James R. White - Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bibles Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity

Scripture Alone

Copyright 2004

James R. White

Cover design by Eric Walljasper

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations identified ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Ebook edition created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owners.

eISBN 978-1-4412-1162-0

Published by Bethany House Publishers

11400 Hampshire Avenue South

Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

Bethany House Publishers is a division of

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This book is dedicated to my son,

Joshua Daniel White.

I have often said God knew I could never pursue the ministry He has entrusted to me without giving me the best children He had available, and so He did. My son is a great source of joy and fulfillment, and I openly and gladly tell any who wish to hear that I could never pursue this work without the support of my wife, my son, and my daughter. The defender of the faith in these pages is named Joshua in honor of my son and of my having had the tremendous privilege of baptizing him at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, where I am an elder. Thank you, Joshua, my son and also my brother in Christ.

JAMES WHITE is the author of several acclaimed books, including The King James Only Controversy and The Forgotten Trinity . He is an elder of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, director of Alpha and Omega Ministriesa Christian apologetics organization, an adjunct professor with Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, and professor of apologetics with Columbia Evangelical Seminary. He and his family live in Phoenix.

E very author thinks his or her book is truly needed at his or her time in church history. At least I like to think so. I would hate to think anyone writes books just for the sake of writing books. I certainly do not: Every editor with whom Ive ever worked will testify that I often comment on having no intention to reinvent the wheel. I have not written a book specifically on Jehovahs Witnesses, for example, simply because there are a number of very good works already in print on the subject, written by solid authors and containing solid information. Why should I repeat what someone else has already done?

However, the book you hold in your hands, if God has blessed my efforts in writing it, is unlike any other book currently available. Sure, every book is unique, but I mean this in a particular sense. And yes, any book I write will be unique because of my background, which includes more than four dozen moderated public debates against leading apologists of prominent religious beliefs (almost all of whom are united in denying the sufficiency of the Bible to function as the churchs Scripture Alone should be specifically unique because of what I am seeking to do and because of the impact I want it to have upon you, the reader.

First, I am not seeking to write a massive scholarly tome on sola scriptura . That has already been done more than once, and tremendous works defending this truth are already in print. This book should be considered a primer, an introduction, to those much longer works. In general, the great works of past believers are not written in a popular style; they spoke more clearly to past generations. One must want to work through them to arrive at the goal, and it is my intention to compel my fellow believers to want to do that work.

Second, I write as a pastor/theologian/apologist who believes firmly that man is a singular wholeyou cannot divide mans mind from his heart, his soul. I am passionate about theology, passionate about the faith. I honestly do not understand how anyone can say I believe the Bible is the Word of God without being passionate about that confession. I love the Trinity, justification by faith, the Resurrection, and sola scriptura . I do not pretend to be dispassionate about these things, and, as such, I stand firmly on this assertion: Christian scholarship that lacks passion about the truth is not worthy of the name Christian to begin with. If dispassion and detachment are necessary attributes of scholarship, then I do not seek the appellation. I cannot comprehend dry faith, arid confession, or mere mental assent. A person who has only intellectual knowledge of the sufficiency of Scripture, but lacks a deep, abiding love of the Scriptures and an understanding of how their sufficiency is related to the gospel and to the assurance of salvation, is liable to be led astray by winsome words or the traditions of men. At the same time, a person who professes great zeal for the truth, but does not honor the truth by growing in knowledge of it, can be easily led astray. We need a balanced understanding of and love for the truth of sola scriptura . Divine truths command our undivided allegiance, and this love of divine truth is what I seek to encourage in your heart.

I have always believed in sola scriptura , though the Latin phrase did not enter into my vocabulary until adulthood. When I first began responding to attacks made upon Scripture by various religious groups, I did so out of instinctual respect for the Bible and a strong sense of loyalty to the Word. Even in my conservative Bible college, little was said about the doctrine; it was simply assumed. I was blissfully unaware of the tremendous effort that had been expended in the defense of Scriptures sufficiency by Gods people in past generations.

The Reformation, traditionally dated as beginning with the posting of Luthers Ninety-five Theses on October 31, 1517, brought intense focus to the issue of scriptural sufficiency. Indeed, the formal principle of the Reformation was sola scriptura , for it was the assertion of biblical sufficiency over against tradition that allowed for the recovery of certain biblical doctrines: justification by grace through faith alone, the proper form and governance of the church, the individual priesthood of the believer, and much more. The preeminence of the Word can be seen in Luthers comment:

The Word comes first, and with the Word the Spirit breathes upon my heart so that I believe.

Rome taught that because she was the custodian of sacred tradition, people needed her magisterial authority; hence, Rome vehemently opposed and denied the idea of Scripture alone as the sole infallible rule of faith for the church. Neither did Rome sit quietly in response to the Reformation, as the Catholic counterreformation blossomed in the latter decades of the sixteenth century. The chief ecclesiastical manifestation of this movement was the Council of Trent (15461564), which began its work by issuing a declaration on the issue of the nature of Scripture itself (April 1546). The council not only claimed authority to define the extent of the canon but also sought to check unbridled spirits (i.e., those who refused to acknowledge the ultimate authority of the papacy), decreeing,