[Glossary] The Bible, Neo-orthodoxy and Existential Encounter

1. (Clark 1965, 25): "Unfortunately the visible churches that have descended from the Protestant Reformation, especially the larger and wealthier denominations, have to a considerable degree repudiated the Bible. Schleiermacher, Ritschl, and modernism substituted religious experiences for the Word of God. The neo-orthodox also deny the truth of the Bible and substitute something called an existential encounter. They fail to tell us how this experience determines the number of the sacraments, the mode of baptism, the principles of church government, or even the doctrine of the Atonement. Without such information controversies of religion can be settled only by majority vote, that is, by the whims or ambitions of ecclesiastical politicians. No wonder this age is being called the Post-Protestant era. No wonder there is talk of church union with Rome. Without information from God, men are left to their own devices."

Neo-orthodoxy has substituted existential encounters for the Word of God.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible, Modernism and Religious Experience

1. (Clark 1965, 25): "Unfortunately the visible churches that have descended from the Protestant Reformation, especially the larger and wealthier denominations, have to a considerable degree repudiated the Bible. Schleiermacher, Ritschl, and modernism substituted religious experiences for the Word of God. The neo-orthodox also deny the truth of the Bible and substitute something called an existential encounter. They fail to tell us how this experience determines the number of the sacraments, the mode of baptism, the principles of church government, or even the doctrine of the Atonement. Without such information controversies of religion can be settled only by majority vote, that is, by the whims or ambitions of ecclesiastical politicians. No wonder this age is being called the Post-Protestant era. No wonder there is talk of church union with Rome. Without information from God, men are left to their own devices."

Modernism has substituted religious experiences for the Word of God.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] How Can We Obtain a Knowledge of God?

1. (Clark 1965, 24-25): "Section x is the culmination of Chapter I. At the beginning of this chapter the question was asked, How can we obtain a knowledge of God? In the history of theology three main answers have been given. The first is an individual's personal hunches. This is dignified by calling it the Spirit speaking in one's own mind. Do not confuse this with the illumination that the Spirit gives us when we study the Scripture. In this case the Spirit enables us to understand what is written. But what the Confession refers to as 'private spirits' is the view that the Spirit supplies to some men information not contained in and often contradictory to the Bible. Examples are Swedenborg, Anne Hutchinson, and Mary Baker Eddy."

"The second attempt to locate the source of information about God is the Romish theory that the Councils are infallible. Since 1870 the Romanists make the claim that the Pope is infallible. We shall see, in examining the doctrines of the Confession, that the Pope frequently contradicts the Bible; and he explicitly acknowledges and claims to add to it."

"The third answer is that of the Protestant Reformation and the Bible itself. 'The supreme Judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined ... can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.' "

We can obtain a knowledge of God from the Bible.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Doctrines and the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 24): "The Reformers made it a principle never to establish a doctrine on the basis of a single verse. On one occasion a Bible School teacher tried to convince me of something by quoting a verse. I objected that what he was saying was said only once in the Bible. With crushing confidence he replied, 'How often must God say something to make it true.' "

"The gentleman was of course considerably confused. If we take his reply very literally, we shall point out that God does not have to say something, reveal something to us, even once to make it true. All his secret decrees are true, though none of them is revealed. But more to the point, the Bible School teacher did not understand what is necessary for laying down doctrinal statements. The question has nothing to do with how many times God must say something to make it true, but, rather how many times must God say something before we can understand it. And the answer to this question is, usually several times."

The Reformers made it a principle never to establish a doctrine on the basis of a single Bible verse.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Saving Understanding versus Ordinary Understanding of the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 21): "Especially with regard to a saving understanding of Scripture, we need the illumination of the Spirit of God. One of the reasons is that a saving understanding goes beyond an ordinary understanding. The worst infidel can easily understand that the Bible means to say that David was King of Israel and that Christ was Messiah. But in order that this information may be saving information, a man must accept it as the Word of God."

"When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the Church, he understood perfectly well that Christ claimed to be Messiah. But this understanding of the meaning of the words did not save him. It caused him to persecute. Then one day the Spirit of God illumined his mind. We too need such illumination."

A saving understanding of the Bible presupposes an ordinary understanding but goes beyond it.

A saving understanding of the Bible means accepting the Bible as the Word of God and that what it claims are true.

A saving understanding of the Bible requires the illumination of the Holy Spirit.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible and Mistaken Inferences

1. (Clark 1965, 21): "Of course, the validity of logic does not guarantee our infallibility. We may make mistakes in inference, and, what is more frequent, we may misunderstand some portions of Scripture."


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible, Logic and Good and Necessary Consequence

1. (Clark 1965, 19-20): "Though we are not to add to the Scripture -- no sign of the cross, no bowing at the second phrase of the Apostles' Creed, no holy days or saint's days, no kneeling at the Lord's Supper -- nonetheless we are not restricted to the explicit words of Scripture. God is wisdom, and Christ is the Logos or Reason of God; we were created in his image, and are therefore required to accept conclusions deduced from Scripture 'by good and necessary consequence.' "

"Christ himself, in arguing against the Pharisees, frequently drew out the implications of the Old Testament. John 10:34-36 is such as argument. Another example of implication, though not from the words of the Old Testament, is found in John 8:42. Paul in Rom. 3:20 draws a conclusion from a series of Old Testament verses. There are many other examples; and, to use the language of college textbooks, we 'leave as an exercise for the student' the discovery of several of them."

"This process of implication, which characterizes the New Testament, must also be applied today. Really, the trouble is not the justification of logic. Who can deny that when Scripture says, all men are sinners, we must, because we are men, draw the conclusion that we are sinners? Or, when Jesus says, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,' and we add the minor premise, I come to Jesus, the logical, necessary, inescapable conclusion is, Jesus will not cast me out. No, the trouble is not the justification of logic. The trouble is that some people doubt logic."

"The neo-orthodox Brunner says logic must be curbed. Barth, at least in his earlier writings, insisted on Paradox. Some other people assume an appearance of piety and talk about 'our merely human logic,' which is so different from God's higher thoughts and ways. In effect these people deny that we have been created in God's image. But aside from their denial of the doctrine of creation, we wonder how they can talk, argue, or preach at all. Do they tell us, 'all have sinned, but any implication that this means you [are a sinner] is mere human logic and is not to be trusted.'? "

"Away with such illogicality! Let us pay no attention to these confused people, no matter how pious they seem. The Confession is right, clearly and obviously right, in accepting what 'by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.'"

We are not restricted to the explicit words of the Bible.

We are required to accept conclusions deduced from the Bible by good and necessary consequence.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible is God's Complete Revelation

1. (Clark 1965, 19): "[Chapter I] Section vi and the second catechism question assert that the whole counsel of God, so far as the spiritual needs of man are concerned, is contained in the Bible. In the Scripture God's revelation is complete."

The Bible is God's complete revelation to man.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible as Axiom

1. (Clark 1965, 18): "Logically the infallibility of the Bible is not a theorem to be deduced from some prior axiom. The infallibility of the Bible is the axiom from which the several doctrines are themselves deduced as theorems. Every religion and every philosophy must be based on some first principle. And since a first principle is first, it cannot be 'proved' or 'demonstrated' on the basis of anything prior. As the catechism question, quoted above, says, 'The Word of God is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify Him.' "

The Bible is the axiom or first principle of doctrines and philosophy.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] How May We Know the Bible is True?

1. (Clark 1965, 18): "How then may we know that the Bible is true? The Confession answers, 'Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority [of the Scripture] is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit.' "

"Faith is a gift or work of God. It is God who causes us to believe: 'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee' (Psa. 65:4)."

The Holy Spirit works inside us to persuade and assure us of the truth of the Bible.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible and Logical Consistency

1. (Clark 1965, 18): "The consent or logical consistency of the whole is important; for if the Bible contradicted itself, we would know that some of it would be false."


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Doctrine and Archaeology

1. (Clark 1965, 17): "Archaeology, of course, can contribute little or nothing toward proving that the doctrines, as distinct from the historical events, of the Bible are true." 


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Bible and Historical Proof

1. (Clark 1965, 17): "It also returns us to the notion of proof or demonstration. If, while we are trying to win a man to Christ, he asks us to prove that the Bible is true, what sort of 'proof' does he have in mind? And what sort of 'proof' are we able to give?"

"Presumably it will not be geometrical demonstration. Nor can it be strictly historical. Consider. There may be, say, a thousand historical assertions in the Bible. Fortunately, many of these that the modernists said were false, are now known to be true. For example, the modernists asserted that the Hittite nation never existed. Today the museums have more Hittite books than they have time to translate. The modernists said that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch, because writing had not yet been invented in his day. Well, writing existed over a thousand years before the time of Moses. Still, the fact that the Bible is correct on these points does not 'prove' that it is without error. Obviously there are many historical assertions in the Bible that we cannot check and never will be able to check. Who could hope to corroborate the assertions that Eliezer asked Rebekah for a drink of water, and that Rebekah drew water for his camels also?"

"Nevertheless, to discomfit the critics, we may take full advantage of archaeology. It has been show clearly how very wrong the unbelievers have been."

Archaeology cannot prove all the historical claims of the Bible to be true because many historical assertions in the Bible cannot be check by archaeology.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Interpreting the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 16): "[Chapter 1] Section v even uses the word infallible. It says that our full assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of these books is the work of the Holy Spirit. Can there be error in infallible truth? To the same end section ix teaches that the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself."

The infallible rule of interpretation of the Bible is the Bible.


2. (Clark 1965, 23): "It seems undeniable that when there are two or more Scripture passages on the same subject, we should compare them for the light they throw on each other. Students of Plato and Aristotle use this method. Why not use it with the Bible also?"

We should compare Bible passages on the same subject for the light they throw on each other.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Assurance of the Divine Authority of the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 16): "[Chapter I] Section v even uses the word infallible. It says that our full assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of these books is the work of the Holy Spirit. Can there be error in infallible truth? To the same end section ix teaches that the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself."

It is the Holy Spirit that gives full assurance of the divine authority of the Bible.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Assurance of the Infallible Truth of the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 16): "[Chapter I] Section v even uses the word infallible. It says that our full assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of these books is the work of the Holy Spirit. Can there be error in infallible truth? To the same end section ix teaches that the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself."

It is the Holy Spirit that gives full assurance of the infallible truth of the Bible.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Criticism of Neo-orthodox's Containment Theory of the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 16): "[Chapter I] Section iv says that the authority for which the Scriptures should be believed depends wholly on God, who is truth itself and the author of the books; therefore the sixty-six books itemized in section ii are to be received because they are the Word of God. Here it is to be noted that the authority of God attaches to all the Scripture, not to a part only. Scripture has been defined as the sixty-six books, and God is declared to be the author of them all. God is truth itself, and the Scripture not merely contains but is the Word of God."

According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, all of the Bible is the Word of God.

According to the neo-orthodox's Containment theory, some but not all of the Bible contain the Word of God.

Therefore, the neo-orthodox view of the Bible is inconsistent with the Westminster Confession of Faith's view of the Bible.

If the Westminster Confession of Faith's view of the Bible is true, then the neo-orthodox view of the Bible is false.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] The Neo-orthodox's Containment Theory of the Word of God

1. (Clark 1965, 15-16): "And today neo-orthodoxy loudly insists that the word of God is found in the Bible, perhaps only in the Bible, but that not everything in the Bible is true. These modernists could appeal to the Shorter Catechism, Question 2: 'What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? The word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.' Does it not say that the word of God is contained in the Scriptures? Somewhere, but not everywhere, between Genesis and Revelation, the word of God is to be found. This is their contention."

According to the Containment Theory, the Word of God is contained in some, but not all, parts of the Bible.


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] Reason for Believing the Bible

1. (Clark 1965, 14): "Some sections of the Confession may be hard to understand. But there is no difficulty at all about the meaning of [Chapter I] section iv. The Bible, the Holy Scripture, is to be believed because it is the Word of God."


2. (Clark 1965, 16): "[Chapter I] Section iv says that the authority for which the Scriptures should be believed depends wholly on God, who is truth itself and the author of the books; therefore the sixty-six books itemized in section ii are to be received because they are the Word of God. Here it is to be noted that the authority of God attaches to all the Scripture, not to a part only. Scripture has been defined as the sixty-six books, and God is declared to be the author of them all. God is truth itself, and the Scripture not merely contains but is the Word of God."

The Bible is to be believed because it is the Word of God.

Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.

[Glossary] J. Gresham Machen

1. (Clark 1965, 15): "In the early thirties, J. Gresham Machen, a scholar of world renown, tried to halt unbelief in the Presbyterian Church; but he was excommunicated for his loyalty to the Word of God -- and excommunicated without being allowed the simple justice of presenting his defense in any of the three church courts through which his case was carried."


Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1965. What Do Presbyterians Believe? The Westminster Confession: Yesterday and Today. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.

End.