January 2006

QUESTION: We attended services with some family members recently at a United Methodist Church just outside of Dallas (Texas) and the preacher surprised us by poking fun at evangelicals who believe the Bible doesn’t have any mistakes in it. In fact, he said those who believe in biblical inerrancy are “bibliolators”—that is, we worship a Book (i.e., the Bible) rather than worshipping God himself. He quoted Paul’s remarks in 1 Corinthians 7:10-12 as proof that the Scriptures include men’s personal thoughts and opinions, which can be fallible and flawed because, after all, no man is perfect. Therefore, according to this pastor, even the Bible itself admits that it’s not infallible. Our relatives say this clergyman is brilliant, has a whole string of degrees, is a world traveler, and speaks five or six languages fluently. They’re obviously quite taken with him, but is he right?

ANSWER: No, he’s not. It doesn’t matter how many academic degrees someone has or how many languages he speaks—right is still right and wrong is still wrong. Remember that some of the most brilliant engineers in the world designed the Titanic and they boasted that it could not sink. But in spite of all of their impressive credentials and claims, the engineers were wrong. The Titanic hit an iceberg one fateful night in 1912 and went straight to the bottom of the sea.

Likewise, the “ship” of destructive, old-line liberalism is doomed ultimately to sink because its claims have little factual basis. In some cases, those who make these allegations are simply parroting what they learned in some apostate seminary and they really, truly don’t know any better. In other instances, the intent behind the misinformation is more sinister. Apostate false teachers are on a crusade to destroy peoples’ faith—and when it suits their purposes, they have no scruples about deliberately twisting Scripture in a way that actually alters its meaning (2 Peter 3:16). The Apostle Paul warned the Church at Rome about counterfeit spiritual leaders who use fancy words to “deceive the hearts of the simple” (Rom. 16:18). Jesus himself described such deceivers as “wolves in sheep’s’ clothing” (Matt. 7:15). They are dangerous because their smooth and winsome presentation is disarming. It gives the impression that they have only the best intentions and that they know what they’re talking about. Very often, this is how their surreptitious incursions remain undetected until it’s too late and the damage is already done.

The passage you cited in 1 Corinthians 7:10-12 says: “And unto the married I command, [yet] not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from [her] husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to [her] husband: and let not the husband put away [his] wife. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away” (KJV).

Liberal theologians point to this passage as evidence that Paul’s writings do not carry divine authority. They say when Paul makes a distinction between his words and the Lord’s words (“Not I, but the Lord” and “I, not the Lord”) it shows that he was just giving his personal opinion in his writings. He was not speaking for the Lord, they claim, and that means his writings were not really Scripture.

However, we know that the earliest Christians—messianic believers in the Lord Jesus—considered Paul’s writings to be Scripture. The Apostle Peter, for instance, wrote, “And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures”(2 Peter 3:15-16, NKJV). Here, Peter clearly categorizes Paul’s writings as Scripture.

The Bible affirms its own divine authority when it tells us that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The phrase “inspiration of God” here, in the Greek, is theopneustos, or literally, “God-breathed.” At the time this verse was written, the term “all Scripture” included past, present, and future Scriptures (remember that the New Testament was still being composed at this time; the Canon wasn’t closed until later). The entirety of Scripture, then, including the Old and New Testaments, is a product of the unique, direct, creative, and supervisory work of God’s Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). He used human writers (which means He also utilized their vocabularies, writing styles, and personalities in the process); however, the attending influence of the Holy Spirit protected those men from making any doctrinal, historical, or even scientific errors. The result is that the Scriptures as they appear in the original parchments are fully vested with God’s own authority. When we read the Bible, we are hearing from God. Paul himself says this is precisely why the Bible is not called “the word of man,” but rather, “the Word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

Theologians often refer to “high” and “low” viewpoints on various controversies that have confronted the church over the past 2,000 years. For instance, a high Christological view says that the Messiah is God. A low Christology says He is not. Likewise, a high view of Scripture says it’s the infallible and authoritative Word of God and a low view says it’s the fallible word of man. (Incidentally, church historians agree almost universally that the early church had high views on virtually all of these issues.)

And yes, those who hold to a low view of the Bible sometimes allege that inerrantists are guilty of a grievous sin they refer to as “bibliolatry.” This peculiar term was coined by liberals during their hard-fought war with Southern Baptist conservatives back in the 1970s—a war that was ultimately won, thank God, by the conservatives, although skirmishes continue even until now. But let’s think about this for a moment. Is it really possible to have too high a view of Scripture? Is it possible to love it too much, to read it too much, to proclaim it too much, or to apply it in our lives too much? I think not. During my 35 years in the ministry, I have never heard of a pastor standing before his congregation and declaring, “I’m afraid we are making too much of God’s Word. We are spending too much time preaching and teaching it. We are too intent on reading it in our homes and teaching it to our children. We are memorizing and meditating on it too much. And we are too quick to defend it when it’s attacked. Brothers and sisters, we must mend our ways.”

Don’t you agree that the very notion that one can revere the Word of God too much is nothing short of ludicrous? God says He magnifies His Word even above His Name (Psalm 138:2). The Lord Jesus himself is known as “the Word of God” (Rev. 19:13), so there is an intimate relationship between the living Word (the Messiah) and the written Word (the Bible). In some ways, they are inseparable. Can we say we love Jesus and not love His Word? Or can we claim to love the Bible and not love the Lord Jesus? Does our love and reverence for one in any way detract from our love and reverence for the other? Again, I think not.

And finally, what about that passage in 1st Corinthians 7 where the Apostle Paul makes a distinction between his words and those of the Lord? The explanation is very simple. When Paul writes, “Not I, but the Lord” (v. 10), he’s acknowledging that this command came from the Lord Jesus as quoted in the Gospels (Matt. 5:32; 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18) and that it did not originate with him. Some New Testament teachings are distinctively Pauline, but Paul wants his readers to know that this is not one of them. And two verses later, when Paul writes, “I, not the Lord” (v. 12), he means that the teaching here is not based on any specific statement of Jesus in the Gospels. Paul is not implying that one command is authoritative because it comes from Jesus and the other is not because it’s his own, personal opinion. He is simply being precise here by distinguishing between his own words and those of the Lord Jesus as recorded in the Gospel biographies. Both are equally authoritative because they are both Scripture.