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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
2 Timothy 3:16 describes Scripture as “God-breathed.” What does this mean for how Christians should view and interact with the Bible?
How does the distinction between general and special revelation help clarify the ways God communicates with humanity? How can Christians balance listening for God in creation with studying His word?
Paul’s writings are considered Scripture despite him not being one of Jesus’ original disciples. What evidence supports his apostolic authority, and why is this significant for the New Testament canon?
How can Christians approach the discussion about Bible translations while maintaining unity and mutual respect?
SERMON MANUSCRIPT:
This study will hardly scratch the surface of the topics we will be diving into. It will be like me taking you in a boat to the Mariana Trench in hopes of exploring the depths of its 36,037-foot deep waters and then us diving 50 feet down. Sure, there's a lot to explore in that 50 feet of swimming, but there will also be thousands of feet of water left to be explored.
Theologians, for example, have penned thousands upon thousands of words on this topic alone. A popular theologian, Wayne Grudem, recorded a podcast in which he taught through his book Systematic Theology to a Sunday school class at his home church in Arizona. In this podcast, he has seven one-hour sessions on how to study the Bible and three one-hour sessions on the inerrancy of Scripture.
Like the Mariana Trench, the waters of theology are deep. Therefore, this study aims to get us acclimated to the deep waters of theology in hopes that we can swim deeper in the future. In the next 35 minutes, we will seek to unpack a topic that Wayne Grudem took 10 hours to unpack, which is daunting. So, where do we begin?
OVERVIEW OF BIBLE
Perhaps we can begin with a brief overview of the Bible? The Bible is about a good God and his intense love for his people.
The Bible has 66 books that can be divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament has 39 books, and the New Testament has 27 books. The Old Testament consists of 39 books. These 39 books can be divided into four sections:
The Torah (first five books) is foundational to understanding the rest of the Bible. It contains creation, the fall, redemption, the law, etc.
Historical (12 books, Joshua-Esther). These books are messy and full of ups and downs, yet you see God continue to be faithful to his people.
Wisdom/poetry (6 books, Job-Song of Songs). These books teach us wisdom, teaching us truths about God and life. They teach us how to praise a good God in a fallen world.
The prophets (5 major, 12 minor). In these books, you often find God calling his people to repentance. Although their messages are tough, they’re always littered with promises of restoration.
The New Testament consists of 27 books. These 27 books can be divided into five sections:
The gospels (four books, Matthew-John). These books tell the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Each writer tells stories about the same man but writes to a different audience. Therefore, how they’re telling the story is different.
The Book of Acts, written by Luke, focuses on explaining the life formation, growth, and mission of the early church.
Paul’s letters (13 books, Romans—Philippians) are letters written by Paul to early Christian communities and individuals addressing life and doctrine.
General letters (8 books, Hebrews-Jude). Like Paul’s letters, these are other writings in the New Testament written by other apostles.
Revelation (apocalyptic). The last book in the Bible is intended to present the church with prophetic visions of the end times, the ultimate victory of Christ, and the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom.
BREATH OF GOD
2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
So, as Christians, we believe the Bible is literally the breath of God, the God-inspired word of God. Although it is penned by man, it is breathed by God. It is God’s word written by man.
GENERAL REVELATION
In his book Everyone’s a Theologian, R.C. Sproul describes Christianity as a revealed faith. He says, “Christianity is not based on speculative philosophy; it stands or falls as a revealed faith.” So, as Christians, we stand ten toes down on the hope that God has revealed himself to us in his word.
Now, theologians divide God’s revelation into two camps: general revelation and special revelation.
General revelation is knowledge about God that isn’t found in the Bible but is available to everyone worldwide, a knowledge that can be discovered by simply observing creation. General revelation is knowledge about God that is available to all people, at all times, and in all places.
Let’s say I passed out a sheet of paper to everyone here and told you to draw a picture of anything you want. I could learn something about each of you by simply looking at your drawings. For example, I loved to draw surfboards and waves as a kid. What would that tell you about me? That I loved to surf. My son loves to draw tractors. What does that tell you about him? That he loves farming.
In the same way, the world is God’s handiwork. It’s his masterpiece. It communicates to us something about God.
Psalm 19:1-6 says,
“[1] The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
[2] Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
[3] There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
[4] Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
[5] which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
[6] Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.”
So, when you go outside and look at the sun, the stars, the moon, the clouds, the trees, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, you’re observing the handiwork of God. And what you’re observing is teaching you simple and great truths about God. You’re being taught that God is majestic and great and powerful and detailed and eternal. You’re being taught that God is not bound by time because his creation stretches far beyond our finite and limited life. In the words of R.C. Sproul, “Millions have never seen a Bible or heard Scripture preached, but they have lived in the theater of nature, where God manifests Himself.”
This is why Paul says in Romans 1:19-20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” We are without excuse because of what we see and what we feel. Paul goes on to say that there is something in all of us—a sense of consciousness, a sense of right and wrong—that also teaches us about God. The work of the law is written on our hearts, and our conscience bears witness to God (Rom. 2:15).
So, there is a general revelation that is available to all. Like a cheap ticket at a football game, this is a general admission, a revelation available to everyone. But it’s also general in the type of revelation it brings. It’s not specific, in-depth, or detailed. General revelation teaches us that there is a God, but it doesn’t teach us the will of God. General revelation teaches us that God is majestic, eternal, and powerful, but it doesn’t teach us anything about God's works and plans of this powerful God.
So, if we can conclude that there is a God, shouldn’t we want to know what he’s like? If there is a God, shouldn’t we want to hear from him? If there is a God, shouldn’t we want to know his will and plans? Well, the Bible stands on the claim that God— the one creation speaks about— has revealed himself. He has spoken, and we have his word written down. Theologians call this special revelation.
SPECIAL REVELATION
Special revelation is where God shows us who he is and what his special plan of salvation is for his people. Special revelation is where we find God speaks the loudest. Where creation whispers, the Bible shouts. Where creation is a small stream, the Bible is a raging rapid. Here, God discloses his plan of redemption. Here, God tells us of the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrection. From Genesis to Revelation, we find example after example of God speaking to man and through man. In the Bible, we find God speaking. In the Bible, we find God's teaching. In the Bible, we find God pursuing. In the Bible, we find God rescuing. In the Bible, we find God saving. The Bible is special because we find God’s special plan of salvation in it.
Now, can I put on my pastor hat for a moment?
I’m seeing a rising trend within the church where believers are encouraged to strive to hear from God apart from the Bible. Go out and find peace and solitude. Be quiet and listen. Hear the birds sing and the crickets chirp. It’s in solitude that you will hear God speak.
Although solitude is good, I fear that we sometimes willingly exchange a shout for a whisper, a reflection for a shadow. When we’ve been given an opportunity to eat at the master's table with the master, we would rather eat leftovers outside, away from him. We exchange God’s special revelation with his general revelation.
Now, don’t mishear me. There is undoubtedly a benefit to solitude. Nature is tremendously beautiful; it shouts of God’s invisible attributes. Jesus himself demonstrated this importance by regularly carving out time to get along with God. But Jesus also immersed himself in the Scriptures, learning, knowing, and delighting in God’s law.
So, my pastoral counsel to you is to get a little dirt on your Bible and bring it with you when you go and seek to get alone with God in nature. Don’t exchange what’s special with something general.
THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
Now, a question is often asked, “Where did we decide the books of the Bible are the books of the Bible?”
Theologians often use a word to describe the books of the Bible as the canon of Scripture. In Greek, Canon means “rule” or “standard.” So, the canon of Scripture is the official collection of books in the Bible that we recognize as the inspired word of God. These are the books that we recognize to be authoritative for the Christian life.
Referring to 2 Timothy 3, Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” The word for Scripture here simply means “writings” in Greek, and this term was widely understood to be in reference to the Old Testament writings during Jesus’ time. Of the 39 books in the Old Testament, they were written over more than 1,500 years, stretching somewhere between 2000 BC and 400 BC. We have historical evidence that by the time Jesus came, the 39 books of the Old Testament were widely understood to be the Scriptures, the writings of God.
The books of the New Testament were written between AD 50 and 120. Early Christians quickly began using these writings alongside the Old Testament, recognizing them as God's writings. However, the New Testament canon wasn’t officially compiled and closed until the fourth century AD.
GOD USING THE APOSTLES
What’s beautiful is that the book of John highlights a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. In this conversation, we see Jesus giving his disciples apostolic authority.
Jesus, in speaking to his disciples in John 14, said, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Then, in chapter 15, he says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning (15:26-27).” Later, in chapter 16, he says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you (16:12-13).”
In this final discourse between Jesus and his disciples, we’re beginning to see apostolic authority given to them. The Spirit of truth guided the disciples to truth, remembering all that Jesus had said and done. He came to guide the apostles into all truth, enabling them to know what had happened in the past and what would happen in the future.
So, in a very literal sense, the New Testament writings are a fulfillment of Jesus’ words here. In the New Testament, we find the Holy Spirit bringing to our remembrance all that Jesus had said and done. In the New Testament, we find the Holy Spirit guiding the apostles into all truth, enabling them to know what had happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Because of this, the early church began to embrace the disciples' writings as God’s writings fairly early on, elevating their writings to equal footing with the Old Testament Scriptures.
IS PAUL AN APOSTLE?
Now, 48% (13 of the 27) of the books of the New Testament were written by a man named Paul, a man who was not present at the dinner table with Jesus. Paul was not one of the original 12 disciples. So, how do we know that he possessed apostolic authority?
Well, I think five reasons support Paul’s apostolic authority.
First, Paul calls himself an apostle on multiple occasions (Eph 1, Gal 1, Rom 1, 1 Cor. 9:1). So, either Paul is a blasphemous idiot, a mistaken fool, or an apostle of Christ Jesus.
Second, Paul had a direct encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. This encounter is described in the Book of Acts and referenced in the Book of Galatians. During this encounter he was commissioned by Jesus as an apostle.
Third, Paul performed many miraculous signs and wonders as an apostle of Christ. 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works."
Fourth, Paul’s message coincided with the message of the other apostles.
Fifth, other apostles saw, viewed, and treated Paul as an apostle. In 2 Peter 3:15-16, Peter describes Paul as “a beloved brother” who “wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.” He says about Paul's writings, “There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” So, Peter, the rock on which the church was built, places Paul’s writings on equal footing as the Scriptures. Therefore, it’s safe to conclude that Paul’s words are God’s word.
CLOSED CANON
Today, we believe that the canon is closed, meaning no one else will have a new message from God. The apostles and prophets are the foundation on which the church is built, with Christ as the cornerstone. So, if anyone comes to you claiming they have a fresh word from God for you, I would be leery of embracing it.
TRANSLATIONS
Now, let's talk translations for a moment. To be fully transparent, we do not possess the original writings of any of the books of the Bible, but we do have literally thousands of copies of those original writings.
What happened was a book or letter was written. Then, people wanted to make copies of the original writing. Then copies were made of those copies, and copies were made of those copies, and so on. So, although we do not possess the original manuscripts, we have numerous copies of the books of the Bible.
Now, as you likely know, the act of copying something opens you up to error. The scribes who copied the Scriptures occasionally did the same. Some might accidentally omit a word or a line or reverse two letters. Some might even deliberately “change a text to make it more understandable or even more theologically ‘correct.’” Because of this, the copies we have don’t all look the same. So, translators seek to “compare the various copies of a biblical text to determine what was most likely the original text.” We call this textual criticism.
I don’t have time to discuss all the various translations and expound on how we got the translations we have currently. But I want to touch on this briefly because it seems to be a conversation we’re having more recently.
The progress of how God’s word goes from his lips to our ears would be as follows:
Divine Author (God)
Human author (man)
Original text or Scripture
Copies of the original text
Critical text (or textus receptus)
Translator or Translation Committee
English Translation
Modern readers
Critical text or textus receptus are Greek translations of the copies of the original text, which are what our English translations are based on. The KJV was translated from the Textus receptus, and most modern-day English translations are translated from critical text.
When the KJV was published in 1611, it was translated from the textus receptus with the hopes of bringing God’s word to God’s people in English. It was successful, which is a great and glorious thing, something we should celebrate! But, since the time the KJV was introduced, many older manuscripts have been discovered, and many scholars contend that these older manuscripts are much more likely to reflect the original text (The older the manuscript, the closer you should get to the original writing). So, where the textus receptus was constructed from a few late New Testament manuscripts, the critical text draws on more than 5,000 New Testament manuscripts, some dating back to the second century.
Now, I’m going to say this as gently as I possibly can. This means that modern translations such as the ESV, NIV, NASB, CSB, etc. (which come from the critical text) are translated from a broader and earlier manuscript base, which provides a more accurate reconstruction of the original text…
This does NOT mean that the textus receptus is evil or wrong. That does not mean that the KJV is bad. The differences here are minimal! It simply implies the critical text is better because it is most likely closest to the original manuscript.
Now, listen. I’ve seen the Facebook posts telling me I’m reading Satan’s Bible because the ESV changes words or meanings of the text. We can go through these examples another day. But, I think those who advocate this reasoning are one of two things: maliciously seeking to profit off of sowing discord within the church over Bible translations, or they’ve been deceived into believing the KJV is the only inerrant bible translation in the world. But, as Scott Duvall puts it in Grasping God’s Word, “To argue that we should still use the 1769 KJV edition (the one that is popular today) is to admit the necessity of revising a translation. This is the case since there have been thousands of changes from 1611 to 1769; they are literally two different Bibles. Why not continue the process of revision by drawing on the latest in biblical scholarship and using language that today's readers can understand? Anything less seems to violate the intent of those who translated the original King James Version.”
CHOOSING A TRANSLATION
So, which translation should you choose?
I’m going to share with you a couple of helpful pointers from Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays's book, “Grasping God’s Word.”
First, choose a translation that uses modern English. You’re not any more holy if you’re reading from a translation that’s difficult to understand. In fact, “The whole point of making a translation is to move the message of the original text to a language you can understand.”
Second, choose a translation that is based on the standard Hebrew and Greek text.
Third, give preference to a translation by a committee over a translation by an individual. There’s tremendous wisdom here. This widens your net of expertise and guards against personal biases.
Fourth, choose a translation appropriate for your own particular purpose at the time. When reading to children, choose something a little more simplified (like NLT). When reading to no tradition or unchurched people, consider the CEV or The Message. When reading to someone with English as their second language, consider the Good News Bible. When reading to a KJV-only church, read from the KJV. Consider the NASB, the NRSV, the ESV, the HCSB, the NET, or the NIV for serious Bible study.
INERRANT
Now, we, as Christians, believe the Bible is inerrant, which means to be without error and true. As John Frame puts it, “Were God to speak to us in person, “directly,” none of us would dare to charge him with error. Errors arise from ignorance or deceit; and our God is neither ignorant, nor is he a deceiver. Similarly, we dare not charge his written Word with error.”
METANARRATIVE OF THE BIBLE
Now, what about the message of the Bible? How can we summarize the message of the Bible?
Many call the Bible's overarching story—creation, fall, redemption, and restoration—the metanarrative of Scripture.
Creation:
In the beginning, God created everything. His creation was good (Genesis 1–2). Humanity was made in God’s image to enjoy a relationship with Him and reflect His glory.
Fall:
Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience, separating humanity from God and bringing brokenness into creation (Genesis 3). This set the stage for God’s plan of redemption.
Redemption:
Throughout the Old Testament, God reveals His desire to save His people, promising a Savior (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 53). This promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay for sin, and rose from the dead to bring eternal life to those who trust in Him (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).
Restoration:
The Bible concludes with the promise of a new heaven and new earth where God will dwell with His people forever, free from sin, suffering, and death (Revelation 21–22).
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE BIBLE?
As we land the plane today, I want to do so with some practical application, asking the question, “What do we do with the Bible?”
If God has spoken, if the Bible is God’s inerrant word, then that should drastically impact how we handle it. To truly know that God’s word sits in your lap right now and then remain flippant about it is a terrifying reality.
Perhaps on another day—or for another series—we can unpack some specific steps for studying the Bible. But given our time restraint, I want to leave you with four words: hear, read, study, delight.
It’s good for me to hear God’s word regularly.
It’s good for me to create a routine of reading God’s word daily. Create a habit and a rhythm of sitting down and reading your Bible.
It’s good for me to study God’s word closely. Get a highlighter, pen, and a notepad. Take notes. Look for repeated phrases. Ask questions. Summarize a paragraph, summarize a chapter, summarize a book.
And it’s good for me to delight in God’s word always. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” — Psalm 119:103 “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” — Psalm 119:10-11