On my main blog, http://www.therighthandoffellowship.blogspot.com/ , I recently did a five part review of J.I. Packer's " 'Fundamentalism' and the Word of God." (To read the individual articles see here, here, here, here and here.) For the benefit of readers and myself, here is a list of the Biblical references Packer provides in asserting the divine origin of Scripture:
The message of the Apostles was called "the word of God", "the word of the Lord", or "the word"- Acts 4:31, 6:2, 8:4, 14, Col. 1:25, IThess. 1:8, 2:13, etc.
The New Testament Message labels itself "The word of Christ", "the word of the Cross"- Col. 3:16, 1Cor 1:18 (RV)
Scripture's divine origins guarantee its contents to be of divine truth- IICor 6:7, Col. 1:5, Eph 1:13, IITim 2:15, James 1:18
People come to faith by hearing the Word and that faith is called "obeying the truth"- Gal. 3:1, 7, IPet 1:22, cf. Rom 6:17, 10:16, IIThess. 1:8, IPet 4:17, Lk 6:46.
"The faith of God's elect" goes with "the knowledge of the truth"- Titus 1:1 (RV)
The entire Old Testament is considered in the New Testament as the oracles of God- Rom 3:2
The disobedience of Old Testament Laws brought about disaster while obedience to them resulted in prosperity- Lev. 26, Deut 28, cf. IIKings 22:13
Christ's teaching was of divine origin and He placed His entire authority behind the Old Testament as being of divine origin- Matt 5:17, 18,cf. LK 16:17, Matt 19:4, Jn 5:35, MK 12:24, Matt 12:3,5, 21: 16:42, Matt 9:13, cf. 12:7 (These last two references quoting Hos. 6:6)
Christ avowed His intention to obey what was written- Matt 4:1, LK 4:1, cf. Mt. 16: 21-23
Christ told His critics that they misunderstood the meaning of The Law- cf. Mk 2:24, 3:4, Lk 13:14, Jn. 7:21
Christ stated that His preaching fulfilled Scripture: Lk 4:18 quoting Is. 61:1-2
Christ's healings fulfilled Scripture- Matt 8:16 quoting Is. 53:4
In Mt. 11:5, to restore John The baptist's faith in His messiahship, Jesus linked His cures to the day of redemption described in Is 35:5
Jesus taught from the Old Testament concerning His own death- Mk 8:31, cf. 9:31 and 10:33, Lk 18:31, Mt. 26:24, Lk 22:37 (RSV quoting Is 53:12)Mt 26: 53,56 (RSV), Lk 24:44, 46
Jesus considered Himself the key to understanding the Old Testament- Jn. 5:39, 46
The Apostles argued for Christ's authority based on the Old Testament- Acts 4:25, Rom 1:2, 9:17, Gal 3:8
The Old Testament spoke of Christ for our benefit- Rom 15:4, ICor 10: 11 (RSV), IPet 1:12 (RSV)
The reckoning of righteousness to Abraham was not just for his sake but for ours- Rom 4:23
The Old Testament writings are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ- IITim 3:15
To those who had faith in Christ, the meaning of the Old Testament was opened to them; those who failed to accept Christ had a veil cast upon them in their understanding of the Old Testament- IICor 3:14
The Old Testament was not the only divinely inspired Scripture, according to the Apostles; also divinely inspired are the words of Christ- cf. Acts 20:35, I Cor 7:10 quoting the words recorded in Mt. 5:32. The Apostles teaching was also divinely inspired to build up the churches- Gal. 2:7, IICor 10:8, 13:10. They presented themselves as Christ's ambassadors-IICor 5:19-20. They presented their own teaching as God's Word- IThess. 2:13. Their words were inspired by the Holy Spirit- I Cor 2:13-teaching to them what Christ had left unsaid before Pentecost- Jn. 16:12. Paul described his own proclamation of the Gospel as a norm of truth- Gal 1:8. Paul issues commands in the name of Jesus, in the authority of Christ's name- IIThess. 3:6, cf. IThess 4:2. One mark of spirituality is submission to Paul's authority- ICor 14: 37-38 (RSV). All Church's must bow to Paul's teachings; those who do not will be expelled until they are ready to obey- ICor 11:2, IIThess 2:15, IIThess. 3:6,14. The Apostles reqirement that there letters be read in Church pointed the way for the Church to recognize their letters as Scripture- IThess 5:27, Col 4:16, Rev 1:3. Early on Peter labeled Paul's writings as Scripture- IIPet 3:16.
Scripture supplies what the Church needs to live righteously and to be corrected when the Church fails- IITim 3:16.
Scripture warns us against uncritical deference to human tradition and theology- Mk. 7:6-13.
Scripture warns us against rewriting the Gospel to align the message with secular thought- Col 2: 8,18. The message of Paul in Col. is the Gospel and salvation was predicated on obeying that message- Col. 1: 5,23,25.
All Biblical doctrines terminate in mystery, we can know them only in part because of our inability to completely comprehend them. Therefore, thorough knowledge of Scripture does not mean we have all the answers- ICor 8:9.
The doctrine of the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture is not a theory of "divine dictation." God prepared the writers for their predestined task- Jer. 1:5, Is. , Gal 1:15. Some inspired documents were the product of firsthand research- LK 1:3. Some books underwent revisions until they reached their final form- Prov. 10:1, 24:23, 25:1.
All Scripure is divinely written (pasa graphe) and theopneustos (inspired)-Mt. 5:18, IITim 3:16. No element of human sinful thought appears in Scripture; God has the power to prevent the Scripture from being corrupted; Scripture was written according to His predetermined will-Eph. 1:11, Ps. 135:6. Example, the Pslams of David were the work of God and the work of David at the same time- Acts 1:16, 4:25.
Jesus Christ is the key to all of Scripture; all Scripture in some way bears witness to Him- Jn 5:39, Lk 24: 27,44, IICor 3:14-16.
The Old Testament is referred to as God's Word in its entirety and in its individual sayings. In Ps. 119, 42 references are made to The Law as God's Word. The New Testament declares the Old Testament to be the "oracles of God."- Rom 3:2.
B.B. Warfield identified 2 classes of Scripture where the New Testament writers refered to Scripture as God (examples include- Gal 3:8 quoting Gen. 12:1-3, Rom 9:17 quoting Ex. 4:16. The words of God spoken to Old Testament figures were so identified in the minds of New Testament writers as the Word of God that they refered to them as "Scripture says...") and refered to God as Scripture (examples include- Mt 19:4-5 quoting Gen 2:24, Heb 3:7 quoting , Acts 4:24-25 Ps. 2:1, Acts 13: 34-35 quoting Is. 54:3, Ps 16:10, Heb 1:6 quoting Dt. 32:43, Ps. 104:4, Ps. 55:7, Ps. 102:36). These words were not presented as having been spoken by God in the text, but by others speaking about or to God. The New Testament writers spoke of these verses as divinely inspired, "God says..."
Christ's employed various forms of logic in His teaching- analogy (LK 11:13), reductio ad absurdum (Mt 12:26), excluded middle (Mt. 12:30), a fortiori (Matt 12: 1-8), law of non-contradiction (Lk 6:39). Jesus and the New Testament writers derived propositional doctrine from the Old Testament using correct rules of grammar and logic- Mk 12:26-27, Gal 3: 10-12, Rom 9: 15-18.
The Bible is not a textbook on modern science. Sometimes it speaks of the created world in metephors that reflect a mindset different from our modern mindset- ISam 2:8, Job 38:4, Gen 1:8, Ex 24:10, Ps. 55:15, Gen 1:7, Ps. 148:4, Gen 7:11, Ps. 35:10, Gen 43:30, Job 12:11, Ps. 16:7. The writers certainly did not intend that these passages be taken literally.
Scripture must interpret Scripture- Jesus used Gen. 2:24 to interpret Moses Law of divorce, to show that Moses's Law on divorce (Dt. 24:1)was only a concession to human hard-heartedness.
Scripture is understandable even to the most unlearned- Ps. 119:30.
The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of Scripture- ICor 2:14-15, ICor 1:25, Mt 15:14, 23: 16, 17, 19,26, Jn 9:39-41, Mt 11:25, 16:17, Jn 14:26, 15:26, 16:13-14, Jn 17:20, ICor 2: 10-16, ICor 2:4., Jn 3:3, IICor 4:6, Eph 1:18, Gal. 1:16, IICor 4:4, Eph 4:18, IJn. 2: 20, 27, 5:7, 20.
Faith responds to the Biblical Writers words as God's testimony of Himself and responds to it as such- IThess. 2:13, IIThess. 2:11-12, cf. Rom 2:8, IITim 2:25, Titus 1:1, IPet 1:22, etc.
We are to contend for the propositional truths of faith- Jude 3.
Thoughts that do not express faith are sin- cf. Rom 14: 22,23.
We are to assume the attitude of a little child, looking to our divine instructor for wisdom- Ps. 25:4, 119:12 (and nine times more), 71,73, Mt 11:29, Jn 14:26, etc.
God's children are not to lose interest in the world. We are to be its stewards (Gen. 1:28). Yet it is not to be our home. To do so would be what God calls worldliness (cf. IJn. 2:15, Rom 12:2, IITim 4:10, James 4:4). We must cultivate an "other worldliness" (Phil. 1:21). When Jesus commands us to love the world with all our mind (Mt. 22:37), one way to obey Him in this is to apply the doctrines of the Bible to all areas of life. Also, when we communicate God's truth, we reason with those who challenge our thinking- Acts 17:2, 18:4, 19, 24:25.
Final scriptures on obedience- IKings 18:21, Acts 24:14.
If anyone finds any errors in my list, please feel free to send me a comment so I can fix the problem.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Scriptural References Concerning The Origin Of Scripture
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