Several Announcements Please turn off your cell phone! Keri’s review sessions will be Tuesdays 7:00- 8:00 in Chase 26. Matt’s will be Mondays at 7:00 in J406, starting 26 January Reminder – next Wednesday evening at 7:15 in J237 – a lecture on the Big Bang No class on Monday Everything OK with Blackboard?

Psalm 100:5 KITOVADONAI Becausegood (is) the LORD LE’OLAMH ̣ ASDO (2X) To eternity (is)His hesed VE’ADDORVE-DOR (2X) And unto generation and generation EMUNATO His faithfulness

Revelation and Inspiration: Authority, Canon, and Text

Review and Preview Questions What does the acronym TaNaKh stand for? What doctrine is eminently clear in Psalm 19? –Salvation through atonement –Redemption in the payment of a price –Revelation in nature and Scripture –Creation and sustaining of the universe

What doctrine is clearly taught in Psalm 19? Salvation through atonement Redemption in the payment of a price Revelation in nature and Scripture Creation and sustaining of the universe

A Time for Questions Why is it imperative to have a sound understanding regarding the nature and authority of Scripture? What are your most burning questions about the writing of Scripture? Do you think they are questions for which there are credible answers?

“Landscape” by Rembrandt

Definition of Revelation Divine self-disclosure which teaches otherwise inaccessible truth about God and draws forth a response Another way of presenting the concept is “divine communicative action” – the words of Scripture both convey the truth about God’s actions and are themselves “active”

Presuppositions A divine Being (God) has chosen to communicate God is personal, His revelation is intentional, and there is a need on the part of His finite creatures The purpose of revelation, communication of truth, is accomplished Words are an adequate, although far from perfect, medium –Why? Because words structured the very fabric of the created order and thus reality can be expressed in words –Word re-present natural phenomena –Words present the supernatural

God initiates the process He is infinite He is holy

Categories to help us think about revelation General revelation – God’s revelation of His divine power and attributes through creation Psalm 19 Romans 1:18-20 Romans 2:12-15

Categories Special revelation – verbal statement of primarily propositional truth (otherwise unknowable) regarding God’s character and will, the meaning of human existence, the nature of the spiritual realm “Propositional” truth refers to sentences that have truth or falsehood implicit in them; clearly the Scriptures have more than this Word in the Person of Jesus Christ Word of Scripture By mighty acts and by prophetic, instructive word

Inspiration Special act of the Holy Spirit by which He guided the writers of Scripture so that their words should convey the thoughts He wished conveyed, should bear a proper relationship to the thoughts in the rest of Scripture, and should be infallible in thought, fact, doctrine and judgment

Expansion of definition Inspiration is a unique combination of cultural backgrounds and personalities of human authors and the Spirit’s enriching those human capacities to convey Truth; it is both culturally relevant and transcends cultures

What does the Bible say about itself? Aristotle’s dictum: The benefit of the doubt is to be given to the document itself, not arrogated by the critic to himself. “Thus saith the Lord” II Timothy 3:14-17 II Peter 1:20-21 The words of Jesus – Matthew 5:18 and John 14:26 Prophets and apostles – Ephesians 2:20

Authority Derives from inspiration We submit to that authority as the rule of faith and practice

Canon “reed” Measuring stick Something with which we measure Criteria for determining whether certain books were authoritative Our rule of faith and practice

Characteristics of the Text as We Have It Copied and translated Composed of different sources Different genres: Torah (instructions), history, poetry, prophecy Represents various cultural contexts