Scriptures selfattesting authority question doctrine truthfulness Scriptures

Recommendations

Info

The Glory of God as the Scope of the World and the Word 205 me from the very fact that the natural world exists and from the fact that I exist as a conscious, knowing, valuing person in such a world. “By the Scope of the Whole” Now what is the connection between, on the one hand, knowing God through nature in this way and, on the other hand, the self-authenticating nature of the Holy Scriptures? The Westminster Larger Catechism provides the link—and explains why the word “scope” is in the title of this chapter. Question 4 of this historic catechism, which was completed in 1647, reads, “How doth it appear that the Scriptures are the word of God?” In other words, how can we know that the Bible is God’s word and, therefore, true? Part of the answer is crucial to our line of thinking in this chapter—and this book! “Answer: The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by . . . the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God.” 3 What does that mean? Turning the phrases around, it says, “The aim or the purpose of the Scriptures, namely, to give all glory to God, is the scope of the whole Bible.” I take the phrase “scope of the whole” to mean “all that the Bible takes into view in the totality of its writings.” In other words, the whole Bible, properly understood, has this divine purpose—to communicate or display the glory of God. Now you can see immediately how this relates to the purpose of the natural world in Romans 1:18–23. If the catechism is right, the whole of God’s word is declaring the glory of God. And that, Paul says, is what the whole of God’s world is doing also: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 19:1). What this means, then, is that if God holds us accountable to see his glory by means of the created world, how much more will he hold us accountable to see his glory by means of his inspired word. This is true, if indeed the pervasive, God-given design of Scripture is to reveal God’s glory. The men who wrote the Westminster Larger Catechism believed that was indeed the design of the whole Bible. Jonathan 3 Emphasis added. The whole answer reads: “The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation. But the Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.”
206 How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God? Edwards put it like this, in the book that has shaped my thinking more than any other book outside the Bible, the End for Which God Created the World: All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God. . . . The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God, and God is the beginning, middle and end in this affair. 4 In other words, the Scripture bears uniform and pervasive witness to the truth that everything that happens is ultimately for the glory of God. This is God’s design for his world, and this is God’s design for his word. And because it is God’s design for the world and the word, the glory of God is central in how ordinary people come to know God through the world and through the word. We Were Made to Know God’s Glory through the World and the Word Return for a moment to Romans 1. Paul said that all human beings, deep down in their souls, “know God” (v. 21). “What can be known about God is plain to them” (v. 19). Specifically, Paul says, all humans know the glory of God, because that is the truth we suppress and the treasure we exchange. “They . . . exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images” (v. 23). I do not take Paul to mean that all humans have a spiritual, saving knowledge of God’s glory, since he says we are under God’s wrath and without excuse (vv. 18–21). Rather, I take him to mean that because we are all created in God’s image, with the original destiny of imaging forth God’s glory, there are traces of this design in our souls. Sin has dethroned the glory of God as our supreme treasure and pleasure, but it has not destroyed the God-shaped template that this dethronement left behind. We were made for the glory of God. Our minds are designed to 4 Jonathan Edwards, The Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World, vol. 8, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Paul Ramsey (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), 526, 531.
Page 2 and 3:
“A Peculiar Glory is not just ano
Page 4:
“With passion, clarity, a believi
Page 7 and 8:
A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian
Page 9 and 10:
In God, whose word I praise, in the
Page 11 and 12:
PART 4 How Can We Know the Christia
Page 13 and 14:
12 Introduction The Heavens First,
Page 15 and 16:
14 Introduction Edwards. Edwards ca
Page 17 and 18:
16 Introduction Scripture is not re
Page 19 and 20:
18 Introduction press was invented
Page 21 and 22:
Now to him who is able to keep you
Page 23 and 24:
22 A Place to Stand it says is true
Page 25 and 26:
24 A Place to Stand somewhere in re
Page 27 and 28:
26 A Place to Stand what liberal ar
Page 29 and 30:
28 A Place to Stand all. Maybe a dr
Page 31 and 32:
30 A Place to Stand up. Students wo
Page 33 and 34:
32 A Place to Stand ranges and diff
Page 35 and 36:
34 A Place to Stand In other words,
Page 37 and 38:
36 A Place to Stand In my case—an
Page 39 and 40:
Truly, I say to you, until heaven a
Page 41 and 42:
40 What Books and Words Make Up the
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
When the Spirit of truth comes, he
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Then the Lord said to me, “You ha
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
The words of the Lord are pure word
Page 91 and 92:
90 What Do the Christian Scriptures
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Do not think that I have come to ab
Page 101 and 102:
100 What Do the Christian Scripture
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
If anyone thinks that he is a proph
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
All things have been handed over to
Page 129 and 130:
128 How Can We Know the Christian S
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149:
Page 152 and 153:
9 What It Is Like to See the Glory
Page 154 and 155:
What It Is Like to See the Glory of
Page 156 and 157: What It Is Like to See the Glory of
Page 168 and 169: 10 Pondering Pascal’s Wager As I
Page 170 and 171: Pondering Pascal’s Wager 169 litt
Page 172 and 173: Pondering Pascal’s Wager 171 lead
Page 174 and 175: Pondering Pascal’s Wager 173 conf
Page 176 and 177: Pondering Pascal’s Wager 175 in 1
Page 178 and 179: Pondering Pascal’s Wager 177 In o
Page 180 and 181: Pondering Pascal’s Wager 179 word
Page 182 and 183: 11 John Calvin and the Internal Tes
Page 184 and 185: John Calvin and the Internal Testim
Page 192: John Calvin and the Internal Testim
Page 195 and 196: Men . . . by their unrighteousness
Page 197 and 198: 196 How Are the Christian Scripture
Page 205: 204 How Are the Christian Scripture
Page 211 and 212: Thus says the One who is high and l
Page 227: 226 How Are the Christian Scripture
Page 230 and 231: 14 In the Fulfillment of Prophecy I
Page 232 and 233: In the Fulfillment of Prophecy 231
Page 240 and 241: 15 In the Miracles of Jesus Continu
Page 242 and 243: In the Miracles of Jesus 241 (John
Page 244 and 245: In the Miracles of Jesus 243 humili
Page 246 and 247: In the Miracles of Jesus 245 purpos
Page 248 and 249: In the Miracles of Jesus 247 Simila
Page 250 and 251: In the Miracles of Jesus 249 But wh
Page 253 and 254: And we all, with unveiled face, beh
Page 257 and 258:
256 How Are the Christian Scripture
Page 259 and 260:
Page 261 and 262:
Page 263 and 264:
Page 265 and 266:
Page 267 and 268:
When you read this, you can perceiv
Page 269 and 270:
Page 271 and 272:
Page 273 and 274:
Page 275 and 276:
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 282 and 283:
Conclusion My conclusion is that
Page 284 and 285:
Conclusion 283 but also forbids coe
Page 286 and 287:
Conclusion 285 We have seen this in
Page 288 and 289:
General Index Abel, 47, 48 Abram/Ab
Page 290 and 291:
General Index 289 of, 23-24, 91-92,
Page 292 and 293:
General Index 291 Jewish Bible (the
Page 294:
General Index 293 Tabitha, 107 Temp
Page 297 and 298:
296 Scripture Index 69:25 101 72:19
Page 299 and 300:
298 Scripture Index 2:11 240, 248 2
Page 301 and 302:
300 Scripture Index 15:8-9 214 15:9
Page 303 and 304:
302 Scripture Index 1:8-9 40 1:10-1
Page 305:
Want to go deeper in your own Bible
show all

Scriptures selfattesting authority question doctrine truthfulness Scriptures

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?