From: REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Inerrancy & the Holy Spirit
Date: 11 Sep 92 04:14:04 GMT
Organization: FNAL

Because several of you have made mention that the Holy Spirit is being left out
of our discussion, I'm going to add this to the conversation.  Not every aspect
can be discussed of course immediately, but I freely admit that the Lord's
Spirit has been over looked thus far.  
My apologies---   

  Let us look at the Reformers, standing without any mental reservation for the
plenary inspiration of the Scriptures never failed to emphasize the
indispensable role of the Holy Spirit for their proper interpretation.
     This inner witness concentrates on these two points: 
  1) It is an aid to faith, by producing conviction regarding the 
     nature, worth and authority of Scripture; 
  2) it is an aid to understanding, by providing the illumination 
     which enables one to seize the meaning of the text.
 
 Luther used to say: "The Bible cannot be understood simply by study or talent;
you must count only on the influence of the Holy Spirit."
 
 Zwingli put it this way: "Even if you receive the gospel of Jesus Christ
directly from an apostle, you cannot act according to it unless your heavenly
Father teaches you and draws you to Himself by His Spirit."

  Calvin wrote: "The testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason.   For . . .
these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men until they are
sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.... Scripture, carrying its own
evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes
the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the
Spirit. For though in its own majesty it has enough to command reverence,
nevertheless, it then begins truly to touch us when it is sealed in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit. Enlightened by him, we no longer believe, either on our own
judgment or that of others, that the Scriptures are from God; but in a way
superior to human judgment, feel perfectly assured . . . that it came to us
from the very mouth of God. We ask not for proofs or probabilities on which to
rest our judgment, but we subject our intellect and judgment to it as too
transcendent for us to estimate.'
     Moses and the prophets . . . boldly and fearlessly testified what was
actually true, that it was the mouth of the Lord that spake. The same Spirit .
. . now also testifies to our hearts, that he has employed them as his servants
to instruct us. Accordingly, we need not wonder if there are many who doubt as
to the Author of the Scripture; for although the majesty of Cod is displayed in
it, yet none but those who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit have eyes
to perceive what ought indeed to have been visible to all, and yet is visible
to the elect alone."

     Most certainly the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and
minds (cf. Rom. 8:16) alone lends power and vitality to inspired words which
may have seemed, up to now, impersonal and ineffective.  Paul said of his own
preaching: "Knowing . . . your election, how that our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance"
(I Thess. 1:4-5) . "My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (I Cor. 2:4-5) . The
same can be said of Scripture: it is objective truth, the very Word of God; but
for our faith in it to be established, we need an inner demonstration of the
Spirit and of power.
     Thus God persuades us of the divine inspiration of Scripture: "He
demonstrates it by intimate and direct conviction which He Himself puts within
us. The unbeliever, even the unregenerate religious man, cannot conceive of
such a thing. . . . .it is all the more impossible for the natural man, one not
born of the Spirit, to grasp the true nature of Scripture. He can understand
Hebrew, Greek, grammar, ancient history, religions, etc.-anything having to do
with the "letter" of Scripture, the body. But needful above all is the spirit,
that divine life which He alone communicates." (Pache)  For the same reason,
the essentials of Scripture can be apprehended by any spiritual man, even
though, humanly speaking, he possesses only a modest education.  Has not the
Lord hidden these things from the wise and understanding, to reveal them unto
babes? (Luke 10:21)  Blessed, in this sense, are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3) !
     Even difficulties in the text, the apparent contradictions and the
arguments of the critics, do not turn us away from this attitude of confidence
and obedience. He who has truly met God in the Bible, through all the pages of
it, can only repeat with the man born blind: "One thing I know, that, whereas I
was blind, now I see" 
     "Since all of Scripture is theopneustia, breathed out from the mouth of
God, so it keeps on moving incessantly with dynamic energy. By the testimony
which the Spirit bears to Himself, the words of the Bible act in living power
to demand the mastery over our spirits. Luther exclaimed: 'The heart declares:
This is the truth, even though I were to suffer for it a thousand deaths!'"
(Pache)

Erich Sauer speaks in the same vein:

      "Therefore the Bible is a living book.... Here there is no mere
once-upon-a-time, but a now; no simple yesterday, but a today; no mere concern
with the beyond, but a God-permeated interest with this life.  Here is not only
a written word, but a spiritually living word; not only external letters, but
speech of the Spirit, spoken inwardly and still speaking.  Thus Holy Scripture
in a quite incomparable degree shares in the character of the Eternal as ever
present.
     The Spirit of God has not only inbreathed the written word and given it,
but has continued with it. He accompanies it and makes it operative. He marks
the bare record to be a tie with heaven.  God comes to us now through His Word,
and the Word that is centuries old remains fresh and eternally young.  It is as
if it had been written yesterday, as if the ink was not yet dry, never growing
old, superior to time, ever present."


pray for the peace of Jerusalem
Rex