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©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
The
Bible As An Authority
By W.H. Griffith Thomas, D.D.
An address
delivered by Dr. Thomas on August 2, 1915 at the Montrose Bible
Conference during its summer session in Montrose, PA.
IF GOD HAS SPOKEN, then obviously His Word must be
authoritative. "Where the word of a king is," there is authority and
power. This subject naturally leads into fields of difficulty, and,
unfortunately, of controversy. We want, as far as possible, to avoid
anything purely controversial and yet, at the same time, to show where
we stand in regard to the Bible as an authority in connection with our
spiritual life. We must not hesitate to face modern difficulties,
controversies and problems because they necessarily come before us at
all times, in every part of the way and in almost every aspect of
Christian life and experience. It will never do for any Christian man or
woman to ignore difficulties. It would be easy to do so. It is sometimes
called the "ostrich policy" of burying the head in the sand, but it does
not work well.
The question of authority is vital and touches us at every point. The
fundamental question is: What is the ultimate and final authority in
religion? What is truth? Where can it be found? What and where is the
last and supreme word concerning God, life and eternity?
1. The Need of Authority. The necessity of authority is seen
in every walk of life-the authority of
Zip / Postal Code:
Man Needs a Guide
Man, even as man, needs a guide. We were never intended to be
independent. Our very nature is limited and requires guidance and
authority. Amidst all the sins and sorrows of life, its difficulties,
its problems, its perplexities, man needs an authoritative guide
concerning things spiritual and eternal. Two things are necessary for
every life-truth and the eye to see it.
2. The Source of Authority. Where is this need to be
satisfied? The answer, of course, is that God is the Source of all
authority. He is the Source of truth, of righteousness and of all
guidance; and authority is expressed by revelation. God's own revelation
must, of necessity, be our authority; and for our present purpose it
will suffice to say that Christ, as representing and revealing God, is
our ultimate authority. The Source of all authority is the Lord Jesus
Christ.
So far, I do not suppose there will be any real difficulty. But at
once the question arises: God is invisible; Christ is no longer here;
where, then, can this divine authority be found? Where is it embodied?
How can I be sure of Christ as the expression of the mind and will of
God?
3. The Seat of Authority. We have to face this question as to
where the revelation of God is to be found. I suppose there are only
three usual, perhaps only three possible, answers. It is in connection
with these three answers that controversy to some extent seems
inevitable. There are those who say that the seat of authority is in
human reason. I am using the word reason to represent what is
sometimes spoken of as human life, including reason and conscience; but
reason will suffice.
Some say that the consent of the mind is the condition and foundation
of all certitude. Let us be very clear on this point. Reason is valuable
and necessary. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind."
The mind is essential as part of human nature and is required to
test the claims of any professed revelation and then to receive the
revelation thus tested.
Long ago Butler said that reason is the only faculty for judging
anything, even revelation, and there can be no authority that destroys
human reason: there can be no authority that subverts and stultifies the
mind that God has given us. The right of every man to verify is
inalienable; it is a prerogative that is essential. "Prove all things,"
said the apostle, as well as, "Hold fast that which is good." Indeed, it
is only possible to hold fast that which is good when we have proved it;
and again and again St. Paul speaks of discernment. We are first to
prove, then to approve. But this is very different from claiming that
reason is the seat of authority. After all, reason is only one of the
several faculties, and all these have been affected by sin. Besides,
there is such a thing as reality, independent of reason. What is truth?
Truth is not what I trow, though that definition, so
etymologically suggestive, has often been given. No, truth is fact.
Truth is not dependent upon the changing opinions of men. Truth is true
whether I accept it or not. A thing must be true before I can accept it
as truth. So that reason is not originative, not creative; it is only a
channel. It is not a source but a medium.
Reason Not Creative
Our reason never creates anything; it only weighs data and settles
things as the result of weighing them. Authority, therefore, is not
against reason but in accordance with reason; and so we conclude that
reason is not the seat of authority.
Others say the church is the seat of authority. Well, of course, we
ask: What church? Where is that church to be found? The church,
in the fullest sense of the word, is best described as "the
blessed company of all faithful people"; and as such, it is the product
of divine revelation. The church came into existence on the day of
Pentecost by accepting divine revelation. If we go further back, the
Jewish "church" came into existence as a believer, as a result of this
revelation: "The word of the LORD came unto Abram" (Gen. 15: 1). Indeed,
we can go back to Adam and find that everything presupposes a divine
revelation, which is the foundation of all the religion, whether
individual or corporate, that the world has ever seen. It is difficult
to see how the church can be the seat of authority. The church cannot
embody, certainly cannot create, its Creator.
So we come back to this truth-The seat of authority is the Bible. And
if God has spoken preeminently through the Bible, then the Bible is
preeminently our authority.
We believe the Bible to be our authority, the seat of authority,
because it preserves the revelation of Christ in its purest and clearest
form. Christianity is an historic religion. We are a long way from the
commencement of Christianity. It started centuries ago and has been ever
since an historic religion. Now what we need today, in this twentieth
century, is the very best form of that historic religion which we can
find. It does not at all matter where it is or what it is or how it has
come, so long as we can make sure that we have the best available form
of God's revelation in Christ. It might come through a man, or it might
come through an institution or through a book; but we need not mind in
the least about the vehicle, so long as we can make sure that we have
got the genuine revelation.
Greatest Book
Now Christianity is at once life and literature. The life seems to
require the literature for its nourishment. As already noticed, it is at
least significant that all the great religions of the world have their
books. It has seemed as though a book were really necessary for the
maintenance and continuation of all religion. Literature is the nearest
possible approach to reliability. Truth in literary form has four
qualities which are pre-eminently necessary for a world-wide religion:
(a) Durability: litera scripta manet: the Written Word abides.
There is a durability about any written form of communication which
stands the test of time. (b) Catholicity. There is a universal
element in a written form which appeals and applies to the whole world.
The Bible, by way of illustration, is the easiest book to translate into
universal language today. I wonder what China or Uganda would make of
one of Shakespeare's plays? Every one knows how impossible it is to
translate Heine's ballads into English. There are French poems of
exquisite thought and expression that cannot possibly be put into our
language. But the Bible is a Book of universal-shall I use the word?
—interpretability. And it is this catholicity of the Written Word that
makes the Bible so valuable. (c) Fixity. There is a permanence
about the Written Word that makes it essentially valuable and important
for human life. (d) Purity. We can have purity in connection with
writing in a way that we cannot possibly have by any other method.
We cannot be sure of these four qualities in reason because that is
unsafe and variable. We cannot be sure of them in any institution, for
it is always uncertain. This written form of revelation is therefore the
best available form. It is guaranteed to us by the fact that the New
Testament has come from uniquely qualified men.
I remember once, when in conversation with a friend, asking him this
question: "What is the ultimate reason why you accept the New Testament?
Deep down below everything else, what is it that causes you to accept it
and reject other books?" My friend said he did not know that he had ever
really faced it that way. So I went on: "Do you accept it because it is
old? There are older books. Do you accept it because it contains truth?
Well, there are other books that contain truth. No; beneath its age,
beneath its helpfulness, beneath its truthfulness is the bed-rock—this
book came from men who were uniquely qualified to convey God's will to
men; and the bed-rock of our acceptance of the New Testament is what is
called in technical language apostolicity—because the books came either
from apostolic authors or through apostolic sanction."
Apostolic Writers
I am not now concerned with authorship but with sanction. These books
came from apostolic men. Out of the eight writers of the New Testament,
five were apostles, and the other three were immediate associates of the
apostles.
Someone says, "Is not this what is called 'Bibliolatry'?" No, it is
not. You do not interpose the Bible between yourselves and Christ. You
use the Bible as a medium by which you come to Christ. If I go out
tonight and desire to see the stars with the telescope, will that be an
interposition? It will be a medium. It will not be a hindrance but a
help. When a boy receives a letter from his mother, his school fellows
may say, "Oh, how perfectly absurd for you to trouble about a bit of
paper like that!" "Ah," says the boy, "it is not the paper; it is what
is on it. That paper represents my mother's interest, my mother's love;
and so far from being a hindrance, it represents and expresses my
mother's love to me when I cannot be in her presence."
The Scriptures do two things: They provide truth for our acceptance
and material for our experience. That brings us face to face with the
Lord Jesus Christ. So we conclude that it is not reason, not the church
but the Bible which is the seat of authority.
4. The Nature of This Authority. It is a spiritual authority.
Words familiar at least to some of us are these: "Holy Scripture
containeth all things necessary to salvation." It is a book of
salvation; it is a guide to spiritual safety. It reveals the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Teacher, our Redeemer and our Master; our Prophet, Priest
and King.
Spiritual Authority
Authority always declares itself by its moral and spiritual proofs.
At one time in our Lord's life His authority was definitely questioned.
"By what authority doest Thou these things? Who gave Thee this
authority?" And our Lord replied, "The baptism of John, was it from
Heaven or of men?" They saw at once what the reply to that would involve
and said, "We cannot tell." Quite so. The moral proofs of John's
authority were such that if they had answered truly, they would have
committed and condemned themselves. The authority of the Bible,
therefore, is spiritual because it reveals Christ as the Savior and
produces spiritual results.
Then this authority is supreme. The Bible is supreme over
reason. Reason is human. The Bible, though possessing human elements, is
guaranteed by what we believe to be divine inspiration. The Bible is our
guide as the light of reason and of human thought. Revelation, because
it comes from God, cannot possibly dishonor reason, which also comes
from God. Reason is the judge of our need of revelation. Reason examines
the claims of revelation; but once those claims are accepted, reason
takes a subordinate place, and revelation is supreme.
An illustration I read years ago on this point may help us to
understand it: One morning in one of the prisons, a warrant comes to the
governor ordering that a certain criminal, who has been condemned,
should be executed. What is the governor to do? He has to examine the
warrant. He has to look at its seal; he has to be sure of its signature;
he has to take every possible precaution to see that it is genuine, that
it is not a fraud but that it actually does come from those in
authority. When he has thus made sure of that warrant, he has to obey
it. He cannot alter the date of the execution; he cannot alter the form
of the execution; he cannot do anything but submit himself to that
warrant, of whose authenticity he has become convinced. That shows the
place reason has in religion. Reason examines, tests, sifts, inquires;
but the moment reason has become convinced that this or that comes from
God, then, like Joshua of old, it says, "What saith my Lord unto His
servant?"
So, though revelation is supreme over reason, reason examines the
credentials of revelation and then submits to them. You have this
illustrated in a well-known passage. Even an apostle was not accepted
without his message being tested. At Berea, though St. Paul was heard
with respect, yet the people "searched the Scriptures daily, whether
those things were so" (Acts 17: 11). And when they were convinced that
the apostle's word and the Scriptures agreed, they bowed and accepted
the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. So that Christ is our authority,
and when we are assured that the Bible is the form in which His word
reaches us, we submit to it, and it becomes supreme over our reason and
life.
The Bible Is Supreme
Again, the Bible is supreme over the church. But someone says, "How
can this be? Surely it is impossible; the church was in existence at
least 20 years before the New Testament was written." The church was
certainly before the New Testament, but does it follow that the
church is above it? That is where a fallacy may creep in.
But first, was the church without a Bible? For those 20 years,
had the church no Bible? One of our greatest scholars, C.H. Turner, in
the Journal of Theological Studies, has pointed out that while
there is a truth in the statement that the church is before the Bible,
yet that if we had said it to any early Christian he would have stared
at us with amazement. He would have said, "We have got a Bible—the Old
Testament—and it speaks to us of Christ." The apostle Paul says
concerning the Old Testament that, with the simple addition of faith in
Christ Jesus, it "is able to make thee wise unto salvation." This is
what St. Paul thought of the Old Testament.
It is, however, perfectly true that the church had no part of the New
Testament for at least 20 years. If we would like to add another 20
years, we may do so. There was no complete New Testament for a long time
after they had the truth; but we ought to notice this: While they had
not the written Word, they had the spoken Word from the
day of Pentecost onwards. The church came into existence by believing
the spoken Word; and as long as the apostles were at hand, the spoken
Word was sufficient. But by and by, when they went from place to place,
and afterwards died, it was essential to embody in another form the
spoken revelation; and thus came the written form. We see at once that
it does not very much matter whether it is spoken or written, so long as
we can be sure it is a revelation from God. I am perfectly certain that
if the apostle Paul were here, we should listen to him just as carefully
as we should read one of his writings. The precise way in which the
revelation comes does not matter so long as we can be certain that it
comes from God. So that it is perfectly true that the written Word of
the New Testament came after the church, but the spoken Word came before
the church.
A Spoken Gospel
By way of illustration let us remember that there was a church in
Uganda before Mackay and Pilkington put the Gospel into writing. The
missionaries preached the Word; it was accepted by some, and a church
existed before anything could be put into writing. And so there was a
church on the day of Pentecost from the Word spoken by the
apostles, long before there was a written Word. This is where the
fallacy comes in. The church, therefore, is "a witness and a keeper,"
but not a maker of Holy Scripture. One of the hymns we sing is: "The
church from her dear Master, received the gift divine."
Did the church at Rome write the Epistle to the Romans? Was the
church at Rome the maker of that epistle? Did the church of the
Ephesians make the Epistle to the Ephesians? No; it was the apostle who
wrote that epistle to the church of Rome, and it was the Scripture to
that church from the moment they accepted it from his hand. John the
apostle says, "I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to
have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not." It was not the
church, but the apostles representing Christ, who gave first the spoken
and then the written Word of God. And so those familiar words in the
Article of the Church of England, "The Church is a witness and a
keeper," are literally true. The church is a witness of what is
Scripture. The church has kept the Scripture.
But though the church is a "witness and keeper," it is not the
author or maker of Scripture, and the reasoning employed in
support of the latter contention is fallacious. It seems to be as
follows:
"The apostles were the authors of Holy Scripture."
"But all apostles are members of the church of
Christ."
"Therefore, the church of Christ is the author of
Scripture."
This has been well compared by the late Dr. Waller,
of Highbury, to the following:
"Mr. Balfour wrote a book on The Foundations of
Belief"
"Mr. Balfour is a member of the Privy Council."
"Therefore, the Privy Council is the author of the
book called The Foundations of Belief."
The fallacy, of course, lies in attributing to a body in its
collective capacity certain acts of individual members of the body. The
church is not, and never was, the author of Scripture. The Scriptures
are the law of God for the church, delivered to it by the apostles and
prophets.
So we say again that the Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme Authority,
and we accept the Bible because it enshrines and embodies that
authority. Take away Christ from the Bible, and there is no Bible left
worth having. We do not bow down to the Book because it is a book; we do
not repudiate reason because it is reason; we do not set aside the
church because it is the church. We say that what we want is the best
available form of Christ's revelation, and we believe we get this in the
Bible and not in any other way.
The Whole Church
The Word of God is, therefore, that which gives us a fixed and
objective embodiment of the revelation of God in Christ; and as such, it
is, of course, supreme for everything connected with the church. Let us
not make any mistake. The witness of the whole church is very important.
When the whole church bears testimony to the deity of Jesus Christ, we
are rash if we individually reject that doctrine; but still, when we
have said everything for the moral authority of the church, it is the
work of a witness, not of a creator. Let me quote the bishop of Oxford,
Dr. Gore, on this point: "The Word of God in the Bible is the final
testing-ground of doctrine."
Church belief, what we call "church tradition," tends to deteriorate
in the course of time. It never abides fixed. Tradition is so variable
that we cannot depend upon it. There is modification and subtraction;
there is often a positive inserted here and a superlative there if we
depend upon tradition. We find this in Jewish history—Mark 7:13: "Making
the Word of God of none effect through your tradition." The bishop of
Oxford said some years ago concerning the Jewish "church," and the
Medieval church, that they had merged Scripture in a miscellaneous mass
of authorities. But we do not believe in merging it that way. We insist
on keeping it separate and supreme.
Here again an illustration will help us. When we have a telegram, we
require reason to read the message. The wire that brought the message
may represent the church that brought the Bible to our door, but the
message is the real thing. And so we have reason, the church and the
Bible, but the message is the essential matter.
It Is Final
That brings me to this: The Bible is our final authority—spiritual,
supreme and final. The Old Testament could not claim finality for itself
because it was a gradual growth, and for the same reason the New
Testament could not claim finality for itself; but the whole tone of the
Bible involves and implies finality. Fathers are not always saying to
their boys, "I am your father; I am supreme here." They do not need to
say that again and again. The boys know from their whole bearing and
tone who are the masters. The attitude of the father and mother is
sufficient, and the attitude of Scripture shows that it is final-Isaiah
8:20: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them" or "there is no
morning for them"; Matthew 24:25: "Behold, I have told you before";
2 Corinthians 4:2: "Handling the Word of God deceitfully," or
"Adulterating the Word of God"; Ephesians 6:17: "the Sword of
the Spirit, which is the Word of God"; I Thessalonians 2:13: "Ye
received the Word of God"; 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness." However you take this
last text, it certainly refers to the authority of the Old Testament—I
Peter 1:23: "The seed ... the Word of God."
Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His life on earth bore testimony
again and again to His own submission to that authority: "The Scripture
cannot be broken" (see Matt. 5:18 and Jn. 10:35). So we believe that the
substance of Scripture bears testimony to its finality, and the general
tenor of the early church is in the same direction. If we read the
Fathers of the first three centuries, we shall find witness after
witness to the supremacy and finality of the Word of God. And at the
Council of Chalcedon the Gospels were placed in the center, as the final
court of appeal. Then, too, every heresy opposed to orthodoxy was
alleged to be based on Scripture; ancient liturgies are simply saturated
with the Scriptures, and the most severe attacks of opponents have
always been on Scripture.
Christ and the Bible
Experience tells the same story. It is clear from church history that
the Lord Jesus Christ has never fully revealed Himself apart from the
Bible. Where the Bible has been neglected Christ has been neglected, and
the light of Christianity has burned low. The oldest and truest view we
have in ecclesiastical history is the supremacy of the Bible—the
finality of the Bible in relation to the revelation of God in Christ.
5. The Power of This Authority—the power of the Bible.
As an authority we use this Book:
(a) Against every form of what we call rationalism, or undue
exercise of the reason. We also use it:
(b) Against every phase of what is called mysticism—I mean
that which emphasizes what is called "the inner light," as against the
written Word. We have to be very careful about what is often called
"inner light" and about impressions which come into the mind, which we
think are the messages of God when perhaps they are contrary to the Word
of God. A man once went to Spurgeon and said that the Lord had told him
he was to enter The Pastors' College. That wise man replied, "I am in
daily and almost hourly communication with the Lord, and He has not told
me anything of the sort."
(c) We also use this authority against every form of scepticism.
Here is a book of moderate compass which has moulded literature, colored
civilization, affected every philosophy, transformed individuals and
uplifted communities; and we say that a book for which this claim can be
made must be authoritative and divine.
(d) We also use it against every form of individualism—I mean
the attitude of people who are always thinking of the Bible as a book of
rules. It is not a book of rules; it is a book of principles. It might
be easy to think of it as a book of rules, but it would not minister to
our spiritual manhood and womanhood. God calls us to look at the great
principles and apply them and, thus, to turn them into rules for our
daily life. And so against every form of pure individualism this
authority is supreme.
(e) Then we say the Bible is our authority against every form of
ecclesiasticism. It is our supreme and final authority concerning
religion. When we are faced with anything concerning the church or
Christianity which is said to be essential, we ask, "What saith the
Scriptures?"
(f) And, most important of all, we use this Book as our authority for
spiritual life and preaching and practice. Preachers must
know this Book if they are to preach acceptably. If we are to go to our
people with a "thus saith the Lord," this Book must be in mind, heart
and life. There is no Christianity worthy of the name that is not based
upon the Word of God; there is no real spiritual life that is not found
suffused, permeated, dominated by the Holy Scriptures; and it is this
beyond all else that gives the Bible its authority and leads us to say:
"Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."
So by this Book we stand; on it we rest; with it we fight; through it
we shall conquer—because it is the Word of God that liveth and abideth
for ever.
- Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas (1861-1924) was a
Biblical fundamentalist who authored many books and articles defending
the faith against its many enemies. Thomas was an Anglican clergyman and
a dispensationalist who helped found Dallas Theological Seminary and
traveled widely through the United States as a teacher and Bible
conference speaker prior to his death.
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