Tag: inspiration

Book Endorsement: “The Doctrine of Scripture” by Jason Harris

~ Bob Hayton

The Doctrine of Scripture by Jason HarrisToday’s book review post is special for two reasons. First, this marks the 150th book review I’ve posted here at Fundamentally Reformed. Second, this review includes the foreword I was privileged to write for this book.

The Doctrine of Scripture: As It Relates to the Transmission and Preservation of the Text by Jason Harris is published by InFocus Ministries in Australia. I’m excited to recommend this new book to my readers here in the United States as I believe this book can go a long way toward helping those confused or entangled by King James Onlyism.

My Foreword

Another book on the King James Only debate? Much ink has been spilled and many passions expended in what may be the ugliest intramural debate plaguing conservative, Bible-believing churches today. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, Baptists and Presbyterians, Reformed and charismatic — all have been affected to a greater or lesser extent by those arguing for or against the King James or New King James Versions of the Bible. With each new book it seems the debate becomes more and more caustic, each group castigating the other in ever more forceful terminology.

Jason Harris enters the fray with the right blend of humility and tenacity, and turns the attention of all to the true center of the debate: the doctrine of Scripture. What makes this debate so passionate is that it centers on the very nature of Scripture. Rather than focus on technical facts and ancient manuscript copying practices, Harris takes us back to what Scripture says about itself: its inspiration, preservation and accessibility. In doing so, he demonstrates how those upholding the King James Bible and the Textus Receptus behind it, base their position not on sound exegesis of the Scripture, but on tenuous assumptions read into the text.

Harris’s pen is lucid and his grasp of the King James Only debate as a whole is masterful. He focuses his work on TR-only position which represents the very best of King James Only reasoning. He interacts with the exegesis of key TR-only proponents and marshals compelling evidence demonstrating their failure to measure up to Scripture’s own teaching about itself. And after explicating the doctrine of Scripture, Harris draws important conclusions which should protect the reader from making simplistic assumptions in a quest for textual certainty that goes beyond what Scripture teaches we should expect.

Harris wants us to be confident that we do have the inspired Scripture translated accurately in our English Bibles. He wants such confidence to be rooted to a Scriptural understanding of the Doctrine of Scripture rather than in the “supernatural-guidance” of a group of sixteenth-Century translators. Assuming that such a group of men made no mistakes is to expect something Scripture doesn’t teach, and ignore what it does. Harris is to be commended for such a clear, lucid defense of the historic doctrine of Scripture. I hope his book is received well and helps laymen and pastors everywhere to begin to rethink the basis for why they think as they do when it comes to the King James Only debate.

Bob Hayton
FundamentallyReformed.com
KJVODebate.Wordpress.com

[pp. 9-10]

Additional Thoughts

After re-reading this book and seeing the published version, I am more optimistic than ever about its promise to provide clarity to the King James Only debate. Jason Harris’s book has a few characteristics which together make it a unique contribution to this debate.

First, his book focuses on the alleged doctrine of the verbal, plenary accessibility of Scripture. This is where the root of the KJV and TR preference lies for many people. The argument is not so much based on texts and manuscripts as it is on what allegedly the Bible teaches – that the very words of Scripture (all of them down to the letters) would be generally accessible to believers down through the ages. Harris spends most of his time marshaling a Scriptural rebuttal to these claims and also demonstrates the difficulties such a position has when it comes to the history of the text as we know it.

Second, this volume carefully builds a theology of the transmission and preservation of Scripture. Such a careful, exegetically-based explication of the doctrine of Scripture has been lacking in this debate. And such a gap has often been used by KJV-only proponents to their advantage. It is KJV-only books which start with a Scriptural position and then look at the evidence, with the “anti-KJV” books starting with history and evidence and then moving to the Scriptural arguments. This book is different and starts where the debate starts for most of the sincere believers who get swept up into it — it starts on Scripture’s teaching about the very nature and preservation of Scripture.

Finally, Harris keeps a very irenic tone throughout. He is careful not to overstate his case and exaggerate the claims of his opponents. This is especially difficult to do when it comes to this heated debate, but Jason pulls this off well. Additionally, he backs up his book with the inclusion of a vast array of footnotes documenting the claims he is arguing against. I appreciate how he does not direct his argument toward the Riplingers and Ruckmans of this debate. He focuses on the TR-only position and the more careful wing of KJV-onlyism, men like David Cloud, D.A. Waite, Charles Surret, and the like. Harris has read widely in the KJV only literature, and his treatment avoids broadbrushing and generalizations that tend to give KJV-only proponents an easy out. It’s easy to dismiss a book as not being directed to their particular position, or to claim the author makes egregious errors and lumps their position in with that of heretical views. Harris’s book is not open to such charges. He directs his case against the very best arguments of KJV-onlyism.

Had I been exposed to such a book I would have been inoculated to the pull of the KJV-only persuasion. As it happened, I was swept up in a TR-only view that made it seem like we had the corner on truth and everyone else was compromising. By God’s grace I came to understand that Scripture does not support such a view of the transmission of the text.

Jason Harris is to be thanked for giving us a tool to recommend to those thinking through this issue from within, and to help the ones who are being pressured to join the KJV-only position. I highly recommend The Doctrine of Scripture and hope it makes its way into the hands of anyone struggling with this issue who will yet be open-minded enough to study out the issue from both sides.

You can pick up a copy of The Doctrine of Scripture at Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the author. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Book Giveaway: “Collected Writings on Scripture” by D.A. Carson

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

For those who couldn’t come to The Gospel Coalition Conference last week, here’s your chance to win a free copy of D.A. Carson’s book Collected Writings on Scripture (edited by Andrew Naselli). You can read my review of the book here.

Use the Google form below to enter the contest. One random person will receive a copy of Collected Writings on Scripture by D.A. Carson, compliments of Crossway Books. As I’m fitting the bill for postage, the contest is limited to the 48 continental US states.

Only one entry per person, duplicate or questionable entries will be rejected. Contest runs through Wednesday April 27 at 9pm Central. Winner will be notified by email.

Click on the “Read Inside PDF” link at the Westminster Bookstore book detail page, to answer the bonus question, below. (You can find it through Crossway’s product page or Amazon’s read inside link, too.)

Contest is now closed.

Congratulations go to Brandon Lehr, the winner of the free copy of Collected Writings on Scripture by D.A. Carson.

“Collected Writings on Scripture” by D.A. Carson (edited by Andrew Naselli)

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

Crossway gave all the attendees of The Gospel Coalition Conference a copy of this book, last week. I thought I’d post my review, and host a book giveaway for my blog readers who have followed my blog updates from The Gospel Coalition Conference. No, I didn’t read and review the book in one week; I already had received 2 copies of this book from Crossway. Look for details on the giveaway, tomorrow.

Solomon said “there is nothing new under the sun”. In theology, however, this often appears not to be the case. With the preponderance of scholars today divided up into numerous different biblical disciplines, a constant barrage of books and controversies threatened to inundate us in a tidal wave of “new” ideas and opinions. Against such a barrage, we need seasoned, Christian scholars who can navigate through this sea of scholarly opinion without losing their bearings on the north star of Christian orthodox truth.

D.A. Carson is just such a scholar. Over thirty plus years of ministry, Carson has plotted a faithful course and in the process has given the Church an abundance of incredibly helpful books and articles along the way. He’s also had a hand in training many Christian ministers of the gospel to cling to the Word of God in today’s dark world. As I read through a recent compilation of many of Carson’s writings on Scripture, I was amazed at how relevant his treatment of the doctrine in the controversies of 20 years ago was to today. Maybe Solomon was right after all!

In Collected Writings on Scripture, recently published by Crossway, Andrew Naselli has compiled some of D.A. Carson’s most helpful articles, essays and book reviews on the subject of Scripture. Most of these writings are chapters in a book somewhere or an article in a journal from 20 years ago elsewhere. Naselli has helpfully collected them in one volume, and after working my way through the book, I agree this was a wise decision.

Carson has the ability to cut through the fog and get to the heart of a controversy, while at the same time staying dispassionate and irenic. His clear reason and forceful logic require even those being critiqued to agree that he has correctly captured their viewpoint even as he finds some fault with it. For the reader, Carson takes one on a journey across the last thirty years and indeed over the past two thousand. He surveys new developments in the doctrine of Scripture and compares them to church history and Scripture itself. Some of the essays or reviews are more technical and focus on a particular author or controversy, but Carson takes pains to show how what is at stake in an individual work applies to the broader picture. Along the way, a robust doctrine of Scripture is hammered out on the anvil of controversy and I found that my confidence and trust in the orthodox doctrines of verbal inspiration and inerrancy were strengthened.

Carson doesn’t just preach to the choir. He chastens the church for the diminishing role of the authority of Scriptures. He doesn’t hesitate to use the work of others, either. Whether it’s a jewel of a quote from Calvin, or a painstaking new explanation of the New Testament witness to inerrancy by Grudem, Carson is both aware of the contribution of others and applies it winsomely to the current discussion.

Carson’s ability to dissect a book and both appreciate its good points and show its weaknesses is nothing short of amazing. A few of the chapters deal with three books on Scripture at once. Seeing Carson interact with these books strengthened my critical eye and informed me of Carson’s perspective at the same time. I was particularly helped by his discussion of Peter Enns’s book Inspiration and Incarnation. Carson is disturbed by Enns seeming goal of overthrowing the confidence in Scripture that many of his readers have: “Wow. So are we explaining how evangelical faith accommodates biblical scholarship, or are we asserting that a Copernican revolution must take place within evangelical faith so as to accommodate biblical scholarship?” (pg. 367). He goes on to show that while incarnation can be a helpful analogy for understanding Scripture, Enns fails to explain what view of incarnation he has, how exactly Jesus’ humanity equates to Scripture’s humanness (if Scripture has errors does that mean Jesus had sin??), and how he uses the analogy. Carson concludes, rather, that “‘Incarnation’ is merely a rhetorically positive word to approve Enns’s argument” (pg. 269).

Carson’s review of Enns’s book leads to my one disappointment with this collection. Carson deals a lot with hermeneutics in dealing with Peter Enns’s claims. Carson concludes concerning the apostles that their “hermeneutic… overlaps with that of the Jews, is distinguishable from it, and at certain points is much more in line with the actual shape of Scripture: it rests on the unpacking of the Bible’s storyline.” (pg. 282). It is here that I wish Carson would elaborate. I was hoping this collection would include Carson’s thoughts on hermeneutics along with inspiration and canonization. I’m not sure if Carson has given us an extended treatment of hermeneutics, so that might be why it is excluded. Still, what is included is superb and furthers my belief that Carson’s scholarship is one of the incredible blessings God has given the Church today.

This book is not for everyone. Some familiarity with current controversies over inerrancy and Scripture is required. Students and pastors alike will be blessed and challenged by reading this book. And even if it is a stretch for you, you should benefit. I know I did. I recommend the book highly.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Crossway Books for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

You can pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through direct from Crossway.

Quotes to Note 4: The Bible is Truth

~ fundyreformed ~ 12 Comments

I subscribe to Table Talk, a monthly devotional published by R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Ministries. Each month the magazine focuses on a theme, and this month that theme is “The Canonicity of Scripture”.

In the openeing column, Burk Parsons, the editor, captures the gist of the issue. The Bible is the Word of God, and canonization was simply the church receiving God’s Word as His Word. Canonization was not a process whereby the Church invented Holy Scriptures. Here’s how Buck said it:

The Bible is not a cleverly contrived collection of fanciful tales of mythical gods and prophets, sorcerers and goblins, hobbits and elves. It is not a Judeo-Christian anthology of sixty-six ancient books that were deemed politically and ecclesiastically correct by influential Christians of the early church who coveted worldly acceptance and prestige. On the contrary, the Bible is the book of the Lord God Almighty. It is the authoritative, inerrant, and infallible Word of God, and, as Jesus taught us in His prayer to the Father: His “Word is truth.” It doesn’t merely contain truth or speak about truth; it is truth “” it defines truth (John 17:17). We must, therefore, regard it as such.

Go on and read Buck’s entire article. Some of the other columns are also available online here.