Introduction In his article “The Sufficiency of Scripture,” John MacArthur states that, Psalm 19:7–9 is the most monumental and concise statement on the sufficiency of Scripture ever made. Penned by David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these three verses offer unwavering testimony from God Himself about the sufficiency of His Word for every…
Introduction Michael Kruger’s Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Crossway, 2012) is an important contribution to the ongoing issues biblical scholars face when considering what material should be counted as scripture by Christians. Having personally sat under his teaching, I can say that Kruger is a smart guy and his book is…
Introduction In another post, I detailed some of the more egregious theological errors being supported by the the Jehovah’s Witnesses mistranslation of the Bible (the New World Translation, or NWT). Those are issues that should concern all Christians. There are others, however, of special interest to Catholics that are less well-known and rarely discussed. Some of these are…
Introduction When teaching Introduction the the New Testament at my Evangelical seminary, I always got a kick out of starting the first class by asking the students to turn to 1 Maccabees. Reactions ranged form confusion to uncertain laughter – “Silly professor, that’s a Catholic book!” To keep from being reported to the Dean, I always explained…
Introduction Peter Kreeft once noted that, “When Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote his great Summa Theologica, he could find only two objections to the existence of God, even though he tried to list at least three objections to every one of the thousands of theses he tried to prove in that great work” (Fundamentals of the Faith, p.…
Introduction “I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God.” (John Wesley) Walk into any bookstore and you can probably find “a Bible”…
Introduction Saint Thomas Aquinas is famous for his philosophical proofs for the existence of God, but proving theism does not prove Christianity. Fortunately, Aquinas did not stop there. Although they are less well-known, and sprinkled throughout several of his works, Aquinas extended his apologetic arguments to the truth of Christianity itself. In many apologetic systems (e.g., McDowell, Geisler, or Montgomery), the…
Biblical Perspicuity Arguments based on disagreements in biblical interpretation are often answered with an appeal to biblical perspicuity (clarity). The appeal takes many forms. One is the idea is that the Bible is clear on “the main things,” and so disagreements are no big deal because they must, by definition, be over secondary issues. Another…
Introduction In a previous post I argued that Norman Geisler’s inclusion of the Grammatical-Historical Method [GHM] of interpretation in his “Logical Method” for discovering Christian orthodoxy was problematic. Here I will expand on this issue, for it is often at this stage that related debates get hung up. This is not a critique of the GHM itself.…
Introduction The doctrine of sola scriptura (“Scripture alone”) began its life as a concern for proper authority in religious matters. By “authority” here I mean something like “that which has the right to compel agreement.” A religious authority would be one which has the right to compel faith (orthodoxy) and actions (orthopraxy). This does not…
