We are given clear specifics about why it is highly important to be mature and thoughtful people committed to Scripture as necessary to serve the Church and love its people well. The framework we are given is as follows:
- We must be devoted to truth and thinking.
- We must declare answers from the whole counsel of God.
- We must defend against inerrancy.
These are three demands of Scriptural inerrancy in support of the Church. To understand and accept the truth at its sole source. The Bible is the exclusive repository of truth, and by knowing it, we begin to understand the wisdom of God throughout redemptive history. It has the power to answer the toughest questions and issues associated with cultural decay, post-modernism, and social rot. More importantly, God’s word provides us a means by which we proclaim His love and glory from Scripture without error. Through our engagement and devotion to His Word, we share and drive a conviction about what it does. Our dedication to thinking and Scripture in the presence of the Church erodes and removes Biblical illiteracy where possible. As answers are sought and shared according to the whole counsel of God to change from a post-modern mindset to a Biblical mindset.
In a practical sense, to understand suffering, and give reliable answers rooted in Scripture. It is through the use of depth and intertextuality that we remind people that they do not know better than God’s word. We become a theological and biblical resource to people.
On a personal level, my view of Scripture has been about spiritual well-being and survival. Especially within this world of relativistic confusion, disorder, and chaos. Verses I learned and memorized long ago about the necessity of Scripture for justification (James 1:21) and sanctification (Joshua 1:8) serve as examples. Still, there are very many principles centered on the truth of God’s word that extends to people who affirm the Bible as Scripture. Even to some outside the faith who are searching for meaning, or relief in personal circumstances.
Well-developed inductive or deductive reasoning skills are not enough to perceive, understand, and apply the truth of Scripture as the LORD intends. A surface-level humanistic view of Scripture does not adequately recognize the revelation of God’s word. Such a view often comes from anthropomorphic or cultural and worldview assumptions. The Canon of Scripture is supernatural, and in my view, it is the real sustenance of the spirit breathed within us. Intellectual reach and understanding do not fully yield the truest and more meaningful purpose of God’s word.
Even in the pulpit among some churches both at a national and local level, I have noticed the persistent absence of the word of God. And many members in pews are solely relying upon the leavened placement of God’s word on tablets and phones. Outside of church, the word of God too often goes neglected while it is a treasure to memorize and desperately search for. It pierces the heart with its affections, and it eviscerates with hostility the arrogance among us. It is a treasure, and both leadership and many church members are often in full dismissal of it and its significance. At best, there is a passive acceptance of it.
So a perversion of the gospel inevitability comes about. Such as gospel plus works, or gospel plus prosperity, or gospel plus “tongues,” or gospel plus traditionalism, or gospel plus social justice. No, it is the gospel and nothing else purely according to Scripture. To accept or advocate another gospel according to Scripture is to bring a curse upon oneself.
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” – Galatians 1:6-9
“You cannot be right with God and be wrong about the gospel. This is a fundamental issue. You cannot go to heaven and be wrong about the gospel. And if you’re wrong about the gospel I promise you you’re wrong about a hundred other places in whatever it is you believe about the Bible. This gospel is the plan of salvation that is found in the man of salvation Jesus Christ and it is offered as a free gift that we must receive by personal faith by the act of our will a decisive act of our will to commit our life to Jesus Christ. ”
– Steven J. Lawson. One Passion Ministries
Through inattention to truth and consistent Biblical studies (or their outright rejection), more severe theological errors come about from assumptions or guesswork that get propagated in both harmful and deadly ways.
The word of God is inerrant, infallible, and sufficient. With forbearance, we MUST drive that conviction to others through our engagement and love of truth, Scripture, and the church.
