We believe glorious Truth as Christians. The next several Sundays I plan to post sections from my church’s Elder Affirmation of Faith. I’m doing this because every few weeks our congregational reading is an excerpt from this document. Every time we all read aloud the truths we confess, my soul rejoices. I pray these posts will aid you in worshiping our Lord on His day.
Scripture, the Word of God Written
We believe that the Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible Word of God, verbally inspired by God, and without error in the original manuscripts.
We believe that God’s intentions, revealed in the Bible, are the supreme and final authority in testing all claims about what is true and what is right. In matters not addressed by the Bible, what is true and right is assessed by criteria consistent with the teachings of Scripture.
We believe God’s intentions are revealed through the intentions of inspired human authors, even when the authors’ intention was to express divine meaning of which they were not fully aware, as, for example, in the case of some Old Testament prophecies. Thus the meaning of Biblical texts is a fixed historical reality, rooted in the historical, unchangeable intentions of its divine and human authors. However, while meaning does not change, the application of that meaning may change in various situations. Nevertheless it is not legitimate to infer a meaning from a Biblical text that is not demonstrably carried by the words which God inspired.
Therefore, the process of discovering the intention of God in the Bible (which is its fullest meaning) is a humble and careful effort to find in the language of Scripture what the human authors intended to communicate. Limited abilities, traditional biases, personal sin, and cultural assumptions often obscure Biblical texts. Therefore the work of the Holy Spirit is essential for right understanding of the Bible, and prayer for His assistance belongs to a proper effort to understand and apply God’s Word.
*Taken from the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith, paragraphs 1.1 – 1.4. You are free to download the entire affirmation [pdf] complete with Scriptural proofs for the above statements.
Bob,
I love the idea that your church practices the reading and teaching of its fundamental doctrines, particularly this one on the Word of God (Scripture). Too often people make the mistake that the ‘doctrinal statements’ of a church aren’t worth the time or effort in reading or understanding when it is taught. Some, if not many, think it’s too boring, tedious, or monotonous. Phah! It’s our lifeblood! My pastor alludes to or references our own doctrinal statement periodically in his messages, and he laid out our ‘DNA’ of faith when we started out as a new church (split off of another church– somewhat messy to say the least).
My heart would rejoice in a historic view of Scripture with an addition of something exegetical like this from the Philadelphia Baptist Confession:
“The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages. . . .”
I would be buoyed by this representation of the promises of God to believers, knowing that I am living by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Larry,
You’re spot on.
Kent,
They should probably add something about the preserved nature of the Word. Something about its reliability even in the copies we use. Although they are probably assuming we as evangelicals believe that. They won’t join you in your perfect preservation, KJVO/TRO views, though. Of course, I don’t think the framers of the confession you quote would either.
How nice to hear of a Baptist congregation reinforcing the system of doctrine they confess is contained in the Scriptures by keeping their uninspired doctrinal standards before the attention of the congregation.
John,
Preservation of Scripture is found in the Bible (Matthew 24:35; Isaiah 59:21; etc.), but you tell me where this is in the Bible: “We believe God’s intentions are revealed through the intentions of inspired human authors.” God’s intentions? I thought they were “writings,” graphe, that God revealed.
Thanks. 🙂