FAITH AND THE WORD OF GOD
We do not believe there has ever been a time when Christians needed more help than now. There is a raging tide against faith in a completely trustworthy and authoritative Bible, and this is having a devastating effect.
The consequences are not primarily in the areas of culture or ethics, or even sociology and politics. The devastation has to do with spiritual power—that ability to confront sinners with their need of a Saviour and to lead them to repentance and conversion. It has to do with the spiritual power necessary to lead men to the Word of God for strength and wisdom for daily living. The concern is over preaching and teaching which brings a Scripture-based confidence for today and an assured hope for the life beyond the grave.
Right now we are reaping the harvest of attacks on the integrity of the Scriptures which began in Germany a century ago. In institution after institution, the chair of Bible is now occupied by men who have capitulated either to the older, higher critical viewpoint of the Scriptures, or to the more recent deviation from faith in the complete trustworthiness of the Bible, known as Neo-orthodoxy. There are, of course, notable exceptions, and for these we are deeply thankful.
Those who hold the higher critical or neo-orthodox viewpoints of Scripture deny the accuracy and validity of the Bible on a rational basis. But in the more popular concept we find something very different: Man has superimposed upon the authority of the Word of God the authority of the human interpreter, so that revelation as a fait accompli becomes revelation only when acknowledged to be such by the human interpreter of the Word. We of course recognize that divine revelation becomes operative in the life of the individual only as he hears and acts on that revelation.
The point is that this act of obedience on the part of man does not validate revelation, for God’s revelation is valid regardless of what man may do with it. To equate obedience to God’s revealed truth with that truth itself is to becloud the issue.
The words of Paul as found in Romans 3:3, 4, are pertinent: “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”
Old-line higher criticism, said by some to be discredited today, is far more alive than many think. The old rationalism has been largely supplanted by neo-orthodoxy, it is true. But this welcome shift to the theological right is far from adequate, for its destructive effect is a demonstrable fact. Wherever human speculation is permitted to take the place of divine revelation, the way is open for interpretations contrary to that revelation.
An overwhelming majority of seminary students are now being subjected to this new philosophy of inspiration. The bold affirmation, “Thus saith the Lord,” has been muted. The voice of authority has been supplanted by the expression of opinions. We have lost the power of God’s Word for us in the din of human speculation. Power from entirely too many pulpits rises no higher than the leading intellects of the day.
This is an appeal, therefore, to young ministers. The question to them is, do you have the power of God’s Holy Spirit resting on you when you go into the pulpit? Are you seeing souls saved and lives transformed through your ministry? If you are, thank God and go forward.
If not, the writer would suggest a soul-searching inquest into the death of spiritual power. The point at which you no longer believed in the complete integrity and authority of the Word of God may have been your departure. Or it may have been at some time in life when you did not surrender motives, habits, and other activities to the searching and cleansing of the Holy Spirit.
There is on every hand today a raging tide, a drift against which Christians must stand. The faithfulness of God, the reliability and comfort of the Holy Bible, the consistent testimony of Spirit-directed lives are all a part of effective witnessing for our Saviour. Against these bulwarks of the faith, Satan is waging an unending warfare with active and effective devices.
History indicates that the spiritual witness of the Church has always been as strong as the faith that held the integrity and authority of the Holy Scriptures and lives that were consistent with that faith.
Christians should regard as suspect every attempt to undermine faith in the Bible. They should ask those who have substituted human speculation for divine revelation, or who speak knowingly of the more recent findings of modern scholarship, whether by their standards we have a Book which contains the Word of God, or whether in the Holy Scriptures we have in fact the Written Word of God?
There is a tremendous difference in the two approaches.
With one we have an anchor and a chain which can withstand every tide of unbelief. The other is sustained only by links of human opinion, reasoning and speculation—and they cannot hold.
We live in a day of scientific experimentation and achievement, a day when theories are being tested and facts determined. In the realm of biblical criticism we would suggest an experiment, if the one making this experiment is willing to follow through, regardless of the cost.
Let every minister search his own heart in the presence of God and offer a complete surrender of his God-given faculties to the Holy Spirit.
Then, in all sincerity, let him ask God for a clear understanding of the Scriptures, an understanding that will deliver him from philosophical presuppositions and prejudices. At the same time, may he ask for the faith of a little child and for the power in personal living and public witness that alone comes through the complete and constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
It is our conviction that when the matter of biblical inspiration and interpretation is met in the light of understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit, difficulties disappear like mist before the rising sun, and we come to marvel at our own blindness and unbelief.
We believe that when this kind of examination takes place in an individual, the study of God’s Word becomes a joy instead of a chore; and any Christian, whether minister or not, will find so much to think about, teach, and preach that he will not have opportunities adequate enough to make these new-found truths known to others.
The Bible is an inexhaustible mine of wisdom, joy, and divine truth. Its gold is waiting for the humbled mind, the willing heart, and the surrendered will.
L. NELSON BELL
