Romans 1:19-21 to demonstrates, among other things, the nature of revelation and the benefits and demands flowing from it. All men witness the glory of God and owe Him allegiance, for the oceans, mountains, and forests attest to His existence and authority as much as the consciousness that absorbs and categorizes these experiences. No man possesses excuse. Nonetheless, he proceeds to explain that this revelation, known as general revelation, does not lead to salvation, for sin has corrupted man's ability to acknowledge the Lord as God.
Higher criticism, the branch of literary investigation that seeks to discover the world behind the text, rose to prominence in seventeenth-century Germany. Yet, the motivation for the implementation of this form of study, the denial of biblical inspiration and inerrancy, has a much longer history. Human beings have tried to deny the inspiration of God's Word for ages because they cannot abide God's authority over them. As today's lesson demonstrates, the origin of Scripture in God necessitates its authority over all creation, and only two responses may follow: Spirit-inspired acceptance or denial.
For many years, mainline academia has issued attacks against the Bible through the various fields of study, such as history and archaeology. The lack of archaeological evidence supporting Scripture's claims as well as its attestation of supernatural events form just a few of the arrows shot by those seeking to poke holes in the positions of inspiration and inerrancy. Although engagement in these intellectual debates is appropriate and useful, at the end of the day, once all the objections have been leveled and answered, satisfactory to some or not, the most important question must float to the surface and receive response: will human beings submit to the authority of God's inspired, inerrant Word? The answer has eternal ramifications.
The past few decades have witnessed a resurgence of criticism against the authority of the canon of Scripture. Books like The da Vinci Code seek to undermine the foundations of Christianity by shedding doubt on the cornerstone of its structure: the Word of God. Sadly, these critiques generally invent lies and falsify information to create "persuasive" arguments against the authority of Scripture, and one of the most common areas in which this occurs is the canonization process of the Bible. Yet, as this lesson demonstrates, the early church faced similar problems and struggles as they received God's Word, and the wisdom He granted them to confront these problems and the faithfulness He demonstrated during their time should instruct and encourage us in our own day.
You may hear people in certain circles of evangelicalism claim that they do not need teachers or instructors of Scripture, for, as Jeremiah says, "And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jer. 31:34). The New Testament affirms Jeremiah's message, and it explains that the fundamental message of the gospel is clear and easy to understand if the Holy Spirit enables the heart. However, as Peter declares in his second epistle, clarity does not equal simplicity—as Paul's epistles frequently remind us. Understanding and interpreting Scripture requires the illumination of Scripture, a heart for the Lord, and discipline, as Dr. Nichols reveals to us in this lesson.
The concept that an ancient book might offer sufficiency for life rubs against the grain of our postmodern culture. How can one source possess all the answers for life, let alone an archaic, outdated text? Behind this question lies the desire for the individual to choose what is sufficient, a grasp for autonomy that began with our first parents in the garden of Eden. They sought to cast off the yoke of the Lord, which they considered heavy and unnecessary, and instead they exalted themselves to the place of their Creator, arbiters of sufficiency. This sin remains alive today, compelling Christians who have tasted the streams of everlasting life flowing from our Savior to proclaim the truth that life and its rule may only be found in Christ and His Word.