The Doctrine of Revelation 4

1. The Doctrine of Revelation 4

2. IINSPIRATION: Definition • “Inspiration is, therefore, usually defined as a supernatural influence exerted on the sacred writers by the Spirit of God, by virtue of which their writings are given divine trustworthiness.” Warfield, “Inspiration” in R&I, 77-8. Doctrine of Revelation 4

3. INSPIRATION: Nature • Dynamic Inspiration • Terminates on the writers, not on the written production • Differs only in degree from spiritual illumination • Mechanical Inspiration • “God dictated what the auctores secondarii wrote” • No contribution on the part of the secondary (human) authors was permitted • Organic Inspiration • A necessary interaction between God & writer • Demands utilization of talents, abilities, style, etc. • Writers were prepared uniquely by God. Doctrine of Revelation 4

4. INSPIRATION: Extent • Partial Vs. Plenary Inspiration • PARTIAL: There is a distinction made between revealed, essential truths of doctrine (inspired) and matters of history or fact (not inspired, subject to error) • PLENARY: All Scripture is written by inspiration of same Holy Spirit; all portions of the OT are ascribed authority by Christ; thus, PLENARY (full, all) inspiration of Scripture • Thought Vs. Verbal Inspiration • Only thoughts were divinely inspired • HOWEVER, thoughts are couched in words!! Doctrine of Revelation 4

5. IINSPIRATION: Autographa and Inerrancy • “This term (divine inspiration) is used for the mysterious power which the Divine Spirit put forth on the authors of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, in order to their composing these as they have been received by the Church of God at their hands.” Gaussen, Divine Inspiration, 23. Doctrine of Revelation 4

6. INSPIRATION: Inerrancy • Inerrancy is affirmed only of the autographa • Inerrancy is a necessary correlate of inspiration: the issue is divine veracity and truthtelling • However, Scriptures are not trustworthy and reliable because they are inerrant, but because they are the Word of God • INERRANCY IS NOT NECESSARY FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH • “Christianity would be true and divine- and being so would stand- even if God had not been pleased to give us, in addition to his revelation of saving truth, an infallible record of that revelation absolutely errorless by means of inspiration.” Hodge and Warfield, Inspiration, 9. Doctrine of Revelation 4

7. INSPIRATION: Inerrancy • Why hold to the doctrine of inerrancy? Because it is the teaching of Scripture • ”If the testimony of Scripture on the doctrine of Scripture is not authentic and trustworthy, then the finality of Scripture is irretrievably undermined. . . . And we must not think that the finality of Christ remains unimpaired even if the finality of Scripture is sacrificed. The rejection of the inerrancy of Scripture means the rejection of Christ’s own witness to Scripture. Finally and most pointedly, then, the integrity of our Lord’s witness is the crucial issue in this battle of faith.” -John Murray in The InfallibleWord, 41,42. Doctrine of Revelation 4

8. INSPIRATION: Autographa • Objection: “If inspiration extends to the autographa only, and the autographa are lost, what value is such a doctrine?” • The distinction between autographa and copies: • Is a NECESSARY distinction. Scripture itself makes this distinction: Deut. 17:18 • No compelling reason to view the copies as inspired • The authors, as organs of the Holy Spirit, were under inspiration, not the copyists • Inspiration is not necessary to receive what we already have; there is providential control and preservation due to the necessity of Scripture Doctrine of Revelation 4

9. INSPIRATION: • Copies and the Word of God • Do not speak of “copies of the Word of God”; rather, the copy is the Word of God • Copies may err; the Word of God never errs. Thus, it is legitimate to seek for the most accurate copy of the Scripture • Translations and the Word of God Cf. WCF, 1:8 • In Acts 2 the people heard the Word of God in their own tongue • NT quotes the OT in the LXX (Septuagint) translation • We may affirm: translation of the Word of God is the Word of God. Doctrine of Revelation 4

10. INSPIRATION: Translations Word of God =Translation Translation=Can Err Word of God= Never Errs Doctrine of Revelation 4

11. INSPIRATION: Misunderstandings • “Inerrancy means that when all facts are known, the Scriptures in their original autographs and properly interpreted will be shown to be wholly true in everything that they affirm, whether that has to do with doctrine or morality or with social, physical, or life sciences.” Feinberg, “The Meaning of Inerrancy,” in Inerrancy, ed. Norman Geisler, 294 Doctrine of Revelation 4

12. INSPIRATION: Misunderstandings • FEINBERG LISTS SOME COMMON “MISUNDERSTANDINGS” • Inerrancy does not demand strict adherence to the rules of grammar. “The rules of grammar are merely statements of normal usage of the language.” • Inerrancy does not exclude the use of either figures of speech or of a given literary genre. “The literary style or form has nothing to do with the truth or falsity of the content conveyed in that style.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

13. INSPIRATION: Misunderstandings • Inerrancy does not demand historical or semantic precision. “The crucial point for inerrancy is this: Is a sentence as stated true?” • Inerrancy does not demand the technical language of modern science. “Popular or observational language is used even today by the common man.” • Inerrancy does not demand verbal exactness in the citation of the Old Testament by the New. “When we recall a statement or event, we often give only the gist or general idea of what was exactly said or done.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

14. INSPIRATION: Misunderstandings • Inerrancy does not demand that the Logia Jesu contain the ipsissima verba of Jesus, only the ipssisima vox. “The writers of the New Testament did not have available to them the linguistic conventions that we have today.” • Inerrancy does not guarantee the exhaustive comprehensiveness of any single account or of combined accounts where those are involved. “That is, there are many things we might like to know but which God has not seen fit to reveal.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

15. INSPIRATION: Perfections of Scripture • Per WCF • Necessity, 1.1 • Authority, 1.4 • Clarity, 1.7 • Sufficiency, 1.5 Doctrine of Revelation 4

16. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Necessity • Admittedly, the finished canon followed the birth of the Church • However, the Church acknowledged the canon, not created the canon • Does not mean necessary in an absolute sense (i.e., God could have used some other means of communicating his plan of salvation) • Rather, the Scriptures are necessary as a witness to the historical character of God’s revelation, redemptive acts. Berkhof, Intro., 166 Doctrine of Revelation 4

17. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Authority • Scriptural authority not accepted on the basis of the testimony of the Church • “If anyone does not admit as sacred and canonical the complete books of sacred Scripture with all their parts, as the Holy Council of Trent enumerated them, or denies that they were divinely inspired: let him be anathema.” Vatican Council I, Canon on Chapter 2, The Church Teaches, 48 • The “Scripture has authority in and of itself as the inspired word of God.” Berkhof, Intro., 163 • The Church acknowledges the divine character and divine origin of the Scripture. Doctrine of Revelation 4

18. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Authority • WCF, 1.5, “We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture, and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

19. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Clarity • This stands against the Roman Catholic view which sees the Scripture as “difficult” if not impossible for the laity to interpret • “Furthermore, to keep undisciplined minds under proper control, the council decrees that no one should dare to rely on his own judgment in matters of faith and morals affecting the structure of Christian doctrine and to distort Sacred Scripture to fit meanings of his own that are contrary to the meaning that Holy Mother Church has held and now holds; for it is her office to judge about the true sense and interpretation of Sacred Scripture.” Council of Trent, TCT, 46 Doctrine of Revelation 4

20. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Clarity • Rather, the knowledge necessary to salvation, though not clear on every page, is clear enough for anyone who diligently searches to discover the truth. • WCF 1.7, “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

21. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Sufficiency • This denies the Roman Catholic view of the need for tradition; the need for an infallible teaching authority • “Thus it comes about that the Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Hence both Scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal feelings of devotion and reverence.” Dei Verbum, II,9, Documents of Vatican II (in Flannery, 755; also 753ff) • Rather, the Scriptures alone are sufficient to provide us with all we need concerning God and salvation. Doctrine of Revelation 4

22. INSPIRATION: Perfections • Sufficiency • WCF 1.7, “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

23. ILLUMINATION: Testimony of the Holy Spirit • What it is not: • It is not new revelation (contra Montanists, Spiritualists, etc), nor is it a mystical view • It is not identical with the testimony from experience; this confuses the motives for faith with efficient cause of faith • It is not the ground of faith; rather, that is the authority of God revealed objectively in the Scriptures. Doctrine of Revelation 4

24. ILLUMINATION: Testimony of the Holy Spirit • What it is: • The one testimony which convinces us of the truth of Scripture, Calvin, ICR, I,vii,5 • The work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner by which he removes the blindness of sin, so that one who was blind and had no eyes for the sublime character of the Word of God receives immediate certainty respecting the divine origin of Scripture • Focused point of the Spirit’s illuminating work • Subjective Special Revelation, but not as defined by Neo-Orthodoxy. The Bible is God’s Word, regardless of whether it is read or believed. See Erickson, CT, 252-3. Doctrine of Revelation 4

25. ILLUMINATION: Testimony of the Holy Spirit • Why it is important: • “The written word, correctly interpreted, is the objective basis of authority. The inward illuminating and persuading work of the Holy Spirit is the subjective dimension. . . . Together, the two yield a maturity that is necessary in the Christian life. . . .” Erickson, CT, 252. • Essentially, there are two elements necessary for the communication of divine truth. One, Scripture is God’s definitive revelation for the Church. Two, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerating, illuminating, and convincing the hearts of God’s elect, they will not have certainty that the Scriptures are indeed God’s Word and will not exercise faith. Cf. WCF, 1,4 Doctrine of Revelation 4

26. ILLUMINATION: Testimony of the Holy Spirit • WCF 1:4, “The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it as the Word of God.” Doctrine of Revelation 4

27. The Doctrine of Revelation 4