 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:16.500 about in our previous resource, Systematic Theology 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:19.319 by Wayne Grudem, or the alternative one to the 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:22.400 right, Christian Theology by Miller J. Erickson. 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:25.280 They're both excellent resources, and because 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.319 Grudem and Erickson come from slightly different 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:30.099 theological perspectives, you may find that using 00:01:30.099 --> 00:01:32.000 them together gives you a much more complete 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.599 understanding of many topics. I'm going to use 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:36.840 Erickson's method of presenting today, since 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:40.159 we used Grudem's last time. Now, two quick disclaimers 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.060 before we start. The first is this. It's the 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:45.019 same one that I gave for our session on interpreting 00:01:45.019 --> 00:01:47.219 the Bible. We're going to be approaching this 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:49.299 from a conservative evangelical perspective. 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:52.459 That's theologically conservative, meaning we 00:01:52.459 --> 00:01:55.200 believe that the Bible means what it says, and 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.299 evangelical, meaning that we are Protestants 00:01:57.299 --> 00:02:00.379 with a focus on evangelism. We also have to acknowledge 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:02.219 that there will always be a certain element of 00:02:02.219 --> 00:02:05.219 mystery when it comes to understanding God. I'm 00:02:05.219 --> 00:02:07.140 going to present what I feel are the most reasonable 00:02:07.140 --> 00:02:10.080 understandings of inspiration and inerrancy along 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:12.860 with my reasoning. You might feel like the categories 00:02:12.860 --> 00:02:15.180 aren't what you would choose, or maybe you're 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:18.219 torn between two of the options. Don't take that 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.439 as me implying that you're unreasonable in any 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:23.280 way or wrong. If people agreed on everything 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:25.939 about theology, there'd only be a single church. 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:29.180 Instead, treat disagreements as a chance to research 00:02:29.180 --> 00:02:32.620 a topic and evaluate your position. Second disclaimer, 00:02:32.939 --> 00:02:35.639 as you can already tell, this is some heavy nerd 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.199 stuff today, so make sure to take a break every 00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:40.879 10 minutes to eat some beef jerky and lift weights. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:44.340 Alright, let's get started. So, inspiration and 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:47.060 inerrancy. Why these two things out of all the 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:49.159 different properties of the Bible? Well, the 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:51.919 Bible is one item in a category of things called 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:54.800 revelation, which refers to God revealing information 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.520 about himself. The general idea is that God is 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:02.180 so big and so complicated that as humans, we 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:05.599 could understand or discover or figure out so 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:08.620 little about him that he must reveal himself 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:11.939 to us or we could never understand him. And there 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:15.219 are three categories of revelation. There's general, 00:03:15.259 --> 00:03:18.979 special, and personal or private. And if we want 00:03:18.979 --> 00:03:21.280 to understand why the Bible is so special and 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:23.780 so important, we need to understand these three 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:27.060 first. Well, general revelation refers to the 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:29.500 ways that God reveals himself in a universal, 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:32.759 timeless sense to everyone, everywhere, all the 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:36.180 time. You know, think about Psalm 19, which says, 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.479 The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:42.460 proclaim the work of his hands. When you look 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:44.400 at the massive scale of the universe and the 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.020 beauty of the earth, you know somewhere deep 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:49.479 inside yourself that there's a big, powerful, 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.759 intelligent, and artistic creator behind it all. 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:56.050 General revelation is less specific than the 00:03:56.050 --> 00:03:57.969 type of revelation we get from the Bible, though. 00:03:58.330 --> 00:04:00.990 All of that tells you that there's a God, but 00:04:00.990 --> 00:04:03.969 not specifically the Christian God. But don't 00:04:03.969 --> 00:04:07.650 discount it, it's incredibly important. Now the 00:04:07.650 --> 00:04:10.530 second type of revelation that isn't the Bible 00:04:10.530 --> 00:04:13.789 is called personal or private revelation. This 00:04:13.789 --> 00:04:15.949 is when God reveals information to an individual, 00:04:16.209 --> 00:04:19.389 but it is a heavily debated topic among theologians. 00:04:19.850 --> 00:04:22.709 Nobody really disagrees that God can reveal information 00:04:22.709 --> 00:04:25.430 to an individual, but there is a lot of disagreement 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:28.910 over the frequency and type of information. I 00:04:28.910 --> 00:04:31.269 believe firmly that God guided me to children's 00:04:31.269 --> 00:04:33.230 ministry through a series of events in response 00:04:33.230 --> 00:04:35.750 to my prayers, but there's a lot of potential 00:04:35.750 --> 00:04:38.089 for coercion or abuse when people go around telling 00:04:38.089 --> 00:04:41.430 others, God told me to tell you this. There's 00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:44.069 no verification or accountability, so we need 00:04:44.069 --> 00:04:46.610 to exercise extreme discretion if we believe 00:04:46.610 --> 00:04:49.350 we've been given personal revelation. We're going 00:04:49.350 --> 00:04:51.670 to come back to this at the very end when we 00:04:51.670 --> 00:04:54.230 talk about why the Bible is our final source 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:56.670 of authority. Now we get to special revelation. 00:04:57.069 --> 00:04:59.569 This is information about God delivered directly 00:04:59.569 --> 00:05:01.930 from God, recorded in a way that is accessible 00:05:01.930 --> 00:05:04.810 to all people in the Bible. Unlike general revelation, 00:05:05.069 --> 00:05:07.889 it's very specific. So when the Bible talks about 00:05:07.889 --> 00:05:10.410 God creating the universe, there's no guess that 00:05:10.410 --> 00:05:13.040 it's the Christian God it's talking about. And 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.259 because it's unchanging and available to everyone, 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:17.680 the information we learn from general and private 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:21.019 revelation can be verified against it. But first, 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:23.000 we need to know why scripture is trustworthy. 00:05:23.339 --> 00:05:25.259 And that's where the doctrines of inspiration 00:05:25.259 --> 00:05:29.800 and inerrancy come in. So we'll start with inspiration, 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:32.680 which refers to how God gave us the text of the 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:35.240 Bible through the Holy Spirit. Consider Moses 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:37.899 writing the first five books of the Bible. It's 00:05:37.899 --> 00:05:39.740 not hard to imagine him writing down everything 00:05:39.740 --> 00:05:42.199 that happened in his life as it happened, including 00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:45.100 the conversations he had with God. But what about 00:05:45.100 --> 00:05:46.699 the events that happened when he was a baby? 00:05:46.939 --> 00:05:49.379 How does Moses know about the conversations between 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:52.019 God and Abraham? How Adam and Eve were formed 00:05:52.019 --> 00:05:54.560 and then sinned against God? Or what God did, 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:56.660 said, and thought as he was creating the universe? 00:05:57.439 --> 00:05:59.500 Fortunately for us, the Holy Spirit had people 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:02.060 record the answer multiple times throughout the 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.680 Old and New Testament. Erickson highlights six 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:07.730 verses that give us a good picture of how that 00:06:07.730 --> 00:06:10.790 was accomplished. The first is Jeremiah 30, 4. 00:06:11.129 --> 00:06:14.069 It says this is the message the Lord gave concerning 00:06:14.069 --> 00:06:18.290 Israel and Judah. The second is 2 Samuel 23, 00:06:18.389 --> 00:06:21.310 2. The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me. 00:06:21.389 --> 00:06:25.990 His words are upon my tongue. 2 Peter 1, 20 -21. 00:06:26.829 --> 00:06:29.389 Above all, you must realize that no prophecy 00:06:29.389 --> 00:06:31.470 in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own 00:06:31.470 --> 00:06:35.040 understanding or from human initiative. No. Those 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:37.279 prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:42.100 spoke from God. Next is 2 Timothy 3 .16. It says, 00:06:42.220 --> 00:07:02.439 Acts 1 .16. This was predicted long ago by the 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:05.699 Holy Spirit speaking through King David. And 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:09.360 finally, Acts 3 .18. But God was fulfilling what 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:11.259 all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah, 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:14.959 that he must suffer these things. Taken together, 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.560 it's clear that the biblical authors were not 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:21.019 writing on their own. They were guided or inspired 00:07:21.019 --> 00:07:24.879 by the Holy Spirit. Things like prophecies, predictions 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:27.399 about the future, and information, these weren't 00:07:27.399 --> 00:07:30.060 things that humans figured out. This was information 00:07:30.060 --> 00:07:33.519 delivered directly from God. But there's a second 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:36.019 part to the how that the Bible isn't clear on. 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:38.560 Just how much control did the Holy Spirit have 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:40.459 over people during the process of inspiration? 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:43.959 Christian and Jewish theologians have spent a 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:46.399 lot of time thinking about this, and Erickson 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:48.500 groups the possibilities into five categories. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.560 Let's look at them ordered by the least to most 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.120 amount of control, and figure out which is the 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:57.379 most reasonable. First, there's the theory of 00:07:57.379 --> 00:08:00.259 intuition, which says there's zero control by 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:04.319 the Holy Spirit. People who push this view see 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.899 the biblical authors as spiritual geniuses who 00:08:06.899 --> 00:08:08.800 produce great works of religious literature, 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:11.680 like Shakespeare writing plays or Michelangelo 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:14.680 painting. Much like different artists paint different 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:17.379 styles, there's nothing inherently true about 00:08:17.379 --> 00:08:19.560 the Bible because it just reflected the Jewish 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:22.579 style of spirituality. This makes the Bible a 00:08:22.579 --> 00:08:26.000 storybook, not the word of God, so I think we 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.920 can exclude this one outright. There's also the 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:30.879 theory of illumination, which argues that all 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:32.740 the Holy Spirit did was heighten the author's 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:35.299 natural gifts so that they were more aware of 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:38.100 what was happening around them spiritually. You 00:08:38.100 --> 00:08:39.779 know, it's like in college when you were studying 00:08:39.779 --> 00:08:42.679 for finals and you drank six Monster Energies 00:08:42.679 --> 00:08:45.279 in one morning. Not that I'd know anything about 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:47.879 that. But again, it was just humans writing down 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:50.120 their observations of the spiritual world and 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:53.279 holds no inherent truth. It's marginally better 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:55.639 than intuition because at least it's based on 00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:58.000 a perception of reality and the Holy Spirit is 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.779 doing something, but not by much, so I think 00:09:00.779 --> 00:09:03.940 we should exclude this one too. Now we get to 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:06.480 three options that are more compatible with Christianity, 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:09.860 and the first one is called dynamic. This theory 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:11.919 says that the Holy Spirit would tell the authors 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.519 to write down certain events, facts and information, 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:17.720 and then allow them to do so freely using words 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:20.460 and ideas of their choice. Think of it like the 00:09:20.460 --> 00:09:23.100 Holy Spirit saying, Hey Moses, get your sheepskin 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:25.299 and write about that time you went to get the 00:09:25.299 --> 00:09:29.059 Ten Commandments. The verbal theory takes that 00:09:29.059 --> 00:09:31.740 to the next level and has the Holy Spirit communicating 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:34.500 specific words and phrases that the author should 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.299 include. Say you're Matthew writing the account 00:09:37.299 --> 00:09:39.759 of the Sermon on the Mount. The Holy Spirit is 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:41.840 going to make sure you're recording exactly what 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:44.500 Jesus said, but then when you describe the other 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:46.960 disciples' reactions, it's a little closer to 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.519 the dynamic theory. You know, it gives Matthew 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:52.580 some freedom to describe things in his own words. 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:55.200 And then finally, there's the dictation theory, 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:57.659 which essentially turns the biblical authors 00:09:57.659 --> 00:10:00.419 into the Holy Spirit's typewriter. In this theory, 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:02.559 the Holy Spirit delivered the entire Bible to 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:04.720 them word for word. There was no room for any 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.710 human emotion or expression. So, which theory 00:10:08.710 --> 00:10:11.529 of inspiration is the most reasonable? Well, 00:10:11.590 --> 00:10:13.730 we already said that the first two are incompatible 00:10:13.730 --> 00:10:16.169 with Christianity. They basically reduce the 00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:18.370 Bible to fiction and opinion, so they're out. 00:10:18.750 --> 00:10:21.409 And the dictation theory is very unpopular with 00:10:21.409 --> 00:10:23.750 most theologians because it denies the personal 00:10:23.750 --> 00:10:26.970 touch that we see in many places. We see warmth 00:10:26.970 --> 00:10:29.529 and passion across Paul's letters. They're so 00:10:29.529 --> 00:10:32.070 distinct from the wisdom that we see in Proverbs 00:10:32.070 --> 00:10:35.190 and the deep joy and pain present in the Psalms. 00:10:35.690 --> 00:10:38.269 God could have snapped his fingers and just poofed 00:10:38.269 --> 00:10:41.230 the Bible into existence, but he didn't. He wanted 00:10:41.230 --> 00:10:44.350 that human element. But God didn't want too much 00:10:44.350 --> 00:10:46.289 of the human element, and so we also have to 00:10:46.289 --> 00:10:48.669 reject the dynamic option. There are clearly 00:10:48.669 --> 00:10:51.009 places in the Bible where single words are so 00:10:51.009 --> 00:10:53.350 important to our understanding of God that he 00:10:53.350 --> 00:10:55.889 had to have ensured that a specific word or phrase 00:10:55.889 --> 00:10:59.049 was used. Think of Jesus saying, before Abraham 00:10:59.049 --> 00:11:03.830 was, I am, in John 8, 58. That I am is fundamental 00:11:03.830 --> 00:11:06.710 to our understanding of Jesus as the preexistent 00:11:06.710 --> 00:11:09.129 second person of the Trinity because it is how 00:11:09.129 --> 00:11:12.429 God named himself to Moses. No other words could 00:11:12.429 --> 00:11:15.070 have been used there, so the verbal option seems 00:11:15.070 --> 00:11:17.370 to be the best way to understand inspiration. 00:11:19.289 --> 00:11:22.529 Now we come to inerrancy. Erickson defines that 00:11:22.529 --> 00:11:24.710 as the doctrine that the Bible is fully truthful 00:11:24.710 --> 00:11:27.870 in all of its teachings. A loose understanding 00:11:27.870 --> 00:11:30.289 of inerrancy gives us a pass to ignore God's 00:11:30.289 --> 00:11:32.769 clear commands in Scripture, but an overly strict 00:11:32.769 --> 00:11:34.809 view holds the Bible to a standard that neither 00:11:34.809 --> 00:11:38.450 God nor the human author is intended. And as 00:11:38.450 --> 00:11:40.389 we learned last session when we briefly talked 00:11:40.389 --> 00:11:43.070 about postmodernism, different people have different 00:11:43.070 --> 00:11:46.049 definitions of true. So let's look at another 00:11:46.049 --> 00:11:49.070 spectrum of five options and see which one emerges 00:11:49.070 --> 00:11:52.250 as the reasonable choice. This time we're going 00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:54.330 to start with the strictest option first. It's 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:57.360 called absolute inerrancy. This option claims 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:00.039 that every word of the Bible is 100 % factually 00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:02.700 true, including historical and scientific matters. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:05.200 When the Bible says that the angel of the Lord 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.960 killed 185 ,000 Assyrians, it says he killed 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:15.000 exactly 185 ,000 Assyrians, not 184 ,999 ,000, 00:12:15.019 --> 00:12:20.559 not 185 ,001 Assyrians, exactly 185 ,000. Anything 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:23.759 that we think is a discrepancy is a mistake on 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:26.440 our part. It's very straightforward, but also 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:31.179 very rigid. Full inerrancy is almost the same 00:12:31.179 --> 00:12:34.120 as absolute inerrancy, but with one tiny concession. 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:38.039 Everything theological is 100 % factually true 00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:40.299 word for word, just like absolute inerrancy. 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:44.100 But historical and scientific matters are also 00:12:44.100 --> 00:12:48.320 true, but presented in a phenomenal sense, meaning 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:51.000 they are true in the way they appear to the human 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.519 eye. So when the Bible says the angel of the 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:56.639 Lord killed 185 ,000 Assyrians, it could have 00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:03.840 been 184 ,999 or 185 ,032 Assyrians, but it's 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:08.120 presented as a nice round number. Limited inerrancy 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:11.620 takes one more step down. It says that all theological 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:14.720 matters are still regarded as 100 % factually 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:16.960 true word for word because that's the Bible's 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:20.419 purpose, but... Historical and scientific matters 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:23.100 reflect humanity's understanding at the time 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:25.500 the book was written. They might have been a 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:28.179 little bit wrong on lots of little things, but 00:13:28.179 --> 00:13:30.039 that doesn't matter because the Bible is not 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:33.980 a history book or a science textbook. Inerrancy 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:36.500 of purpose is where we start to get into dangerous 00:13:36.500 --> 00:13:39.519 territory. Now, the only thing that is 100 % 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:41.980 factually true word for word is the information 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.179 that gets someone into a relationship with Jesus. 00:13:44.580 --> 00:13:47.460 Everything else is just a means to an end. Did 00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:49.919 Jonah really get swallowed by a giant fish? Did 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:52.539 Jonah even exist in the first place? Someone 00:13:52.539 --> 00:13:55.700 who is a proponent of this thought doesn't really 00:13:55.700 --> 00:13:58.879 care. Jesus was able to use the story to explain 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:01.740 a point, and that's good enough. Whether it really 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:04.320 happened, whether Jonah ever existed, doesn't 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:07.480 matter as far as they're concerned. And then 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.080 we end with the one that's called accommodated 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:12.860 revelation, but I like to refer to it as, who 00:14:12.860 --> 00:14:15.129 knows? People in this school believe that God 00:14:15.129 --> 00:14:17.509 exists and that he communicated some of the information 00:14:17.509 --> 00:14:19.830 in the Bible. But since it came through people, 00:14:19.990 --> 00:14:22.610 we don't really know what parts are true and 00:14:22.610 --> 00:14:25.470 what parts aren't. They might say you could read 00:14:25.470 --> 00:14:27.889 the Bible. You don't have to read the Bible. 00:14:28.269 --> 00:14:30.570 What's it really matter? God knows we screwed 00:14:30.570 --> 00:14:32.250 it all up and he's going to do whatever he's 00:14:32.250 --> 00:14:36.929 going to do anyway. So who knows? Well, what's 00:14:36.929 --> 00:14:39.370 the verdict on these different theories? Well, 00:14:39.389 --> 00:14:41.330 accommodated revelation can be rejected outright. 00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:44.669 because it's incompatible with inspiration. An 00:14:44.669 --> 00:14:46.470 inerrancy of purpose paints each of the three 00:14:46.470 --> 00:14:48.950 members of the Trinity as liars in different 00:14:48.950 --> 00:14:52.009 ways, but God is fundamentally truthful. Now 00:14:52.009 --> 00:14:54.190 that might make absolute inerrancy sound tempting, 00:14:54.309 --> 00:14:56.129 and there are some Christians out there who will 00:14:56.129 --> 00:14:57.909 tell you that if you hold any position other 00:14:57.909 --> 00:14:59.629 than absolute inerrancy, you're going straight 00:14:59.629 --> 00:15:02.350 to hell. But it's simply not a reasonable choice. 00:15:02.690 --> 00:15:05.350 We have examples like the giant metal bowl built 00:15:05.350 --> 00:15:07.970 for the temple in 2 Chronicles that is described 00:15:07.970 --> 00:15:11.720 as 10 cubits in diameter. and 30 cubits in circumference. 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:14.379 You know, God invented math when he created the 00:15:14.379 --> 00:15:16.700 universe. He's not going to get a simple calculation 00:15:16.700 --> 00:15:19.240 like that wrong. It's clearly an approximate 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:21.899 number meant to be easy for people to understand 00:15:21.899 --> 00:15:24.960 and remember. That's phenomenal language, not 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.860 an error. And so the decision comes down to the 00:15:28.860 --> 00:15:31.620 final two. Are the historical and scientific 00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:34.600 facts in the Bible true phenomenally, or does 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:37.220 the Bible play loose with facts? You know, in 00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:38.720 a future session, we're going to look at biblical 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:40.740 archaeology. But let me summarize that entire 00:15:40.740 --> 00:15:44.200 session in one sentence. There has never, ever 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.720 been a single scientific or historical finding 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:49.000 that has disagreed with information presented 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.860 in the Bible when it is taken phenomenally. For 00:15:51.860 --> 00:15:54.000 instance, during the flood, the Bible says that 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.139 great faults of water opened up from under the 00:15:56.139 --> 00:15:58.899 earth. Scientists dismissed this as nonsense. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:00.980 They said it was proof that the Bible is fiction, 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:03.220 that we should all just become atheists. Until 00:16:03.220 --> 00:16:06.720 the invention of ground -penetrating radar allowed 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.779 them to image the ocean floors. Guess what they 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:12.059 found? They found those water vaults sitting 00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:15.039 below, and now they estimate that there is as 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.039 much water in vaults stored below the oceans 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:22.000 as there is in the oceans. The Bible is true. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:25.850 And so ultimately... full inerrancy emerges as 00:16:25.850 --> 00:16:30.110 the best choice. Now, if you're a big nerd like 00:16:30.110 --> 00:16:32.570 me, you enjoy studying stuff like this just for 00:16:32.570 --> 00:16:34.610 the sake of learning. However, it's not unreasonable 00:16:34.610 --> 00:16:36.970 to ask whether learning about inspiration and 00:16:36.970 --> 00:16:39.669 inerrancy have a practical application. In other 00:16:39.669 --> 00:16:41.730 words, how does my understanding of those two 00:16:41.730 --> 00:16:45.009 things impact my daily life as a Christian? Well, 00:16:45.049 --> 00:16:47.090 if we properly understand the Bible as a source 00:16:47.090 --> 00:16:49.490 of revelation that comes directly from God and 00:16:49.490 --> 00:16:52.679 is 100 % true, We have an absolute source of 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.000 authority that every other source can be measured 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:58.059 against. General and personal or private revelation 00:16:58.059 --> 00:17:01.100 always come through a human lens, and humans 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:03.740 make mistakes and misunderstand things. For instance, 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:06.099 if someone comes up to you and tells you that 00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:08.599 God gave them a message for you, it needs to 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:11.460 be weighed against the Bible. If what they say 00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:14.839 disagrees with the Bible in any way, you have 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:18.549 to discard it. Now, I hate this example. but 00:17:18.549 --> 00:17:20.869 it's incredibly powerful, and I've heard it a 00:17:20.869 --> 00:17:23.309 lot of times from our teenage girls. They're 00:17:23.309 --> 00:17:25.289 dating a boy, and he tells them that God said 00:17:25.289 --> 00:17:27.269 they're going to get married someday, so they 00:17:27.269 --> 00:17:29.650 might as well have sex now since they're basically 00:17:29.650 --> 00:17:32.750 already married. Well, God's intentions for sex 00:17:32.750 --> 00:17:35.369 only within marriage are clear in the Bible, 00:17:35.470 --> 00:17:37.769 and God isn't going to give someone a personal 00:17:37.769 --> 00:17:40.769 message that contradicts the Bible. Not only 00:17:40.769 --> 00:17:43.109 can that message be ignored, but it should serve 00:17:43.109 --> 00:17:45.509 as a red flag that somebody would lie about God 00:17:45.509 --> 00:17:48.579 speaking to them to get sex. Another example 00:17:48.579 --> 00:17:51.279 is one that goes beyond individual harm to potentially 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:53.759 destroying families, communities, churches, and 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:55.920 denominations. The debate over whether there 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.400 are modern -day apostles. Now, you're going to 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:00.319 find differences of opinion on this throughout 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:03.059 denominations and even within the vineyard denomination. 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:05.359 So I want to be charitable and state that I'm 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:07.579 not questioning anyone's sincerity, calling them 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:10.099 a heretic, saying they're uneducated, or even 00:18:10.099 --> 00:18:12.200 saying that I think they're unreasonable. But 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:14.500 my personal conviction is that there are no modern 00:18:14.500 --> 00:18:16.950 -day apostles. and I believe scripture is clear 00:18:16.950 --> 00:18:19.009 on that matter, and I'll explain why I think 00:18:19.009 --> 00:18:21.750 that's so important. First, if we look at the 00:18:21.750 --> 00:18:23.950 original apostles, we see a pattern. You had 00:18:23.950 --> 00:18:26.509 the twelve, Jesus' closest disciples, who, except 00:18:26.509 --> 00:18:28.369 for Judas, would go on to become the original 00:18:28.369 --> 00:18:31.630 apostles. After Judas died, we see in Acts 1, 00:18:31.769 --> 00:18:35.069 12 -26, that the remaining eleven selected two 00:18:35.069 --> 00:18:37.549 candidates, prayed over the choice, and then 00:18:37.549 --> 00:18:39.970 allowed God to select Matthias by casting lots. 00:18:40.450 --> 00:18:43.450 Later, in Acts 9, 1 -30, we see Jesus calling 00:18:43.450 --> 00:18:46.230 Saul, later known as Paul, and this call being 00:18:46.230 --> 00:18:48.509 confirmed by the original apostles when Paul 00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:51.089 went to Jerusalem. So we can begin to construct 00:18:51.089 --> 00:18:53.930 a criteria for being an apostle, someone directly 00:18:53.930 --> 00:18:56.630 chosen by Jesus and acknowledged by the other 00:18:56.630 --> 00:18:59.609 apostles. And those 13 men were it. There are 00:18:59.609 --> 00:19:01.589 no other apostles chosen in the New Testament, 00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:03.750 and even the early church fathers who studied 00:19:03.750 --> 00:19:05.809 under the apostles didn't dare call themselves 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:08.650 apostles. That would have been unthinkable. Furthermore, 00:19:08.910 --> 00:19:11.029 we see that the apostles had the ability to do 00:19:11.029 --> 00:19:13.960 miracles on demand. Not the miracles we see today, 00:19:14.140 --> 00:19:15.960 where we pray and the Holy Spirit may or may 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:18.559 not perform an action based on whether it aligns 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:21.079 with God's plan, but they were guaranteed instant 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:23.539 miracles like when Peter heals the crippled man 00:19:23.539 --> 00:19:26.299 on the temple steps in Acts 3. Why is this such 00:19:26.299 --> 00:19:28.500 a big deal? Well, we determine what counts as 00:19:28.500 --> 00:19:30.259 scripture because it was written by an apostle 00:19:30.259 --> 00:19:32.680 or written using the testimony of an apostle. 00:19:32.920 --> 00:19:35.279 They had the authority to explain and elaborate 00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:37.940 on scripture, perhaps in areas where Jesus didn't 00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:40.339 speak. A person claiming to be an apostle is 00:19:40.339 --> 00:19:42.500 claiming to have that authority, essentially 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:45.259 bypassing the Bible as the final authority. And 00:19:45.259 --> 00:19:46.920 I'll tell you this, I have never once heard a 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:49.240 person claiming to be a modern -day apostle that 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.240 didn't go against Scripture at least some small 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:53.619 way, but most go against Scripture in massive 00:19:53.619 --> 00:19:55.960 ways, and many seem to be pushing for fame and 00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:58.640 personal gain. They also can't do miracles on 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.400 demand. Con artists like Benny Hinn stack the 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:03.420 audience with paid actors and gullible marks 00:20:03.420 --> 00:20:06.019 to make it appear like they do, but under controlled 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:08.099 conditions, their power suddenly disappeared. 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:10.859 Let's use this as an area where we allow the 00:20:10.859 --> 00:20:13.460 Bible to be the final authority as it ought to 00:20:13.460 --> 00:20:16.119 be in every area. That's going to wrap us up 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:18.099 for tonight, so I'll toss my contact information 00:20:18.099 --> 00:20:20.400 back up on the screen along with the links to 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:22.740 see the slides. I've also got the Erickson book 00:20:22.740 --> 00:20:25.019 back up in case you enjoyed how he broke down 00:20:25.019 --> 00:20:27.099 the theories of inspiration and inerrancy and 00:20:27.099 --> 00:20:29.930 want to study further using his book. As always, 00:20:29.970 --> 00:20:32.150 I love hearing your questions, suggestions, and 00:20:32.150 --> 00:20:34.450 feedback, as well as your future topic ideas. 00:20:34.750 --> 00:20:36.769 Thank you for listening, and God bless.