Truth Magazine

By Grant B. Caldwell

Having decided upon the basis of weighty evidences (both internal and external), that the Bible is the word of God, we must determine to what extent we believe it to be so. Modern religious liberals have advanced a somewhat deceiving statement upon those who would be taken by their tactics. It is said that the Bible is not the word of God, but that it contains the word of God. The criticism of this statement is in its interpretation. Surely, no one would say that God spoke every word in the Bible from His own mind. In Genesis three, the devil speaks. The words of the Pharisees as they confront Christ are recorded. This however, is not the usual meaning of this particular statement. The idea is that in the Bible, one will find Gods word; however, all of the Bible is not directed by God. This we deny.

The Bible makes no claims for the inspiration of any particular translation, copy, or reading. However, claims are made in regard to that which was originally written as the scriptures. It must be understood that we do not have the original manuscripts. But we are not left to doubt that what we have is indeed the same as the originals. “The amount of what can in any sense be called substantial variation, is but a fraction of the whole residuary variation, and can hardly form more than a thousandth part of the entire text” (Introduction to Greek New Testament, by Westcott and Hort).

Plenary inspiration

We would like to notice first the biblical proofs as to the complete or plenary inspiration of the Bible. The Bible is explicit concerning the amount of scripture which is inspired.

John 10:35: Christ said, “The scripture cannot be broken.” Is it not indeed breaking the .scripture to say that part of it is from the mouth of God and then say another part is not? Christ is merely pressing His point and insisting that they cannot accept the portions of the word which they desire and ignore the rest. All of the scripture is authoritative.

James 1: 25: James refers to the “law of liberty.” This is the same as “the engrafted word” (vs. 21), and “the word” (vs. 22, 23). He says that this “law of liberty” is “perfect.” It is easily understood that the imposition of the thoughts of men would only mar its perfection as an extra dash of salt or an additional spoonful of sugar would a perfect cake.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: In one of the most convincing passages on the subject of plenary inspiration, the Apostle Paul says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Any difference in translation cannot destroy the fact that Paul is saying that “all scripture”— “every scripture” is inspired of God. This is a forceful reference to the subject under discussion. The scripture he refers to is the “holy scriptures” of the preceding verse. In essence, Paul is saying that the scriptures given by inspiration of God and the Holy Scriptures are one and the same thing.

The phrase “inspired of God” comes from the same root source as our English words 44 pneumatic,” “pneumonia,” etc., and with the prefix “Theo” (meaning God), literally means “God breathed.” Paul is thus saying that the “holy scriptures” is a product of the breath of God.

2 Peter 1:20-21: Peter, in a passage of equal force, written in the negative, says, “Knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The negative “no” implies simply that none of the prophecies that are recorded came from a private source. Not one single one. The phrase “prophecy of scripture” is used to indicate those writings which constitute the will of God in all its parts. Some might think that there is a “scripture” that is not a 66 prophecy.” However, as Moses, David, and others are referred to as prophets, so their writings would be “prophecies.”

When Peter refers to “private interpretation,” he is contrasting human origin with divine. If this were not so, the next verse would mean very little. These men spake as the Holy Ghost directed them to speak and not as their own hearts dictated. These were the prophets of God and were not left to their own imaginations.

In exactly the same way, there are prophecies in the New Testament written by prophets. Listen to Peter in verse 19, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy.” If it is more sure and compares with that of old time prophecy, then it too must be a product of the Holy Ghost.

I Corinthians 14:37: Paul, “If any man think himself to be a prophet~ or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” Paul spoke only that which was commanded by the Lord.

Peter joins Pauls writings with “the other scriptures” in 2 Peter 3: 15-16. Thus, he shows that these writings are just as authoritative as any of the other writings of God.

If there is one of our readers who does not believe that all of the original writings of the Bible are inspired, will you not show us the evidence and — tell us which passage it might be that is not inspired? If you will but point to one contradiction, that will prove to us that the Bible is not fully inspired. If you will show us but one passage that says it is not all inspired, we will be satisfied. Until such is done, we will continue to believe in the plenary inspiration of the Bible.

Verbal Inspiration

The Bible makes claims not only in regard to the amount of inspiration, but to the way in which it has been inspired. We speak of what is commonly called “Verbal Inspiration.” Modem liberalism has acted on this doctrine as well as that of plenary inspiration and has said that God gave the writers the thoughts and they in turn wrote according to their own words the thoughts which the Lord had given to them.

While we do not question that the thoughts are the Lords, we do deny emphatically that the words are those of the men who penned them. Let us notice briefly why we believe in verbal inspiration; that is, why we believe that the Lord determined the words to be used in the Bible as well as the thoughts.

Reason: It would not seem reasonable, first of all, to suppose that the divine source would leave His divine thoughts regarding the eternal souls of men to be expressed by the inadequate words of unlearned and ignorant men. We will sometimes express just a small variation in meaning to that which we wish to express just by the use of a supposed synonym. Do you think that God could take a chance on this sort of thing?

Biblical Proofs: We are not left, however, to the reasoning of our own minds in this matter of verbal inspiration. Let us notice now the infallible proof of the Bible regarding the matter.

14.

Old Testament: The proof in the Old Testament is so voluminous that even a casual reading ought to make anyone aware of the fact that it is indeed verbally inspired by God. We read such expressions as “Thus saith the Lord” about two thousand times. This, then, is followed by the claimed words of God. Verbal Inspiration.

In Deut. 18:18 a prophecy is made regarding Christ that underlies the whole thought of verbal inspiration. The Lord said that He would raise up a prophet like Moses, and that he would put His words in His mouth. If He was to be like Moses and the Lords words would be in His mouth, then it should go without saying that Moses like the other prophet had the “words” of the Lord in His mouth. Verbal Inspiration.

Peter spoke of these prophets in 2 Peter 1: 21, saying that they were “moved by the Holy Ghost.” The expression “moved” suggests that these men were “borne along” (Vine) to express the thoughts of God in words which He provided. Maybe these prophets did not understand the entire situation (I Peter 1: 11), but they wrote at; the Lord gave them the words to write His thoughts. Verbal Inspiration.

New Testament: In Matthew 4:4 Christ said that man was to live not by bread-alone but by “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” It says more than man must live by the thoughts of God. Man is required to live by the words which God has spoken. Verbal Inspiration.

“Ye should remember the words” (2 Peter 3:2); “For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast” (Hebrews 2:2); “Ye received from us the word of the menage, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God.” (I Thessalonians 2:13) All of these passages place a great emphasis on the idea of the “word.” Why would the “word” be emphasized if it was only the “thought” which had been given?

The most convincing proof in all the Bible regarding the matter of verbal inspiration is found in I Corinthians 2:4-13. Paul, in so many words, says that the gospel was not written in the words of mans wisdom. He says that it was a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit (vs. 4). His argument is that the mystery was revealed by the Holy Spirit f vs. 10) and that the Spirit wrote the gospel by giving it to the apostles (vs. 12). Finally, he says, “which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” (vs. 13, NASV).

How can anyone say that the Bible was written in mens words, when the apostle Paul says that it was written in the Spirits words? There could be no more conclusive argument than this. One would simply have to deny the passage to deny the point of the teaching — Verbal Inspiration.

Style: The most often offered argument against the doctrine of verbal inspiration is that the style of writing in the Bible differs so much from writer to writer. Often fun has been made of the entire idea of verbal inspiration with the men doing the writing caricatured as mere machines. Surely, we should be able to realize that if God was able to make our entire body, then he should be able to use our entire being for His purposes.

If we could but understand the relationship which the Lord sustained with those who wrote the Bible, we would have no difficulty in understanding the way in which it was done. He did not run out and pick someone off, the street on the day he wanted His words recorded. These men were the constant servants of the Lord. In living daily with Him, they blended their ways in His, and conformed their lives to His will. They learned of Him and He used them — all of them — to record His will for man. And, as the Lord said to Moses, “Who hath made mans mouth? Have not I, the Lord?”

Conclusion

Since the Bible is the word of God, and since all of it is from God, spoken in words which he has chosen, then it behooves me to do just exactly as it directs. This is why it is so valuable to us, and this is why it is necessary-yea, essential-for us to leave it as the God of heaven wrote it. Be not deceived, dear reader, by modem claims. You have not the privilege to tamper with the word of God. To do so will surely mean the damnation of your soul. (Gal. 1:7-9) Why not rather obey fully the gospel today?

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 33, pp. 9-11
June 22, 1972

By Cecil Willis

In this series of articles, I have been showing that the denial that the New Testament constitutes a divine blueprint is the basic error of digressives, of every stripe and hue. Thus far, I have discussed the position of those in the liberal Disciples of Christ denomination. In the last article I dealt with those who might, by some, be considered out on the extreme liberal fringe of the Churches of Christ. In this article I want to show how many in what has come to be called “mainstream” Churches of Christ also accept the liberal thesis, to varying degrees.

MISSION Magazine

The most liberal voice within the “mainstream” Church of Christ is that of Mission Magazine. Mission is staffed, to a large degree, with faculty people from Abilene Christian College and George Pepperdine College, in California. Blatant modernism is taught in Mission, as I purpose to show in some articles soon to follow. Those who do not do much reading from the liberal side of the brotherhood would think that Mission magazine and its staff and board are being misrepresented by some of the things I am about to say about them. Hence, I feel the necessity to document rather extensively the charges I am about to make against them.

Of course, like every other liberal, the writers in Mission deny they are liberal. Hasnt the wolf always worn sheepos clothing? Even Satan and his ministers disguise themselves (2 Cor. 11: 13-15). Mission has committed itself to the traditional digressive principle, namely that the New Testament was never intended by God to be a binding pattern for all time to come.

Mission is staffed by intellectual sophisticates, by the intellectual elite, by those whom Leroy Garrett calls the “Young Princes,” though some of their staff are not so very young any more. They always disguise their message in the dense language of modern theological scholarship. The article which I have chosen to refer to in this series is entitled “Some Thoughts on Theology and Mission.” It is written by Victor L. Hunter who is a graduate student at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. Hunter also preaches for the Queens Church of Christ. Mission editor, Roy Bowen Ward, in his column in the March, 1972 issue of Mission, commends Hunters article as an excellent discussion of “the exegetical-contextual-theological method.” You see what I meant by my reference to the dense terminology of contemporary denominationalism. Ward says that Hunter is not advocating anything new. Ward states, “In a very real sense the method Hunter urges is nothing other than the method actually employed by most spokesmen in the Restoration tradition — except that some (many?) were not aware of what they were doing.”

Now if Editor Ward is talking about those of the liberal Disciples of Christ wing of the Restoration Movement, then we could agree that Hunter is not advocating or concluding anything new. He advocates nothing that was not advocated by the liberals a century ago, or that was not defended in A. T. Degroots book, The Grounds of Divisions Among the Disciples of Christ. Hunter simply maintains that we ought to recognize that the contemporary church is in the Twentieth Century, and therefore that we should quit trying to make it like the First Century church. His position is simply “No Pattern-ism” dressed up in the cumbersome language of modern denominational “scholarship.”

No Pattern-ism

What does our brother advocate? Briefly stated, here it is: “The problem with a restoration theology is that it rests on the premise that the mission of the church is to set up a true church in which all the details of church fife are exactly like they were in a first century world. It functions on the assumption that there is a blueprint or pattern in the New Testament that the church is to reduplicate in each succeeding generation” (Mission, March, 1972, p. 6). Admittedly, this is nothing new. We have been hearing it from the Christian Church for more than a century now, and have been fed it by the basket full from Ketcherside and his cohorts for nearly a score of years. The only thing new about it is its open advocacy among so-called “mainstream” Churches of Christ.

Listen to Hunter as he further explicates his digressive premise: “But theology is also time bound if it is concerned only with the past. It is bound to the past whenever one thinks of Christianity simply as reading ancient texts and then putting the puzzle together properly in order to transport it, ready made, into the twentieth century. This is playing first century bible land and leads to biblical fundamentalism. It assumes that the world view, needs and questions of the first century are the same as they are today. It is based on the premise that one can escape from the twentieth century by harking back to some golden age of the past … If it is concerned only with the biblical story and tradition, it is bound to the past and cannot speak with any relevance to the questions of today” (Mission, March, 1972, pp. 3, 4).

Occasionally when we speak of liberalism among us, some of our brethren raise their hands in holy horror, wondering who could he so ignorant as to think there really is any “classical liberalism” among Churches of Christ. Frankly, I get a little weary from reading from the pens of modernists who think they are the only ones who know what real modernism is.

If you want a good illustration of the presence of actual modernism (even the “classical” kind) among Churches of Christ, just read again the two quotes from the March, 1972 issue of Mission. Friend, thats real modernism. Of course, as I have tried to point out several times in this series of articles, the modernist or liberal always denies that he is a modernist or a liberal.

Our brother in Mission used nearly the identical words of the liberal A. T. Degroot. Degroot said, “the non-conservative Disciples have come to view as illusory the idea that a Golden Age of perfect men and institutions existed in the past. They distrust lets-go-back defeatism.” Brother Hunter says that we must be freed from the past. He says that Biblical fundamentalism “is based on the premise that one can escape from the twentieth century by harking back to some golden age of the past.” Brother Hunter says that following the New Testament precisely as though it is a divine pattern “leads to biblical fundamentalism.”

It has been my understanding that nearly all brethren would have considered themselves Biblical fundamentalists, but Brother Hunter writes as though “biblical fundamentalism” is something to be avoided at all costs. If Brother Hunter is not a “biblical fundamentalist,” would he admit to being a Biblical liberal? As I said before, sometime, somewhere, I hope to meet a liberal who will admit to being one.

In the same March, 1972 issue of Mission, another liberal brother challenged the pattern concept of the New Testament. On page 22 and 23, Robert L. Duncan said: “Perhaps the most prolific cause of division among us has been the fallacious assumption that the New Testament provides a detailed pattern for the church … I am not suggesting an anarchical approach to Christianity which disregards the authority of Scripture. What I am arguing is that the New Testament cannot legitimately be used as a book of specific rules covering, every aspect of the work, worship, and government of the church.”

Mission magazine, with its coterie of Abilene Christian College and George Pepperdine College professors, is the vanguard of liberalism among Churches of Christ today. This liberalism is not even of the mitigated variety, as is that about which I will he writing in next weeks article. It is pure stuff! It is the 11 classical liberalism” that Brother Roy Bowen Ward seems to think we are talking about when we say that B. C. Goodpasture is a liberal, or that Guy N. Woods is a liberal. Woods and Goodpasture are not liberals to the same degree that the liberals of Mission are digressive. But Woods, Goodpasture and the others like them among those who are institutional liberals accept, at least partially, the basic tenet of liberalism. Classical liberalism denies the New Testament was ever intended to constitute a binding pattern. The institutional liberals just deny that the pattern in some particulars has to be followed. But we will pursue this point further in an article to appear next week.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 33, pp. 3-5
June 22, 1972

By William R. John

Truth certainly has no foes that are very powerful or awesome. When truth is uttered, man either accepts it or rejects it, but seldom does he actually oppose it.

Man, without realizing what truth is, will sometimes make a feeble attempt to oppose it, but truth is so overwhelming that it makes “short work” of its opponents. In debate, for example, an individual may stand night after night “beating around the bush” so as to avoid direct confrontation with truth or he may even strike personally at the one proclaiming truth, but wage war directly against truth; hardly. Of course, in the above mentioned example, what has actually happened is that the one in error has refused to accept truth, will not admit his rejection of it, and so he runs from it the best he can.

The same holds true, at times, when Gods word is proclaimed from the pulpit. How do the opponents run? They simply use such “behind the back” declarations as “John Doe put him up to that” or “no preacher is going to tell me what to do.” However, those that wish to be true to God will go to the one who has delivered the message and make his disagreement known so that the matter can be clearly discussed in the light of the scriptures. Never will an attempt be made by one interested in truth to belittle the proclaimer behind his back. Nevertheless, those not interested in truth will usually reject it, seldom will admit rejection, and most assuredly will run from it cowardly which may mean using any number of satanic tactics available at the time.

Christians must strive diligently to be on the side of truth. May we never even unintentionally be an opponent of truth because, you see, truth has no formidable foes. Ali yes, how lovely the scripture, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 32, p. 12
June 15, 1972

By Edward Fudge

Several months ago I was downtown Saint Louis on routine business. On the way back to my car, there in the heart of the city, I came upon a man with his hand out. He was poorly dressed … dirty … and needed a shave. A first impulse said to pass him by (“hes probably going to blow it on liquor anyway”) but something inside (no, God didnt whisper in my ear) said “wait.” I asked what he needed. “Something to eat.” I asked when he last ate. He said the day before.

There was a Burger Chef just around the comer and it was lunchtime. So we two enjoyed cheeseburgers and milk shakes. While we ate, we talked. Some about Christ. Some about my new-found friend, Mr. Barr. His story went something like this.

Mr. Barr was once a successful small-business man in St. Louis — ran a catering service, I believe. He became involved in problems and turned to alcohol. This led to more problems. In the end his wife left him, his business broke and he landed on the streets. He now had a new set of problems. There were – as he told it – cruel children the “elements” . . . unkind policemen … plus finding food to stay alive each day. He bad an appointment for a job interview the day before, but it is hard to make it to a morning appointment on time with no alarm clock but the sun, no transportation but feet, and no friends or family to help. So he was late and missed the job.

Mr. Barr gave me some advice. Sin, he said, is gradual and deceptive. As he put it, there are three steps to the bottom. First you tolerate sin. Next you endure it. Finally you embrace it. (I couldnt help thinking of Psalm one in this connection.) Then Mr. Barr produced a thick, stubby pencil from a pocket and wrote those, words very slowly and carefully for me on a paper sack: “Weave carefully the threads of habit, lest they become a cable too strong to break.” His mother had taught him the saying many years ago.

Preacher talk? Hardly. This was experience speaking. This was the man they dont show on the commercials. He worked hard for sin, for several years. Sin had finally paid off. One last thought: I can imagine Jesus concluding this story by beginning another. “Two men went up into the temple to pray . . .”

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 32, p. 11
June 15, 1972