On God's Word and Good Mothers
On God’s Word
In his classic book The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, theologian B. B. Warfield defends the concept of the “plenary inspiration” of the Scriptures. By that term he means,
…the doctrine that the Bible is inspired not in part but fully, in all its elements alike, — things discoverable by reason as well as mysteries, matters of history and science as well as of faith and practice, words as well as thoughts.”
—B. B. Warfield (pg. 120)
In another place he describes it more simply by saying that the Bible is trustworthy and true in all its parts, all its elements, and all its affirmations of whatever kind. Write those three things down for future reference.
This is the way that Jesus viewed the Scriptures in the Gospels (e.g., Matt. 4:4; Jn. 10:34-35; etc.), this is the way that all the New Testament authors viewed the Scriptures (e.g., 1 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:21; etc.), and this is the way that the Church has—predominantly—viewed the Scriptures down throughout history (e.g., Origen, Irenaeus, Polycarp, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Bavinck, Piper, etc.).
Appropriately then, Warfield says,
“This church-doctrine of inspiration was the Bible doctrine before it was the church-doctrine, and is the church-doctrine only because it is the Bible doctrine.”
—B.B. Warfield (pg. 114)
Why then are there higher critics and modern minds who would like us to doubt the veracity of the Bible? Many people today find the Bible to be outdated, outlandish, and out-there. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid of the cynics and skeptics and Enlightenment rationalists and found “problems” with the text and “errors” in the manuscripts. They’ve traded the authority of God for the authority of man. But Warfield is unamused and unphased. Bluntly, he quips,
“Needless to say that the only ‘strangeness and difficulty’ in the text arises from the unwillingness of the commentator to approach the Scriptures with the simple trust in their detailed divine trustworthiness and authority which characterized all our Lord’s dealings with them.”
—B.B. Warfield (pg. 119)
The masterful polemic continues,
“The effort to explain away the Bible’s witness to its plenary inspiration reminds one of a man standing safely in his laboratory and elaborately expounding — possibly by the aid of diagrams and mathematical formulae — how every stone in an avalanche has a defined pathway and may easily be dodged by one of some presence of mind. We may fancy such an elaborate trifler’s triumph as he would analyze the avalanche into its constituent stones, and demonstrate of stone after stone that its pathway is definite, limited, and may easily be avoided. But avalanches, unfortunately, do not come upon us, stone by stone, one at a time, courteously leaving us opportunity to withdraw from the pathway of each in turn: but all at once, in a roaring mass of destruction. Just so we may explain away a text or two which teach plenary inspiration, to our own closet satisfaction, dealing with them each without reference to its relation to the others: but these texts of ours, again, unfortunately do not come upon us in this artificial isolation; neither are they few in number. There are scores, hundreds, of them: and they come bursting upon us in one solid mass.”
—B.B. Warfield (pg. 120)
Warfield spends an entire chapter—35 pages to be precise—working through the self-attesting Biblical data from Old and New Testaments supporting the idea of plenary inspiration. I won’t do that here, but the avalanche is certainly real and unavoidable. Go see for yourself starting on page 65.
So why does this matter for us? It matters because I want your confidence in God’s Word to be bolstered. I want you to have unwavering certainty that the Word of God is entirely true and trustworthy. So that when you stand to hear the Bible read aloud every Lord’s Day, you receive it not as the mere message of men but as the very Word of God—whatever it says, He says.
Warfield shows the vital importance of the doctrine of plenary inspiration by saying,
“In that doctrine men have found what their hearts have told them was the indispensable safeguard of a sure word of God to them, — a word of God to which they could resort with confidence in every time of need, to which they could appeal for guidance in every difficulty, for comfort in every sorrow, for instruction in every perplexity; on whose ‘Thus saith the Lord’ they could safely rest all their aspirations and all their hopes.”
—B.B. Warfield (pg. 124)
And Good Mothers
To illustrate how a young Christian may come to believe in this beautiful, good, and true Word, Warfield reminds his readers of two mothers—the mother who raised them and Mother Church. He writes,
“...Our memory will easily recall those happier days when we stood a child at our Christian mother’s knee, with lisping lips following the words which her slow finger traced upon this open page, — words which were her support in every trial and, as she fondly trusted, were to be our guide throughout life. Mother church was speaking to us in that maternal voice, commending to us her vital faith in the Word of God.”
—B.B. Warfield (pg. 107)
As we raise our children, may we never forget the significance of things that are both taught and caught. We are teaching our kids with both our lives and our doctrine. What an incredible opportunity that earthly mothers have to build confidence in God’s Word in their children as they sit them on their lap and read to them and as they constantly turn to God’s Word in every need and trust in what it says. And may we be thankful and praise God for the mothers who came before us and taught us to rely on God’s Word.
Furthermore, may we marvel at the steady witness of Mother Church who with its “maternal voice” has so faithfully carried this doctrine down to us. How amazing is it that we can stand in line with the cloud of witnesses who likewise approached God’s Word with this simple, childlike faith.
May God remove the doubts and despondency from our hearts and minds, and give us great boldness and confidence to rest in and rely on God’s Word in every circumstance.
With Warfield and the witness of all the faithful Church through history, let it be said of us…
“...how unquestioningly we…
receive its statements of fact,
bow before its enunciations of duty,
tremble before its threatenings, and
rest upon its promises” (Warfield, pg. 107).
For as Psalm 19:7-11 says:
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Amen and amen.