Inerrancy Research Articles

Saint Thomas and the Development of Doctrine

Saint Thomas and the Development of Doctrine Guy Mansini O.S.B. Introduction The "development of doctrine" commonly refers to the unfolding of Christian faith into hitherto unformulated and undefined doctrinal propositions. It is the successive unfolding of the one, once and for all given revelation completed by and in Christ and possessed by apostolic faith, into newly articulated doctrines. I take it that the original possession of revelation, the original formulation of faith, was itself propositional, located in the propositions of the Bible, in such dicta as the confession that "Jesus is Lord," and "he has risen from the dead," and "he will come again." Sometimes revelatory propositions summarize a narrative of events, of course, and this is not unimportant, since certain truths about God cannot be manifested except on the basis of a history captured in narrative. For instance, in the Isaian reflection on the Old Testament story of Israel's exodus from Egypt, her establishment in the Promised Land, the kingdom and then the kingdoms, Jewish exile, and return from exile, there are statements about God's providence and eternity. The narrative itself is the prior and necessary demonstration of this providence and eternity, without which Isaiah cannot formulate his teaching about them. Evidently, the narrative of the mission of Jesus and its conclusion are the necessary presupposition of what Saint Paul teaches, quite "didactically," in Galatians and Romans. And there are smaller narrative communications of truth, too: the narrative of Jesus's calming of the storm on Lake Galilee and the subsequent worship of the disciples is a declaration of his divinity. What is to be noticed, however, is this, that the original possession of revelation and so every initial access to the Realities disclosed by revelation through deed and event—namely, the triune God, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and so on—this possession is in language. And [End Page 393] although saving assent to revelation requires the interior assistance of the Holy Spirit, it remains a saving assent to the exterior word of biblical truth (see Rom 10:14–17), the exterior word spoken by apostle and evangelist. The point of departure for the development of doctrine, therefore, is not in the first place some wordless experience, either historical or transcendental, of God and his Christ, but assent in faith to the creed and the reading of Scripture the creed enables and controls. We recognize the phenomenon of development when we see four things. The first thing to see is that there is a "one," an integral cognitive whole, "revelation" as such "closed with the death of the last apostle." The second thing to see is a "many" into which this one is unfolded or developed or articulated, which unfolding occurs—third thing to notice—within a temporal expanse in which the "many" are formulated and articulated. Fourth, there is required also our ability—a Christian ability of reason illumined by faith—to discern and verify that it really is the one, integral cognitive whole that is exfoliated into the many subsequent doctrinal propositions. Without the first thing, the one perduring whole of revelation, we have not development but transformation, a self-contradictory plurification of Christian discourse where one age says something different from another. Without the second thing, the many articulations of the one, there is no development but only repetition. Without the third thing, temporal expanse, the question does not arise as to the maintenance of the apostolicity of the Church for us, the maintenance of the truth across time. And without the fourth thing, the ability of reason to recognize that the one really is truly and rightly unfolded in the many, our faith in the apostolicity of the Church turns into fideism. It is a condition of the possibility of genuine development of doctrine that it be able to be recognized as such. This recognition, of course, is magisterial, but it also engages the sensus fidei of all the faithful. Moreover, this ability, while it requires faith, requires also certain auxilia, two auxilia in fact, namely, metaphysical skill and historical learning. There is also a fifth thing ordinarily contained in the idea of the development of doctrine, a function especially...

KONSEP PEMBENARAN MENURUT ROMA 5:1-11 DAN IMPLIKASINYA BAGI GEREJA MASA KINI

Di kalangan gereja ada yang melihat pembenaran sebagai tindakan Allah supaya orang Kristen bisa masuk surga. Hal ini bertentangan dengan konsep pembenaran sesuai dengan kebenaran Alkitab sebagaimana tercantum dalam Roma 5:1-11. Tulisan ini bermaksud mengeksplorasi bagian teks Alkitab ini agar diperoleh konsep yang benar mengenai pembenaran. Metode yang digunakan adalah analisis teks secara sintaksis dan semantis yaitu fokus pada teks itu sendiri, interaksi dengan teks-teks lain dan tulisan para Bapa Gereja. Hasil penelitian didapatkan adalah bahwa dibenarkan berarti memperoleh damai dengan Allah, tidak menjadi seteru Allah dengan hidup dalam dosa-dosa. Dibenarkan juga berarti gereja memperoleh akses kepada Anugerah Allah dan dibebaskan dari murka Allah atau penghakiman Allah, serta diselamatkan oleh hidup-Nya atau diselamatkan oleh oleh Yesus Kristus.

Fundamentālisms kā kristīgās ticības fenomens Latvijā

Although in the modern age fundamentalism is sometimes considered a phenomenon that no longer has a place in it, it is not so. Fundamentalism is formed in the dialectic between the need of one part of society for change and the reaction of another part of society to it as undesirable and dangerous. The study examines the history of the formation of Christian fundamentalism, focussing on three characteristic features of the phenomenon in the context of the 21st century. Firstly, it is a fundamental abandonment of the historically critical method of researching the Bible, preferring instead a literal interpretation of the Bible that views the text as verbally inspired, inerrant, and infallible. Literal reading can concur with a belief in the only correct doctrine, a distinctly dualistic vision of the world, and a sense of radically exclusive self-awareness. When it comes to winning fundamental battles over biblical truth, fundamentalist arguments become radical and intolerant. Thus, the next feature is justification of intolerance in the name of defending the literal reading of the Bible. It can be directed against individuals or groups outside the community, but equally against individuals within the community. The third feature is that the battlefield is not always limited to matters affecting the life of the church but extends to society as a whole. Namely, when socio-political tendencies are not in line with the “biblical truth”, fundamentalists become loud and politically active. Authors argue that there are clear signs of fundamentalistic tendencies in Latvian Christian society and clergy. Interviews with clergy show a strong belief in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. The exegesis of fundamentalism is oriented towards the maintenance of a single truth. There should be a single interpretation of the texts, therefore, in order to adhere to and defend its exegetical view, fundamentalism needs various aids, including the authority of the church and the strict boundaries, which must not be violated. The study looks at two examples, where certain Latvian denominations have taken on the role of disciplinarians, pushing out dissidents. The political activities of the Christian denominations in Latvia also reveal fears that the modern age may bring about the loss of Bible’s authority. Consequently, morality is enforced, and Fundamentalism defends its positions trying to impose the relevant paradigms upon the entire society

Biblical vistas of brokenness and wholeness in a time such as the coronavirus pandemic

In the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, new unexpected and extraordinary scenes and sounds of aesthetical biblical and apocalyptic proportions are witnessed. Community and religious gatherings in public spaces are prohibited. Modern, conventional and traditional human achievements have become futile. One can describe the COVID-19 pandemic, and this new search for meaning as a juxtaposed tension of metaphorical apocalyptic vistas and metaphorical biblical vistas. The Bible holds the same juxtaposed tension which may help humanity to rediscover the semantics of biblical truth and hope – but it also espouses a metaphorical liberational vista of transcendence. Coronavirus could be a metaphor for something with extraordinary new possibilities. The biblical metaphors are being amplified in different metaphorical vistas to make it more discerning or accessible to the world population today. As a metaphorical liberation vista, it may offer new hope for a new kind of living, a new kind of humanity, a new kind of knowing and believing and a new kind of world order.Contribution: This article offers a Practical Theological contribution to the significance of the Bible within the COVID-19 pandemic context. Human suffering and divine metaphorical vistas encapsulate prospects for truth, hope and new meaning for the liberation of humanity.

Cognitive Sophistication, Religion, and the Trump Vote

ObjectivesSupport for Donald has been linked to religious commitments and education, though the issue of how cognitive sophistication may play a role in his support has rarely been examined. This study explores how cognitive sophistication and religion influenced political orientations and Trump voting.MethodsData from the 2018 General Social Survey are examined. Logistic regression is used to predict voting and choice. Structural equation models are estimated to examine the interrelationships between cognitive ability, education, religious commitments, political orientations, and the Trump vote.ResultsCognitive sophistication was found to have a positive effect on voting, but a negative effect on choosing Trump. The influence of cognitive sophistication works through its support for secular beliefs and opposition to biblical inerrancy, influencing Republican partisanship and political conservatism that favored Trump.ConclusionsCognitive sophistication and educational attainment are important for influencing political commitments and the Trump vote, and the effect of cognitive sophistication is entwined with its negative association with religious fundamentalism and positive association with secularism.

'De Schrift kan niet gebroken worden'. Een pleidooi voor inerrancy

This short essay discusses the significance and relevance of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. The first part offers some general observations on the context and the content of the statement, the second answers some common objections to the statement and the concept of inerrancy, such as its polemical and defensive posture, its intellectualism, its conception of truth, and its excessive focus on the text and the reader. The essay concludes with an exploration of some hermeneutical implications of the inerrancy.

The Seven Laws of Teaching for Christian Education

<span lang="EN-US">Ideally that every Christian teacher should follow certain fundamental principles so that the aim of Christian education can be met. And this idea is not just a current modern issue or mere utopian thought but a profound time-tested element. And the basis of those principles should be on Biblical truth. Through ages and centuries, these principles or in other word laws have been conducted by what we know now as classical education. No matter what the subject is, the tools or the strategies that are used in these principles will become the foundation of the teaching to face any challenges within the context of the ever-changing setting. In this essay, the classic work of John Milton Gregory written in the nineteenth century, titled The Seven Law of Teaching will be analyzed by examining its philosophy and biblical theology. From the research that has been done, conclude principles that Gregory brought up as The Seven Laws of Teaching is linear with biblical truth and Christian teachers can rely on this principles as the foundation for shaping and molding their Christian teaching in today world that keep building and reconstructing without a firm foundation.</span>

A Transformation of Backward by Design Model to Designing a Curriculum

<p>An educational institution need a curriculum design to organize teaching and learning activities. All models of curriculum design have its own uniqueness. Since the curriculum design will be affected to all objective, teaching, learning, assessment, and express presuppositions of how the education going on that school. In this essay, therefore backward by design model is reviewed in the biblical Christian worldview context with creation, fall, redemption, and glorification approaching concept. Understanding as the main focus of backward by design model need to bring into the concept of biblical truth to see the big picture of God’s design for His creation. God’s purposeful design will affect our worldview; the way we see all aspect in life. Accordingly, the biblical Christian worldview help us to bring unit into context to give a true meaningful experiences. As the result, reconstruction of backward by design model as the transforming curriculum design to be implemented in Christian education.</p>

The Fight against Corruption in Nigeria: A Biblical Perspective

This study investigates contemporary challenge of ways to fight corruption in Nigeria and explores into Biblical perspective in the fight against corruption. The Bible clearly shows that God is against corruption in all its ramifications and that God will bring every corrupt nation, family, or individual to judgment. The methodology adopted in the study is historical and exegetical. The result of the study reveals that proper exegesis of Biblical truth, its application and enforcement by all stakeholders will reduce corruption in any society including Nigeria. It further shows that peaceful, secured, and prosperous citizens can develop if government adequately funds and monitors quality of training in theological colleges and seminaries in Nigeria where pastors and religious leaders are trained. This study recommends adequate Biblical and theological training of pastors and religious leaders as prerequisite for a corrupt free Nigeria. These people instil morals and develop the consciences of the people any money spent to prepare them adequately for this all-important work is justifiable. This will greatly restore social order, foster economic development and reduce to the barest minimum greed and avarice that are the mother and father of corruption in Nigeria.

Kepemimpinan Kerajaan Allah Berdasarkan Ucapan Bahagia Ajaran Yesus Kristus Matius 5:3-12

Kepemimpinan Kristen merupakan kepemimpinan yang di dasarkan atas azas-azas kepercayaan Kristen yang dibangun dari kebenaran Alkitab. Komunitas Kerajaan Allah yang dibangun Yesus Kristus merupakan kelompok yang berbeda dengan kelompok-kelompok lain yang ada di dunia ini. Oleh sebab itu kepemimpinan yang tepat di terapkan dalam kepemimpinan di sini adalah kepemimpinan yang tidak di dasarkan atas kekerasan dan otoriter melainkan rendah hati, takut akan dosa, lemah lembut, menyukai kebenaran, penuh belaskasihan, hatinya murni, suka berdamai, siap menderita.

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Volume 16: Lectionary–Lots

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Volume 16: Lectionary–Lots

Learned Credulity in Gianfrancesco Pico’s Strix

In 1522–23, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola was involved in trials that executed ten accused witches. Soon after the trials, he published Strix, sive de ludificatione daemonum, a meticulous defence of witch-hunting. A humanistic dialogue as heavily dependent on classical literature and philosophy as on Scholastic demonology, Strix is unusually candid about the logic of witch-hunting. A convicted witch among its four interlocutors makes Strix unique among witch-hunting defenses. Moreover, it devotes less attention to maleficia or magical harm than to seemingly peripheral questions about sacraments and the corporeality of demons. It attempts to demonstrate that witches’ interactions with demons happen in reality, not in their imagination, thereby vindicating the truth of Christian demonology and explaining the current surfeit of evils. Strix explicitly reverses Gianfrancesco’s earlier stance on witchcraft in De imaginatione (1501) and supplements the defence of biblical truth he undertook in Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium (1520).

Liberalism and Intolerance

Simpson has two aims in this book. The first is to demonstrate that ‘Protestantism is a powerfully and necessarily self-conflicted tradition’ and that, since it constantly repudiates former versions of itself, it is best described as a ‘tradition of permanent revolution’ (p. xi). By focusing on the ways in which Protestantism evolved, he seeks to explain how two different visions of the Reformation can exist. One he attributes to medievalists, in which they encounter: the Reformation’s absolutist, cruel, despair-producing, humanity-belittling, merit-denying, determinist account of salvation; it’s closely related account of an exclusivist, invisible, ahistorical Church; its stringent insistence on the inerrancy of Scripture; its destructive iconoclasm; its early political quietism – even in the face of tyranny. (p. 6) The other vision he attributes to early modernists, in which the late seventeenth-century gains of liberty, freedom of conscience, and constitutionalism justify and emerge out of the darker days of the early Reformation. Simpson makes the bold claim that, by understanding the relationship between these two visions, we can reconceive ‘the history of Liberalism; the relation of Liberalism to evangelical religion; and, by no means least, the nature of our modernity’ (p. 7). This is the second aim of the book and one to which I return below.

Schaeffer's Apologetics

This Article Presents Francis Schaeffer’s Apologetics Through A Consideration Of His Work And Writings. It Starts With An Overview Of His Books And Lectures, Which Reveal A Passion To Present Biblical Truth In A Way Relevant To The Questions Of His Interlocutors. Compassion And Encouragement, Motivated By His View Of The Dignity Of All, Characterized His Approach. The Article Then Answers Some Common Criticisms Of His Method. Persuasion, Life, And Prayer Were Key, As Illustrated By The Work Of L’Abri. Schaeffer’s Apologetic Methodology Was Presuppositionalist, Yet He Was More An Evangelist Than An Academic Apologist. KEYWORDS:

The Peter Process and Pedagogy: Applying Biblical Truth to Business Education

In a time where suicide and cynicism are pervasive, we must prepare graduating seniors to forge ahead into a truly meaningful life. A capstone undergraduate course (at a Christian liberal arts university) led students in personalizing a biblical model for lifelong character growth. A diverse set of readings, assignments, and discussions helped students understand and embrace this virtue cycle that Peter expressed in the language of his time.

Theological Review of Emotional Intelligence for Educators

<p class="abstracttextDILIGENTIA">Being a teacher is a rewarding yet challenging and demanding profession. Educators have complex roles because beside teaching knowledge, they must develop students’ skills (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration), attitudes, and values for work, citizenship, and life in the 21st century. In the 21st century, educators who are expected to be role models for students must develop their emotional skills. Different studies have showed that the key to success is not just cognitive intelligence, rather 80% of success in life depends on emotional intelligence.<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> Emotional intelligence is evaluated as an important, valuable, and potential personal resource for coping with threats, challenges, and organizational setting related to tasks where emotional skill is required for successful performance such as school teaching. 4 competencies of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. This paper aims at analyzing whether emotional intelligence is coherent to biblical concepts. Discussion will be started by analyzing presuppositions of emotional intelligence which have been used by scholars, then reviewing and reconstructing emotional intelligence theologically to keep it aligned with biblical truth.</p>

John Calvin on God’s calling

Building on Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) view that the whole world could be filled with the service to God, this article is an investigation of John Calvin’s (1509–1564) assertion that every person’s occupation is a post and a station assigned to him by God. Although some people, as others did to Calvin and other reformers, may argue that the article demonstrates insensitivity to the unemployed, I have argued that restricting the word “calling” to ecclesiastical function always distorts the biblical meaning of the term. The central question in this article is simply: What can the today’s society learn from Calvin’s doctrine of occupational calling? Said differently, if Calvin and other Reformers were still alive what could they say to today’s politicians, legislators, businessmen, bankers, traders, scientists, judges and other public servants? Noting that the medieval society completely distorted the biblical truth of calling, this paper calls for a simple return to Calvin’s doctrine of vocation calling. The discussion walks from Biblical texts through the key developments in theology particularly related to how vocation was understood in the early and medieval churches that culminated in the Reformers’ view. The article concludes by offering various suppositions of what Calvin could have commended to us today.

Toward an Evangelical Evolutionary Theodicy

ABSTRACTMany Christians throughout history have believed that a cosmic fall justifies the existence of horrid natural realities, as recorded in Genesis 3. Of course, this traditional theodicy is deeply rooted in a concordist hermeneutic. This paper outlines an evangelical evolutionary theodicy. It argues that inerrant biblical truths can be faithfully extended to the creative process of biological evolution. More provocatively, the central thesis asserts that harsh physical realities, including natural selection, survival of the fittest, and extinction of species, are part of God’s very good creation.

СЭР УИЛЬЯМ МИТЧЕЛЛ РАМСЕЙ И ПРОТЕСТАНТСКАЯ АПОЛОГЕТИКА (ЭТЮД ИЗ СЕВЕРОАМЕРИКАНСКОЙ РЕЛИГИОЗНОЙ ИСТОРИИ ХХ В.)

The aim of the article considers the evolution of narrative about the famous Scottish archaeologist William Mitchell Ramsay (1851-1939), who vindicated the trustworthiness of the Acts of the Apostles. Within the context of the early - 20th century conservative Protestant apologetics Ramsay became an iconic figure of the repentant skeptic, appointed by the Divine Providence to demonstrate the literal inerrancy of the Bible. The author traces the development of that narrative in the apologetic works of conservative Protestant authors in 1910-1940 and names the main stages and key figures highlighting also the perception of Ramsay’s works in the science of that time.

Charts, Indexes, and Files: Surveillance, Information Management, and the Visualization of Subversion in Mainline Protestantism

ABSTRACTThis essay explores how some Americans came to view the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) and, more broadly, ecumenical mainline Protestantism as a threat to the national security interests of the United States. By focusing on the efforts of various elements in the federal bureaucracy—including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Chemical Warfare Service, and Military Intelligence—and the work of average Americans to investigate the FCC, the essay examines how techniques of surveillance and information management helped shape the way Americans came to understand religion in the twentieth century. The essay develops three interconnected themes: first, the rise of America's national security surveillance establishment in the United States after World War I; second, the development of new methods of information management and visualization in corporate and state bureaucracies; and, third, the rise of voluntary, private surveillance in the wake of World War I. Through these three themes, the essay highlights how a network of federal bureaucrats, business leaders, and average citizens used graphs, indexes, and files to interpret mainline, ecumenical Christianity as a threat to domestic security in the United States. Ultimately, the project suggests that scholarly efforts to assess fissures in U.S. Protestantism have focused too much on controversies over belief and theology—especially those related to evolutionary theory, eschatology, and scriptural inerrancy—and paid far too little attention to the emerging bureaucratic systems of state and corporate surveillance that helped to document, visualize, and disseminate these accusations in the first place.