Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The real Turretin on: The Self-Authentication of Scripture

Mark Koller at Daily Reformation, has provided a concise but meaty quotation from the real Francis Turretin on the self-authenticating property of Holy Scripture (link). Every world view has some presupposition - ours is Scripture.

-TurretinFan

2 comments:

Pierre Saikaley said...

Hi Turreinfan. lol, I think I left this same comment by mistake at the link to your quote, but anyway....

The self-attesting nature of the Word of God is something we need to be reminded of ever more.

This is so important for me right now, as I encounter the gainsaying contradictions of the false knowledge of atheism all around me.

The oft repeated claim is that to claim “God said” is to commit the informal fallacy of begging the question, i.e. circular fallacy.

Of course, even the materialistic naturalist cannot escape his own presuppositions. And concerning God’s authority, nothing is prior to to it, so I cannot argue for God’s Word from something greater than God. I would only be moving the problem back to whatever “would” be prior to Him.

My point is that, I think Christians unwittingly get trapped in the world’s presuppositions, and we need to be reminded of the Truth so as not to answer the fool according to their naturalistic folly, but to answer their folly from absolute wisdom.

Living By Every Word from His Mouth,

Zaph

Anonymous said...

OH Yeah, Francis!

Again, a mark of a True Believer!!

I was struck by these words which underscore the Truth attested to here of Scripture and the Power in them when spoken according to the Will of God, the Holy Ghost:

Act 15:7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
Act 15:8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,
Act 15:9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.....


Act 15:13 After they finished speaking, James replied, "Brothers, listen to me.
Act 15:14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.
Act 15:15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
Act 15:16 "'After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it,
Act 15:17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things
Act 15:18 known from of old.'
Act 15:19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
Act 15:20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues."


There should be at least two obvious points here within these verses.

One, James is quoting from Amos and attests to what is written is relevant for one's Salvation.

Two, James is equally underscoring the proclamation of the Gospel as of more importance than the proclamations made in the Synagogues of Moses' Word alone!

James says: "For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues."

What hasn't happened much up to that time is proclaiming Christ. As we all now know, He is being proclaimed very well herein!

I like to point to Acts 8 and the "play" on words:::>

Act 8:29 And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot."
Act 8:30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
Act 8:31 And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Act 8:32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
Act 8:33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."
Act 8:34 And the eunuch said to Philip, "About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?"
Act 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

Isaiah says "Jesus" like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

Luke says "Philip" opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

Will you open yours too? :)