God is there.
and
He is not silent.
I begin this post with this idea because I mentioned some ideas on mystery at the end of the "Studying God" post). In that "sort-of-footnote" I raised some issues about paradox and mystery. BUT there are two things in my mind that are not at all paradoxical or mysterious:
God is there and He is not silent. So, we look at the 'not silent' bit. God reveals Himself to us. The clearest revelation is in the Bible. So, we do BIBLIOLOGY - the study OF the Bible.
First, why did I all cap "OF" above? Because I need to make sure you get the idea that Bibliology is not Bible Study, it is the study OF the Bible... what is it? how did we get it? can we trust it?
Second, why is Bibliology first in this presentation of systematic theology? The study of the Bible is the first category since it is the source of knowledge about God [1]
- - or - -
we can say that the Bible is the basis of Theology. Therefore, we learn about the Bible first. Remember, we need to consider not just the 'what' of belief, but the 'why' behind that 'what.'
So, God is not silent, he has revealed Himself to us. There are two types of revealing - read Psalm 19 and understand that this three part Psalm focuses first on general revelation and then special revelation and then ends with a request for a blessing.
So, we are introduced to the two types of revelation:
a) General - the creation itself
b) Special (sometime called specific) - the very words of God to man.
GENERAL REVELATION
All of God's creation classifies as General Revelation. The arguments for the existence of God that came from Aquinas and others have their basis in the fact that you and I can look around and see things which God can use to point us to Himself.
I see the stars, I am in awe of their beauty, their vastness... I "see" God.
But God speaks too.
SPECIAL REVELATION
Special revelation comes to us as God speaks, as He inspires the Bible.
Inspiration is... (KJV 2Tim 3:16) the 'God-breathed' message of God given to man as the Holy Spirit works through this human writer using the writer's
a) personality
b) education
c) experience
to produce the message that God has for man.
The question is raised: Doesn't the human vehicle introduce sin and therefore error? My answer is no. I reason that the Holy Spirit is inspiring the human author and this eliminates the concern over error. The Holy Spirit is greater than both the sin nature and the Enemy himself and therefore God the Holy Spirit has the ability to produce the message that God intends for man to receive in spite of the writer. Thus, the process which is here referred to as inspiration produces a text which I consider to be free from error. This writing, the original, is called the autograph.
There are (perhaps thankfully) no autographs in existence today. This is bad in that it would be cool to have an original but if we had one, I am afraid that it would be the subject of idolatry and thus displeasing to the God of the text. But we are not to worry.
Even though we have no autographs, we have an amazing wealth of manuscripts (MSS.) which point us, with virtually no question in matters of faith and teaching, to the original message. This wealth of MSS provide us with the basis for the translations that are available to us today. F.F. Bruce documents many important points in his book THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS: Are they Reliable? which is available for you to read on line, click here. [2] These MSS, their findings and history are the basis for the "extra-biblical argument" for the trustworthiness of Scripture.
The Extra-Biblical Argument:
Some facts to remember that may be helpful to you follow. Over five thousand complete New Testaments from ancient times including several MSS from the 4th century including (the oldest?) Codex Sinaiticus at the British Library. Further, there are over thirty thousand portions of books (fragments) available to scholars. These existence of these document are the basis for the argument which follows.
First, when one examines the vast number of New Testament documents available which are dated from a long period of time (1000 years) and
Second, that these texts were discovered over a wide geographical area (the whole of the Roman Empire at its peak) one would consider the probability for error to be very high but
Finally, the reality is that the amount of variance that is discovered in matters of theology is virtually non-existent.
Thus we may say that God not only inspired His message to us but protected it in the transmission process [3] that produced many of the translations we might use today.[4]
Internal Evidence:
Next we consider the internal evidence for the trustworthiness of Scripture by looking at several key texts: 2 Tim 3:16, Hebrews 4:12 and 2Pet 3:14-18. These texts speak to the trustworthy nature of the Scripture. Please note my capitalization of Scripture since I refer to the Bible. I always capitalize these in this context, and when you write for me, you should as well. See also 1Pet. 1:10-12, 2Pet. 1:16-21 (esp. v. 20-21), John 5:47, Matt. 5:17f, Luke 24:27, 44f, John 10:34-36.
Finally, a question that has become more important recently, especially since the publication of The DaVinci Code (which, while a really fun read, I wish people didn't take it so seriously - see NT Wright's excellent response). This important question is the subject of: Which books SHOULD be in the New Testament? I will not dwell too much here, please know three of the criteria to include a book in the New Testament:
--connection between the writer and an apostle
--consistency with the rest of God's message
--acceptance by the early church leaders
There are other criteria, but this is all I am requiring of you.
Personal Experience:
When I think of putting forth an argument for the Christian Scripture, I would be remiss if I did not mention the argument from Personal Experience. In one of the texts you just read, the writer of Hebrews says that Scripture enables us to be discerning. In the Psalms we find comfort. The Scripture really does come alive in us as we read it. Why? Because the same Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures awakens us to it and uses the Bible to awaken and challenge us. I have had so many experiences where God has used His word in my heart that this must be a part of my argument.
Finally, we have looked at Bibliology first, because it is the means by which God has revealed Himself to us. It is the means by which we grow in our understanding of God's nature and attributes, and that is what we go to next: Theology Proper.
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[1] I need here to point to J. I. Packer's idea that there is a big difference between knowing God and knowing ABOUT God. Tons of people know great amounts of information about God while simultaneously not knowing God. This is tragic... I hope this is not you... I hope our seeking to know God is relational and not just propositional. Some have said the "the longest distance to travel is often the eighteen inches between the head and the heart."
[2] a recent visit by a leader of evangelicalism told me a little about a new find of MSS which will significantly increase the number of MSS which are even older than those studied today thus increasing the volume from which comparison can be made...
[3] what I call the "transmission process" is this:
AUTOGRAPHS
copied into
MSS
collected and distributed
more MSS copied
over the first 1400 years
and then
in the 18th - 20th centuries
when scores of thousands of MSS and fragments from as early as 120AD are found
collected, compared, gathered and translated to the excellent
translations of today
they produce
God's Word to us in language we can understand