Doctrine of the Bible:

The Testimony of Church History

December 6, 2009

WHY WAS THE CANON NEEDED?

1. Preservation of God’s Word

2. The needs of the early church

3. The rise of heretics and spurious writings

4. Missions

5. Persecution

WITNESS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS

• 1 Cor 14:37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

• 1 Cor 15:6 Then [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

CLEMENT OF ROME (95)

1. Uses material from Matthew and Luke

2. Alludes to other NT books

3. “To be sure, under the Spirit’s guidance, [Paul] wrote to you about himself and Cephas and Apollos.”

4. “You have studied Holy Scripture, which contains truth and is inspired by the Holy Spirit.”

5. “For this is how Christ addresses us through the Holy Spirit.”

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

1. John Rylands papyrus (125)

3. Epistles of Ignatius (c. 50-115)

“I do not wish to command you as Peter and Paul; they were apostles.”

2. Didache (c. 80-120)

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

4. Polycarp (c. 69-155)– Uses a combined OT and NT quotation– “For neither I nor any other such one,

can come up to the wisdom of the blessed and glorified Paul. He, when among you accurately and steadfastly taught the word of truth in the presence of those who were then alive. And when absent from you, he wrote you a letter, which, if you carefully study, you will find to be the means of building you up.”

5. Epistle of Barnabas (c. 130)

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

6. Papias (c. 130-140)

7. Gospel of Truth (140)

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

8. Justin Martyr (100-165)– “And on the day called Sunday

there is a gathering together to one place of all those who live in cities or in the country, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the reader has ceased the president presents admonition and invitation to the imitation of these good things.”

– “The prophets are inspired by no other than the Divine Word”…and “spoke by the Divine Spirit.”

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

9. Irenaeus (c. 140-202)– The apostles were, “fully informed

concerning all things, and had a perfect knowledge…having indeed all in equal measure and each one singly the Gospel of God.”

– “The Word…gave us the Gospel in a fourfold shape, but held together by one Spirit.”

– “If we cannot discover explanations of all things in Scripture…we should leave things of that nature to God who created us, being most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit.”

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

10. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-211)

“For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, both by the prophets, the Gospels, and the blessed apostles.”

SECOND CENTURY WITNESSES

11. Tatian’s Diatessaron (170)

12. Muratorian Canon (c. 170)

13. Translations

TERTULLIAN (c. 160-220)

Called the New Testament what it was

ORIGEN (185-254)

ORIGEN (185-254)

1. Wrote the Hexapla

ORIGEN (185-254)

1. Wrote the Hexapla

2. Wrote many commentaries and sermons on the NT

3. “The Scriptures themselves are divine…The Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God.”

EUSEBIUS (270-340)

1. No doubt – Four Gospels, Acts, Letters of Paul (including Hebrews), 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation

2. Disputed by some – James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude

3. Spurious – The Acts of Paul, the Didache, and Shepherd of Hermas

ATHANASIUS (367)

JEROME (374-419)

VULGATE

FOURTH CENTURY WITNESSES

AUGUSTINE (354-430)

“When those disciples have written matters which He declared and spoke to them it ought not by any means be said that He has written nothing Himself: since the truth is, that His members [of His body] have accomplished only what they became acquainted with by the repeated statements of the Head. For all that He was minded to give for our perusal on the subject of His own doings and sayings, He commanded to be written by those disciples, whom He thus used as if they were His own hands.”

FOURTH CENTURY WITNESSES

1. Council of Hippo (393)

2. Council of Carthage (397)

“Aside from the canonical Scriptures nothing is to be read in church under the Name of Divine Scriptures.”

PATRISTIC QUOTATIONS

“These quotations are so extensive that the New Testament could virtually be reconstructed from them without the use of the New Testament manuscripts.”

- J. Harold Greenlee

DIVINE AUTHORSHIP

• “We are struck at once by the way in which all writers [in the early church] accepted the inspiration and authority of Holy Scripture as self-evident.”

- church historian Geoffrey Bromiley

• “The question of human authorship is of little relevance. If we know who is the true author of each work and we understand what He says to us, why should we be curious to learn what pen imprinted the divine words on the page?” - Gregory the Great

HUMAN AUTHORSHIP

• “When the Word moved the prophets, the effect was to clarify their vision and instruct their understanding.”

- Hippolytus

• “The Spirit’s function was to cause [the biblical authors] to apprehend truth more clearly without in any way suspending their free will.” - Origen

INERRANCY & INFALLIBILITY

• “You have studied Scripture which contains the truth and is inspired by the Holy Spirit. You realize that there is nothing wrong or misleading in it.”

- Clement of Rome

• We should be “most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit.” - Irenaeus

• “I am entirely convinced that no Scripture contradicts another.” - Justin Martyr

INERRANCY & INFALLIBILITY

• “For those who have not ears to hear, [there is in fact] no conflict…[The Scriptures] are truly at perfect concord.” - Origen

• “We, however, who extend the accuracy of the Spirit to the merest stroke and tittle, will never admit the impious assertion that even the smallest matters were dealt with haphazard[ly] by those who have recorded them, and have thus been borne in mind down to the present day.” - Athanasius

INERRANCY & INFALLIBILITY

• “With the Scriptures…the gold does not lie before us mixed with earth; instead it is gold and only gold.”

- Chrysostom

• “Therefore everything written in Scripture must be believed absolutely.” - Augustine

THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

1. Pope Leo the Great (5th cent.)

2. Gregory the Great (540-604): “Let it be faithfully believed that the Holy Spirit is the author of the book. He, therefore, wrote these things who dictated the things to be written…The Scriptures are the words of the Holy Spirit.”

LEO IX HILDEBRAND (GREGORY VII)

THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

3. Anselm of Canterbury (1093-1109): “For I am sure that if I say anything that unquestionably contradicts Holy Scripture, it is false, and if I am aware of this I do not want to hold it.”

THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

4. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): “All which is spoken of in Holy Scripture is spoken of God.”

THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

5. John Wycliffe (1320-1384)

THE REFORMATION

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1547)

• “But everyone, indeed, knows that at times they [the fathers] have erred as men will; therefore I am ready to trust them only when they prove their opinions from Scripture, which has never erred.”

• “The Word of God is perfect: it is precious and pure: it is truth itself. There is no falsehood in it.”

• “It is impossible that Scripture should contradict itself; it only appears so to senseless and obstinate hypocrites.”

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1547)

• “One letter, even a single tittle of Scripture, means more to us than heaven and earth. Therefore we cannot permit even the most minute change.”

• “Consequently, we must remain content with them [words], and cling to them as the perfectly clear, certain, sure word of god which can never deceive us or allow us to err.”

• “Believing and reading Scripture means that we hear the Word from Christ’s mouth. When that happens to you, you know that this is no mere human word, but truly God’s.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564)

• “Hence the Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if there the living words of God were heard.”

• “And [the Psalmist] affirms that his love to God’s word was not a rash, or a blind and inconsiderate affection, but that he loves it, because like gold or silver which has been refined, it was pure and free from all dregs and dross…when it [revealed truth] is compared to gold well refined,…it shines pure from all defilement.”

CHALLENGES OF THE POST-REFORMATION

1. Catholicism

2. Rationalism

3. Science

4. Compromise

CHAMPIONS OF THE POST-REFORMATION

1. Samuel Rutherford (17th cent.): “In writing every jot, tittle or word of Scripture [the biblical writers] were immediately inspired, as touching the matter, word phrases, expression, order method, majesty, style and all.”

2. John Wesley (18th cent.): “If there be any mistakes in the Bible, there may well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that book, it did not come from the God of truth.”

3. Jonathan Edwards (18th cent.)

OTHER CHAMPIONS

4. New Hampshire Confession of 1833

5. Princeton Theological Seminary (19th cent.)

6. International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (1970s-1980s)

LESSONS LEARNED

• Greater confidence?

• Greater love?

SCHEDULE

09/27 Introduction

10/04 How did we get our Bible?

10/11 How do we know we have the true Bible? (Part 1)

10/18 How do we know we have the true Bible? (Part 2)

10/25 Why are there so many different translations?

11/01 How do we know the Bible is true? (Part 1)

11/08 How do we know the Bible is true? (Part 2)

11/15 The testimony of Scripture to itself (Part 1)

11/22 The testimony of Scripture to itself (Part 2)

11/29 Thanksgiving

12/06 The testimony of church history

12/13 The testimony of extrabiblical sources

12/20 The testimony of changed lives

12/27 Christmas