The Inerrant Word

Biblical, Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives

John MacArthur

• Editorial: Crossway
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781433548680
• Categoría: Teología y religión
• Categoría: Teología cristiana

Because God has made himself known in his Word, a commitment to a high view of Scripture is of paramount importance. Sadly, more and more people—not only from outside the church but also from within—are denying the complete truthfulness of God's Word.

Edited by pastor John MacArthur, this compilation of essays by a host of evangelical pastors, theologians, historians, and biblical scholars contends that the Bible is completely true and without error—a foundational belief for those who claim to honor God and his Word. Exploring key Bible passages, events from church history, common criticisms, and pastoral applications, the contributors in this volume instill Christians with both the certainty and the courage to defend the inerrancy of God's Word—the means by which God has revealed himself and awakens sinners from death to life.

Part 1

INERRANCY IN THE BIBLE

Building the Case

1

The Sufficiency of Scripture

PSALM 19

John MacArthur

Psalm 19 is the earliest biblical text that gives us a comprehensive statement on the superiority of Scripture. It categorically affirms the authority, inerrancy, and sufficiency of the written Word of God. It does this by comparing the truth of Scripture to the breathtaking grandeur of the universe, and it declares that the Bible is a better revelation of God than all the glory of the galaxies. Scripture, it proclaims, is perfect in every regard.

The psalm thereby sets Scripture above every other truth claim. It is a sweeping, definitive affirmation of the utter perfection and absolute trustworthiness of God’s written Word. There is no more succinct summation of the power and precision of God’s written Word anywhere in the Bible.

Psalm 19 is basically a condensed version of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in all of Scripture. Psalm 119 takes 176 verses to expound on the same truths Psalm 19 outlines in just eight verses (vv. 7–14).

Every Christian ought to affirm and fully embrace the same high view of Scripture the psalmist avows in Psalm 19. If we are going to live in obedience to God’s Word—especially those who are called to teach the Scriptures—we need to do so with this confidence in mind.

After all, faith (not moralism, good works, vows, sacraments, or rituals, but belief in Christ as he is revealed in Scripture) is what makes a person a Christian. “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6); “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works” (Eph. 2:8–9a).

The only sure and safe ground of true faith is the Word of God (2 Pet. 1:19–21). It is “the word of truth, the gospel of [our] salvation” (Eph. 1:13). For a Christian to doubt the Word of God is the grossest kind of self-contradiction.

When I began in ministry nearly half a century ago, I fully expected I would need to deal with assaults against Scripture from unbelievers and worldlings. I was prepared for that. Unbelievers by definition reject the truth of Scripture and resist its authority. “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom. 8:7).

But from the beginning of my ministry until today, I have witnessed—and had to deal with—wave after wave of attacks against the Word of God coming mostly from within the evangelical community. Over the course of my ministry, virtually all of the most dangerous assaults on Scripture I’ve seen have come from seminary professors, megachurch pastors, charismatic charlatans on television, popular evangelical authors, “Christian psychologists,” and bloggers on the evangelical fringe. The evangelical movement has no shortage of theological tinkerers and self-styled apologists who seem to think the way to win the world is to embrace whatever theories are currently in vogue regarding evolution, morality, epistemology, or whatever—and then reframe our view of Scripture to fit this worldly “wisdom.” The Bible is treated like Silly Putty, pressed and reshaped to suit the shifting interests of popular culture.

Of course, God’s Word will withstand every attack on its veracity and authority. As Thomas Watson said, “The devil and his agents have been blowing at scripture light, but could never prevail to blow it out—a clear sign that it was lighted from heaven.”¹ Nevertheless, Satan and his minions are persistent, seeking to derail believers whose faith is fragile or to dissuade unbelievers from even considering the claims of Scripture.

To make their attacks more subtle and effective, the forces of evil disguise themselves as angels of light and servants of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:13–15). That’s why the most dangerous attacks on Scripture come from within the community of professing believers. These evil forces are relentless, and we need to be relentless in opposing them.

Over the years, as I have confronted the various onslaughts of evangelical skepticism, I have returned to Psalm 19 again and again. It is a definitive answer to virtually every modern and postmodern attack on the Bible. It offers an antidote to the parade of faulty ministry philosophies and silly fads that so easily capture the fancy of today’s evangelicals. It refutes the common misconception that science, psychology, and philosophy must be mastered and integrated with biblical truth in order to give the Bible more credibility. It holds the answer to what currently ails the visible church. It is a powerful testimony about the glory, power, relevance, clarity, efficacy, inerrancy, and sufficiency of Scripture.

In this chapter, I want to focus on a passage in the second half of the psalm—verses 7–9, which speak specifically about the Scriptures.

This is a psalm of David, and in the opening six verses, he speaks of general revelation. As a young boy tending his father’s sheep, he had plenty of time to gaze at the night sky and ponder the greatness and glory of God as revealed in nature. That’s what he describes in the opening lines of the psalm: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (v. 1). Through creation, God reveals himself at all times, across all language barriers, to all people and nations: “Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (vv. 2–4). God declares himself in his creation day and night, unceasingly. The vastness of the universe, all the life it contains, and all the laws that keep it orderly rather than chaotic are a testimony to (and a manifestation of) the wisdom and glory of God.

As grand and glorious as creation is, however, we cannot discern all the spiritual truth we need to know from it. General revelation does not give a clear account of the gospel. Nature tells us nothing specific about Christ; his incarnation, death, and resurrection; the atonement he made for sin; the doctrine of justification by faith; or a host of other truths essential to salvation and eternal life.

Special revelation is the truth God has revealed in Scripture. That is the subject David takes up in the second half of the psalm, beginning in verse 7. Having extolled the vast glory of creation and the many marvelous ways it reveals truth about God, he turns to Scripture and says the written Word of God is more pure, more powerful, more permanent, more effectual, more telling, more reliable, and more glorious than all the countless wonders written across the universe:

The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul;

The testimony of the LORD is sure,

making wise the simple;

The precepts of the LORD are right,

rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the LORD is pure,

enlightening the eyes;

The fear of the LORD is clean,

enduring forever;

The rules of the LORD are true,

and righteous altogether. (Ps. 19:7–9)

In those three brief verses, David makes six statements—two in verse 7, two in verse 8, and two in verse 9. He uses six titles for Scripture: law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, and rules. He lists six characteristics of Scripture: it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. And he names six effects of Scripture: it revives the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, and produces comprehensive righteousness.

Thus, the Holy Spirit—with an astounding and supernatural economy of words—sums up everything that needs to be said about the power, sufficiency, comprehensiveness, and trustworthiness of Scripture.

Notice, first of all, that all six statements have the phrase “of the LORD”—just in case someone might question the source of Scripture. This is the law of the Lord—his testimony. These are the precepts and commandments of God himself. The Bible is of divine origin. It is the inspired revelation of the Lord God.

By breaking down these three couplets and looking at each phrase, we can begin to gather a sense of the power and greatness of Scripture. Again, the opening verses of the psalm were all about the vast glory revealed in creation. Thus, the central point of this psalm is that the grandeur and glory of Scripture is infinitely greater than the entire created universe.

God’s Word Is Perfect, Reviving the Soul

David makes his point powerfully yet simply in the first statement he makes about Scripture in verse 7: “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.” The Hebrew word translated as “law” is torah. To this day, Jews use the word Torah to refer to the Pentateuch (the five books penned by Moses). Those five books, of course, are the starting point of the Old Testament—but the Psalms and Prophets are likewise inspired Scripture, equally authoritative (cf. Luke 24:44). So when David speaks of “the law of the LORD” in this context,” he has the whole canon in mind. “The law,” as the term is used here, refers not merely to the Ten Commandments; not just to the 613 commandments that constitute the mitzvot of Moses’s law; not even to the Torah considered as a unit. David is using the word as a figure of speech to signify all of Scripture.

Throughout Scripture, “the law” often refers to the entire canon. This kind of expression is called synecdoche, a figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole. You find this same language in Joshua 1:8, for example. That verse famously speaks of “this Book of the Law,” meaning not just the commandments, but all of Scripture as it existed in Joshua’s time—Genesis and Job as well as Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Psalm 119 repeatedly uses the same figure of speech (cf. vv. 1, 18, 29, 34, 44, etc.).

When used this way, the language stresses the didactic nature of God’s Word. “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law” (Ps. 94:12); “Graciously teach me your law!” (Ps. 119:29). David is thinking of Scripture as a manual on righteous human behavior—all Scripture, not merely Moses’s law. After all, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

And all of it is “perfect.” Many years ago, I researched that word as it appears in the Hebrew text. It’s the Hebrew word tâmîym, which is variously translated in assorted English versions as “unblemished,” “without defect,” “whole,” “blameless,” “with integrity,” “complete,” “undefiled,” or “perfect.” I traced the Hebrew word through several lexicons to try to discern whether there might be some nuance or subtlety that would shade our understanding of it. I spent three or four hours looking up every use of that word in the biblical text. In the end, it was clear: the word means “perfect.” It is an exact equivalent of the English word in all its shades of meaning.

David is using the expression in an unqualified, comprehensive way. Scripture is superlative in every sense. Not only is it flawless, but it is also sweeping and thorough. That’s not to suggest that it contains everything that can possibly be known. Obviously, the Bible is not an encyclopedic source of information about every conceivable subject. But as God’s instruction for man’s life, it is perfect. It contains everything we need to know about God, his glory, faith, life, and the way of salvation. Scripture is not deficient o...