Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible's Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

240 Pages·2004·1.09 MB·English

by  James R. White

Scripture Alone Copyright © 2004
James R. White
Cover design by Eric Walljasper Unless otherwise identified, Scripture
quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, ©
Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972,
1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the
Bible.
Scripture quotations identified ESV are from The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations identified NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing
House. All rights reserved.
Ebook edition created 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior
written permission of the publisher and copyright owners.
eISBN 978-1-4412-1162-0
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand
Rapids, Michigan.
This book is dedicated to my son, Joshua Daniel White.
I have often said God knew I could never pursue the ministry He has entrusted
to me without giving me the best children He had available, and so He did. My
son is a great source of joy and fulfillment, and I openly and gladly tell any who
wish to hear that I could never pursue this work without the support of my wife,
my son, and my daughter. The defender of the faith in these pages is named
Joshua in honor of my son and of my having had the tremendous privilege of
baptizing him at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, where I am an elder.
Thank you, Joshua, my son and also my brother in Christ.
JAMES WHITE is the author of several acclaimed books, including The King
James Only Controversy and The Forgotten Trinity. He is an elder of the
Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, director of Alpha and Omega Ministries—a
Christian apologetics organization, an adjunct professor with Golden Gate
Baptist Theological Seminary, and professor of apologetics with Columbia
Evangelical Seminary. He and his family live in Phoenix.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter One: Three Arguments Related to Scriptural Sufficiency
Chapter Two: Definitions: More Than Half the Battle
Chapter Three: Forever Settled: The Nature of God’s Holy Word
Chapter Four: Inerrancy and Exegesis: Believing and Honoring God’s Word
Chapter Five: The Canon of Scripture Considered
Chapter Six: Did Thomas Write a Gospel?
Chapter Seven: Allegations of Corruption
Chapter Eight: Allegations of Contradiction
Chapter Nine: Tradition, the Church, and the Development of Doctrine
Chapter Ten: The Lord Spoke to Me, Saying
Chapter Eleven: Scriptural Sufficiency: Nothing New
Chapter Twelve: Conclusion: Forever Settled in Heaven…and for Me
Scripture Index
About the Author
BHP Books by James R. White
Introduction
very author thinks his or her book is truly needed at his or her time in
E
church history. At least I like to think so. I would hate to think anyone
writes books just for the sake of writing books. I certainly do not: Every
editor with whom I’ve ever worked will testify that I often comment on
having no intention to reinvent the wheel. I have not written a book
specifically on Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, simply because there are a
number of very good works already in print on the subject, written by solid
authors and containing solid information. Why should I repeat what someone
else has already done?
However, the book you hold in your hands, if God has blessed my efforts in
writing it, is unlike any other book currently available. Sure, every book is
unique, but I mean this in a particular sense. And yes, any book I write will be
unique because of my background, which includes more than four dozen
moderated public debates against leading apologists of prominent religious
beliefs (almost all of whom are united in denying the sufficiency of the Bible to
function as the church’s sole infallible rule of faith); seminary teaching
experience in the biblical languages, apologetics, and theology; and the office of
elder in a local Christ-professing, Bible-believing church.[1] Scripture Alone
should be specifically unique because of what I am seeking to do and because of
the impact I want it to have upon you, the reader.
First, I am not seeking to write a massive scholarly tome on sola scriptura.
That has already been done more than once,[2] and tremendous works defending
this truth are already in print. This book should be considered a primer, an
introduction, to those much longer works. In general, the great works of past
believers are not written in a popular style; they spoke more clearly to past
generations. One must want to work through them to arrive at the goal, and it is
my intention to compel my fellow believers to want to do that work.
Second, I write as a pastor/theologian/apologist who believes firmly that man
is a singular whole—you cannot divide man’s mind from his heart, his soul. I am
passionate about theology, passionate about the faith. I honestly do not
understand how anyone can say “I believe the Bible is the Word of God” without
being passionate about that confession. I love the Trinity, justification by faith,
the Resurrection, and sola scriptura. I do not pretend to be dispassionate about
these things, and, as such, I stand firmly on this assertion: Christian scholarship
that lacks passion about the truth is not worthy of the name Christian to begin
with. If dispassion and detachment are necessary attributes of scholarship, then I
do not seek the appellation. I cannot comprehend dry faith, arid confession, or
mere mental assent. A person who has only intellectual knowledge of the
sufficiency of Scripture, but lacks a deep, abiding love of the Scriptures and an
understanding of how their sufficiency is related to the gospel and to the
assurance of salvation, is liable to be led astray by winsome words or the
traditions of men. At the same time, a person who professes great zeal for the
truth, but does not honor the truth by growing in knowledge of it, can be easily
led astray. We need a balanced understanding of and love for the truth of sola
scriptura. Divine truths command our undivided allegiance, and this love of
divine truth is what I seek to encourage in your heart.
ON THE BACKS OF GIANTS
I have always believed in sola scriptura, though the Latin phrase did not enter
into my vocabulary until adulthood. When I first began responding to attacks
made upon Scripture by various religious groups, I did so out of instinctual
respect for the Bible and a strong sense of loyalty to the Word. Even in my
conservative Bible college, little was said about the doctrine; it was simply
assumed. I was blissfully unaware of the tremendous effort that had been
expended in the defense of Scripture’s sufficiency by God’s people in past
generations.
The Reformation, traditionally dated as beginning with the posting of Luther’s
Ninety-five Theses on October 31, 1517, brought intense focus to the issue of
scriptural sufficiency. Indeed, the formal principle of the Reformation was sola
scriptura, for it was the assertion of biblical sufficiency over against tradition
that allowed for the recovery of certain biblical doctrines: justification by grace
through faith alone, the proper form and governance of the church, the individual
priesthood of the believer, and much more. The preeminence of the Word can be
seen in Luther’s comment:
The Word comes first, and with the Word the Spirit breathes upon my heart so
that I believe.[3]
Rome taught that because she was the custodian of sacred tradition, people
needed her magisterial authority; hence, Rome vehemently opposed and denied
the idea of Scripture alone as the sole infallible rule of faith for the church.
Neither did Rome sit quietly in response to the Reformation, as the Catholic
counterreformation blossomed in the latter decades of the sixteenth century. The
chief ecclesiastical manifestation of this movement was the Council of Trent
(1546–1564), which began its work by issuing a declaration on the issue of the
nature of Scripture itself (April 1546). The council not only claimed authority to
define the extent of the canon but also sought to “check unbridled spirits” (i.e.,
those who refused to acknowledge the ultimate authority of the papacy),
decreeing,
No one relying on his own judgment shall, in matters of faith and morals
pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, distorting the Holy Scriptures
in accordance with his own conceptions, presume to interpret them contrary to
that sense which holy mother Church, to whom it belongs to judge of their true
sense and interpretation, has held and holds, or even contrary to the unanimous
teaching of the Fathers, even though such interpretations should never at any
time be published.[4]