Grace Bible Chapel, May 11, 2025, Greg Rhodea PhD
I. The Scriptures are Completely
(And Testify to the
of Christ)
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable,
II. The Scriptures Offer Life-Giving
(Until
at the Return of Christ)
and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
III. The Scriptures Are Fully
and Fully
(As Are the Natures of Christ)
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Bottom Line
…by
…by believing in the
…by devoting yourself to the
Appendix A: Two Possible Strategies to Argue for the Truth of the Bible and Jesus
• Strategy One: “from the Bible to Jesus”
o The Bible Claims to Be Inspired and Authoritative.
o We believe this claim of inspiration for a variety of possible reasons:
The Bible has a “ring of truth” to it, or a beauty, or a perceived spiritual power.
The testimony of others about the Bible (parents, friends, etc.) direct us to accept it.
We are convinced that the Bible is sufficiently historically and scientifically accurate.
We experience a direct sense from the Holy Spirit that the message of the Bible is true, and we believe through a direct response of faith.
See Alvin Plantinga’s work on this: https://youtu.be/lro05RvPMkE
o We believe in Jesus because we believe the Bible’s witness to Jesus.
• Strategy Two: “from Jesus to the Bible”
o We believe based on historical evidence that Jesus really was raised from the dead.
Note: We do not need to presuppose the trustworthiness of the Bible for this. A non-inspired, “normal,” imperfect, New Testament could still testify to the resurrection of Jesus in a historically convincing way. This is because the New Testament is the product of individuals who testify to Jesus’ resurrection.
See Mike Licona’s video: https://youtu.be/LcoxS8mJGG8
o If Jesus was raised from the dead, this is divine vindication showing he legitimately was from God.
o If Jesus was legitimately from God, he was qualified to provide spiritual guidance and powerful enough to ensure that his guidance was passed on as he desired.
o Since the New Testament documents can be trusted because of Jesus’ influence, we can trust New Testament’s self-claim to authority and inspiration.
o Since the New Testament shows both Jesus and the Apostles treating the Old Testament as authoritative and inspired, we should view the Old Testament the same way.
• Both of the above strategies are legitimate.
o Something like Strategy One is perhaps the one most believers follow to come to faith, via the work of the Spirit creating that faith in our hearts. But Strategy Two is useful in talking to people who are not believers yet, and for showing that belief in the Bible is reasonable and not a matter of “blind” faith.
o See William Lane Craig on Justification of Belief in Scriptural Inspiration:
https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/grounds-for-belief-in-biblical-inspiration
Appendix B: The Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible
• Definition of Inspiration: “By inspiration of Scripture we mean that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually be the Word of God” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed,. 224).
• Definition of Inerrancy: Simple: “Inerrancy is the doctrine that the Bible is fully truthful in all of its teachings.” (Erickson, 246). Nuanced: “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” (Erickson, 259).
• Inspiration is a Direct Biblical Claim: Jeremiah 30:1‒2; 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16‒17
• Inerrancy is a Theological Inference from God’s Truthfulness (but also supported in the Bible): Numbers 13:19; Psalm 119:160; Titus 1:2; John 10:35
• We Should Believe in the Old Testament Because Jesus Did: Matt 5:17‒20; Matt 22:43; Mark 12:24‒27
• We Should Believe in the New Testament Because Jesus Established Its Basis: John 16:12‒13; 2 Pet 3:14‒16; 1 Tim 5:18
Appendix C: Two Primary Christian Views on the Reliability of the Bible
• Inerrancy: The Bible is true in everything it addresses, both faith and practice and other areas such as history, geography, etc (This is our view here at Grace). There are four important caveats to this view:
o Inerrancy is a theological belief based on God’s truthfulness and cannot be “proved” by demonstrating a lack of problems in the text. That being said: “It is encouraging, however, that the trend is toward the resolution of difficulties as more data come in…. Overall, there is less difficulty for the belief in the factual inerrancy of the Bible than there was a hundred years ago” (Erickson, 262‒63).
o Inerrancy refers to the original manuscripts.
o Inerrancy allows for flexibility in such things as phenomenological language, genre & cultural considerations, approximation in numbering, loose or free quotations, variation in story-telling, and unusual grammatical constructions.
o The Bible must be correctly interpreted. The Bible is inerrant; our interpretations of it are not.
• Infallibility (or Limited Inerrancy): The Bible is true in matters of faith and practice but may contain factual errors in other areas, such as science, geography—that are not its purpose (This is not our view here at Grace, but it is still a Christian view).
o It’s good to know that if we were proven wrong about inerrancy, it doesn’t mean Christianity is false.
This means that if someone is convinced that they have found an error in the Scriptures that cannot be resolved, or struggle with doubts about some things, atheism is not their only recourse. There are a variety of Christian positions in between.
This is an important distinction to make so we do not drive people away from the faith with an over-emphasis on inerrancy. This is doubly-so since, inerrancy is a “top down” theological view which cannot be proved “from the ground up.”
An errant Bible could still testify adequately about Jesus. An example of someone we look to as a strong Christian, who yet did not hold to inerrancy as like we would, is C.S. Lewis.
o While all Christians view the Bible as a book that is both human and divine in nature, this view of infallibility would see a higher emphasis on the human element of the Scriptures.
• Reminder: Our primary allegiance is to Jesus the person, and only secondarily to the Bible. While it would be wrong to play these off against each other (if we trust in Jesus we will trust his book!), such a distinction can help us weather storms of doubt.