Silencing the Mouths of Rationalists and Apostates
The "safest" way to talk about the Bible in public is to
assume a rationalistic stance and to allow for that, rather than countering it.
Worth remembering too are the opponents of Jesus Christ – religious leaders,
leaders of His own religion. Between the rationalists and the apostates within,
a lifetime of debate is ahead of us.
The Bible Dropping Down from Heaven
A popular beginning is to say, “The Bible is not a book
that dropped down from heaven. It is a human book, written down by men.” No one
has ever claimed that the Bible floated down from heaven, so this is a straw
man logical fallacy – erect a straw man, knock it down, declare victory. The
answer is relatively simple – “Yes, it was written by men. I agree with what
the Pope said, The Bible has two natures, like Christ, human in being written
by men, divine in having no sin or error.”
The Bible Could Have
100 Books or Only Forty
Columbus, Ohio once boasted a Lutheran seminary with
exceptional Biblical scholars – Loy, Leupold, and Lenski. The ALC replaced
Lenski with an apostate and the seminary went downhill fast and furious. I
visited the seminary bookstore to see if they sold Lenski’s New Testament
commentaries. No, they did not, as if that would pollute the students. The
store sold books on Romans 1 being fulfilled and volumes on death and dying.
The ALC seminary graduates in the Columbus area liked to
preach that the Bible could have 100 books in it or only 40. They never
explained which ones they would add – Blessed Rage for Order? The
Documents of Vatican II? – or subtract. The clergy used the old arguments
from rationalists to prove shocking claims that were already refuted with ease.
One of the best counter arguments is to bring up Simon Greentree, the legal
scholar who specialized in evidence at Harvard. He began by trying to prove all
the contradictions in the resurrections of Christ, but the powerful Word of God
defeated him, converted him to the Christian Faith, and made him an example of
direct confrontation with the Scriptures.
I Agree with
Paul and John about the Virgin Birth
One of the old rationalist responses to the Virgin Birth
of Christ is to claim agreement with the Apostles Paul and John about this
great miracle, hinting that no such language can be found in either author.
This argument would be powerful if it were not so outrageously false. Of
course, the skeptics always say that the facts must be in harmony with their
way of thinking. Although the Virgin Birth is clearly and unequivocally taught
in two Gospels and predicted in Isaiah 7 and 9, a third and fourth match in
simlar language is demanded.
Paul and the Virgin Birth
Romans 1 begins with the apostolic greeting for his most
important doctrinal letter, so the wording is especially clear and universal in
scope.
Romans
1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
This description of
Christ includes His humanity and descent from King David, but also His divinity
as the Son of God. His resurrection from the dead proved His sinless state
since death is inevitable for us mortals. Thus the parallel claim - that Jesus is
just a man in the same way the Bible is just a book – fails entirely.
The worst theology comes from the dogmatics books, which
are weak on Scriptural knowledge and inclined to soar off into various
philosophies rather than sticking with the text itself. Paul’s letter to the
Philippians clearly teaches the Two Natures of Christ, and the Virgin Birth is necessarily
associated with Jesus being both God and Man –
Philippians
2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Some ancient heretics
denied the humanity of Christ. Our modern genius dogmaticians deny the divinity
of Christ. Paul teaches both the humanity and the divinity, which can only mean
the Virgin Birth. God’s Word addresses our need to see the same lessons from different
perspectives. Those who deny the obvious are not content with four Gospels in perfect
harmony but want their imaginary dissonance to be praised as beautiful,
soothing, and the answer to all questions.
John and the Virgin Birth
The rationalists want to date the Gospel of John as a philosophical
book written hundreds of years later. Unfortunately for them, the earliest
fragment of the New Testament is dated around 100 AD, and that is a scrap of
the Gospel of John. Skeptics are uneasy about the emphasis upon faith in Jesus
in the Fourth Gospel. Naturally they would like to remove the divine from the
nature of Christ, so they happily declare that John’s Gospel lacks the Virgin
Birth narrative.
But how does the Gospel start? The first verse echoes the
Trinity, with the Word being used three times, like the ringing of great cathedral
bells – The Word, the Word, the Word.[1] Jesus
is the Word of God, the Logos, as defined in that first verse.
John
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jesus is both man and
God, and the Logos (Word) pre-existed the Incarnation. Moreover, this Word – as
the Command of God – created everything. Nothing was made apart from Him. To
remove the Virgin Birth from the two natures of Christ is bad enough, but this
superficial and errant claim is a rejection of the Scriptures and Creation, not
a help in understanding anything.
The Holy Trinity
I heard the Trinity denied as Scriptural early, perhaps
in college. The claim is popular – the word Trinity is not in the Bible (true!)
and the concept did not become universal until the Council of Chalcedon
(false!). I found these assertations so annoying that I included them in some
books and devoted one book, The Holy Trinity, to examples from the Scriptures. For
the book we used the formula of including the mention of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit within two verses of each other. The Trinity is found
throughout the Bible starting with Genesis
Genesis
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be
light: and there was light.
When God the Father
commanded, the Logos or Son executed the command (John 1:3) and the Spirit
bears witness to this Six Day Creation.
