In Defense of the Bible

A Comprehensive Apologetic for the Authority of Scripture

Steven B. Cowan, Terry L. Wilder, Steven B. Cowan, Terry L. Wilder

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781433682995
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

In Defense of the Bible gathers exceptional articles by accomplished scholars (Paul Copan, William A. Dembski, Mary Jo Sharp, Darrell L. Bock, etc.), addressing and responding to all of the major contemporary challenges to the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture. The book begins by looking at philosophical and methodological challenges to the Bible—questions about whether or not it is logically possible for God to communicate verbally with human beings; what it means to say the Bible is true in response to postmodern concerns about the nature of truth; defending the clarity of Scripture against historical skepticism and relativism. Contributors also explore textual and historical challenges—charges made by Muslims, Mormons, and skeptics that the Bible has been corrupted beyond repair; questions about the authorship of certain biblical books; allegations that the Bible borrows from pagan myths; the historical reliability of the Old and New Testaments. Final chapters take on ethical, scientific, and theological challenges— demonstrating the Bible's moral integrity regarding the topics of slavery and sexism; harmonizing exegetical and theological conclusions with the findings of science; addressing accusations that the Christian canon is the result of political and theological manipulation; ultimately defending the Bible as not simply historically reliable and consistent, but in fact the Word of God.

Part One

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Philosophical and
Methodological Challenges

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Can and Would God Speak to Us? A Dialogue on Divine Speaking

What Does It Mean to Say that the Bible Is True?

Higher Criticism: What Has It Shown?

Can We Understand the Bible?

Chapter One

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Can and Would God Speak to Us? A Dialogue on Divine Speaking

R. Douglas Geivett

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Preamble

I have sometimes thought about writing in dialogue form. Done well, fictional dialogues on naturally gripping topics can be engaging without loss of rigor. This chapter is a modest attempt to emulate Plato, who composed the earliest successful dialogues on topics of philosophical interest. Every serious reader, Christian or not, should be familiar with Plato’s dialogues, Augustine’s dialogical essay On the Teacher, George Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, and David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.1

Topics in philosophy of religion and in Christian apologetics are especially amenable to dialogical treatment since the issues often are the focus of energetic conversation about the things that matter most. For this chapter I was assigned the topic “Can God Speak to Us? Would God Speak to Us?” Eventually it occurred to me what should have been obvious from the beginning—these are questions that arise very naturally for people thinking about the nature and authority of Scripture. Why not exhibit the kind of dialectic that might take place between two thoughtful people investigating these questions, one who is prepared to argue that God can and would speak to us and one who needs to be convinced? With this experiment I’ve discovered that writing a dialogue for these purposes is an agreeable way to reflect the dialectic of shared inquiry while drawing attention to the virtues of a particular point of view.

Chad and Danielle are my inventions. Perhaps not so coincidentally, “Chad” looks like a possible nickname for old king Nebuchadnezzar, and “Danielle” is a female counterpart to Daniel, the Israelite prophet who addressed Nebuchadnezzar on behalf of Yahweh, the God of Israel. So Chad may be seen as a loose representation of the Babylonian king’s initial suspicion about Daniel’s claim that God was speaking to him. The king eventually acquiesced to this fact, with renewal and unexpected flourishing following his submission to God’s word. Danielle, then, is a symbol of the effort made by the prophet Daniel to convince the king that God could, would, and indeed had, spoken to him. At best, however, Chad and Danielle are modernizations of interactions between the ancient king and prophet in a very loose sense. (The name “Daniel” means “God is my Judge,” a possible allusion to the vindication Daniel would enjoy when his prophetic word to Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled.)

In the dialogue that follows, Danielle makes a plausible argument both that God could and that God would produce a revelation that speaks to the needs of humanity with divine wisdom and compassion. Chad, though given to suspicion, is moved by Danielle’s argument. As it happens, the proof is in the pudding. Nebuchadnezzar was himself addressed by God in a way that the Babylonian king could not ultimately resist.

Part 1: Can God Speak to Us?

Chad: What’s that you have in your hands, there? I can see that it’s a book. But what kind of book is it?

Danielle: This? It’s a Bible.

Chad: And what’s a “Bible”?

Danielle: The Bible is a book, a very special book.

Chad: You just said, “The Bible is a book.” Do you mean there’s only one Bible? If the Bible is such a special book, and you have the only Bible there is, then you must be pretty special yourself.

Danielle: It is a special privilege, but I’m not the only one who has the Bible. There are many copies of the Bible and even many English translations from the original Hebrew and Greek. All or portions of the Bible have been translated into all of the major languages. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it until now.2

Chad: You keep talking about “the Bible.” If there are so many Bibles, why do you do that, as if there’s only one book that is the Bible?

Danielle: That’s a fair question. And there’s an irony in the answer. The Bible is actually a collection of sixty-six books.

Chad: So first you speak as if the Bible is a book and that there is only one. Now you’re telling me not only that there are many Bibles but that the Bible itself is many books.

Danielle: Exactly!

Chad: Isn’t that peculiar?

Danielle: Not really. Our English word “Bible” comes from the Greek word biblia, a plural noun that means “books.” These books were composed over a period of several centuries.3 In due course, they came to be collected into a single unit as one book. This process began even before all of the books of the Bible had been written. So the Bible “grew,” as it were, during the course of composition.

Chad: I can see how various writings can be collated into a single volume, like an anthology. But you seem to be saying that the Bible is not an anthology. What do you mean when you say that the Bible is a “unit”?

Danielle: Good question.

Chad: Is there a good answer?

Danielle: That’s the thing about good questions. The best questions often have the most important answers. To answer your question, the Bible has a unity that no anthology has. For example, a typical anthology is made up of works by different authors. The Bible isn’t like that. It’s completely unlike any other book.

Chad: If the Bible was composed over several centuries, then there must have been many different authors for individual books of the Bible.

Danielle: Yes, and no. Depending on how you sort out the human authorship of individual books, there were several dozen authors and compilers of individual books. But each worked under the direction of a single great Author.

Chad: Do you mean one of the goddess muses who were said to have inspired great literature, developments in science, and works of art? This is news to me.

Danielle: I’m not referring to any sort of a muse. The muses were supposed to be finite goddesses. The Bible was inspired by the one and only true God. This is why the Bible is also called “the Word of God.” Because God guided the human authors in their writing of individual books of the Bible. As one author wrote, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”4 God is the ultimate source of the whole Bible and is, in that respect, the unique Author. This explains what is so special about the Bible. This book has unique authority as the Word of God himself.

Chad: Why call the Bible “the Word of God”? This makes it sound like God speaks to us. What kind of god does such a thing? Is that even possible? Can this God you speak of actually speak to us? And even if your God could speak, why would God bother to speak to us?

Danielle: You’re asking two questions: “Can God speak to us?” and “Would God speak to us?”

Chad: Correct. It seems we’ve come to a really fundamental issue. Some other time we might discuss your claim that the Bible is inspired in this special way by God—or the “Holy Spirit,” whatever that means—while also being written by numerous human authors. I have a number of other questions about the Bible. But I’d like to start with these two.

Danielle: I agree that these two questions are basic. So let’s limit this conversation to them. Let’s begin with your first question.

Chad: “Can God speak to us?”

Danielle: Right.

Chad: Shouldn’t we begin with your concept of God?

Danielle: Yes, that makes sense.

Chad: You said there is one true God, who is the ultimate author of the Bible, the guarantor of the unique authority of the Bible.

Danielle: That’s a nice concise way of paraphrasing my claim.

Chad: So we need to understand what you mean by this “one true God.” Who or what is God?

Danielle: God is a bodiless person. He is the fundamental, self-subsistent, the eternal, perfectly free and loving, all-wise and omnipotent Creator of the universe, which continues to exist by God’s sustaining power and is the arena of meticulous providence and of special divine action or miracles. This thesis about God is called “theism.”

Chad: And you’re a theist.

Danielle: I am.

Chad: I can see why theism is important to your view of the Bible. But why believe that your God exists?

Danielle: Since we’ve decided to focus on our two fundamental questions—whether God could and whether God would speak to us—maybe we should assume that the theist’s concept of God is coherent and that this God actually exists. While I believe these assumptions are grounded in good evidence, we agreed to restrict our discussion to these fundamental questions. We may find, eventually, that our answers to these fundamental questions have a bearing on questions about the coherence of theism and the existence of God.5

Chad: That’s an interesting suggestion. I look forward to that discussion. But I agree, let’s stay on topic. How is it possible that God speaks to us?

Danielle: Are there any good reasons to think that it is not possible for God to speak to us?

Chad: I can think of several reasons.

Danielle: Our time is limited, so let’s consider what you think are the strongest.

Chad: Okay. First, “speaking” is a human act that requires a physical body, and in particular the use of a larynx. But God, according to you, is not physical and doesn’t have a larynx.

Danielle: Is that your strongest argument?

Chad: Maybe not. Let’s see how you respond.

Danielle: Let me ask you a question. Why must speaking require a physical body and a special apparatus for vocalizing? Isn’t there a difference between vocalizing and speaking?

Chad: I see no difference.

Danielle: How do you define “vocalizing”?

Chad: Let’s see. Vocalizing consists in voicing, using the voice to communicate a message.

Danielle: Is every use of the voice an instance of vocalizing?

Chad: I think so.

Danielle: But is every use of the voice a matter of communicating a message? What about humming?

Chad: I guess humming is a form of vocalizing. And I wouldn’t say that it communicates a message. At least, there are times when it doesn’t.

Danielle: So here we seem to have an instance of using the voice without communicating a message. Is that...