If Jesus Himself told us that Scripture is the infallible Word of God, the debate over the Bible’s authority would be over. Today, R.C. Sproul shows that Christ has done just that, delivering the final word on God’s Word. Get R.C. Sproul’s booklet Can I Trust the Bible?, his teaching series Hath God Said? on DVD, and lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3911/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Chapter 1: Did Jesus affirm the authority of Scripture?
If Jesus came in this room tonight and we said, Jesus, we've been exposed to all kinds of critical theories about the origins and development and trustworthiness of Scripture. We've been in endless disputes about infallibility and errancy and inspiration and all that sort of thing. Would you tell us, please, is this Bible the Word of God?
Well, that would put an end to the argument, wouldn't it, if we heard from Jesus himself, his thoughts on Scripture? Well, the fact is, Jesus has already told us exactly what he thinks of Scripture, yet the debate rages on. Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and it's good to have you with us for this Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
As we close out our week considering the topic of Scripture's trustworthiness and authority, R.C. Sproul will examine what Jesus says about Scripture. But before we hear that message, don't forget, if you would like the DVD of this series, digital access to the messages and study guide, along with a copy of Can I Trust the Bible? for the final day.
We'll send you this resource bundle when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Well, here's Dr. Sproul with a message titled, Jesus and the Word of God.
In our last session on our study of the authority of Scripture, I made reference to the historic convention that took place in 1978 where a group of international scholars came together for a summit meeting to give definition to the classical expression of the inerrancy of the Bible.
A few years prior to that event, Ligonier Ministries sponsored a much smaller conference on the same subject in western Pennsylvania, where six or seven scholars from around the world were gathered to address the same issue. But what fascinated me about that event was that those scholars came from every part of the nation and from Europe to that event and
to discuss the question of the inerrancy of Scripture without any prior conversation, each one of them that came to that forum came to press the point that in the final analysis, the question of the authority of the Bible is a question of Christology.
You may wonder how in the world that could be the case, but the issue was not so much in the final analysis do we put our confidence in the Bible, but what kind of confidence do we have of the truthfulness and the authority of Christ Himself?
Now, a story I like to tell, and some of you in other lectures may have already heard it, is a telling incident that occurred to me a few years ago in Philadelphia. I happened to be speaking on this subject of the authority of the Bible in a large church in downtown Philadelphia.
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Chapter 2: Who are the hosts of the podcast?
Now, in order to discover what Jesus thought of the Bible, we have to go to the Bible, of course. Now, the Bible says that Jesus says the Bible is the Word of God. What's the problem there? It would appear that here we are faced with the most vicious dilemma, the dilemma of the vicious circle, the problem of question begging, you know, and begging in a most vociferous way.
If the only way we know about Jesus is from the Bible, And the only way we know what Jesus said about the Bible is from reading the Bible. How could it possibly be relevant to us what Jesus in the Bible says about the Bible? Do you feel the way to that problem? And people would say to argue in this way would be to argue in a circle. You never get out of that circle.
You never get out of the storyboard. I'm going to suggest that we think very carefully here. that the way we actually proceed here is not circular, but linear and progressive. First thing we want to start with is, does the Bible give us any reason to conclude that it is of any historical value? I don't think we'd get an argument from any serious scholar on that point.
They may argue as to the degree of the historical validity of Scripture, but I don't know of any critical scholar who would say it is absolutely valueless in terms of its historical content. To get to the next stage is a little more cumbersome. I would say, well, do we have any evidence that the Bible's basically reliable in what it teaches?
Not infallible, not inerrant, not inspired, but just as other human documents from the past go, how does the Bible stack up? Well, let me jump ahead of myself here, friends, and just say to you that there is no literary source from the ancient world that has been submitted to the most rigorous scientific scrutiny and analysis as the New Testament and the Old Testament have been exposed.
In fact, there is no work from the ancient world that is within one ten-thousandth of careful research as the New Testament has been. We have many writings from the ancient world that have survived. I've already mentioned some of the ancient historians, Thucydides, Tacitus, Xenophon, Herodotus, and so on, Suetonius, and the rest.
And to validate scientifically the historical reports of ancient writers is not an easy task. For example, if Luke says to us that an angel appeared to Zacharias in the temple in Jerusalem, how is archaeological science, for example, going to verify or falsify that claim? Unless you dug up petrified angel wings, it'd be pretty tough to show one way or the other.
Well, that's not how historical verification proceeds in science. But rather, through the science, we reconstruct the geography, the customs, and so on, of ancient people and ancient cities, and we test that knowledge against what is reported by the other historians. through what is verified indubitably through the spade or the shovel of archaeology, for example, in a simple way.
If Luke says that so-and-so was the ethnarch of such-and-such a place at such-and-such a time in history, and then next week we dig up documents from that town didn't indicate that the very person that Luke named was in fact called the ethnarch at that time in history, we have at least verified conclusively that Luke was right on that minor historical detail. Do you see what I'm saying?
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