No Holy Spirit, No Scripture
There is an abiding perception in the Christian world that Reformed folks do not talk much about the Holy Spirit. If you want to be in a church where the Holy Spirit plays a key role, so it is argued, then you will need to go in a charismatic or pentecostal direction.
If one is interesting in speaking in tongues or hearing modern-day prophecies, then I suppose this perception may be somewhat accurate. But, this does not mean that Reformed folks do not talk about the Spirit. On the contrary, the history of Reformed theology demonstrates a keen interest in the work and ministry of the third person of the … Continue reading...
Thomas Jefferson Would Be Proud: Using Human Criteria to Decide the Bible’s Authority
This is the third and final installment of my (limited) review of A.E. Harvey’s book, Is Scripture Still Holy? Coming of Age with the New Testament. Prior installments can be found here and here.
As we have seen in prior posts, Harvey’s book is designed to critique the traditional Christian doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. After arguing that (a) Scripture isn’t revelation anyway, only Jesus is God’s revelation; and (b) since humans were involved in writing and transmitting Scripture, then it is unreliable and likely corrupted, one might wonder whether Harvey tries to salvage any authority for the Bible at all.
At the end of chapter one, … Continue reading...
Is Scripture Still Holy? A Review (Part 2)
In his recent book, Is Scripture Still Holy: Coming of Age with the New Testament, A.E. Harvey explores whether the findings of modern critical scholarship are compatible with traditional views about the authority of the Bible. While the title might suggest the question is still an open one, the book is designed to argue against the doctrine of inspiration (at least in any historically recognizable form).
In a prior installment (see here), we responded to Harvey’s claim that the real revelation of God is only Jesus and not the Scripture. In this post, we shall respond to another of Harvey’s arguments against inspiration, namely that once humans are … Continue reading...
Is Scripture Still Holy? A Review (Part 1)
In his latest volume, Is Scripture Still Holy? Coming of Age with the New Testament, A.E. Harvey tackles the thorny problem of whether Christians can still believe the Bible is, in some sense, a “Holy” book in light of the modern scholarly consensus which declares it to be quite ordinary. Given the problem of the canon, the disagreements over the Apocrypha, the various textual versions in the Dean Sea Scrolls, the existence of Q, and the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, how can Christians still believe the Bible is special?
While the title of this volume implies that the author may still be presenting this as an open … Continue reading...
Did the Early Church Fathers Think That They Were Inspired Like the Apostles?
A number of years ago, Albert Sundberg wrote a well-known article arguing that the early church fathers did not see inspiration as something that was uniquely true of canonical books.[1] Why? Because, according to Sundberg, the early Church Fathers saw their own writings as inspired. Ever since Sundberg, a number of scholars have repeated this claim, insisting that the early fathers saw nothing distinctive about the NT writings as compared to writings being produced in their own time period.
However, upon closer examination, this claim proves to be highly problematic. Let us consider several factors.
First, the early church fathers repeatedly express that the apostles had a distinctive authority … Continue reading...