Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Thu, 8 Oct 1992 06:25:16 CDT
From:         Jesse Carnes <NOTJIC@LSUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Bible ALONE Authoritative??

Greetings in Christ ;

I want to address the issue of AUTHORITY in a few lines today.
Specifically, I want to ask the ol' Epistemological Query : "How do you
KNOW for sure?"

My question brings in the idea of whether the Scriptures ALONE are
authoritative versus, say, "tradition" and non-Canonical writings.
Also, personal experience must be given its due as well in contrast to
the Bible.

(Actually, this has hopes of being a rather short post, but we shall see.)
Now, what we want to establish is the desire for ABSOLUTE certainty, rather
than some sort of blind "Kirkegaardian" leap into the dark.  This latter idea
is nothing near what is Biblical faith, the former IS and is based upon
Objective Biblical data.

I want to deal with this topic PHILOSOPHICALLY ... and NO, to real thinking
Christians, THIS is not "Worldly" mindedness.  Being philosophical has to deal
with our World outlook and view on things.
We all are philosophers ... some better than others.

Starting with Tradition, we can say that traditiion is not NECESSARILY
evil if it remains an open item which does not conflict with Scripture
rather than be a LAW which screams for ALL to conform to.
Tradition also must not NULLIFY Scriptural teaching.
The Pharisees were GOOD at this one.
Jesus warned them of establishing traditions which NULLIFIED the Word of
God in various places.  This is herasy in the passive and tends to be
more dangerous than outright false teaching due to its subtlety.

Therefore, care should be maintained in implementing traditions by local
churches.

As to non-Canonical writings, they were not accepted as Canonical by the
1st and 2nd century churches either because they were superfluous,
redundant, confusing, or outright heretical.
That is not to say that there is not one iota that we can glean from
these writings, but the real question remains : "Do they have any
ABSOLUTE Authority?"

We want to establish a case for ABSOLUTE and EXCLUSIVE Authority.

Personal experiences can be exhilerating, can be life changing, and can
be memorable.  But, how do we REALLY know what their "messages"are ... if
indeed, there are messages in them?

I do not mean to implement Doubt as some sort of mental "club" but, what
we really NEED is something that we can have ABSOLUTE confidence in as
an unfailing objective source of Truth.
Experiences come and they go, but are we TOLD in the Bible to rely on
them? We are never told to KNOW that you believe on Christ or have
confidence in your confidence in Christ, we are told to "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
We are told to believe the REPORT of Jesus : What He says about Himself and
His saving work at the cross ... not to have faith in our faith.

I remember meeting a guy back in '84 named Ken who was my superior at my
job site.  He alleged to believethat HIS beliefs were true just because
HE BELIEVED them.  You guys have that??
Just because you may believe somethin' does not mean it is true based upon
the idea of your faith, whether well-placed or not.
The Buddhists believe that they are correct.  Just because they believe this
does not NECESSARILY establish their case.

Now, for the case of the Word of God.  Francis Schaeffer said, prior to his
death in the 1980s, that he had formerly been an Agnostic when he had been
a young man.  He reports that he looked at every major system of religion
and including Christianity.  Attempting to prove Christianity wrong like
all others, he unexpectedly found it answering ALL of his questions and
not only so, but, LOGICALLY, and without incongruencies like those found
in other faith systems.
Schaeffer opens the case here for the Words casefor EXCLUSIVE Authority,
based upon its data, its assertions as authority, and its excluvicity in
being objective without internal incongruencies.

The question remains : "What has ABSOLUTE Authority?"

As Schaeffer states, ONLY the Word answers ALL of the REAL questions,
because it is a sufficient book of Truth ... and indeed although facts
exist out there in the world, only the Bible is Truth in objective
form on the face of the Earth.
It claims that ALL Biblical Scripture is inspired of God, and is
sufficient for the Christian's life.  If Scripture alone is sufficient,
then where is the place for things like experiences, traditions, and
non-Canonical writings??

All of these things must BOW before the objective standard of the Word of
God.
Unless there is an ULTIMATE objective authority, there is nothing we have to
hold to with CERTAINTY.  Would the Omnicient God who created all of this
have us to claw in an uncertain morass of darkness if He really wanted us to
KNOW Him and His Truth?  That would be unthinkable and unworthy of the God of
the Bible.

So, HOW do we know for CERTAIN what is ABSOLUTELY true down here about
the Universe, our planet, us, our lives, our reason for being here, the
certainty of aging and death, is there someone out there , etc?
Only the Word of God Objectively answers these questions, unlike experiences,
traditions, false religions, and non-Biblical writings.


Just a few thoughts.



Jesse Carnes