Cessationist Conference with Multiple Guest Speakers | Day 2 | Afternoon

Conference Trailer and Cessationism Overview

Please stand and we're going to sing Christ our hope in life and death. Christ our hope in life and death. To the grave we sing. Christ he lives, Christ he lives. And what reward. Everlasting life with him.

There we will rise to meet the Lord. Then sin and death will be destroyed. And we will feast in endless joy. When Christ is ours forevermore. Oh sing. Confess. Christ. Oh sing. Our hope springs eternal.

Oh sing. Confess. Christ our hope in life and death. Now and ever we confess. Christ our hope in life and death.

He will hold me fast.

I fear my faith will fail. Christ will hold me fast. When the tempter would prevail. He will hold me fast. I could never keep my hold. Through life's fearful path. For my love is often cold. He must hold me fast.

For my savior loves me so. He will hold me. Saves are his delight. Christ will hold me fast. Precious in his holy sight. He will hold me fast. He'll not let my soul be lost. His promises shall laugh at such a cost.

For my savior loves me so. Christ will hold me fast. Justice has been satisfied. He will hold me fast. Raised with him to endless life. He will hold me fast. Till our faith is turned to sight. When he comes at last.

Hold me fast. For my soul. Hold me fast. Hold me fast. For my savior loves me so. Hold me fast.

You may be seated.

On your table, you probably saw some 3x5 index cards, and this was not going to be our plan to do an open Q &A with those as we have in times past, but one of the filmmakers was given the instructions to write down a whole bunch of topics and subjects and questions for the final roundtable, and that one job he had, he dropped and didn't do it.

So we need you to fill in for him and fill out some questions if something has been raised by the things that have been said in the presentations thus far after my final, after the final session, which I'm going to give here in a few moments, you can bring those cards, after I'm done speaking, up here to the table and drop them off right before the roundtable discussion, and then we'll do sort of, it'll be somewhat impromptu in that way, and do a Q &A.

I'm going to bring the filmmakers up on the stage here in a couple of moments to introduce them, but before we do, Peter, are you ready? Okay, we have the trailer here, and it's possible to dim the house lights when we do that.

This is the trailer of the movie that they're working on that we're here to cooperate with.

If somebody has the gift of miraculous healing, surely all he needs to do is to prove it. But let's face it, we've been battling with COVID, and the so-called miracle workers went into hiding together with us.

Cessationism is the view that certain miraculous gifts that stood as signs of an apostle, speaking in tongues, healing, prophecies, interpretation of tongues, gifts like that ceased with the apostles.

Cessationism has fallen out of favor because commitment to the authority of Scripture has fallen out of favor.

Turn on Christian TV. You don't see expositors of Scripture, John MacArthur or Steve Lawson. You see Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Paula White. That's who you see because that's the mainstream.

Speaking in tongues.

You're gonna speak out of your spirit. Don't worry about what it sounds like.

Our understanding of speaking in tongues must be guided by the Scriptures, not our feelings.

They were known languages that were capable of interpretation, and not everybody speaks in tongues.

If God speaks, it must be infallible, inerrant, and authoritative.

And the Lord said to me, will you howl for me? I said, don't ask me to do that, Lord.

There's no longer the need for the gift of prophecy speaking forth divine revelation from God.

We have now the whole counsel of God. This word is the final word. The apostolic gifts have gone. They were never intended for our generation. We have everything that we need from the Holy Spirit today.

It's hard to get anyone who's gone through that to come back and take a serious look at faith in Christ focused on the gospel rather than focused on these phony miracles.

That looks fun, doesn't it? The actual video won't have that clip of me in it. It'll be a different clip. All right, can I have the four filmmakers come up here real quick, and I'm going to have you guys introduce yourselves, talk a little bit about the film that you're making, why you're making it, maybe.

And just so we're clear, one, two, three, number three, he was the one who was supposed to... He was the one who was supposed to come up with the questions.

Are we on? Hello, my name is Josh Vandermeer. I am the cinematographer for Cessationist. I'm originally from South Africa. That's where I was born and raised. Moved to the States in 2004. Married to my wife, Anna, and we have three kids.

Live in the Louisville, Kentucky area. Moved there about six years ago to attend seminary. I lead worship at my church most weeks of the month, and I think my chief desire for the film is that it would be a beautiful film.

It's unfortunate that a lot of Christian filmmaking is known for just mediocre image quality, and I really want this to be a striking and beautiful film that puts no other obstacle in people's way other than the gospel itself.

So that's a little bit about me.

I'm Tim Cannon. I'm from also the similar area. Not South Africa, apparently.

Clearly.

I'm from Southern Indiana, but I look like I'm from Idaho, so I think I did okay. I am the producer of the film. David and I and Les were the three amigos, but I am the producer of the film. I have a wife, Lauren, with four children and one on the way, so that's five children, technically.

And the sound of David being run over by a Kootenai bus was pretty cool, so I appreciate that. That was... Oh, he totally ran him over, which is awesome. So we find this film to be something that is very important, and David and I, when we came up with the idea, it was like, we have to make this movie.

We're only going after the biggest denomination in the world, so it's important we get it right. So me writing the questions was contingent upon Jim wearing the shirt that you saw in the trailer. The yellow traffic cone shirt, which he has hanging in his office in a frame now.

My name is David Lovey. I have a son. His name is Martin. He's named after Martin Lloyd Jones, and I'm so glad to be here, and I just want to say I'm super grateful. All of us are super grateful to your pastor, Jim, and to all of the speakers, and to all of you for coming here and supporting this.

We believe that this is a really important doctrine, and our true hope for this film, I know people laugh when I say it, but my hope is that it will be a catalyst for the destruction of the charismatic movement in the world, and I believe that the material that we have gotten from the greatest theological minds in the world on this subject really is irrefutable, and our prayer is that God is going to use this in a mighty way in this generation to bring people back to a biblical pneumatology, to a biblical understanding of God, and so please be in prayer for the filmmakers and for the film itself to be used by God toward that end.

My name is Les Lanphier. I am the director of the movie. I live down in Florida. I haven't been cold for many years, and thank you. I'm also a Presbyterian, any other Presbyterians in the audience? Oh, we got one.

There's another one? Where's the other one? No, it's just, it's not a popularity contest or anything though,.

So it's fine.

Presbyterians don't raise their hands.

Good, good point. I've made a couple of movies. I made a movie called Calvinist about sort of the resurgence of Reformed theology in like sort of my generation. That was a few years ago, and then I made Spirit and Truth, which is about Reformed worship, and now these guys came up with the idea, and then Josh was on board, so I'm the latecomer to this party, but they asked me to help out.

The subject matter, like cessationism, I consider myself a cessationist, but I wasn't really that interested. I'm like, ah, I guess I'll help you guys, and then I saw the trailer and started working with the material, and I sort of fell in love with it, and now that we've been doing all these interviews, it's not only a fascinating subject, but way more important than I would have ever thought beforehand, so I think it's going to be a pretty great movie.

David's got high hopes, the absolute destruction of a massive part of what you'd call the Christendom today, so, and Netflix. He wants to win an Academy Award, actually. He really thinks that we might win an Academy Award.

Spoiler, that's not going to happen.

That's going on.

Thank you guys so much. Yeah, thank you so much for having us. This has been a huge blessing for us. We're getting more content, recording interviews while we're here, and that's all because you guys have been so gracious to allow us to come, so thank you.

Thank you very much for having us.

Yeah, give the microphone to my wife there. That's good. Thanks, guys. All right, will you please turn your Bibles to the book of, yes. Turn your Bibles to the book of 1 Timothy 4, please. 1 Timothy 4.

The Authority, Centrality, and Sufficiency of Scripture

When my wife eats a meal that consists of multiple courses or multiple items on the plate, she always sort of evenly nibbles away at every portion that's there until she gets down to the last little bit, and she will habitually save herself a little bite of all of the things that are on her plate, and then she will always end with a thing there that tastes the best to her, that she likes the most.

The reason being is because she wants that to be the last flavor in her mouth that just rings with her for the rest of however long she's going to think.

About that meal.

For that reason, nobody ever wants to be the last speaker at a conference like this because we know that whatever you walk out of here with, you're probably going to have what I am about to say as the last flavor lingering around in your mind, and given the great content that we've had so far, nobody wants to play mop-up as I get to do here this morning or this afternoon.

1 Timothy 4. I'm going to read this passage, and then I'll open us in prayer. Beginning at verse 6. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women.

On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things.

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading.

Of Scripture,.

To exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things.

Be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things. For as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

Let's pray. Our great God, it is our desire today that we would, in contemplating all that we have heard to this point, that we would meditate and reflect upon Your goodness to us in all that You have provided for us in Your Word.

You have time and again cast our affections upon Christ and made us to look upon Him and the fullness that is in Him, the sufficiency that is in Your Word, the greatness and the grandeur, the glory of the Gospel.

And so we, having reflected on these things for these last many hours, our hearts are full and we pray now that You would fill them even fuller with a further appreciation for Your Word and for Your truth.

Help us to think clearly and precisely regarding who You are and what You have said so that we may honor You as You have prescribed that You would be honored and that You would be glorified and receive the glory that You are due for all of Your good provision for us in Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

What I'm about to do is not give you an exposition of the passage that we just read and I say that so that you know that I know that I'm not doing an exposition. So this is a little out of keeping. It's going to be somewhat similar to what John did in that I'm going to be trying to take the concepts and the ideas that we have had laid out here in this conference and bring them all together.

It's my job with the last session to kind of tie a bow of sorts on what we have gone through. To really answer the question why do we care about this issue? This conference has had a purposeful and a very discernible structure.

If you've been observing, you may have noted what it is that we have done and how we have done it. We started out in part one by defining cessationism and Kevin did that by laying for us a good foundation of what it is that we're talking about and what it is that we are not talking about.

We sought to answer, he did I should say, some of the common misunderstandings of the doctrine of cessationism. And then Justin gave us an overview of some of the false teachers and leaders inside of the charismatic movement in its more modern resurgence in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Some of whose doctrines and practices and teachings and followers still influence continuationists today. Then in part two, we took a more theological approach as we approached the New Testament.

To show.

That the Scriptures themselves in the way that they describe the miraculous gifts, particularly and singularly the gift of miracles shows that they had a specific purpose and that purpose is connected to the giving of revelation.

And if miracles are common, then they're not miracles. They're just another day that ends in why. It's just the ordinary way that God works, business as usual. And then Dan and John presented more of a theological approach to answering the charismatic issue.

John from the perspective of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Dan from the perspective of the doctrine of the sufficiency of the Son. And then with part three, John Sampson kind of kicked us off with a real life example of one who was steeped in the continuationist error, but whose mind and practice was changed by the Word of God and by understanding sound doctrine and particularly hermeneutics.

Now, there are a number of other presentations that could have been given throughout the course of this conference. And inevitably, that will be the critique that will be raised by many who will watch these sessions either on the live stream or later on if they're ever published online.

They'll watch these sessions and they will say, well, you didn't explain tongues thoroughly. You didn't explain exactly what a word of knowledge was. What is the gift of discernment? You didn't explain how it is that those things are continuing revelation.

You didn't define them. You didn't explain this experience where my great aunt's uncle had a missionary friend,.

Brother,.

Who went to the mission field and he had this happen and you didn't answer how that could possibly happen. Well, fair enough. And to those who would raise that objection, you're right. We haven't answered everything.

It's not intended to be a comprehensive treatment of this subject. It couldn't be a comprehensive treatment of this subject. So if that would be anybody's criticism, then I would just say, congratulations, Columbo.

You figured out that not all of the errors of the charismatic movement can be answered in two days. And that's a true statement. There are a lot of errors and a lot of things that we could have addressed that we are not addressing.

Now in this final session, I want to answer the question, why do we care about this? Is it really that big of an issue? Why would we put so much effort, so much energy, so much work and study? And for those who have funded the movie project, and for those who have been involved in the movie project, it's a lot of money that is involved in flying these men into a conference like this and bringing them into one location and then doing the filming and the editing.

The time, the energy, the money, that is a big expenditure. So why would we do that? The men who are here who have presented at this conference are committed to the doctrine of cessationism. And it's not something that we hold to in a casual way or in a quasi-serious fashion.

We think this is important and we care deeply about it. We have all been involved in making this project in some way or another. We have done the interviews and prepared for this week and each of us has prepared a session on top of preparing for the interviews.

They've prepared sessions to share with you while they're here. And so we might ask the question, we obviously care about this, but why? And somebody could raise the objection, aren't there greater, bigger theological and cultural and societal issues for the church to address?

And the answer to that is,.

Yeah.

And we don't shy away from addressing those things. But just because there are bigger theological issues does not mean that this one is not a big one. And just because the church is facing greater threats and greater theological errors does not mean that this is not a significant one that ought to be addressed and needs our time and our attention.

It doesn't mean that this issue does not have far-reaching theological implications that work themselves out in the everyday lives of people who hold to some of the continuationist doctrines. I do not believe that the cessationist, continuationist theology is an essential issue.

And by that I mean it is not a gospel issue. You are not going to hell just because of your view of spiritual gifts. That is not what sorts the sheep from the goats. And we're not making that claim. And please don't misunderstand what we're saying.

We're not saying that this is an eternal destiny determining issue like justification by faith or the deity of Christ or the resurrection of Christ, because that's not our claim. I don't question the faith or the salvation of my well-meaning brothers and sisters in Christ who are continuationists, who I think have an aberrant view of the spiritual gifts.

I don't question their sincerity, their love for the Lord, their genuineness, their desire to serve and honor Christ. I have a number of friends who would not agree with me on the issue of the continuation of the cessation of the miraculous gifts of the New Testament.

But that doesn't keep me from being friends with them. I still love them. I still pray for them. I have done ministry with them as far as our common ground is able for us to go. And we have had, don't be shocked by this, non-cessationists who would not agree with me on every nuance of spiritual gifts take this pulpit and preach from time to time.

They don't preach on that subject, but they have taken the pulpit and they have preached from time to time. All of this is to say that this is a non-essential issue, but it is important. And I think it's very important.

This is a secondary issue, but of all the non-essential and secondary issues, this subject of cessationism is always bumping up against the bottom of the top-tier issues, looking as if it has ambitions to become a first-tier issue.

And that is because this issue lies at the heart of answering the question, what does it mean to live the Christian life? And while I'm starting here with a couple of disclaimers of sorts, let me offer just one more.

I know that not every non-cessationist is open to all of the criticisms that we have raised here. I think it was Dan who said that continuationism or charismatic theology exists on a spectrum, and that is true.

There are mild charismatics, which I'm going to address here in a few moments, and then there are the extreme charismatics on the other side of that. We understand that there is a continuum of sorts upon which the different charismatic manifestations lie.

Some are more extreme than others. But I can already anticipate that one of the critiques of this conference will be the charge that we have painted with too broad of a brush, because this is a standard charismatic response.

You're just painting with too broad of a brush.

For instance,.

If I say that the charismatics and the continuationists are far too slow to identify the wolves, the charlatans, the hucksters, the liars, the false teachers, and the grifters in their midst, which they are far too slow to do that, and there are plenty of them in their midst.

As Justin said last night, charismatic theology is a breeding ground for some of the worst heretics that walk the Christian scene today. That's not to say, again, that all charismatics are the extreme heretics, but it is to say that they find a warm welcome inside of that theological camp.

But if I point that out, then one of the immediate rejoinders will be, well, no, that's not true. That's not true because I had a pastor one time 20 years ago who was not a card-carrying cessationist who was able to identify Kenneth Copeland as a false teacher.

Therefore, what you're saying about that particular criticism does not ring true of him. Therefore, it's not true across the board. You're painting with too broad of a brush. They think that if they can find one lone exception or even a small handful of exceptions, that that disproves the rule.

That's how the charismatic disclaimer game works. But that is not how this works at all. Ideas have consequences. And just because you can find one person or even a small group of people where bad ideas have not come to full bloom in their lives does not mean that the bad ideas are not bad ideas, and it doesn't mean that the bad ideas do not have serious and deleterious effects upon their Christian life.

To illustrate, since 1937, almost 1 ,900 people have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and only 35 have survived the impact with the water below. But none of us would say that jumping is no big deal because we can identify a few survivors.

Would we?

No.

Setting aside those survivors, you would be well justified to say that jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge is foolhardy, wicked, evil, stupid, and it will certainly result in your death. And it would be foolish for somebody to point to the lone survivor and say, well, it didn't result in his death, therefore it must not be a bad idea.

This is the game that charismatics play. It doesn't seem to affect his life. He's not a wingding. He's not an extremist. He's not a false teacher, and he holds to these doctrines. And so we need to make a distinction between the extremes of this movement and what is taught there and those who are affected by it.

Not everybody is going to be affected by these bad ideas to the same degree. So yes, it is in this vein that I will paint with a very broad brush because I believe that though it is not an all-inclusive brush, I do believe that this doctrine and these issues that I want to point out this morning are very broadly true of those in the continuationist and charismatic movement.

Those who embrace non-cessationist doctrines. So, why do we care? I said earlier that of all the non-essential issues that we could talk about, this one has the most profound implications. This is a most important of secondary doctrines because it touches on the issue, answers the question, what does it mean?

How is it that we live the Christian life? This issue is at the heart of the proper understanding of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seals us, each and every believer. He is the indwelling, sanctifying presence of God in the life of the Christian.

Our experience of God, our tasting of divine realities are communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. The work of God and the believer through His Word is mediated to us through the Holy Spirit. The empowering of the believer for service, the strengthening of the believer against indwelling sin and temptation, and the partaking of the believer in the divine nature come to us through the person of the Holy Spirit.

So, it is important that we get that right. This is the means by which we experience God in our day-to-day life. And if our doctrine of what that means and what that looks like is off, then our experience of God is not going to be biblical to the degree that we get these issues right or wrong.

So, really we are discussing the work of the Holy Spirit. What does He do for the believer? If we are to hold firmly to the conviction that God has inspired His Word and that it is authoritative and inerrant and infallible and complete and sufficient for all of life and godliness, then the only consistently doctrinal position, the only doctrinally consistent position is the cessationist position.

It is my contention that the continuationist position, sorry, the only doctrinally consistent position is the cessationist position. I think I said that wrong. It is my contention that the continuationist perspective undermines the authority of Scripture in the life of the believer, the centrality of Scripture in the life of a believer, and the sufficiency of Scripture in the life of a believer.

Now listen carefully. This is not what the continuationist intends. He does not intend to undermine the authority of Scripture. He doesn't intend to undermine the centrality of Scripture or the sufficiency of Scripture in the life of the believer.

I don't believe it is their intention to outright deny these things, But, whether they intend it or not, that is the logical consequence. And if you believe that God continues to give revelation today, then that belief cannot help but insinuate itself into your view of Scripture and into your view of divine revelation, including your view of the written Word of God.

If God speaks today outside of Scripture, then that cannot help but undermine your view.

Of Scripture.

And I want to show you today that the belief in continuationism inevitably must affect one's view of the written Word of God. Now I'm not going to focus on tongues, I'm not going to focus on miracles, I'm not going to focus on healing, words of knowledge, or any of the other sign gifts or the gifts that the seven authors, the seven speakers here today would contend have ceased.

I'm going to focus on one practice, the issue of receiving private revelations apart from and outside of Scripture. That's my focus. Now here's another charismatic shell game that happens in situations like this.

If I take one of these particular issues and focus on it and go deep on it to show the errors and the problems with it, then they would say, okay, well, yeah, that's all good and fine, but you didn't address healing, you didn't address miracles, you didn't address all these other things, and therefore it's okay, you haven't tipped over the charismatic house of cards, as it were, because you didn't deal with everything else.

But if I don't focus in and we zero out and we just deal with all of these things broadly speaking, then the criticism is, yeah, you might have said a whole bunch of things, but none of those things convinced me because you didn't go deep on any one of those particular.

Things.

This is the shell game and how it's played. And that's not how this works. So what I want to do is I do want to focus in on an aspect of continuationism that is present and practiced, embraced and loved and defended by people in cessationist churches.

It is the practice of hearing the voice of God through still small voices, promptings, nudgings, impressions, signs, circumstances, etc. You see, you can be in a cessationist church, call it a Baptist church, where the pastor would get up front and he would say, look, we're against all them charismatics.

I don't know why I had to do that in a southern accent. We don't like all those charismatic craziness that goes on. We're not charismatics. We reject that. That's false doctrine. Those people are false teachers.

Meanwhile, that same pastor will teach his people that you can hear the voice of God through the still small voice, the nudging, the prompting, the impression, and that to make decisions like who to marry, what house to buy, where you should live, what ministry to give to, etc., that you should wait until God reveals that to you through a sign or through an inner voice.

However fallible you might admit that that is, however subjective you might admit that that is, that is, in fact, a belief in continuing revelation. If you think that that is how God speaks to you, you are not a cessationist, and the difference between you and Benny Hinn is one of degree, not one of substance, because you have adopted his presuppositions, you have adopted his view of divine revelation, and the little steps that you will take between where you're at now and Benny Hinn, at no point can you give a theologically consistent argument that would keep you from adopting all of his theology.

So I want to deal with an issue of continuationism that plagues and has infiltrated otherwise cessationist churches. It is my contention that continuationism in this regard undermines the authority of Scripture, the centrality of Scripture, and the sufficiency of Scripture in the life of.

The believer.

Now really this has to do with the nature of what divine revelation is. I believe I'm probably speaking to a group of people, all of whom, I would be willing to bet all of whom believe that the 66 books of Scripture are inspired, that they are authoritative, that they are inerrant, and that they are infallible.

I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, I'm going to assume that if you are here at a cessationist conference in a church for two days that you would affirm those doctrines. We affirm that these things, that these 66 books are given to us by God by inspiration, that they are authoritative, that they cannot err, and that they are without error.

And it's my conviction that any true believer instinctively understands this. This is the instinctive, natural position of a born-again believer in Christ. They affirm these things about God's written truth.

But while most Christians would affirm these things, very few take the second level step of asking themselves, why do I believe that that is true of Scripture? Why do I believe that the 66 books are authoritative, inerrant, inspired, and infallible?

Why should we regard those 66 books as inspired? Because others have said so? Is it that we regard them as inspired because the church has always seen them as to be inspired? Is it just because most Christians have always viewed it that way, or is it because the books.

Are old?

Why should we regard them as authoritative? Because others have said that they are authoritative? Do we regard these books as authoritative because when they are translated into the Queen's English, they sound really authoritative and special and Shakespearean?

Is that why we regard them as authoritative? Why should we believe that they are inerrant and infallible, that is, without error and unable to err? These books were written by fallible and fallen human men, sons of Adam, men of the dust, just as we are.

They were the vehicles through which that revelation came, so why do we regard those books as infallible and inerrant? What gives these 66 books these qualities that sets them apart from every other writing on the planet?

What makes Scripture authoritative, inerrant, and infallible? Is it because this revelation is written down? I see these...those who hold to a continuing revelation today, they would say, I get my prophetic still small voice, I get my whisper, my divine impression, my thought ringing between my ears, but I want you to make sure that...I want to make sure that you understand that that's not the same as Scripture.

Scripture is the written Word of God. This is the language that they will...they will use. I know this because I spent two years reading almost exclusively their books on this subject. That's the written Word of God.

That's not the same as the prophetic voice that comes into my heart and to my mind. It's not on the same par as Scripture. Scripture is over here, Scripture is out there. This is the inner voice of God, so it's not the same.

And so the average person sitting in the pew, hearing the still small voice whispered in their consciousness who equates it to be God's revelation, would never say that it is, in fact, divine revelation on par with Scripture.

In fact, most of them would be very uncomfortable with any attempt to make their personal and private revelations equate Scripture in terms of authority and inerrancy or infallibility. But if we take their private revelation and we write it down, does not the Word of God in the mind then become a written Word of God?

And once it is the written Word of God, do we regard it as canonical? In other words, what gives Scripture that quality of being inspired, authoritative and.

Inerrant?

Is it the fact that it is simply written down? Or is it the fact that Scripture is old, just happens to be an old revelation, sort of stood the test of times, even the most recent New Testament book is 1 ,900 years old.

So why do we regard those writings that are authoritative in Scripture, or why do we regard the writings of Scripture as authoritative? Is it just because those books happen to be old? Or do we regard them as infallible and errant because of the men to whom that revelation was given?

Is it because the Word of God came to prophets and apostles that we regard that as authoritative.

And errant?