Scriptures selfattesting authority question doctrine truthfulness Scriptures

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but also forbids coercion as a way of getting compliance with our faith.
The Christian faith comes about by the work of the Holy Spirit through
the agency of God’s word. Therefore, it cannot be coerced. Therefore,
paradoxically, the Christian Scripture claims absolute authority, and by
that authority forbids the coercion of those who deny it.
There will come a day when Jesus Christ returns to earth and establishes
his kingdom in person. When that day comes, all accounts will be
settled. He will separate the sheep from the goats—those who embrace
his authority from those who don’t. There will be a final judgment, and
all unbelief and sin will be removed from the new world of justice and
peace. In the meantime, we are not God. We are not the final judge.
Therefore, we exalt his word, and we call all people everywhere to believe
it and obey it and to see and savor him through it. But we do not
use force or violence to bring about faith. Coerced Christian faith is an
oxymoron. There is no such thing.
Nevertheless, I know that the total claim of the Bible on all the
people of the world, and all the thoughts and feelings and actions of
those people, is a staggering claim. Embracing the Bible this way would
change everything. I do not take that lightly. You do not either.
A Massive Foundation
Perhaps this book has introduced you for the first time to an argument
for the truth of Scripture based on the glory of God. It seems fitting that
a claim of such sweeping scope would be grounded in a reality equally
sweeping. In fact, this is not a mere decision before you. No one decides
to see glory. And no one merely decides to experience the Christian
Scriptures as the all-compelling, all-satisfying truth of one’s life. In the
end, seeing is a gift. And so the free embrace of God’s word is a gift.
God’s Spirit opens the eyes of our heart, and what was once boring, or
absurd, or foolish, or mythical is now self-evidently real. You can pray
and ask God for that miracle. I ask daily for fresh eyes for his glory.
My argument has been that the glory of God, in and through the
Scriptures, is a real, objective, self-authenticating reality. Christian faith
is not a leap in the dark. It is not a guess or a wager. God is not honored
if he is chosen by the flip of a coin. A leap into the unknown is no honor
to one who has made himself known.