Saturday, July 3, 2010

Do we still believe the Bible is sufficient?

In the past century Presbyterians fought, and ultimately divided, over the inspiration and authority of scripture.  In the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) our commitment has been solidly to the Bible.  That, I believe, is still the case.  However, there is another doctrine regarding scripture that IS JUST AS IMPORTANT -- the sufficiency of scripture.  What does that mean?  It means that the scripture is the only direction that the church needs to accomplish her mission.  How do I you share the gospel?  Go to the Bible.  How do I relate to my fellow believers?  my neighbor?  my enemy?  Go to the Bible.  What ought the church to do when she gathers together?  Go to the Bible and find out.  The Bible is sufficient for all these things, despite being over 2,000 years old, because it is the Lord's message to us.  Is his wisdom sufficient for these things?  Then so is his word.  Without a vigorous commitment to the sufficiency of the Bible, it doesn't matter a whit whether you believe the Bible is infallible or not.  Just as good works reveal the sincerity of one's faith, so living by the Bible gives proof that the church believes the Bible to be authoritative.
Sufficiency is dealt with in the Confession
of Faith, chapter I.6:

The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.
It should be noted that the power behind the Bible's sufficiency is the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit uses the Bible to reveal Christ to the church.  I have included the whole section because many would use the latter part to argue that the church should use human means (such as sociology and marketing).  But circumstances are not strategic plans and methodologies.  They are not worship styles.  Circumstances are those things you run into implementing biblical worship, biblical church government, and preaching the gospel.  Think worship time, scheduling presbytery meetings, and how much of a biblical passage to preach.
The PCA is not divided on its commitment to an infallible, inerrant Bible.  But the main conflicts plaguing the church since I have been attending General Assembly have to do with sufficiency; and that division is the heart of biblical authority.  In the Nineteenth Century the Presbyterian Church split Old School/New School; in the Twenty-First Century the Presbyterian Church may well split Biblical Means/ Strategic Means.

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