Scripturalism: Digging Deeper

This is David Reese with Puritan Scripturalist Church. What is Scripturalism? Scripturalism is the doctrine that the Bible alone is the Word of God, and as such, it is the sole source of truth. It is the only authority in the Church, and the only rule for faith and life.

2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17 say,. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Colossians 2, verse 3 says,. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I want you to take a minute and notice the universal statements in these verses. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

When 2 Timothy talks about what the Scripture can do, it talks about making the man of God complete. Not poorly equipped, but thoroughly equipped for some good works. No, for every good work. For the sake of clarity, we're going to define some terms.

Epistemology. Epistemology is the doctrine of knowledge, or the study of knowledge. It answers basic questions like, How do you know? Or, what is truth?

Ignorance.

Ignorance is the state of mind of not having any thoughts about the subject. Opinion is having a belief about a subject. It can be true, or it can be false. Knowledge. Knowledge is true, justified belief.

Axiom.

An axiom is a starting point. It's a first principle. Every argument starts with certain assumptions or axioms.

Logical.

It doesn't violate the three basic laws of logic. It fits together as a system. Cessationism. Cessationism is the doctrine that divine revelation has ceased, and that signs and wonders which accompany divine revelation have also ceased.

This is not the doctrine that all supernatural activity has ceased. We said epistemology is the study of knowledge, and it answers basic questions like, What is truth, and how do you know? Let's start with, what is truth?

Truth is propositional. A proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. Only declarative sentences can be true or false. Truth is an attribute of propositions. Truth is rational. It coheres with the laws of logic.

The three fundamental laws of logic are the law of identity, contradiction, and the excluded middle. Truth is knowable. At least some truth is not only possible to know, but necessary. Truth is universal.

Truth is the same for all people, in all places, at all times. Truth is eternal. Truth exists in the mind of God, and it does not change. Truth is what God thinks. Let's consider the epistemologies of men.

How have men tried to answer the questions, How do you know?

What is truth?

The first category is irrationalism. Irrationalism is any philosophy, any epistemology, that denies one of the attributes of truth. One form of irrationalism denies that truth is propositional. Of course, in order to assert this, they have to assert the proposition that truth is non-propositional.

The question that you should ask is simply, Is the proposition that truth is non-propositional a true proposition? People try to deny that truth is rational. If truth is not rational, then truth is nonsense.

It's become common to assert that two contradictory statements can both be true. It's common to suggest that it's somehow profound to say, A is non-A. That's not profound. It's nonsense. Some forms of irrationalism claim that truth is not knowable.

This is commonly called skepticism. The claim that truth is not knowable, however, is self-refuting. If you say that truth is not knowable, then I can simply ask you, Do you know that? Another form of irrationalism is called relativism.

Relativism denies that truth is universal. The problem is that if relativism is true universally, then it contradicts itself. Another form of irrationalism is to claim that truth is not eternal. That it changes.

That there's some sort of progress or evolution in truth. If truth changes, then what would stop the truth that truth changes from changing? The problem with all forms of irrationalism is that if they're true, they're false.

The next epistemology of man is rationalism. Rationalism is the epistemology that logic alone is the source of all knowledge. Rationalism comes out of the desire to escape irrationalism. To escape skepticism.

The problem is that the laws of logic are empty forms. The good thing about rationalists is that they recognize that they have axioms. That they have starting points. They have first principles. And they say that these first principles are the laws of logic.

But unless they smuggle in things to talk about and things to say about those, there's nothing to do other than repeat these empty forms. This leads to empiricism. Empiricism is the epistemology that says all knowledge comes through sensory experience alone.

Empiricism collapses. One of the most basic problems with empiricism is that empiricism depends upon perspective. All of the senses depend upon perspective. The next problem is not only perspective, but senses are fallible.

Induction is the process of going from particulars to universals. But let's pretend for a moment that perspective is not a problem. Let's also pretend that your senses are infallible. The problem of induction is that unless you've seen every member of a group from every time and every place, then you cannot validly conclude something about the group based upon a subset.

Scientists recognize this. They say, you know, we understand that we cannot derive valid conclusions based upon observations going from induction. So we're going to use deduction. Deduction is the process of going from the category, the universal, to the particular.

The hypothetical deductive method. This is a fancy word for the scientific process. The scientific process uses induction to come up with a hypothesis, some theory to test. And the test is put in this way.

If A, then B. We observe B, therefore A. If it rains, the streets will be wet. The streets are wet, therefore it rained. This is a logical fallacy called asserting the consequent. Science has not come up with a way of solving the basic problems of empiricism.

Science is useful. It provides information to form opinions. Science helps us. It helps us to subdue the earth. It helps us to come up with more and more useful opinions about the creation and how to interact with the creation.

But science does not teach us truth. There is one good thing to say about science. If you don't like the opinion that scientists give you today, just wait. Tomorrow, it will be false. The epistemology of the Bible, the way that God makes it so that man can know truth, is called scripturalism.

Remember, scripturalism is the idea that the Bible alone is the Word of God written. God has given us his thoughts in propositional revelation. The words of God communicate truth from his mind to the minds of his people.

God is not a God of confusion. God communicates in order that we might understand. And when the last apostle laid down his pen, the revelation was complete. There is no new revelation. This is the doctrine of cessationism.

The scriptures are the Word of God written. His words are written to be preserved. Christ appealed to what was written. After Christ was baptized, he had just heard God the Father speak from the clouds.

A dove came down and descended upon him, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And then he went into the desert and was tempted by Satan. He didn't appeal to what he heard or what he saw. He didn't appeal to miracles.

He appealed to what was written. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And in the scriptures, we have the mind of Christ. The Bible provides a systematic philosophy. The truth that God intends to communicate to you is there.

The Bible teaches us what truth is and how we can know it. The Bible teaches us the purpose of life. It teaches us about God and man and creation. The Bible teaches us about how we can be joyful, what is right and what is wrong.

It teaches us about obtaining the favor of God. It teaches us about his justice and his mercy. The whole of scripture fits together to the glory of God. Search the scriptures diligently. Compare what has been said here to the scriptures.

Don't stop here.

Dig deeper.