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L215: Systematic Theology 1 S4 — Transcript

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0:00[Music]
0:14in your notes the inspiration and
0:18authority of Scripture we're going to
0:21talk now a little bit about what it
0:24means for the Bible to be inspired and
0:27then why that carries Authority and so
0:32we'll begin with the first section here
0:34the divine inspiration of the Bible a
0:38fundamental to the issue of the
0:40authority of scriptures the church's
0:42understanding of the process the process
0:45by which scripture came into being and
0:46thus its nature namely and here's the
0:50word inspiration for your notes
0:51inspiration now when we use the term
0:55inspiration with Scripture we mean
0:57something different then we say that
0:59somebody's inspired like I might be an
1:02inspired individual maybe I had an
1:05encounter with God so I'm excited I want
1:07to preach or teach or something like
1:08that there's a certain level of
1:10comparison but when we use the term
1:13inspiration in a technical manner and
1:15when we're talking about theology it
1:18means something very specific and that's
1:20what we want to talk about now
1:22inspiration letter B involves the author
1:25authorship of scripture scripture is not
1:28merely humans best effort to express
1:31divine impressions again people who
1:34believe in God and have some sort of
1:37belief in Jesus but our considered
1:38theologically liberal might view it that
1:40way the Bible is inspired they would say
1:44but what they mean by that is something
1:46different they mean that people were
1:48touched by God they encountered God and
1:51now they are inspired in the sense that
1:54they are seeking to try and convey their
1:59understanding of what that encounter
2:02meant and so they're writing things down
2:05they're speaking things and then later
2:06on writing things down we mean something
2:09different and that's what the the church
2:12has historically understood
2:14when we describe the Bible as being
2:16inspired instead everywhere throughout
2:21scripture according to its own internal
2:24witness as well as what the people of
2:26God have testified for 2,000 plus years
2:30we see the Bible as being authored by
2:34two sources and this is your next
2:36fill-in-the-blank
2:37there's dual authorship human and divine
2:40so your notes are human and divine the
2:44Bible has dual authorship this dual
2:47authorship by God and by humans is
2:51distinguishable in others we can
2:53distinguish the fact that God is a
2:57co-author the senior co-author and that
2:59humans are also co-authors but it's
3:01indivisible from one another in other
3:03words that it's God's voice through
3:06human voices the biblical text is the
3:10product of divine authorship through
3:13participatory human agents including
3:16authors secretaries which are
3:19technically known as amanuensis and
3:22editors and as I mentioned earlier of
3:25course the scriptures for the most part
3:27were originally given orally it was oral
3:30messages people spoke by inspiration of
3:34the Holy Spirit by the leading by the
3:35empowerment by the guidance by the
3:37providential oversight of the influence
3:40of the Holy Spirit then those oral
3:43messages were eventually put into
3:45writing that writing sometimes was done
3:49by the actual biblical author but in
3:52most cases probably not because writing
3:55in the ancient world was a highly
3:57trained skill that most people did not
3:59have and so somebody else would be used
4:02and there's evidence for that within the
4:04scripture explicitly as well as implicit
4:06evidence and that there were probably
4:09editors involved as well so in other
4:12words inspiration doesn't have to just
4:13be the idea where somebody at one point
4:16in time was moved by the Spirit of God
4:19to personally write down some words
4:22instead it could be a very extended
4:24process but the idea is
4:27God being sovereign and God caring
4:30enough about humanity would be involved
4:33throughout that process to ensure that
4:35the final product was his word through
4:38human words and that's important that's
4:42a more sophisticated way and a more
4:44accurate way of understanding the
4:46doctrine of inspiration
4:47and the reason why that's important is
4:49that sometimes some people have a very
4:51simplistic understanding of that process
4:54and then when they wind up encountering
4:56somebody who has been exposed to various
4:59criticisms of the scriptures and their
5:03origin they don't know how to respond to
5:05them so number one here methods range
5:09from dictation as in the case of the
5:12brief letters to the seven churches in
5:13Chapter two of Revelation to historical
5:16research as in the case of Luke's Gospel
5:18and acts so normal human research was
5:24involved in the composition of Luke and
5:27acts and so again we want to expand our
5:31thinking about what's involved with
5:33inspiration number two humans were
5:35genuinely engaged in the writing of
5:37Scripture this is important their
5:39participation should not be thought of
5:41as passive robotic acquiescence as
5:44though they went into some trance-like
5:45State under the influence of the Holy
5:48Spirit and simply became involuntary
5:50channels of divine revelation that is
5:53the way that some people used to think
5:56that the scripture came into being one
5:58of the reasons for that is that we have
6:00evidence from the ancient world that
6:04prophecy was something that was not
6:08unknown throughout most of the Roman
6:11Empire particularly in the eastern part
6:13prophetic utterances spirits coming upon
6:17people people being caught up in the
6:19trance-like states people being
6:21controlled by spirits to prophesy this
6:23was a normal part of the religious
6:27experience of the ancient world during
6:28the greco-roman time period but biblical
6:32prophetic unction was different than
6:34that because the very act of inspiration
6:39has within it a witness to God's
6:43ultimate aim in Redemption and that is
6:46is that God is not interested in taking
6:49over the human soul and somehow stifling
6:54the unique individuality of the person
6:57but rather is by fulfilling the person
7:00by liberating them and by filling them
7:03with his own spirit the internal
7:06evidence of Scripture testifies to the
7:08fact that the Holy Spirit worked through
7:10the uniqueness of the humans involved
7:13forming the expression of God's
7:15revelation through the individuality and
7:17the language of the human authors as
7:20expressed out of their own historical
7:23cultural context Wayne Grudem puts it
7:27this way God's providential oversight
7:29and direction of the life of each author
7:31was such that their personalities their
7:33backgrounds and training their abilities
7:36to evaluate events in the world around
7:37them their access to historical data
7:39their judgment with regard to the
7:41accuracy of information and their
7:43individual circumstances when they wrote
7:45were all exactly what God wanted them to
7:48be so that when they actually came to
7:51the point of putting pen to paper the
7:53words were fully their own words but
7:55also fully the words that God wanted
7:57them to write words that God would also
7:59claim as his own I love how organic how
8:05earthy and how very human the very
8:09processes by which God brought forth his
8:13special revelation in written form
8:15letter C because the Scriptures are both
8:19divine and human origin they point in
8:21their very nature to one of God's Kira
8:23dem t'v objectives which is the
8:25restoration of the relationship between
8:26God and humans indeed by their very
8:29nature in addition to their message the
8:31Scriptures give witness to Christ who is
8:34God's ultimate revelation and the
8:36Redeemer through whom he will consummate
8:37his eternal purposes for creation and
8:40humanity in Jesus we behold the union of
8:44the divine and the human nature's which
8:47are distinguishable but indivisible in a
8:51similar way we concern
8:52we can discern both the divine and the
8:54human authorship of the Holy Scriptures
8:56so in other words if you think about
8:57Jesus being the epitome of God's
8:59objectives here is God and humanity
9:03joined in one so also the Bible reflects
9:07that God didn't simply have angels up in
9:10heaven right some you know didactic
9:13propositions that we're supposed to
9:15believe and give us some Commandments
9:16and then kind of fling them out you know
9:19from heaven so they landed on the earth
9:20and then people picked them up and
9:22started reading them and practicing them
9:24God got down in the middle of everything
9:27that's going on here and by His Spirit
9:29worked through humans right here on the
9:32ground on the earth and spoke through
9:35them revealing his will to humans two
9:38common errors have to be avoided when we
9:41go to understand the Bible because of
9:43this issue the dual nature of authorship
9:46number one under letter D whenever the
9:49divine authorship of Scripture is
9:51diminished or denied as in the case of
9:53liberal theology we inevitably diminish
9:55or deny scriptures divine authority I
9:58mean it's just it is a natural
10:00consequence of that assumption but on
10:02the other hand and this happens more
10:04frequently with people who actually
10:06believe that the Bible is God's Word
10:08whenever the human authorship of
10:10Scripture is diminished or ignored
10:13we inevitably misinterpret and miss
10:16apply the biblical text and when we do
10:20that the consequences we misuse its
10:22authority because people don't take
10:25adequate account of the human element in
10:29producing the scriptures because we
10:32don't pay enough attention to the
10:33historical context in the cultural
10:35setting and the issues that were at hand
10:39at the time that the scripture was
10:40written we wind up misinterpreting it
10:43and when we misinterpret it then we
10:46misuse its authority I think that it's a
10:50grievous thing when spiritual leaders
10:53bind the people's consciences with
10:56things that are not true and there are
10:59lots of people when you survey the
11:01landscape of the church throughout 2,000
11:04years of history and even today
11:06who are bound by religious beliefs that
11:09are not accurately taught in Scripture
11:14so both errors have to be avoided
11:17because of their damaging effect Roman
11:20numeral tune let's talk about the divine
11:23authority then of Scripture letter a
11:26divine authorship of the scriptures
11:28necessarily entails divine authority
11:31that's your fill-in-the-blank divine
11:32authority because the Holy Spirit is
11:35co-authored the biblical tax the tax
11:37speak with his authority it's pretty
11:40straightforward the authority of
11:43Scripture
11:44according to grudem means that all the
11:46words in scripture are God's words in
11:48such a way that to disbelieve or disobey
11:50any word of Scripture is to disbelieve
11:52or disobey god of course the question is
11:55are we interpreting it properly and are
11:57we applying it wisely even the
12:01quotations of other people are God's
12:03reports of what they said and rightly
12:06interpreted in their context come to us
12:08with God's authority we'll look at a few
12:11biblical texts that actually support
12:15what we're saying here 2nd Peter chapter
12:171 verse 20 starts no prophecy of
12:21Scripture comes from someone's own
12:23interpretation for no prophecy was ever
12:26produced by the will of man but men
12:28spoke from God as they were carried
12:29along by the Holy Spirit this text
12:32essentially refers to the entire Old
12:34Testament it's not speaking to the New
12:35Testament and the Old Testament of
12:38course was viewed by most first century
12:40Jews as being prophetic in the sense
12:41that it was given by God Moses was
12:44viewed as the great prophet through whom
12:46God gave the Torah or the first five
12:48books of the Covenant and most of the
12:50historical books were considered to be
12:52what they call the former prophets that
12:55was their name for them due to their
12:57prophetic interpretation of key
12:59historical events in the life of Israel
13:01and of course the prophets are already
13:05identified as such here's another in
13:07Matthew 19 jesus answered have you not
13:10read that he who created them talking
13:13about the original humans he who created
13:16them from the beginning made them male
13:18and female and said
13:19therefore a man shall leave his father
13:22and his mother and hold fast to his wife
13:24and the two shall become one flesh now
13:27what's significant is the way that Jesus
13:29quotes this Old Testament text from
13:31Genesis he's quoting Genesis 2:24 this
13:35is not a direct quote of God's speech in
13:39other words there's places in the Bible
13:40where we have words from God for example
13:43God says let us make man in our image in
13:46our likeness or there's things said in
13:49Genesis chapter 3 where he's speaking to
13:51the humans after they sinned
13:53Jesus says here that it is God who said
13:57a man shall leave his father and his
14:00mother and so on but what is written
14:02there that he's quoting is just part of
14:04the narrative it's just part of the
14:06story being told it's actually not a
14:08quote from God yet Jesus is attributing
14:12the words of the narrative to God
14:14Himself directly it shows that Jesus
14:17held the same kind of high view of
14:19Scripture that other Jews were known to
14:22hold during this period in the history
14:25of the nation second Peter chapter three
14:29reads as follows beginning in verse 15
14:31our beloved brother Paul also wrote to
14:34you according to the wisdom given him as
14:36he does in all his letters when he
14:38speaks in them of these matters there
14:42are some things in them that are hard to
14:45understand which the ignorant and
14:48unstable twist to their own destruction
14:51as they do other scriptures and so the
14:56text here shows us that the author of
14:59second Peter is already referring to
15:01Paul's letters as Scripture he's
15:05recognizing that they have the same
15:07level of authority as the Jews had
15:09viewed the Old Testament 2nd Timothy
15:123:16 a famous text says all Scripture is
15:17breathed out by God and profitable for
15:19teaching for reproof for correction and
15:21for training in righteousness another
15:25translation says that all Scripture is
15:27inspired of God maybe you've read that
15:30before and that's part of the
15:32phrasing that gives rise then to the
15:34doctrine that we refer to as inspiration
15:37this tax refers to the entire Old
15:39Testament and whatever portion of the
15:42New Testament that the author had in
15:44mind we don't know how much that Paul
15:46had in mind at that time but it refers
15:48to everything that was extent at that
15:50time and that was already in circulation
15:52among the Christian churches and this is
15:54probably somewhere around the
15:55neighborhood of around the mid-60s AD
15:58most likely the portions of the New
16:01Testament that are included in this
16:02reference include all of Paul's letters
16:05and probably the Epistle to James so
16:08again the idea that all Scripture is
16:10inspired of God and has authority for
16:14the things that are listed there and
16:15then finally John 14:26 maybe you didn't
16:18know this but this text is one that has
16:20historically been understood by the
16:22church from the earliest of times as
16:23referring to a promise that Jesus made
16:27that God would ensure that his
16:31revelation through Jesus would be
16:33written down even though Jesus did not
16:35write anything himself Jesus says but
16:39the helper the Holy Spirit whom the
16:41father will send in my name he will
16:43teach you all things and bring to your
16:45remembrance all that I have said to you
16:48you will bring to your remembrance all
16:50that I have said to you and the church
16:52has historically understood this to be a
16:54promise that speaks to the in assurance
16:57that Jesus is giving that a time would
17:00come where the Holy Spirit would work
17:02with the Apostolic community to write
17:04the Gospels as well as other New
17:06Testament documents in John 16:13 Jesus
17:10says when the spirit of truth comes he
17:11will guide you into all the truth for he
17:14will not speak on his own authority but
17:15whatever he hears he will speak and he
17:18will declare to you the things that are
17:20to come I've got some other texts listed
17:23there too that also support the idea of
17:25the Scriptures own witness to its
17:28inspiration and to its authority under
17:31Roman numeral three I want to talk a
17:33little bit about the Holy Spirit and the
17:34role that he has in conveying scriptures
17:37Authority so letter A the
17:40fill-in-the-blank there is the Holy
17:42Spirit the Holy Spirit serves as the
17:44the illuminator and the interpreter of
17:47the scriptures he speaks to us in and
17:50through the Scriptures convincing us of
17:53its divine source and consequent
17:54Authority without the Holy Spirit's aid
17:57we would fail in our judgment of the
17:59Bible and many people do don't thing you
18:02know I don't know how the things are
18:05worded by various leaders and teachers
18:09that you listen to on a regular basis
18:11but at the end of the day there is no
18:13such thing as proof
18:14there's only evidence and what I mean by
18:18that is that from a more up-to-date
18:22perspective we understand that at the
18:25end of the day people make a faith
18:27decision as a moral decision a faith
18:31decision is a moral decision God
18:34supplies all kinds of evidence but each
18:37person must morally choose to believe or
18:40not to believe if there was such a thing
18:44as conclusive proof then the idea would
18:48be as well if we can just amass enough
18:51pieces of evidence then it would force
18:54people to believe but people willfully
18:57choose not to believe they reject the
19:00evidence that God supplies and God
19:02always requires at the end of the day an
19:04exercise of faith which I think by his
19:08wisdom and design not only brings honor
19:11to him but I think it in a certain way
19:13remedies are rectifies the insult that
19:16happened in the beginning at the
19:17rebellion because the original human
19:20rebellion had at its root unbelief
19:25humans did not believe the Word of God
19:27that had been spoken to them with regard
19:30to in the day that you eat of it you
19:31shall die and etc that unbelief
19:37I think lies perhaps at the heart of why
19:39God requires faith in order to be
19:42reconciled back to him so the Holy
19:46Spirit then helps us to be persuaded
19:50that the Scriptures are true he's the
19:53one who seals the belief in our hearts
19:56first Corinthians chapter 2 it has a
19:58great text that you can read later on
20:00but that talks about how it's the Holy
20:02Spirit who reveals the hidden things to
20:04us sometimes people have misused this
20:07verse and thought that it teaches that
20:08there are things that are meant to still
20:11be out there
20:13that we'll never know but actually this
20:16text tells us that the Holy Spirit is
20:17given to us for the express purpose of
20:19leading us progressively into a greater
20:22knowledge of the truth that God has
20:24revealed I also have a quote here from
20:27John Calvin which is great and but we
20:31don't have time to read it right now so
20:33hopefully you'll take a look at it later
20:35but he also underscores the idea that
20:37without the help of the Holy Spirit none
20:40of us would ultimately be persuaded to
20:42believe God's witness in the Holy
20:44Scriptures and the reason for that of
20:47course has taught in other places we
20:49quoted Romans chapter 1 earlier we
20:51quoted a text out of Ephesians earlier
20:53in Galatians as well all of which speak
20:55to the sinful darkened condition of the
20:58human heart because of sin sin that is
21:02inherent to our nature as well as sins
21:04that we have chosen to commit it places
21:07us in a position to where we are not
21:09attracted to the truth unless God works
21:13upon our hearts and draws us to himself
21:15that's why Paul could say in chapter 3
21:19of his letter to the Romans that no one
21:22actually seeks after God so in spite of
21:25the fact that people are involved in all
21:26kinds of religious activities all over
21:27the world nobody is actually of their
21:31own self initiative seeking God from a
21:35genuine motive of wanting to know God
21:37personally and to be reconciled to him
21:40people maybe have been influenced by his
21:42what we call previant grace where he is
21:45drawing people to want to search for
21:47truth and of course sometimes people
21:49have all kinds of mixed and selfish
21:51motives in wanting to seek God people
21:55were very religious in the ancient world
21:56but most of the religion that was
21:58practiced in the ancient world was an
22:00attempt to be able to manipulate the
22:04gods in order to bring blessing into
22:06their personal lives and it was out of a
22:10fear of what they believed was the
22:12capriciousness or the arbitrary nature
22:14of the gods in meeting out punishments
22:18upon humans without having any kind of
22:21correlating proportionate response to
22:25people's ethical behavior in other words
22:28what I'm saying is is that people in the
22:30ancient world often felt that the
22:32unpredictable nature of human life
22:34experience were tragedies and chaos and
22:37bad things happen was due to the gods
22:40simply carrying out arbitrary acts
22:44against humans that may or may not have
22:47had inground whatsoever in the ethical
22:50behavior of the humans one of the novel
22:52things about the Bible is is that it
22:55grounds the character of God in moral
22:57uprightness and holiness and views
23:01humanity as being morally accountable to
23:03conform itself into the image of the
23:06character of the Creator and this was
23:09not the case in the other religions of
23:11the ancient world let's talk here in
23:14Roman numeral four about the scriptures
23:16authority in our use of the Bible one of
23:20the things that's important about our
23:21our understanding of inspiration is that
23:24it allows for translations to carry
23:28biblical or divine authority so you're
23:31filling the blank on a is accurate
23:33translations carry God's Authority in
23:37other words it's the meaning of the
23:39original words and not merely the
23:41literal words themselves that is the
23:44Word of God if only the original words
23:49themselves were the Word of God we would
23:52be in a real problem we'd have a real
23:55problem because our Bibles were written
23:58originally in the New Testament in what
24:00language in Greek did Jesus do is
24:04preaching and teaching in Greek no so we
24:08don't even have the literal words of
24:10Jesus if you want to get very precise
24:13about describing what we have we
24:17actually have already at the earliest
24:18stage a translation of Jesus's words
24:22which I'm so glad God did it that way so
24:25we don't wind up in the predicament that
24:27the Islamic faith is in because Islam
24:30I'm told at the end of the day believes
24:34that the Quran only functions as the
24:37Word of God when you are able to read it
24:41in the original language no translation
24:43of the Quran into another language
24:45carries divine authority from the
24:48perspective of a Muslim but our Bible
24:51right from its very beginning in the
24:55very nature by which it was brought
24:57forth demonstrates that it is the
25:00meaning that matters and not necessarily
25:02the literal words themselves hence
25:05translations are God's Word to us to the
25:09degree that they accurately convey the
25:11meaning of the original text letter B
25:15because scripture has divine authorship
25:18there's a discernible
25:20holistic unity that's your
25:22fill-in-the-blank holistic unity this is
25:24very important if God was not the author
25:27of every portion of the Bible then you
25:29could not presume that it all fits
25:31together if it's only a disparate
25:34collection of works that were written by
25:37humans you cannot assume that it is
25:40cohesive all the way through that
25:43there's a unity but because there is a
25:46unity we can discern things like an
25:49overarching story of redemption which
25:52progressively unfolds throughout the 66
25:54books we can also see that there's a
25:57consistent presentation of divine truths
25:59and spiritual principles and in the case
26:03of that unfolding story it's possible to
26:06develop and understand
26:08here's if your fill in the blank a
26:09biblical meta-narrative a biblical
26:12meta-narrative what's the meta-narrative
26:14a meta-narrative is an overarching story
26:18that claims authority at the highest
26:21level to provide understanding for human
26:26experience and reality the biblical
26:31meta-narrative involves three main
26:34elements creation
26:36the rebellion and I prefer the term
26:39rebellion over the word fall fall sounds
26:41like an accident that you know oh that's
26:44too bad that happened
26:45I prefer rebellion because it implies a
26:49volition right there's a willful act
26:51that goes on rebellion and redemption
26:54creation takes up only two chapters the
26:59rebellion takes up one chapter starting
27:02in Genesis four all the way to
27:04Revelation 22 is the third phase it's
27:07Redemption redemption is not merely the
27:10forgiveness of sins redemption is the
27:12full recovery and restoration and
27:17fulfillment of everything that God
27:20intended according to his original
27:23design and plan understanding that story
27:26and how it unfolds through the Bible is
27:29extremely important and informs the
27:34whole interpretive process of Scripture
27:37at any point but is only made possible
27:39because of the divine authorship of all
27:43of the 66 books God has a story to tell
27:47in terms of the issue of truths and
27:51spiritual principles that run through
27:53the Bible it's possible to develop and
27:55understand systematic theology and
27:57that's your next fill-in-the-blank
27:58systematic theology systematic theology
28:02which this course is all about is only
28:04possible because of the divine
28:07authorship of all of the books again
28:11there's an assumption that because
28:12there's one author who speaks through
28:15all of these books then we can actually
28:18analyze it all systematize it organize
28:24it categorize it and have something
28:28intelligent coherent and comprehensive
28:32to say about what God says about any
28:36particular topic that we happen to
28:38choose to study within the broad context
28:41of Scripture any reading of the text
28:45which arrives at a conclusion that fails
28:47to either understand
28:48the holistic unity or the cohesion of
28:51the Bible is always going to be an
28:53inadequate reading so listen to me
28:55carefully it's important when you speak
29:00on a topic an important topic to work
29:05harder and to study more and to have a
29:09better grasp on what the overall Bible
29:11teaches about that topic I have heard
29:14more mistakes made because people are
29:18not that familiar with the whole Bible
29:20and they only take a portion that
29:22they're particularly attracted to and
29:24I've known pastors who have been in
29:26ministry for years who are drawn to
29:28certain texts and certain messages and
29:31they don't push themselves to expand
29:33their biblical knowledge out further and
29:35because they're only studying a portion
29:38of the scripture much of their lives and
29:39focused only on one aspect of the
29:42biblical message they wind up teaching
29:46what is not always accurate it would be
29:51like taking something that I say in one
29:54brief moment in one of these lectures
29:57becoming exclusively focused on that and
30:00then assuming that you think you know
30:02all of my thoughts about that particular
30:04topic when I perhaps will also address
30:06the topic 20 other times over the course
30:09of these next few days it's only if you
30:12would listen comprehensively to
30:14everything I had to say about that
30:16particular topic that you would have a
30:18proper understanding of what I actually
30:20think about that particular issue it's
30:23the same way with the Bible
30:24most Christians leaders are so busy with
30:30so much ministry that they don't know
30:33their Bibles well enough to speak with
30:35enough depth and authority and accuracy
30:39as they should and that's a challenge
30:44especially when you live in a city like
30:46this where it takes forever to go from
30:48one point to another point I got picked
30:51up one time at the airport and it took
30:53three hours for somebody to get there
30:56after I landed because the traffic was
30:59so bad
31:01so I sympathize with you but you have to
31:03you have to work it's an you have to
31:06force yourself to study the Scriptures
31:09let us see on the other hand let's shift
31:12from the Divine authorship let's talk
31:14now about human authorship because
31:17scripture has human authorship it is
31:19closed with clothed with historical
31:22particularity
31:23so that's your fill-in-the-blank
31:25historical particularity in other words
31:28we don't simply get a nice clean general
31:33statement of some big truths that we're
31:36supposed to believe almost everything in
31:39the Bible is what I like to call in
31:41fleshed it's like the Incarnation it's
31:43it's wrapped over with real human life
31:45experience another way that it said is
31:48that the Bible was written by real
31:51people to a real audience at a specific
31:56time in history where there were real
31:59problems going on that needed to be
32:01addressed with real solutions and those
32:06experiences which gave rise to the
32:09writing of the text are not necessarily
32:12the same kinds of experiences that you
32:14and I are having today because it's a
32:16different time in history
32:17it's a different cultural setting it's a
32:20different language many times even a
32:23different way of seeing the world and so
32:26there's work that has to be done then to
32:29go back and study this text if we want
32:31to do it at the highest level of
32:33integrity so the details then of human
32:37authorship and audience the occasion all
32:39of that are important to gaining a good
32:41understanding of any given text also
32:45because humans are involved in the
32:48writing of Scripture we can develop
32:50biblical theology that's the next
32:52fill-in-the-blank there so there's a
32:55difference between systematic theology
32:57and biblical theology systematic
32:59theology in a certain way leans a little
33:01bit more on the idea of the divine
33:03authorship because we're gathering up
33:05everything that has been said by
33:07multiple human authors but through one
33:09divine author by one divine author and
33:12we're trying to come up with a
33:14comprehensive systematic understanding
33:16of what God has to say about a topic
33:19biblical theology is a little bit
33:21different it drops down and looks at the
33:22perspective of individual books
33:25individual authors it looks at
33:29perspectives from different stages in
33:32the development of Revelation one of the
33:36things we understand about revelation is
33:38that it's progressive in other words God
33:41gradually began to unfold more and more
33:44revelation to humans over time
33:46Jesus himself brings this to mind when
33:50he says to his disciples I have many
33:52other things to say to you but you
33:55cannot bear them now you can't bear them
33:58now in other words they weren't ready
33:59for it if you think about it Jesus it's
34:02quite a humble guy he allowed Paul in
34:07particular and other New Testament
34:10apostles to write about deeper things
34:13than he himself taught there's greater
34:17theological depth many times in the
34:21things that we find in the epistles than
34:23in the speeches of Jesus given to us in
34:25the Gospels they weren't ready for what
34:29Jesus wanted to say but he did
34:32eventually say it by his Spirit through
34:34the apostles
34:37Leonard II the Word of God should be
34:39understood as dynamically speaking to us
34:43here and now what he said back then when
34:46the message was first given and
34:48requiring of us the same assent and
34:52obedience as was required back then if
34:55and this is the big if if we're
34:58interpreting correctly if we are not
35:00interpreting correctly we may be
35:03demanding things of people that we lead
35:06that God is not demanding and you know
35:10the scripture tells us to study and be
35:14diligent to show yourself approved as a
35:16workman who rightly divide the word of
35:19truth remember that there Paul wrote to
35:22Timothy I've thought about it this way
35:25the way the wording is there and
35:28and you look up a little bit of the
35:29meaning of the original language it's as
35:31though God is present every time that we
35:36open our mouths to represent him he's in
35:39the audience along with all the people
35:41he's not only helping us speak right
35:45he's also critiquing our speaking and
35:48you every one of you in here me too but
35:53right now the focus is you every one of
35:57you will have to give an account one day
36:00for whether or not you accurately
36:02represented God and what you said he
36:04said every word you ever spoke in the
36:08name of God will be judged and critiqued
36:11on the day of judgment you will give an
36:14answer for everything you ever said in
36:16his name so we know God is gracious
36:21we know he's patient we know he's kind
36:24we know it from the book of Acts because
36:25there were wrong beliefs in the original
36:28Apostles that had to be corrected they
36:31had things wrong thank God for acts 15
36:33the Jerusalem Council where they
36:36straighten some things out about the
36:38Gentiles becoming Christians God's very
36:41gracious and patient but he's very
36:43serious at the same time and we just
36:48cannot escape the responsibility that we
36:52have to study to show ourselves approved
36:55you have to put in the time you have to
36:58be diligent you have to treat it as
37:00extremely important and dear God please
37:04don't remain in spiritual warfare at a
37:09foot soldier level what I mean is is
37:12that there's many people like wrestlers
37:14you know you learn a couple of basic
37:17moves and in the early stages of maybe
37:21learning to wrestle you could deal with
37:23your opponent but as you progress
37:25further on in the sport you're going to
37:28have to learn more than a few moves and
37:30with the Bible there's some basic things
37:32we learn about leading somebody to
37:34Christ or you know getting them grounded
37:36in the faith but Jesus didn't say just
37:39to feed his lambs he said the
37:41also feed his sheep and there's a need
37:44for depth in the church if we're called
37:50to disciple nations if we are called to
37:54develop leaders who can lead in the
37:57fields of medicine in business and
38:00government and education in art and
38:03everything that humans do more depth has
38:09to come to the table because what we
38:14don't want to do is only evangelize the
38:16whole world and have five billion baby
38:20Christians we want people who are
38:24progressing in their knowledge of God
38:26and His purposes and hence their
38:29understanding what the Scripture teaches
38:31letter F actually e let me go to e where
38:37we at here good scripture this is very
38:40important scripture tradition reason and
38:43experience these are identified by John
38:45Wesley the 18th century preacher from
38:48England all of these are involved in
38:52formulating authority in the life of the
38:54church and the Christian nobody only
39:00relies on Scripture we bring our
39:03experience we bring our tradition and we
39:07even bring our approach to thinking our
39:11reasoning faculties to bear on the
39:13Scriptures themselves they all interact
39:16with each other the church historic
39:18speaks to us today based on what it said
39:21about various topics the church around
39:24us speaks to us today people within the
39:29church speak to us today the experiences
39:32that we've had both in terms of life and
39:35family but also spiritual experiences
39:37they inform our perspective and our
39:40understanding and of course we use our
39:42minds to think carefully the same mind
39:46that is behind astrophysics
39:53or the mathematics that is behind the
39:56structure of the universe that same mind
39:59also is the mind behind the Holy Bible
40:02and there is a sense in which the Bible
40:05can be very simple to understand on a
40:07surface level so that even a child can
40:09delight and some of the basic stories
40:12that are in Scripture but there's also a
40:14depth to the Bible that is so profound
40:18that it perplexes the greatest of
40:21Christian Minds that have existed over
40:23the last two thousand years and when
40:27we're challenged by that kind of
40:28complexity in Scripture it should not
40:31cause us to recoil but should serve as a
40:34challenge challenging us to see how
40:39hungry are we how much do we want to
40:43know because God doesn't reveal himself
40:46to the casual Inquirer God reveals
40:49himself to those who are desperately
40:52hungry and those who hunger for truth to
40:57paraphrase one of the Beatitudes where
41:00it talks about righteousness those who
41:02hunger for truth will also be satisfied
41:04but there's a price to pay I like what
41:09grudem says here in letter F and then I
41:12need to wrap up here throughout the
41:15history of the church the greatest
41:17preachers have been those who have
41:20recognized that they have no authority
41:22in themselves and have seen their task
41:24as being to explain the words of
41:26Scripture and apply them clearly to the
41:28lives of their hearers their preaching
41:31has drawn its power not from the
41:32proclamation of their own Christian
41:34experiences or the experiences of others
41:37nor from their own opinions creative
41:39ideas or rhetorical skills or jokes or
41:42illustrations but from God's powerful
41:47words when you look back at the history
41:50of the church one of the things that's
41:52interesting about what happened during
41:53the Middle Ages is that the Word of God
41:56lost place of premise II in the church
42:01service and many times there were
42:05theatrics
42:06poor trails and representations of
42:09things from the Bible but the actual
42:11preaching of God's Word was no longer
42:14center of peace and one of the great
42:16things about the Reformation that led to
42:19a revitalization of Christianity in
42:21Europe during the time of the sixteenth
42:23century was that they put the Bible
42:26Center place again in the older churches
42:29there wasn't even a pulpit you would
42:33have an altar and you would have the
42:35whole ceremony of the communion that
42:38would take place where they believed of
42:40course where the bread and the wine were
42:42turned into the body and the blood of
42:43Jesus and ceased to be bread and wine
42:45but there was no main pulpit but in all
42:48of the Protestant churches you will find
42:50a pulpit and typically elevated to
42:53represent the idea of that God who is
42:56higher than us is speaking to the people
42:59through his word John Calvin said that
43:03one of the distinguishing marks of a
43:05church is where the gospel is preached
43:07where the Bible is preached but I tell
43:10you I have heard many sermons that have
43:13virtually hardly any Bible text in them
43:17those sermons can sometimes draw large
43:20crowds but the depth of the conviction
43:27and the understanding and the commitment
43:31of those crowds many times is so shallow
43:34all it takes is one Church crisis to
43:37blow the whole house of cards down the
43:41Bible has to have center place it is
43:44rich it is powerful and it is
43:47authoritative it is the Word of God our
43:52words are only the words of God insofar
43:55as we are expounding upon what the Bible
43:59actually teaches amen amen
44:01all right our response to scriptures
44:05teaching just real quick on be the fill
44:07in the blank and then we're going to
44:08have our discussion relationship and
44:11mission
44:12those are your filling the blanks in
44:14other words God is looking for a
44:16response his word always calls for a
44:18response that responses
44:20fundamentally repentance and faith for
44:21the purpose of restoring relationship
44:24and to activate us in his mission so God
44:28is interested in our restored
44:30relationship with him with the world
44:32around us which includes people in the
44:34creation but then also activating us in
44:37his mission because like the Bible like
44:39Jesus God is interested in this union
44:43between the divine and the human he
44:44wants us to enjoy and participate in the
44:48privilege of engaging in his mission to
44:51redeem this world let's switch to our
44:54talking points now and we'll break up
44:55into our groups again as we've been
44:57doing go ahead and pick any one of these
44:59and discuss it at your table for the
45:01next few minutes okay let's come back
45:04together we've got a few minutes before
45:06our break we're gonna be taking our
45:09breaks again on the hour so let me just
45:14see are there any questions or comments
45:16about anything from this lesson anybody
45:23at all we can always take a break early
45:26oh by the way welcome is it the school
45:30of World Missions is that right yeah
45:32good to have you here I'm so sorry that
45:38you have to come back and learn the same
45:39thing again question alright pastor
45:45Bruce I was just wondering how would you
45:48encourage those ministers ministering to
45:53the Millennials where the way they think
45:56about Authority I know it seems like you
46:00know when you talk about the Millennials
46:02you have to talk to them as if you're
46:03not pounding on or something you have
46:06you have to go their level how would you
46:07tell us how to like because and one of
46:10the ways we we could do this is whenever
46:13we do our services or even every repeat
46:15sometimes we we don't bring out a
46:17physical Bible and we just take out our
46:20you know iPod devices and just preach
46:24them how would you like encourage us to
46:27connect with them and yet convey the
46:30authority of the scripture
46:32that's a good question you know I mean I
46:36love I love young people and I always
46:40have I still have a heart for college
46:43students
46:45maybe now graduate students and
46:47professional students a little bit more
46:49you know I think that there's a few
46:53things that come to my mind first of all
46:57Millennials whoever they are you know I
47:01mean labels are funny people do respect
47:05somebody who they believe has knowledge
47:10and who has integrity and by integrity I
47:15mean that they they live out what
47:17they're talking about another thing I
47:22think that all people value and
47:25especially at least in in America I know
47:28this is true I would think it's probably
47:29true here too that young people really
47:32value somebody who loves them and cares
47:35for them and I think what I found is is
47:41that if young people believe that I
47:43really care about them
47:44that I really do love them and they
47:48believe that I know more than they do
47:52and that I'm actually living out the
47:56values that are implicit because of the
48:01faith that I have in the knowledge that
48:03I'm passing on I think that they then
48:06already automatically extend a certain
48:08level of respect and out of that kind of
48:11a relationship then with people I think
48:14that they're more open to hearing things
48:17about the valid authority of Scripture
48:21that maybe they would not have been open
48:23to before if that makes sense
48:26[Music]

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