We have been re-reading the book ‘The Battle For The Bible’ by Harold Lindsell and it was first published in 1976. We did read it back in the 70s at some point but exactly when is lost to time.
As we have been reading the different chapters, the thoughts came to us that the battle is not over. Even today people are questioning the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible. We are only going to take a couple snippets out of this book for today’s article as you should read the entire book for yourselves.
47 years later, this is still an important work to read.
It is the Bible, not God, that we are questioning’ (pg.98)
This is not Dr. Lindsell speaking but T.C. Smith who put those words in an address to a group of Baptists many years ago. The problem with this statement is, when you question the Bible, you are questioning God. Who do you think wrote the Bible?
If one wants to question the Bible, then they are questioning its author. There is no way to separate the two. Many unbelievers will say that science has disproven the Bible many times over. That has never been done.
What the people ignore or miss when making that statement is that there is no one or no thing in history that has appointed science to be an authority over the Bible and its content. Neither God nor Jesus has made that appointment or taught anywhere that the Bible is submissive to science, or any research field.
There are no other supernatural beings that can make that appointment either. Science is subject to the Bible and not its lord. No matter what scientific method you use, especially bible criticism, historical-critical thinking, and so on, these methods do not get to the truth nor are they superior to God and his word.
God does not make mistakes, he does not lie, he does not perform magic, he does not play games, and he does not mislead. What he has written in the Bible is without error and it is accurate and true.
In the book, Dr. Lindsell mentions that some of those who hold to the errancy and fallibility of the bible will also clarify their comments by adding that the Bible is inerrant and infallible when it comes to salvation but it is not when it comes to history and science.
But those people are trying to have their cake and eat it too. of course, they will say the parts about salvation are infallible, etc., because they want to go to heaven and not end up in hell. The Bible is either infallible and inerrant in all of its content or it is not.
There is no middle ground and all Christians have to make a choice here. That argument claiming only salvation is inerrant, etc., is like saying your wife is a little bit pregnant. Either she is or she isn’t. There is no middle ground.
You either believe God or you don’t. Then a couple of pages later, Dr. Lindsell is quoting the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s policy statement:
All of the staff of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention are not only allowed but encouraged to assume full liberty of academic and editorial freedom, to embrace their own beliefs, convictions, viewpoints,concepts and opinions on any and all matters pertaining to the Christian faith…
It is hereby agreed that every staff member shall have full access to freedom for himself as a person and may assume any theological stance he feels is right; he is not to promote, initiate, or become the part of any organization, conspiracy, movement or fellowship which would deny, impede, harass, disenfranchise, or void any other child of God the same privilege (pg 102)
There is a lot being said there and actually one contradicts the other. While the first paragraph is giving everyone the same academic and editorial freedom, the second paragraph is saying you can have academic and editorial freedom if you oppose the alternative beliefs of those around you in the convention.
What it is also saying is that a person does not have to believe the Bible or even be a true Christian to be a leader in the church and the convention. It is very obvious that the statement is very wrong but when you let the wolf into the hen house, they have no barriers to ruin the true believer.
If this statement was adopted around the world, there would be no real Christianity as everyone is a part of the Christian faith. But Jesus did not promote this attitude nor taught it. he said ‘my sheep hear my voice’.
Jesus’ voice is found in the Bible and it also talks about the historicity of the OT and that the people the OT talks about were real. You are not hearing Jesus’ voice when you adopt that statement that was quoted.
If the church adopted such a statement, it would not be able to tell anyone who is a false preacher, teacher, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. That flies in the face of biblical teaching as well. The bible violates that statement already when it talks about evil men becoming worse and who deceive others.
The Bible violates that statement when it talks about false teachers. Something that Jesus, Paul, and Peter talked about. What that convention is saying is that you have to ignore the Bible to be a member of their church and that is just insane.
There is no church without the Bible to guide them into doing what is right over what is wrong, and the other standards as well. What they are saying is that the Bible is not authoritative and anyone can do what they want.
The people become like Nineveh in Jonah’s day not knowing their right hand from their left. This trouble creeps into the church because the people in charge of the Bible schools and seminaries do not hold their faculty and staff to the truth.
There is alarge body of evidence to show that college and seminary faculty members are opposed to a belief in infallibility (pg. 103)
When you let these faculty members teach Christian students, their faulty beliefs are carried from the college or seminary into the pulpits and classrooms of the church. It is then taught and more people accept this faulty thinking and fewer Christians believe God or the Bible.
If you are not teaching and preaching the truth, do not expect to have any statements of faith or policies that differ from what has been quoted above. You will have more unbelievers in the church than believers and the church is rendered impotent which is what evil wants.
A weak church that does not believe the God they claim to believe in, does nothing for that God but makes his church a laughingstock of the world. When the believers do not believe God, then why should the unbeliever?
There are false teachers in all bible colleges and seminaries around the world. The reason they are there is that the church leaders are too afraid to stop them from being employed by those institutions.
Whether they have been bullied or not is another story for another day. The problem is the current church is not like the early church which stood up to false teachers and kept them from ruining the flock.
There are enough false teachers plying their deception outside the church, we do not need to bring them inside and give them the freedom to lie to the people and the students in the church. That is not pleasing God nor is it doing what Jesus would do.
It is time to remove the false teachers from the pulpits, the Sunday School classrooms, and the colleges and seminaries. It is time to preach the truth without fear and get the church to do what the early church did, stand up to sin.
Yes, the church will suffer because God’s ways are not the unbelievers’ way. But the world will get the truth, fairness, justice, and more honesty in business and other important industries.
The world benefits when the Church does its job. it suffers when the church does not do its job. We have probably used this illustration before but it applies here. When the Romans were persecuting Christians and throwing them to the lions, they stood with Jesus to death.
As the Christians died, Roman citizens got up from their seats in the coliseum and took their place. Standing by your faith, and preaching the truth is what brings converts. Giving in to the world and opening the faith up to anyone and everything only brings in more of the corrupt world. It does nothing to bring converts and only destroys the church as well as believers.
We do not want believers to lose their faith either. That is a terrible thing to let happen to your fellow Christians. God does not like it either.
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