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The
Authority of Scripture
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
An extract from a sermon on: 'Stand therefore having your loins girt about
with truth' Ephesians 6.14
There can be no doubt whatsoever that all the troubles in the Church to-day, and
most of the troubles in the world, are due to a departure from the authority of
the Bible. And, alas, it was the Church herself that led in the so-called Higher
Criticism that came from
Germany
just over a hundred years ago. Human philosophy took the place of revelation,
man's opinions were exalted and Church leaders talked about 'the advance of
knowledge and science', and 'the assured results' of such knowledge. The Bible
then became a book just like any other book, out-of-date in certain respects,
wrong in other respects, and so on. It was no longer a book on which you could
rely implicitly.
There is no question at all that the falling away, even in Church attendance, in
this country is the direct consequence of the Higher Criticism. The man in the
street says, 'What do these Christians know? It is only their opinion, they are
just perpetrating something that the real thinkers and scientists have long
since seen through and have stopped considering'. Such is the attitude of the
man in the street! He does not listen any longer, he has lost all interest. The
whole situation is one of drift; and very largely, I say, it is the direct and
immediate outcome of the doubt that has been cast by the Church herself upon her
only real authority. Men's opinions have taken the place of God's truth, and the
people in their need are turning to the cults, and are listening to any false
authority that offers itself to them.
We all therefore have to face this ultimate and final question: Do we accept the
Bible as the Word of God, as the sole authority in all matters of faith and
practice, or do we not? Is the whole of my thinking governed by Scripture, or do
I come with my reason and pick and choose out of Scripture and sit in judgment
upon it, putting myself and modern knowledge forward as the ultimate standard
and authority? The issue is crystal clear. Do I accept Scripture as a revelation
from God, or do I trust to speculation, human knowledge, human learning, human
understanding and human reasons Or, putting it still more simply, Do I pin my
faith to, and subject all my thinking to, what I read in the Bible? Or do I
defer to modern knowledge, to modern learning, to what people think today, to
what we know at this present time which was not known in the past? It is
inevitable that we occupy one or the other of those two positions.
The Protestant position, as was the position of the early Church in the first
centuries, is that the Bible is the Word of God. Not that it 'contains' it, but
that it is the Word of God, uniquely inspired and inerrant. The Protestant
Reformers believed not only that the Bible contained the revelation of God's
truth to men, but that God safeguarded the truth by controlling the men who
wrote it by the Holy Spirit, and that He kept them from error and from blemishes
and from anything that was wrong. That is the traditional Protestant position,
and the moment we abandon it we have already started on the road that leads back
to one of the false authorities, and probably ultimately to Rome itself. In the
last analysis it is the only alternative.
People will have authority; and they are right in so thinking. They need
authority because they are bewildered; and if they do not find it in the right
way they will take it in the wrong way. They can be persuaded even though they
do not know the source of the authority; in their utter bewilderment they are
ready to be persuaded by any authoritative statement. So that it comes to this,
that we are back exactly where Christians were 400 years ago. The world talks
about its advance in knowledge, its science, and so on, but actually we are
going round in cycles, and we are back exactly where Christians were 400 years
ago. We are having to fight once more the whole battle of the Protestant
Reformation. It is either this Book, or else it is ultimately the authority of
the Church of Rome and her 'tradition'! That was the great issue at the
Protestant Reformation. It was because of what they found in the Bible that
those men stood up against, and queried and questioned and finally condemned the
Church of Rome. It was that alone that enabled Luther to stand, just one man,
defying all those twelve centuries of tradition. 'I can do no other' he says,
because of what he had found in the Bible. He could see that Rome was wrong. It
did not matter that he was alone, and that all the big battalions were against
him. He had the authority of the Word of God, and he judged the Church and her
tradition and all else by this external authority.
We are back again in that exact position, and I am concerned about the matter,
not only from the standpoint of the Church in general, but also from the
standpoint of our own individual experiences. How can we fight the devil? How
can we know how we are to live? How can we answer the things we hear, the things
we read, and all the subtle suggestions of the devil? Where can I find this
truth that I must gird on, as I put on all this armour of God? Where can I find
it if I cannot find it in the Bible? Either my foundation is one of sand that
gives way beneath my feet, and I do not know where I am, or else I stand on what
W. E. Gladstone called 'The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture'.
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