Shepherds Conference 2015: Derek Thomas on 2 Peter 1:16-21

06 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by memoirandremains in Bibliology

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2 Peter, 2 Peter 1:16–21, Derek Thomas, Inerrancy, Shepherds Conference 2015

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

John Wesley said, If there is one error in the Bible, there may as well be a thousand. If there is one falsehood, it did not come from the God of truth.

I believe that. I was 18; math, physics major
At 18, my best friend sent me a copy of Stott, Basic Christianity. Within a few days I was on my knees asking God to save me. The text in that book that came to me like a hammer: Come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

I was at RTS when Lindsell came out. It was a required text.

What is the Bible. 750,000 words in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, poetry, letters, sermons, treaties, travel narratives, Gospel, apocalyptic, songs, prayers, inventories, et cetera. All of it God’s breathed-out Word, the breath of God.

All Scripture is God breathed out; it is the breath that you can see. When God breathes out what do you get? Scripture.

Peter is writing out in the midst of false teachers of immoral lives

Three Things:

What does Peter say the Bible is?

God’s Word written through human instrumentality.
Men spoke from God.
Men from various backgrounds, different style, different
Paul always right about everything. Can you imagine going up to Paul asking him whether he has an opinion about something and he says, “I don’t know.”
Examples of all the differences of styles and structures throughout the Scripture.

Revelation is not flat. It is progressive and developmental. Even within a single man. Compare Paul in Galatians and 2 Timothy. He has not changed any theology but he writes differently.

Compare 1 & 2 Peter.
Men wrote the Bible. You can see them and hear them, their personalities and backgrounds.

But you can’t apply to err is human.

How is the Bible Written Through Human Instrumentality
No prophecy comes from one’s own interpretation. It does not come from someone making it up. Even if we limit this to specific interpretations, he is making the point that it is part of Scripture. These prophecies are true because they are Scripture.

No prophecy was ever produced: source. In v. 17 the source of the voice was heavenly.

Men spoke as they were carried along; like the ship in Acts 27 was driven along by the wind. The motion of the ship has everything to do with the wind.

Somehow the men’s personalities are seen and yet they were carried along so that they would write what God intends for them to write. When Scripture speaks, God speaks.

Issue: Is this dictation? No & yes. At times there was dictation: the ten commandments, the 7 letters in Revelation. Sometimes wrote with astonishing informality. Hebrews 2, It is has been testified somewhere.

How can God superintend men to bring about inerrant Scripture? By a doctrine of providence. It is as God accomplishes his will with human beings in any other category of life.

“Denials of inerrancy are eruptions of pride in rebellion to the sovereignty of God in the life of a human being.”

Human instrumentality through the Sovereign intention of God throughout all its production. The Bible is as God intends it to be.

To What Extent Can we Be Certain that the Bible is God’s Word Written?

Men spoke from God: that’s the Bible’s view of itself.
Peter is first of all speaking of the OT. But you turn to 2 Peter 3 and Paul’s writing is hard to understand. [I don’t understand what Paul is talking about with women’s head coverings]. Paul is on the level of Scripture. Peter is already recognizes the authority of Paul’s writing.

Today we are facing the contention of human language to convey divine truth. Post modernism’s attack on words; words are unable to contain divine truth. But Peter says the language contains divine truth.

God speaks. We are in the image of God. We have the innate capacity to understand the truth. We may suppress it, but it gets through.

Why do I believe the Bible to be the Word of God? Jesus. When Jesus speaks, God speaks. He is divine & human; there is only one “he”. When Jesus speaks the Second Person of the Trinity speaks.

The Bible is God’s Word in men’s mouths.
Everything to which it speaks, however incidental is true.

Notice how the NT picks up on incidentals of the OT are picked up. Constant small details are recounted and used.

Matt 22/Mark 12 authorship of Psalm 110 as David. The superscription is the basis of the argument.

Those who argue
The Bible is divine spirated and exactly as God intends it to be — and contains all sorts of human (intended) errors.
Peter, Men wrote as they were carried along by the Spirit. The relationship between the divine & human authorship is not symmetrical — just as it in all of God’s Providence:
Think of how great the Mount of Transfiguration. You think the way to be sure is an experience, a vision; Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. But Peter says, You have all the certainty you need right here in the Holy Scriptures.

to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place

What happens after night? Dawn. The day star rising, the Second Coming.

What have you got to help you through all of life’s difficulties? The Bible, to which you will do well to pay attention.

I have such a propensity in my hear to accommodate my sins. Heresy brings in immorality; immortality brings heresy. Are you tempted in your exposition to take the softer line because you conscience condemns you and your heart condemns you? You will do well to pay attention to Holy Scripture. It’s all you’ve got; and it’s all you need.

Our charge is believe that every word is fire.

An “experience” is not a good ground for faith.

20 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in 2 Peter, Apologetics, Faith, Romans

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2 Peter, A.C. Grayling, Apologetics, Barbara Ehrenreich, experience, Faith, religion, Romans, Self-Disclosure

Ehrenreich’s chief experience of a transcendent Otherness, an experience which has had a large impact on her life, occurred when she was eighteen.

Grayling then goes onto describe her sense of “otherness” in some detail. Ehrenreich took the experience to be some sort of divine intervention. He also critiques her understanding of this Other as a true objective event:

Religious people, of course, attribute them to encounters with the divine, and it may well be that experiences caused in these ways lie at the root of humankind’s impulse to create religion. But the fact that empirical science today so well explains the causes and nature of these disturbances of normal neurological function is reason to guard against the supernaturalistic attempts at explanation, which were once the only resource our forebears had.

I have no opinion about the natural or source of Ehrenreich’s experience. The very subjectivity of such an experience makes it impossible to affirm or deny or perhaps even understand. For the Christian, even an event which others experienced is alone insufficient to ground faith. Peter specifically directs our attention elsewhere:

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,”
18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Peter who had a supreme experience, a sight of the transfiguration of The Lord, refuses to rest faith there. Rather he directs us to something else: God speaking. This may seem an odd ground for faith, and yet there it is:

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:14-17. This is so, because all that we can know of God can only come through revelation. God must disclose himself to us, for we cannot come to him any other manner. The self-disclosure of God coming in its final form as God speaking in his Son (Hebrews 1:2a, in these last days he spoke to us in his Son):

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. John 1:18.

Thus, we do not ground our faith in some subjective experience but rather in God’s objective self-disclosure.

A False Sense of Security

12 Saturday May 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 2 Peter

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2 Peter, Christians, Clive Andersen, danger, falsehood, lies, Opening Up Second Peter

Falsehood’, ‘denial’, ‘exploitation’ and ‘destruction’ are strong words that are sometimes overused—but not here. Peter goes on the offensive to warn that life is not a game, but a serious business. There is no practice run—this is the real thing; so live to glorify God, or you will be judged and condemned.
Many have become anaesthetized to the facts of life and death, truth and error, God and Satan, heaven and hell, for there are so many other things that crowd into life and the big issues can so easily be sidelined. It may be work, or leisure—including legitimate hobbies—or it could be boredom, not knowing what to do, or the daily grind of life; yet all can conspire to lull us into a false sense of security.
Christians live in enemy territory surrounded by evil powers and forces that are against them. All, therefore, are to be on their guard, not least against false words.

Opening Up Second Peter,
CLIVE ANDERSON

The Words of God are Power

07 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Corinthians, 2 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Jeremiah, Preaching

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1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2:4, 1 Corinthians 4:20, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, 2 Peter, 2 Peter 1:21, Biblical Counseling, Jeremiah, Jeremiah 23:29, power, Preaching, Speech, Word

1 Corinthians 2:4:

and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

1 Corinthians 4:20:

For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

1 Thess. 1:4-5:

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,
5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

2 Peter 1:21:

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 23:29:

Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?