November 30, 2019 by Derek Ball
By what Standard? This question, first posed to me by the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen in his advance of the Van Tillian apologetic, quickly became a foundational question for me as I studied the Scriptures (pun intended).[1] What I quickly realized, however, is how many evanjellyfish wield something far less sharp and rigid than the Sword of the Spirit. Rather than relying solely on the Word of God for all practice, all theology, every test of doctrine and motive of the heart, the Word of God comes second to personal conviction. The Word of God as the sole infallible rule of faith and practice is at war with modern evangelicalism that continually moves left with the rest of culture. In fact, the culture seems to be steering the ship, while Christians stand idly by, or assisting in the navigation, directing, and rigging sails, while very few Christians with backbone stand and herald the news of the hole in the hull, or actually making attempts at repair. This is fundamentally a problem with presuppositions of biblical truth. Calvin’s conclusion is commensurate here:
Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture indeed is self-authenticated; hence, it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoning. And the certainty it deserves with us, it attains by the testimony of the Spirit. For even if it wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else’s judgement that Scripture is from God; but above human judgement we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men. We seek no proofs, no marks of genuineness upon which our judgement may lean; but we subject our judgement and with to it as a thing far beyond any guesswork!… Such, then, is a conviction that requires no reasons; such, a knowledge which the best reason agrees–in which the mind truly reposes more securely and constantly than in any reasons; such, finally, a feeling that can be born only of heavenly revelation.[2]
A point which Calvin affirms in so many words, Scripture says with far fewer: “Lean not on your own understanding, trust in the Lord with all your heart, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The Christian is under continual attack from the unregenerate in an attempt to pit Christ against alternative religion, scientific theorems, and all the rest. As the current state of the culture continues to sever ties with the Christian foundation upon which our culture was once rooted, the more there is a need for Christian men with spinal integrity to ask the central question, by what standard are we measuring reason, guidance, judgment, doctrine, feelings, deed, and word? The necessity this entails is for such men to heed and to hold God’s Word in such a way so as to remove God from the dock, where the world-sailors have placed Him to plead His case before the judgment of the self-deified autonomy of man. The ultimate standard for Christians must always find its foundation in God’s self-attesting Word; for it is the supreme judge by which all religious claims are to be examined, all doctrines of men, private revelations, and in whose judgment we are to set our trust and hope can be nothing other than the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures.[3] This standard must be accepted because of what it truly claims to be, and by no means independent from it. How can one separate oneself from the Word of God as a standard, simultaneously affirming it as true? Someone in such a state cannot make heads nor tails of his autonomous thought from God’s holy spoken Word. He cannot make heads nor tails of these things because he is ultimately standing upon the standard of his own mind, his own reasoning, his own judgments of Gods Word. When a man leans on his own understanding in an attempt to interpret Scripture and find the mind of God, all he finds there is validation–from his own understanding. Far too common is the practice for Christians to, whether intentionally or not, reject the relation between one’s theological position and his system for arriving at such position. The resulting methodological inconsistency translates into a different epistemology (origins of knowledge) for his position than that used in practicing it. He has put the cart before the horse. This inconsistency in practice looks something like, the crew of that emblematic ship, claiming to be Christians, they have theology to defend it, but their methodology in arriving at said theology is the same that prevents them from preaching about the hole in the hull, or moving physically to do something about it. In the extremes, which is more and more the norm as the culture moves further and further from seeking God’s righteousness, it may look like the Christians are aiding the captain–culture. This methodology I’m talking about, is a reliance upon autonomy. The man who designs for himself the word of God as fitting for himself is the man who, by that same measure, designs a scripture from God’s Word that enables him to do nothing about the sinking.
A critic might assume some level of divisiveness on the part of this article. On the contrary, the goal is to eliminate divisiveness by establishing a standard. The only standard. The goal is to arrive at what the Christian must come to hold – that Christ is the only foundation for reasoning, so that when the world attempts to twist and tangle rationality and irrationality together in an attempt to replace the truth of God’s revelation in His word, the Christian may remain consistent in his principles. This consistency is over and against the claims that Christian beliefs are unfactual or illogical. This consistency flies in the face of the idea that finds portions of Scripture to be old-fashioned, outdated, uncultured, or any other claims of those unprincipled in the nature of God’s Word. It is with these that I would admit to an attempt at division. At some levels, division is a good and honorable thing. Some of God’s first acts in creation were cuts, dividing light from darkness, land from sea, the waters above from the waters below, woman from man. Every biblical covenant instituted by God is enacted by division, a cut, and blood: marriage, all God’s promises to all the families of the earth (Genesis 15), the new covenant in the blood of Christ, the ultimate fulfillment of the marriage covenant and the Abrahamic covenant in the atoning work of Christ on the cross at Calvary. In many ways, including the Scriptures, to divide is a divine prerogative: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). So then, toward the critic, there is my standard, now where is yours? And for those unprincipled, this is where I will attempt to set the plumb line upon the Word of God, and measure respectively.
For those unprincipled (or, less egregiously, ignorant) in the nature of God’s Word, here are some things God has to say about His Word, from His Word: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8); and Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, and God, speaking through His Son–His Word incarnate, declares that His Word stands forever. His Word does not wither like grass, and it does not fade like the flower; it does not pass away like heaven and earth. No, God’s Word stands forever and does not pass away. It stands as the standard by which men with backbones may rest their burdens, knowing that their word does not offer any authority of itself, allowing Scripture to speak as the authority to which all mankind must surrender, or endure the wrath of God that abides on them (Rom. 1:16-18).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:1-5). Scripture claims Jesus not only to be God’s Son, but also His incarnate Word who dwelt among us in the flesh to give light to all men. Jesus validates the Scriptures profusely (within the Scriptures, I might add), knowing them better than the scribes and Pharisees, with such wisdom and knowledge that masses of people followed Him, even attempting to force His head into a crown (John 6:15). God incarnate, the Word, should then be trusted as such–as self validating, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, clear, and authoritative for all life and practice. We must trust also what He has to say about the written Word.
So then, Jesus speaking to the Jews in unbelief says, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:45-47). Jesus clearly validates the writings of Moses as prophetic of Himself. If this is not enough for the whole council of God in Scripture, Jesus prays for His disciples, giving an answer in advance to Pilate’s stinging question, “what is truth?” saying, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 18:38; 17:16-18). The Word of the Father is truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. God’s written Word, the Son manifested through human authors onto pages and iPads, is truth (Isaiah 40:8).
The apostle Paul, instructed the young pastor Timothy to continue the work he was entrusted with, which was, to shepherd a flock, or to pastor a church; instructions that are not often followed by pastors today:
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths (2 Timothy 3:14-4:4).
Not much commentary should be necessary at this point. The Scriptures speak plainly and overwhemingly here: all Scripture is “inspired” (in the Greek: theopneustas, literally “God-breathed”). This is the Word we ought to preach. This is the doctrine we ought to endure. Teachers are to be faithful to the Scriptures, not their own desires. Men have sought autonomy from God from the beginning, and it is the job of shepherds to keep the sheep in the sheepfold. The Word calls sheep and shepherd alike to war. And while the world may be at war with the Scriptures as the standard, the weapons we bear are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are to destroy all speculation and lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-7). This is the only standard worth standing on. The only hope of this blog is that, by being directed to the Scriptures, you likewise may stand on it.
The responses to my conclusion of the ultimacy of Scripture are generally threefold. The first possibility is to respond by accepting what I’ve said, either by compliance to your presuppositions or acceptance by way of argumentation (my abilities of which do not compare to Bahnsen, so you really should read him). To both individuals in this category, I invite you (if you have not already) to search the Scriptures to be certain what I have argued here is indeed what the Scriptures are communicating. The second possible reaction is skeptical ambiguity. This reaction is the kind that holds the conclusion at arms length, knowing that the argumentation is sound, valid, biblical, or any combination of the three; perhaps either ignorant of the counterarguments or simply reluctant to accept it as true. To this, I would simply implore you to continue holding the conclusion, because if you are indwelled with the Spirit, you will in due time be holding onto it with everything you’ve got. Third, is the outright rejection of my argument altogether, in which case I will ask, of your conclusion, “by what standard?”
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[1] Greg L. Bahnsen, Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended, (American Vision Press: Powder Springs, GA).
[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I. VII. 5, from The Library of Christian Classics, Vol. XX, ed. J. T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), p. 80.
[3] Macpherson, J. (n.d.), The Westminster Confession of Faith, (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark), Chapter I, Sections X, IV, and V.
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