This post relates to the Ross-White Debate and the Related Subject of Landmarkism

In numerous ways God established the truth and authority of His Word.  Believers rely on scripture for their faith and practice.  They trust the Word of God as evidence.  God said it, so it is true.

Scripture talks about Noah, so there is a Noah, Abraham, so there is an Abraham, and Moses, so there is a Moses.  You don’t have to find something outside of the Bible about these figures to believe what God says about them in the Bible.  It is self-evident.  Whatever scripture says is true.

The Bible teaches justification by faith.  Does evidence show that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, forgives all our sins, or justifies us by faith?  I can’t point to the truth of this outside of the Bible.  I believe it because God’s Word says it.

Was there a tree of life?  Yes.  Did the sun stand still in Joshua?  Yes.  Was there a Samson?  Yes.  How can we answer “yes” to any of these questions without something outside of the Bible?

Authentication of Scripture

Authentication of scripture exists outside the Bible.  Men investigate the people and events recorded in it, outside of it.  Nothing men find contradicts what it says.  They can’t confirm everything, but for what they can find confirmation of the Bible outside of the Bible, it confirms it.

The Bible makes thousands of predictions.  These are most often layered predictions with many different details to the prophecies.  For the prophecies to come true, much happens that involves many different people and places.  Fulfillment of every prophecy occurred.

Extra-scriptural written materials validate people and events in scripture.  Archaeology confirms people and events in the Bible.  When comparing one part of the Bible with another, one part or more confirms another part.  Different sections confirm each other with their agreement.  Fulfilled prophecies authenticate the truth and authority of what scripture says.

Copying Scripture

Scripture so impressed its readers and adherents that they copied it more than any other document.  More hand copies exist than any other document in all of history, and by far.  Hand copies of the Bible far exceed any other book.  Many, many throughout history accepted it as true.

We can look at this world and know that it didn’t occur by accident.  What we witness in nature requires more than naturalistic explanation.  The supernatural explanation of the Bible matches what we see in the world.  The comparison of passages within the Bible attest to their explanation of the origins of the world, people, nations, nature, civilization, events, and  language.  It provides a cohesive view of the world in which we live.

The Bible is its own evidence.  By itself, it is a standard.  The writings themselves ring with authority and truth.  No one could just make them up.

Scripture Is Evidence

With everything that I have written so far, a reader of the Bible can depend on its contents to believe its doctrine.  Where there is no sure evidence outside of scripture, scripture is the evidence.  If God says holy men of God wrote the words of God under verbal, plenary inspiration, we believe that.  If He says He will preserve all of those same words and how He will do that, we believe that.  Whatever might contradict what scripture says, we hold to scripture and reject what contradicts it.

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, so they didn’t.  Jesus said His Words would not pass away, so they didn’t.  Believers deny whatever contradicts what God said.  They deny modern textual critics who deny the perfect preservation of scripture.  Believers deny the disappearance of true churches outside of the state church.  They deny alterations of the creation story in Genesis 1 through 3.  True Christians accept the table of nations in Genesis 10.  Everything God says is true and every man a liar.

Scripture is the test of truth.  Jesus said, God’s Word is truth.  As an example, today so-called experts talk about climate change and the end of life on earth.  We reject those claims.  Even the evidence outside the Bible challenges their assertions, but the Bible presents a different view.

The Bible Guides the Right Interpretation of History

The Bible provides the authoritative basis for the right interpretation of history.  If a view of history contradicts the Bible, believers accept the Bible over the view.  Isaiah 40 to 48 talks about the interpretation of history.  Isaiah calls these “the former matters.”  Isaiah, because of God, could relate former matters with present and future ones.  God sees it all at all times.  He knows it all.

Since the Bible is true, it is also evidence.  This is a matter of faith.  We believe it, based on that evidence.  It guides our interpretation.  When we look back at what happened, we start with presuppositions based upon the Bible.  Our interpretation of history must conform to the Bible.

In the recent debate with James White, Thomas Ross started with scriptural presuppositions.  They are true.  God said what He would do with scripture.  We might not prove the fulfillment of these presuppositions outside of scripture.  They’re still true.

If God said He would preserve every word, God would make all of them available to every generation of believers, and He would use the church to do it, that’s what we believe.  What God said provides the authoritative basis for the right interpretation of history.  I believe what God said He would do, because what He said is true.

What Pleases God

When people come up with other points of view on preservation that reject or deny what God said, I reject those.  They may say they have evidence.  I will look at it, and I have.  Their so-called evidence is an interpretation of history.  That’s all it is.  They say this and that about Erasmus or Beza or Athanasius that all conforms to their naturalistic point of view.  I listen to it, see how it fits into a biblical view of history, and if it doesn’t, I don’t believe it.  That is what pleases God.

How I look at the history of the preservation of scripture is also how I look at the history of the preservation of the church.  It is how I look at the history of Christian doctrine.  Because I don’t believe in an apostasy of orthodox doctrine and practice, I reject that it happened.  History seems to say it did in certain instances, but how trustworthy is history before the printing press?

Example

James White uses the example of Athanasius as proof that the Comma Johanneum (important part of 1 John 5:7) did not exist at that time.  Athanasius didn’t quote it apparently.  First, we have to depend on Athanasius.  Then we have to rely on the report of Athanasius.  Did someone report him accurately?  And then we have to trust the preservation of the report of Athanasius.  Why was this report preserved and other reports not?   To the victors go the spoils.

On some doctrinal content, not necessarily this one, did the Roman Catholics control the flow of information and destroy what did not confirm its doctrine?  Someone can say it’s true, because they read something.  James White did that.  It works today for his point of view.  Did what he say fit with scriptural presuppositions?  He says it fit with Athanasius, and what scripture says, be gone.  I reject his interpretation of it because it contradicts scriptural presuppositions.  That is how believers should interpret history.

Greeks Seek After Wisdom

Paul said the Jews seek after signs.  They validated with signs.  He said, Greeks seek after wisdom.  They validated with wisdom.  For something to be true, was it accompanied by signs?  For something to be true, does wisdom confirm it?  Believers say, the foolishness of preaching, which is the substance of preaching from scripture.  That glorifies God.

When James White and others present their wisdom, who is glorified?  They are.  When we speak, they say it sounds like foolishness.  Does this sound familiar when you think about what the Apostle Paul said?