The Only Firm Foundation

Daniel Kurtz
Feb 27, 2024
4 min read

Something Obvious

One of the truths about common sense is that it is not actually all that common. There are so many things that we can take for granted. If something seems incredibly obvious to us, we expect it to be evident to the people around us. Unfortunately, this is actually extraordinarily rare. In the culture we live in, even things that were evident to people only ten or so years ago, such as the reality that there are only two sexes, have somehow become obscured in the cultural mind. To get more to the point of this blog post. It should be evident that the Bible is the foundation for faith in practice within the church, and yet this simple truth has been under attack throughout the church's history. From the very beginning, the devil has tempted people to question the validity of God's word. In Genesis 3, the serpent, who is Satan, comes to the woman and asks her, "Did God actually say?" (Gen 3:1, ESV) Here, we want to examine the importance of a robust Doctrine of Scripture.

The Measure

Let us start with the basics. If you are an elder in the church and you disagree about something being taught in the church, where should you go to resolve that disagreement? What authority are you going to use as the judge? What is the standard for what is acceptable in the church? Here, we need an unchanging standard. Fortunately, the Lord saw fit to give us such a standard. He gave us his Holy Word. It is the measure or standard for every church and individual Christian. No matter what issue we have within the church, we can come together to the Bible for the answer. Does this mean that we should not seek counsel from other sources? Of course not. Throughout the church's history, the Lord has graciously given us all kinds of teachers. We should use their knowledge and writings, understanding that everything needs to be tested by scripture. Simply because someone was a famous teacher in the history of the church does not mean that what they had to say was accurate. Pelagius, for example, is quite renowned in church history. He was famous for claiming that there was no such thing as original sin and that humanity could obtain salvation independently of Christ. The point is that everything needs to be tested by Scripture.

Without Error

As we think about this, two aspects of our Doctrine of Scripture are particularly important. The first is that Scripture is inerrant. This means that there are no errors in the text of scripture. Now, a quick Google search will bring up all kinds of blog posts and articles from people who will tell you about all these errors. Muslims, in particular, have a lot of ideas about how many errors are in the Bible. The reality is that all of these so-called errors are quickly resolved. No one has ever claimed that textual criticism is easy. But simply because something is difficult does not mean it cannot be done. The more significant issue here is one of trust. The vast majority of these errors are brought by people who have no desire to hear an answer. Just as there are any number of websites listing out errors, there are just as many that offer answers to those supposed errors.

Unfailing

A second important aspect of our Doctrine of Scripture must be the infallibility of Scripture. Infallibility simply means that the Scriptures cannot and will not fail. While what we are talking about here is the Bible, in reality, we are talking about God. It is His Word, after all. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that "All Scripture is breathed out by God." Since it is his word, breathed out by him, and he cannot fail, then his word cannot fail. In short, the Bible is infallible because God is infallible. We can trust that all that the Bible says is true because we trust in God, who created and upholds the whole of the world. I will link some articles below that go deeper into the subject of both inerrancy and infallibility.

There More to It

It should be clear that this is just a starting point. A church should have a robust Doctrine of Scripture. These three main points, however, are of particular importance. We must understand the Bible to be authoritative, inerrant, and infallible. Our goal is to raise up expositional teachers within the local church. We want our elders and small group leaders to be faithful expositional teachers. This means trusting that what we bring out of the text carries not our own authority but the Lord's. My authority cannot save anyone. Any authority that I have, I received from the one who has all authority. As we seek to teach and to raise up teachers, we need to be cautious not to add to or go beyond what the Lord has given us in his Holy Word.

Soli Deo Gloria