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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Wayne Grudem
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March 15 - December 27, 2021
it seems to me that differences over forms of church government (chapter 47) or some details about the Lord’s Supper (chapter 50) or the timing of the great tribulation (chapter 55) concern minor doctrines.
it must be answered that in God’s own mind, and in the nature of reality itself, true facts and ideas are all consistent with one another. Therefore if we have accurately understood the teachings of God in Scripture we should expect our conclusions to “fit together” and be mutually consistent.
today, evangelical students are still able to study the writings of theologians such as Augustine, Calvin, or Luther on an equal footing with liberal students and faculty members who also study those writings. They all agree that these are merely human writings, and so there is no fundamental disagreement on the question of authority, or whether these writers might at times have been wrong.
Charles Hodge, recognized as one of America’s greatest theologians, taught at Princeton Seminary from 1820 to 1878
he asked, in an address to students, how it was that, in the former great centers of Protestantism—especially Germany—Christianity had ceased to be even a nominal religion.
Hodge answered that the reason was the decline of what he called “vital religion”:
reasoning to conclusions that go beyond the mere statements of Scripture is appropriate and even necessary for studying Scripture, and the fact that Scripture itself is the ultimate standard of truth,
so long as these deductions do not contradict the clear teaching of some other passage of Scripture.14
Christian theology can tolerate a paradox, but God never asks us to believe a contradiction.
a paradox (“a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true”).
paradox (such as “God is three persons and one God”) because we have confidence that ultimately God knows fully the truth about himself and about the nature of reality
(1) Find all the relevant verses.
(2) The second step is to read, take notes, and summarize the points made in the relevant verses.
(3) Finally, the teachings of the various verses should be summarized into one or more points that the Bible affirms about that subject.
SCRIPTURE MEMORY PASSAGE
“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11).
Matthew 28:18–20: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” This hymn by Charles Wesley (1707–88)
CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SONG “O Praise The Name” (Anástasis)
PART 1 The Doctrine of the Word of God
“THE WORD OF GOD” AS A PERSON: JESUS CHRIST
“THE WORD OF GOD” AS SPEECH BY GOD
God’s Decrees
powerful, creative words from God are often called God’s decrees.1 A decree of God is a word of God that causes something to happen.
God’s Words of Personal Address
they are also “human” words in that they are spoken in ordinary human language that is immediately understandable.
3. God’s Words as Speech Through Human Lips
In Deuteronomy 18, God says to Moses:
And I will put my words in his mouth,
4. God’s Words in Written Form (the Bible)
Psalm 1:1–2: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
HYMN “Break Thou the Bread of Life”
CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SONG “Thy Word”
by Amy Grant, Music by Michael W. Smith4
The Canon of Scripture
What belongs in the Bible and what does not belong?
the canon of Scripture is the list of all the books that belong in the Bible.
Moses warned the people of Israel, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you” (Deut. 4:2).
“Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God” (Josh. 24:26).
Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD. (1 Sam. 10:25)
The acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer. (1 Chron. 29:29)
The content of the Old Testament canon continued to grow until the time of the end of the writing process. If we date Haggai to 520 BC, Zechariah to 520–518 BC (with perhaps more material added after 480 BC), and Malachi around 435 BC, then we have an idea of the approximate dates of the last Old Testament prophets.
the last books of Old Testament history—Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Ezra went to Jerusalem in 458 BC, and Nehemiah was in Jerusalem from 445–433 BC.3 Esther was written sometime after the death of Xerxes I (a.k.a. Ahasuerus) in 465 BC, and a date during the reign of Artaxerxes I (464–423 BC) is probable.
after approximately 435 BC there were no further additions to the...
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subsequent history of the Jewish people was recorded in other writings, such as the books of the Maccabees, but these writings were not thought worthy to be included with th...
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Josephus (born c. AD 37/38) explained, “From Artaxerxes to our own times a complete history has been written, but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records, because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets”
Rabbinic literature reflects a similar conviction in its repeated statement that the Holy Spirit (in the Spirit’s function of inspiring prophecy) departed from Israel.
The Qumran community (the Jewish sect that left behind the Dead Sea Scrolls) also awaited a prophet whose words would have authority to supersede any existing regulations
Thus writings subsequent to about 435 BC were not accepted by the Jewish people generally as having equal authority with the rest of Scripture.
Jesus and the New Testament authors quote various parts of the Old Testament Scriptures as divinely authoritative over 295 times,6 but not once do they cite any statement from the books of the Apocrypha or any other writings as having divine authority.
