Category: Columns
What does sexual orientation really mean?
Political correctness just got weirder.
A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post by Lauren R. Taylor describes the author’s struggle to raise her cats gender neutral.
No, really. Read her explanation: “People are coming to understand that not all of us fit into the ‘girl’ box or the ‘boy’ box. Those who don’t are claiming space to be who they are. We all need to find ways to acknowledge and respect that. My way of respecting it just happens to be raising my cats gender neutral. You can choose your own.”
Taylor is right to acknowledge the inherent value of all persons. But that’s not her ultimate purpose. Rather, she hopes to obliterate any boundaries that distinguish between celebration and shame when it comes to sexual appetites.
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Do we need the originals of Scripture?
The faith of some Christians is challenged when they learn that the autographs, or originals, of the Bible no longer exist. Written on stone, metal, papyrus, and parchment, the words first penned by 40 divinely inspired authors over 1,500 years have not survived the ravages of time.
If God is able to breathe out His Word so that the originals are rightly described as inerrant, infallible, and sufficient, could He not also have ensured that the originals survived?
Of course. But He didn’t.
Nor did God promise that an unbroken line of inerrant copies would be made and preserved from the inspired autographs.
What we’re left with are thousands of manuscript copies sporting tens of thousands of variants, a reality that has spurred scholars like Bart Ehrman to abandon Evangelical Christianity in favor of agnosticism.
But should that be our response?
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The sufficiency of Scripture
This is the last in a series of columns on the inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture.
When Christians say the Bible is true, we often use terms to describe the manner in which God has spoken to us through His written Word.
One such term is “sufficient.” But what does that mean?
All the words God intended
“The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it now contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly,” writes Wayne Grudem in Systematic Theology.
By sufficient, we mean the Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of doctrine and practice. It’s what the Reformers called sola scriptura – by Scripture alone.
In practical terms, this means the Bible answers life’s most important questions, such as: Is there a God? What’s wrong with the world? And what happens when I die?
Not that Scripture is an exhaustive catalogue of everything God knows, for omniscience cannot be confined to a single set of divinely inspired writings.
Equally important, sufficiency does not prevent God from speaking to us today through Spirit-filled leaders, dreams and visions, or even an audible voice if He so chooses, although these forms of communication are better classified as illumination, not revelation, and they must conform to Scripture.
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The infallibility of Scripture
Previously: The inerrancy of Scripture
This is the third in a series of columns on the inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture.
When Christians say the Bible is true, we often use terms to describe the manner in which God has spoken to us through His written Word.
One such term is “infallible.” But what does that mean?
Incapable of error
By infallibility, we mean the original manuscripts are incapable of error. This is because the Bible is inspired, or God-breathed, resulting in “autographs” that are inerrant and infallible.
If the Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture, and His breathed-out words are exactly what He wanted to communicate to us, then we can rightly say these autographs are incapable of error because God is wholly dependable. He does not lie, make mistakes, or lead us astray.
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For 1,000 years – Revelation 20:2-3
Previously: He seized the dragon – Revelation 20:2-3
The scripture
Rev. 20:2 – He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years. 3 He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the 1,000 years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time. (HCSB)
For 1,000 years
Revelation 20 is the only place in scripture that refers to 1,000 years during which Satan is bound. Few time periods in the Bible have been written about with so much conviction – and debated with so much contention. Before surveying the various views of the “millennium,” let’s look at every reference to 1,000 years in this chapter:
- Verse 2 – The angel seizes the Devil and binds him in the abyss for 1,000 years.
- Verse 3 – Satan is not able to deceive the nations until the 1,000 years are completed.
- Verse 4 – People that have been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of God’s word, and who have not worshiped the beast or his image, and who have not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands, come to life and reign with the Messiah for 1,000 years.
- Verse 5 – The rest of the dead do not come to life until the 1,000 years are completed.
- Verse 6 – Those who share in the first resurrection will reign with Jesus for 1,000 years.
- Verse 7 – After the 1,000 years are completed, Satan is released from the abyss and goes out to deceive the nations.
Are we to take the 1,000 years literally or figuratively? Is this period of time past, present, or future? And are there other passages of scripture that shed light on the meaning of the millennium? With respect to these questions, there are three general schools of thought. But before we briefly survey them, let’s begin with some general observations about these verses.
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