How God’s Word, Exactly like the World, Establishes its own Truth Claims

John 14:11

                In the Old Testament the most common means of affirming the authority behind the words of the prophets’ was by their employment of the summons to attention: “Thus says the LORD!”  In the New Testament, by contrast, Jesus Christ frequently declared His own authority by such words as, “You have heard others say… But I say to you…” (Matthew 5:38), or “Truly, truly, I say to you…” (John 5:24).  Such phrases might lead audiences to conclude that both parties were seeking to establish (as opposed to simply announce) the veracity of the words that they declared.  Yet that is not the case.  The common assumption behind this misperception is that, since God possesses perfect knowledge (tis surely true!), He is thereby not obligated to submit His words to the scrutiny of finite earthlings who, to make matters worse, are riddled with sin (also true)!  The goal of this essay is to clarify why expecting a substantiation of the truth of Scripture does not entail an attack on the majesty of God, the author of Holy Scripture.

                Concerning the question of the relationship between science and religion with respect to the interpretation of the 1st chapter of Genesis, Dr. J.P. Moreland recently said in an interview:  “Theistic evolution [seeks to convey] that scientists are a far, far more secure source of knowledge of reality than biblical or theological preaching and philosophy… [Since we Christians] are constantly seeing science force us to revise the Bible so it will be consistent with science, at some point you start saying to yourself, ‘Well, shoot, in 50 years what else is going to be revised’”?[1]  Now although I grant the gravity of the perception that Moreland describes, it is vital for Christians to realize that the impression that our faith stands alone as the sole body of beliefs that are vulnerable to correction from the upsurge of scientific facts, is completely false.  After all, even scientific knowledge, by definition, entails not merely raw data, but also hypotheses[2] which must in the same way be altered in light of new relevant information.

                It is not my point to insist that every Christian give substantial attention to the evidential case for the truth of Scripture.  Many Christians effectively live out their lives in faithfulness to Christ without any consideration of our faith’s truth claims.  Nevertheless, we are living in times of immense opposition in which at least some Christians must be prepared to give substantial reasons for our hope (1 Peter 3:15).[3]   There is quite simply no other way of substantiating truth claims than by actual demonstration that assertions made about matters of fact can be reconciled with the object of their consideration.[4]  For this reason, since Christianity makes truth claims that impinge on both science and history, Christianity can only substantiate vital aspects of both creation and the incarnation of the Son of God by integrating its proclamation with evidence drawn from both of these realms of inquiry.[5]  Indeed it is by these very means, just as scientists and historians put into practice, that Holy Scripture itself establishes its claims.[6]

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[1] “Should Christians Evolve on [Theistic] Evolution?” Biola for Everyone. (Winter, 2018). pp. 17-18.

[2] Tentative assumptions employed (for the purpose of this paper) to make sense of an inter-related body scientific data. Further, this term is not the data itself, but a philosophical exercise of fitting the data together somewhat like putting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together correctly.

[3] See my paper, “When Christians Fail to Take up their Arms,” which, together with all of my essays, can be found at my website, www.christianityontheoffense.com.

[4] This view is identified as the “correspondence theory of truth.” See my paper, “Truth is Never Less than One,” Ibid.

[5] See my paper, “The Urgency of Uniting Truth with Biblical Proclamation.” Op.cit, (3).

[6] See both of my papers, “How did the Early Church Grow?” and “The Pervasive Employment of Apologetics in the Bible.” Op.cit, (3).