A Basic Principle of Interpretation – The Absolute Inspiration of the Scriptures

We must come to understand and start with the principle concerning the Bible. In Baptist Confessions the first statement of faith is always the Bible because without a proper view of Scripture, Biblical Interpretation is impossible. This is also where dialogue usually gets side track because people have different views of the authority and inspiration of Scripture.

So you may be asking: “What is the Christian doctrine on the Scriptures?” In a sentence the Christian doctrine of the Bible is:

 …the verbal, plenary, inspiration of the infallible, inerrant Bible which is the written Word of God.

VERBAL:  Every single letter and word of Scripture as put down in the original autographs was inspired of God (Matt. 5:18; 22:32).

PLENARY: All of the bible, in all of its parts, is equally inspired. No part is more inspired than the other parts. The 66 books comprising the Old and New Testaments are all equally inspired (Matt. 5:17-18; 2 Tim. 3:16).

INSPIRATION: God sovereignly prepared the authors of Scripture from birth in all things. He stirred them up to write. He guided them so they wrote down everything he wanted them to write. They wrote down the very words of God. God’s sovereign control of the authors did not remove the characteristics and personalities of the authors, but such things were ordered by God to be a better vehicle of expression.

INFALLABLE: in principle, the Bible is infallible, i.e., incapable of error or mistake. Why? God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and the Bible is His Word; therefore the bible cannot be a lie (John 17:17).

INERRANT: the Bible is without error in all it affirms as true, including matters of science, geography, miracles, history, etc.

BIBLE: The books in the Protestant Bible. There are no other “lost” books. The Apocrypha is not inspired.

WORD OF GOD: The word of God expressed in human words by human authors under the direct control of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

To misunderstand, deny, or fail to apply any part of this principle to our interpretation of Scriptures will lead us to erroneous interpretations. This is where we must start any evangelism, any Bible study, or any dialogue about God.

Why? Because we must deal with first principles (presuppositions) that others have. Otherwise we have no common ground for any communication about God. In our preaching, teaching, evangelism, and conversations with the lost, we are not seeking common group with them, but are tearing down stronghold, and any thought that rises up against the authority of God. (2 Corinthians 10:5 Colossians 2:8). We are commanded not to find common ground in the thoughts of the lost but to start from Scripture to show that their thinking is fatal.

In our discipling, training and teaching other Christians this doctrine is essential for right and true theological reflection and spiritual growth. It seems more and more people today want to start with secular theories in psychology, science, business, philosophy, athletics, etc. and then interpret scripture in light of these man centered theories. But these fields cannot arrive at true truth, only what is pragmatic. They must have the Christian doctrine of the Bible to arrive at any truth in these fields. Humanism creeps into the church in this way and our disciples are affected in that they lack the conviction and power to proclaim a certain gospel. If you are interested in these issues in disciplemaking, I would suggest reading about “presupposition apologetics.”

When one comes to a biblical understanding of the Bible, then one must then deal with the “Unity of the Bible,” which can be difficult to understand.

 In the midst of all the clamor to relate to the world on the world terms, I fear that we end up deluting the Gospel we proclaim.  in the following article John MacArthur get to the main situation we face in our evangelism. 

 Why do evangelicals try so desperately to court the world's favor? Churches plan their worship services to cater to the "unchurched." Christian performers ape every worldly fad in music and entertainment. Preachers are terrified that the offense of the gospel might turn someone against them, so they deliberately omit the parts of the message the world might not approve of.

Evangelicalism seems to have been hijacked by legions of carnal spin-doctors, who are trying their best to convince the world that the church can be just as inclusive, pluralistic, and broad-minded as the most politically-correct worldling.

The quest for the world's approval is nothing less than spiritual harlotry. In fact, that is precisely the imagery the apostle James used to describe it. He wrote: "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

There is and always has been a fundamental, irreconcilable incompatibility between the church and the world. Christian thought is out of harmony with all the world's philosophies. Genuine faith in Christ entails a denial of every worldly value. Biblical truth contradicts all the world's religions. Christianity itself is therefore antithetical to virtually everything this world admires.

Jesus told His disciples, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18-19).

Notice that our Lord considered it a given that the world would despise the church. Far from teaching His disciples to try to win the world's favor by reinventing the gospel to suit worldly preferences, Jesus expressly warned that the quest for worldly accolades is a characteristic of false prophets: "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26).

He further explained: "The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil" (John 7:7). In other words, the world's contempt for Christianity stems from moral, not intellectual, motives: "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed" (John 3:19-20). That is why no matter how dramatically worldly opinion might vary, Christian truth will never be popular with the world.

Yet in virtually every era of church history there have been people in the church who are convinced that the best way to win the world is by catering to worldly tastes. Such an approach has always been to the detriment of the gospel message. The only times the church has made any significant impact on the world are when the people of God have stood firm, refused to compromise, and boldly proclaimed the truth despite the world's hostility. When Christians have shrunk away from the task of confronting popular worldly delusions with unpopular biblical truths, the church has invariably lost influence and impotently blended into the world. Both Scripture and history attest to that fact.

And the Christian message simply cannot be twisted to conform to the vicissitudes of worldly opinion. Biblical truth is fixed and constant, not subject to change or adaptation. Worldly opinion, on the other hand, is in constant flux. The various fads and philosophies that dominate the world change radically and regularly from generation to generation. The only thing that remains constant is the world's hatred of Christ and His gospel.

In all likelihood, the world will not long embrace whatever ideology is in vogue this year. If the pattern of history is any indicator, by the time our great grandchildren become adults, worldly opinion will be dominated by a completely new system of belief and a whole different set of values. Tomorrow's generation will renounce all of today's fads and philosophies. But one thing will remain unchanged: until the Lord Himself returns and establishes His kingdom on earth, whatever ideology gains popularity in the world will be as hostile to biblical truth as all its predecessors have been.

What is the greatest way to bring Joy to the nations This Christmas?
by Pastor Glenn Leatherman

Howdy.  I hope you are doing well as you and your family prepare for worshiping our Lord this Christmas season.  As you know we are in a week of prayer and fasting for international missions as we prepare to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.  The following thoughts came out of me one day after reading a short article on evangelism and missions.  I believe in evangelism and missions because I believe its necessity is taught in the Bible.   The Bible declares that "there is one God, and [only] one mediator also between God and men, the man Jesus Christ."  (1 Timothy 2:5).  This is why we must be involved personally, prayerfully, and financially in the cause of International Missions in order to bring joy to the nations this Christmas.   Let me share with you what came from my heart about evangelism and missions as we consider how we personally might be involved this Christmas season in bring joy to the nations?

We must understand that Relationships are a key - not THE key - to evangelism and missions
Aggressive initiative evangelism and relational evangelism are the same thing.  Barna states "Unchurched people are less relational than churched people.  The typical strategy of reaching them through personal relationships may not be as effective as assumed."  The Bible affirms this in commanding Christians to aggressively initiate relationships with the purpose to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We should not wait till we think our relationship or friendship is perfect to share the Gospel. 

Building relationships is NOT THE key to evangelism (only a key that God may or may not use).  Building relationships may help you become friends with others, and may be a way that God uses to give you an opportunity to share the Gospel (especially with those He is calling effectually to salvation), but it is NOT THE key to evangelism.  Friendship evangelism and initiative evangelism are the same thing - witnessing.  The key to evangelism is simply to take the initiative to proclaim the Gospel in obedience to God's command, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and out of a passionate desire for the supremacy and glory of God!  God, the one who we worship, is in charge of the results and will bring the repentance necessary for salvation.  This is our missionary mandate.

We must understand that The Gospel excludes people who do not trust in Christ alone
The Christian message of the Gospel is exclusive.  There is only one way to be saved and that is by faith and trust alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.  If people have not heard about our Lord Jesus Christ, about His Gospel, about His death on the cross, about His resurrection, etc., they are still dead in their trespasses and sins (Romans 1-3), and will be eternally punished for this sins.  That is why those who love God are motivated with compassion (Luke 9:36-38) to evangelize the all nations of the Word. 

We must understand that Evangelism and missions is sometimes about not making friends
If I have won anyone to the Lord, I can honestly say that they are not a Christian.  We will never make anyone a Christian, God does that.  I never beat people over the head with the Gospel, I simply proclaim the good news and call for a response or a verdict.  I desire to make friends and will if the person wants to discuss and get together again, but they know going into the relationship where I stand on the Gospel, and the basis of a continued relationship.  I hear people tell me that the hardest people to share the Gospel with is their family and friends over and over.  That is because we have a false concept of relational or friendship evangelism.  You must proclaim Gospel with your life, love, and lips at all times.  If you leave out the verbal proclamation, you will be witnessing about yourself and not be witnessing about Jesus.  Your family and friends need to know from the start whose you are and who you worship.  If you try to be secretive about this to develop a friendship, you are denying whose you are.  Sometimes evangelism is about not making friends.  Sharing the Gospel is about calling people to repentance (to change radically), about calling people to become disciples of Jesus Christ, about calling people to submit to the Lordship of Christ, and not just getting people to believe a certain set of facts about Jesus Christ.  People will reject you because they are unwilling to repent and follow our Lord, Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't aggressively proclaim the Gospel to them.  In fact if this wrong understanding of friendship evangelism is the highest or only method for evangelism, then some people will never hear the gospel because they have no Christian friends.

We must understand that evangelism and missions is about God sovereignty and divine appointments.
There are divine appointments which God is creating for us in order that we may witness and be involved in missions.  Let me also note that God is working on both sides of the Evangelism equation - the lost and the witness.  God is both effectively drawing lost people to salvation and effectively drawing and causing Christians to desire to take the initiative in witnessing.  Salvation is still a sovereign act of God, and while we must have strategies and methods, we must never trust in them.  Only by the grace of God does anyone become regenerated so that he or she can understand the Gospel and put their total faith and trust in Christ alone.  So as you can see Evangelism is all about what God is doing, His name, His glory, His power, His purpose, His sovereignty, etc.  He has chosen to use us in his plan for building his Kingdom. 

We must understand that the only way we can fail in witnessing is to fail to witness
I cannot see how millions of professing Christians can be content in their Christian life while committing the "sin of silence." (They are simply out of fellowship with God or lost themselves).  When we stand before God, we will be without excuse.  I know some Christians would say "I am not perfect and we all still sin" as an excuse for not obeying God in witnessing.  I would respond by stating that God's Word states clearly that a Christian cannot continue to live or abide in sin and stay content.  God has promised His children that He will not let us stay in a state of rebellion  - "No one who is born of God practices (continues to practice without conviction and enjoys to practice of) sin..." (see 1 John 3:6, 9 for full verses, above rendering is my translation).  Backsliding without being convicted of sin is a contradiction for every genuine Christian.  God's word of encouragement to every Christian who is not witnessing or making disciples is to "repent and worship God with all your heart!"  There is no other word He can say.  You don't need a 12-step group to help you overcome your personal problems before you can witness.  A true Christian cannot enjoy or be content with not being a witness.  Missions and Evangelism is a call to repentance to both the Christian and the Lost.  We must understand that the only way one can fail in witnessing (or missions) is to fail to witness (or be on mission).  Evangelism and missions by definition is always successful when it is done because it is dependent on God.  Becoming friends with a lost person is great, but it is the Christian's responsibility to take the initiative to proclaim Gospel, even if it means loosing a friend.  No one method can produce Christians.

We must understand that the key to Evangelism and missions is really worship
The key to missions and evangelism is really worship.  Worship is ultimate. "Worship is the fuel and goal of missions [,evangelism, and ministry]," declares John Piper.  "The reason we need to evangelize today is because [true] worship [of God] doesn't exist.  The goal of evangelism and missions is to bring all the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory. "The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. ...'Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy'" (Ps. 67: 3, 4  KJV). (John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad, pp. 11).  Worship is fuel and goal missions.  "Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in missions, evangelism, and preaching.  You can't commend what you don't cherish.  Missionaries will never call out "Let the nations be glad" who cannot say from the heart "I rejoice in the Lord... I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High." (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). (Piper, p.11)  We must understand that Evangelism, missions and ministry all begins and ends in true worship of God. 

How can you start being involved in bring joy to the nations this Christmas?  By Giving to missions, being on mission, and taking the initiative to proclaim the Gospel.  Also, Remember all our international missionaries that we support through the Missions Christmas offering.  This offering may be a great way to stimulate your worship of God this Christmas.

Evangelism and outreach activities are the necessary training medium for disciples.  Without intentional indigenous group evangelism, spiritual depth for spiritual depth's sake is as much a heresy as self-denial that does not include taking up one's cross.   The following are some principles that will help us to understand the principles that underlie a healthy disciplemaking church.

Participation is more important than Activity
The struggle I have with most churches is that they get people busy, but do not develop disciples or for that matter do evangelism. The Bible says, in Philippians 1:5, we need should participate in the gospel ministry not just be busy.  In 99% of churches, we go from one event to another to another event without knowing how any of them are tied together and actually competing against ourselves for people to serve and resources.  The great problem is that when the event is over evangelism and outreach stops as well.

Belonging is more important than Events
Events for event sakes don't work.  I think you can see this in the results of many crusades even thought they try to tie the people to churches.  The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says that only about 0.4% of the people making professions at their crusades can be found in churches 2 years later.  A survey done in 2000, also reveled that no county in North American has seen a net increase in the number of Born-again believers in Jesus, even while our population has grown.  What does this say about how we do evangelism?  This is why event evangelism doesn't work unless it is tied to other intentional indigenous groups  or Communities within the church to give a person a place to belong.  The church is God's only vehicle or organism for evangelism, not the parachurch!  My desire is to see the church stand up and be responsible for what we have been commanded to do.  Participation in the Gospel ministry requires everyone to sacrifice in the present for something of much greater value. 

A common vision is more important that our individual wants
My Vision for Brea is something much greater than to be an ordinary church in America.  We must intentionally obey the Great Commission to make disciples or die trying.  We have to get back to the root and purpose for why the church even exists because the church is not doing the basics.  That is why we need to see the church as a community of groups working together rather than individuals doing their own thing.  You don't get unity by tying 9 cat's tails together (all you get is a fight - and that is why most churches do that don't make disciples).  You harness the power of the church by getting everyone to agree that becoming a disciplemaking church is more important than what they individually want so we can all carry out our ministry in intentional indigenous groups going the same direction according to one Philosophy of Ministry.

A Community is more important than a Class
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, reveals His heart for all believers in John 17:21 when He prays for those who believe Him that they "may be one." The unity of believers expressed in their care and dependence upon one another is to be a testimony to the world. The "one another" passages such as "love one another," "pray for one another," and "bear one another's burdens," teach us how community is developed. The Jerusalem church in Acts 2:42-47 modeled this "community."  In reality, the Christian life was never meant to be lived in isolation, but in relationships!  Our midsize Communities (Bible Fellowships) are intentional ways to experience "community" within our local Body.  We don't want you to go to a class but to belong to a community!

Multiplying Community level Groups is the best evangelism €
In order to make disciples we must champion our Community Bible Fellowships.  Without the growth of these groups centered around the groups life, we will not achieve the needed level of community make disciples.  Our goal for each Community or Bible Fellowship is to grow at 36%/year to double each of our 3 classes in 2 years or less.  It breaks down to 9% growth a quarter or currently about 1 additional person assimilated into the life of the class per quarter this year.  This is why I recently challenged each class to reach 1 person this quarter and assimilate them into the life and community of your class.  This is a must for each class because without evangelism there is no discipleship. 

Our goal for our church is to double the participation in our Worship Celebration Service in 5 years or less.  That means that we need to multiply the worship service / membership at a 15% net growth rate in order to do this.   This means that we need to reach 12 additional people this year (2003)  and to assimilate them into the life and membership of our church (about 3 additional people per quarter).  All of this will take a sacrificial participation in the gospel ministry of Brea Center Baptist Church of your time, Talents, and treasures, but I can guarantee you that it will be worth it.

Again we need to especially grow our communities and champion the priorities of our Community Bible Fellowships (Curricular Christian Education, Outreach, Fellowship, and Assimilation) in order to transition our church to become a disciplemaking church.  You can help to develop a community atmosphere for disciplemaking and start on the path of disciplemaking: 

1. by committing to follow Jesus regardless of the cost in time, money, suffering, or service.
2. by committing to a Community Bible Fellowship and to its group life and caring.
3. by helping to develop and/or serve on a ministry team for the community you belong to.
4. by inviting new comers to class and welcoming them from the first step into the room and each time they come?
5. by suggesting ministry projects your community can serve in.
6. by helping promote parties and socials for the maturing of group identity, community, and outreach.
7. by helping people assimilate into a community where they can belong, identify with, and build loving relationships.
8. by inviting friends and neighbors to attend the CBFs and/or church as well as developing relationships with un-believers?

We can reach our community for Christ through these groups if we are intentional.  Let's do it!    Carpe Deim!!

Expelled is hosted by the brilliant Ben Stein, actor/economist/lawyer/presidential speechwriter/science observer-a 21st-century Einsteinian figure. While his film arrives at American movie theaters on the weekend of April 18, Mr. Stein came to Nashville for a special preview showing of Expelled for several hundred attendees at the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). The audience leapt to its feet with generous applause at the film's conclusion-moved by the undaunted attempts of the Darwin-doubters (and their film-making allies) as they challenge the elites in America's educational and scientific establishments. Many of these Darwin challengers find themselves pitted against powerful evolutionists who despotically protect their evolution belief system, and sometimes expel those who would dare question Darwin.

Being presuppositional in my apologetic method (or a Verificationist in some sense), I realize that we should not engage opposing beliefs based upon their worldview, because we will not be effective of convincing unbelievers of the truth if we try to start from a neutral position, accept their presuppositions, or play by their rules (1 Peter 3:15); which is what some do when they try to prove Christianity by adopting the beliefs of opposition in order to dialogue or witness to them about the truth of the Gospel of Christ.  We must never start with some part of man in our epistemology (which asks the question of "how do we know what we know?").  Reason, experience, Human faith (like our traditions), or emotion can never be what we ultimately refer to in our witnessing to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Just look at the book of Job or the book of Ecclesiastes).  We must sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts first, which means we don't put aside his truths, promises, and commands to relate to unbelievers in our witness (1 Peter 3:15). 

We want to be God-centered not man-centered in our approach (1 Corinthian 10:31).  Now I did not say that we don't use our reason, experience, emotion, or tradition (natural faith), but I do not believe that we witness from those sources of authority found in man to the truth of God or Scripture.  We start with the presupposition of the existence of God and the truth of God's revelation found in Scripture, and then reason from this special revelation to the facts in the world that we experience (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).    All of this should be taken into account in the way we approach the subject of Evolution as well.  The anger that is being generated by some over this movie (Expelled) is evident that people who oppose a Creationists viewpoint will not submit to a different set of basic presuppositions such as God's Word (1 Corinthians 2:12-14), because their faith is a Humanistic one (Romans 1:18, 1 John 2:15).   If you start with Man you will end with Man.   Our job many times in witnessing to the truth of Christ is to show the unbeliever that what they believe is impossible or that their interpretation of facts do not correspond to reality.  We were all in the same state before we came to acknowledge Christ as our Savior and Lord, so this should make us compassionate with Macro-Evolutionists and those who oppose creationism - who shake their fists at God and His revelation about the origins of life and creation (Romans 1:30). 

Remember that love is your motivation (Ephesians 4:15, Matthew 5:44, Proverbs 10;12) toward those to whom you witness.  In your witnessing please be humble (James 4:6)  because we (as Christians) all know that it was God's grace (and not ourselves) that changed us and the outlook we have about the world we live in (Ephesians 2:8-10).  Successful witnessing is proclaiming the Gospel of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and leaving the results with God (1 Corinthians 3:6).    Christianity is a rational faith, but at the end we all (Christians and non-Christians) accept the interpretation of the facts based on our presuppositions and faith.  This means that everyone lives by faith in some authority (or we could say, "we all live by faith in either the true God as revealed in Scripture, or in some other god of our creation.") - in fact I believe that Christianity is the only real basis for logic, morals, meaning, truth, ethics, and beauty.  Romans 1 tells us that all men are without excuse for rejecting God, their Creator, who has sufficiently revealed himself to every man to make them accountable for their sinful rebellion against Him.   

I conclude this reflection by encouraging you to see the movie, Expelled, because of the opportunity for witnessing to the truths of Jesus Christ (our creator) and His Gospel as found in Scripture.  Use this movie to challenge your non-christian friends to consider their own faith and presuppositions about creation.  Humbly show them the impossibility of the contrary to the Christian World and life view, and pray for their conversion to faith in Christ.  I strongly believe that good science will verify God's revelation of creation in the Scriptures.  Remember our faith is in Christ and His Word and not in a bunch of uninterpreted facts, because facts don't speak for themselves.  All facts are interpreted and all interpretations are dependent on our presuppositions in our worldviews.  We live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7, Romans 1:17).  So lets aggressively and humbly (depending on God for the results) proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1;16)!  

Living by faith in Christ and His Gospel, Glenn Leatherman  

Below are a few articles about the controversy the movie is making, as well as the Movie site below.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/03/13/meeting-of-minds - A Meeting of Minds - Ein Stein + one Ham = a dynamic duo of Darwin-debunkers  

http://www.examiner.com/a-1261901~Barbara_F__Hollingsworth__America_s_new_blacklist.html - Commentary - Barbara F. Hollingsworth: America's new blacklist  

http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/aroundtheworld/2008/03/11/movie-critic-blasts-expelled/ - Movie Critic Blasts Expelled

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4609561480192587449&hl=en - R.C. Sproul interviews Ben Stein about the Movie - "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"