The Simple Gospel: Necessary Inference

Posted on June 1st, 2003 in Authority Study, Themes, Nec. Inference, Authority, Subject Index by Cox, Stan
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series, Authority Study.

We have asserted that Bible Authority can be established from the written scriptures in three ways: Expressed Statement, Approved Example, and Necessary Inference. In this article we deal with the third means, Necessary Inference.

The concept is ridiculed by many as being a legalistic, and humanly devised means of establishing authority. We will show from scripture that this is not so. However, to begin, let’s note that we often learn things by inference.

In communication, people often imply things, without explicitly stating them. Body language, gestures, and inflection often reveal implications not revealed in the words themselves.

The same thing is true with the written word, and can be demonstrated time and again from the scriptures.

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"What Is Written … How Readest Thou?": How Does God Speak To Mankind?

Posted on April 1st, 2003 in Bible, Authority, Subject Index by Osborne, Harry

A few years ago while in preaching in Lithuania, a nice young woman came up to me and asked if she could tell me something. When I told her that I would be happy to speak with her, she launched into a truly bizarre story. She told me that God spoke to her out of a spaceship. This close encounter of the strange kind left her absolutely certain that she knew all that she needed to know about spiritual matters. However, her claim to be the recipient of divine communication did not stop at that galactic vision. She further claimed that, after the space ship, God spoke to her through a horse, a cow, a light fixture, a frog and an image of the Madonna.

Though she seemed sincere, I did not decide to abandon Bible study and begin searching the night sky for a heavenly spaceship, nor did I launch out in pursuit of an intelligent looking frog. I seriously doubt any of those reading this article would suggest such methods for determining God’s will either. Why? Because we recognize that God does not deliver His truth through a holy cow, but through the Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 2:14-17). It is just that simple.

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The Simple Gospel: Approved Example

Posted on April 1st, 2003 in Authority Study, Example, Themes, Authority, Subject Index by Cox, Stan
This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series, Authority Study.

In our previous article, entitled Expressed Command, I wrote:

To properly understand how authority is established in religion, it is necessary to understand the nature of communication. God created man with the ability to communicate his will or desire to others. He chose to reveal Himself to man by the same methods. The divine hermeneutic (way of interpreting the Bible) is in accord with the logical rules of communication using written or spoken language.

One of these "logical rules of communication" can be identified as an approved example. The premise is simple. If in the New Testament we find Christians participating in an activity, and the example we find is spoken of as approved of God, we can rightly surmise that this practice is divinely authorized.

It is important to note that the example must be spoken of by inspiration as approved. There are certainly examples of unauthorized activity by Christians in the New Testament. We do not mean that we can engage in any activity found in the New Testament. Rather, only those which are shown to meet God’s approval.

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May Women Speak in Bible Classes

Posted on April 1st, 2003 in Worship, Women, Authority, Subject Index by Miller, Matt

I will never forget the time that I had just begun to work with a new local church, and was waiting, on a Sunday morning or afternoon (I cannot remember which) to deliver one of my first sermons.  Immediately before the worship began, I was herded and pinned in by a group of older men who had all grown up in a certain part of Kentucky.  They asked me whether I believed women could speak in Bible class, and, practically before I could utter a word, they inundated me with their own arguments why they thought women could not.  One of them even went so far as to say something to the effect of, “I would rather have musical instruments than women speaking in Bible class, because the Bible doesn’t say not to have them, but it does say women can’t speak.”  After having been thoroughly, verbally assaulted by these men, meaning well no doubt, I was hardly in a frame of mind to deliver a good sermon!  But, the fact that this question meant so much to these men made me realize that it is not merely some intellectual, theological question, but a valid question which local churches must study and answer.  To merely ignore or avoid the question is to have congregations where women do not know what to do, and some are afraid to speak, and some feel that they have something worthwhile to contribute to the class, while some men sit fuming, believing these women to be in sin.

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The Simple Gospel: Expressed Command

Posted on February 1st, 2003 in Authority Study, Themes, Authority, Subject Index by Cox, Stan
This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series, Authority Study.

To properly understand how authority is established in religion, it is necessary to understand the nature of communication. God created man with the ability to communicate his will or desire to others. He chose to reveal Himself to man by the same methods. The divine hermeneutic (way of interpreting the Bible) is in accord with the logical rules of communication using written or spoken language.

For example, a father can communicate his desire or will to his child in a number of ways. The first, and simplest way is to state it clearly to his child. This expressing of a command is found in God’s communication to man as well.

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Methodists OK Weekly Communion

Posted on December 1st, 2002 in Methodism, Doctrinal Error, Authority, Subject Index by Hafley, Larry Ray

The headline read, "Weekly Communion Backed." The article said, "Although many Protestants celebrate communion monthly or quarterly, a study committee of the United Methodist Church has endorsed weekly observance….The committee said weekly practice would enrich worship and fit the practice of Methodist founder John Wesley, though it does not plan to seek legislation mandating it, United Methodist News Service reported" (Houston Chronicle, 2/16/02, 4F).

Imagine that-Methodists eventually may forsake a common Protestant practice and actually break bread as those non-Methodist, New Testament disciples did (Acts 20:7)! What’s more, the "weekly practice" would not only "fit the practice of Methodist founder, John Wesley," but it also would "fit the practice" of the church of Christ’s founder, Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:20; Acts 2:42; 20:7).

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Walking Worthy: Self-Imposed Religion

Posted on December 1st, 2002 in Catholicism, Doctrinal Error, Authority, Subject Index by Smith, J.S.

Furniture restoration often involves the use of chemicals and abrasives which are intended to strip away years of refinishing and grime just to return to the mint state of the piece before them. It seems as though mainstream religion in the late twentieth century is in a similar state.

Religion That Is God-Imposed

There is religion that is God-imposed, and can be studied in the New Testament. In order to meet Christ’s demand that all worship of his father be both in spirit and truth, man’s praise must hew to what can be ascertained from revealed authority (John 4:23-24). That authority rests in Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20) and his twelve apostles who were chosen to reveal much of it through the inspired dictates of heaven (Matt. 18:18). As the first century of Christ drew toward its dusk, Jude could write that the faith had been once for all delivered (Jude 3). That system of belief, practice and religion was being completed. Any form of religion which God had imposed was in its masterpiece state even 1900 years ago.

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The Simple Gospel: The New Testament - Christ’s Authority Revealed

Posted on December 1st, 2002 in Authority Study, Themes, Authority, Subject Index by Cox, Stan
This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series, Authority Study.

Jesus Christ is our source for authority today. Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18).

However, none living today has ever seen Jesus. Also, despite claims to the contrary, Jesus does not speak to us directly today. So, how is it we are to know the will of Jesus? He is the authority, so how are we to know what he authorizes?

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The Simple Gospel: Christ, The Source of All Authority

Posted on October 1st, 2002 in Authority Study, Themes, Christ, Authority, Subject Index by Cox, Stan
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series, Authority Study.

In Matthew 21:25, Jesus asked the elders of the Jews the question, "The baptism of John; where was it from? From heaven or from men?" The question put the elders in a difficult position. If they said it was from "heaven" (divinely authorized), then Jesus could admonish them for disobedience. "Why then did you not believe him?" (vs. 25). If they said it was from men to excuse their disobedience, they would run afoul of the people who counted John a prophet.

In this simple exchange a fundamental truth regarding the nature of authority is revealed. If a practice is authorized by man, it is in fact not authoritative at all. If however it is authorized by "heaven", men must heed it.

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God Understands Language

Posted on August 1st, 2002 in Baptism, Authority, Church, Associate Editorials, Subject Index by Fain, Larry

"For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." (1 Corinthians 2:10-13, NASB)

From this passage we learn that God has revealed Himself through the work of the Holy Spirit to the chosen apostles of Christ. The apostles are said to teach in words, “…not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit.” It is only reasonable to assume that the revelation of the mind of God in words are words that man can understand, and understand these words in the same way that God understands them. The issue of understandable language gets to the very heart of the issue of faith. Do we believe the Bible? Is it God’s word? Is the Bible God’s complete and final revelation of God to man? Does Hebrews 1:1-2 mean what it says about God’s speaking to man in these last times? "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world" (NASB). When you break down this statement without all the modifiers it says that God has spoken, that God has spoken to man, and that God has spoken to man through His Son. What do we believe?

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