Doctrine of scripture

Review: Behold and Become

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Behold and Become, Jeremy M. Kimble. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2023.

Summary: A classic yet contemporary evangelical account of the doctrine of scripture and how God works transformation through scripture in salvation and Christian growth and what this means for one’s engagement with scripture and its use in the life and leadership of the church.

This book is a winsome, straightforward discussion of the classic evangelical doctrine of scripture. It is neither tendentious toward others with a different understanding nor does it temporize about the difficulties critical scholarship has raised to this classic doctrine. It is a book rooted in the Bible’s testimony about itself and assumes the veracity of its testimony. Some may find that off-putting, but I found it fit the book’s purpose–to argue that God works his transforming work in the believer through the scriptures and to encourage its humble yet confident use by both the individual believer and those who pastor and lead congregations in a scripture-centered ministry.

Jeremy Kimble begins with the self-revealing character of God who speaks in creation and acts to show his redemptive purposes. It is entirely consistent that such a God would reveal his glory and purposes in scripture as he has in the world and that we do well to saturate our lives with this self-revelation of glory. He then turns to a theology of scripture affirming its inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, clarity, necessity, sufficiency, and authority. He both cites scripture’s own testimony and that of those in the Reformed tradition. Accepting these things as true, the believer devotes his or her energy to diligent attention to scripture, not as a textbook, but as the speech of God meant to reveal God, God’s saving ways, and how we might live in the enjoyment of that salvation.

Kimble then turns, in chapter 3 to look at scripture’s testimony to itself, the intertextual character of scripture in later references to earlier texts in the OId Testament, to the New Testament’s use of the Old, and the symbols and patterns that recur that reflect the writers of scripture’s knowledge of and development of what has come before. All of this in the first three chapters builds to the conclusion of chapter 4, the efficacious character of scripture in the transformation of the believer, both from death to life and in progressing in holiness. He offers a study of a number of texts in both testaments that affirm both that scripture is efficacious in our lives and how this works out in the life of the believer. For me, this was one of the highlights of the book. And the focus is not, first of all, on scripture as an instruction manual, but rather as the disclosure of the Triune God and God’s workings in creation and redemption.

At the end of this as well as in the following chapter, Kimble argues that this calls the believer into a scripture-saturated life, giving ourselves to the reading, study, hearing, memory, and meditation of scripture. He also believes this calls us into the correlation of scripture, moving from careful reading to determining the biblical theology evident across a book or multiple books, learning historical theology, as we see how others have correlated the teaching of scripture into doctrine, moving to systematic theology, where we synthesize our learning across the whole of scripture. This forms our worldview and shapes our lives. He discusses how scripture transforms as we behold and become, experiencing renewal of mind that eventuates in lived trust and obedience. He speaks trenchantly about how scripture roots out sin, brings repentance, and the putting on of righteousness. He also encourages the use of scripture in the family, sharing some of his own practice.

The last two chapters focus on the ministry of the scriptures in the church as a body formed by God through the gospel. He values the place of creeds and confessions as doctrinal guardrails. All this sets the context for applying ourselves diligently to listening to the scriptures read and preached, the scriptures taught in educative settings and studied in small groups and applied in discipleship, counseling, and evangelism. He then comes to the preacher, advocating text-driven teaching and preaching and then advises on the practices of study that allow one’s preaching to be driven by the text. Echoing John Piper, he describes preaching as exulting over the truth of the passage and exhortation to grace-empowered action. More briefly, he outlines his convictions about scripture-centeredness in the stewardship practiced by leaders. He concludes the work by summarizing his overall argument and then an appendix re-articulates this in a thesis and one sentence summary of each chapter.

Kimble does not deal with challenges to the doctrine of scripture, or problems that arise in its misuse or abuse in the context of the church. As I noted earlier, while these questions are not unimportant, they would have distracted from the purpose of this book. The idolization of politics and nationalism and the resort to ploys of power have persuaded me that broad swaths of the church have lost their confidence in the power of God, by his Spirit and centered in Christ to work through the ministry of the scriptures both for the transformation from death to life, and in the “breaking of the power of cancelled sin and the setting of sinners free.” We resort instead to gospels of sin management (e.g. purity culture) and self-help. I appreciated the winsomely portrayed vision of a scripture saturated life, devoted to reading and study instead of the 24/7 news cycle and scripture memory instead of social media memes. I long for the joyful confidence that comes, not from ourselves, but from soaking in and exulting in the story of scripture that Kemble portrays. What comes through is the rich joy of such a life, as we become enthralled and enchanted again with the character and work of God and swept into that work. That seems to me what it is to “behold and become.”

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: The Doctrine of Scripture

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The Doctrine of Scripture, Brad East (Foreword by Katherine Sonderegger). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021.

Summary: A concise exploration of the doctrine of scripture focusing on the church’s joyful and thankful confession, “this is the word of the Lord.”

Brad East begins this work with a striking statement: “The doctrine of Holy Scripture is a matter of joy.” He notes the practice of many churches following the reading of the scriptures to say, “The word of the Lord.” to which the congregation replies, “Thanks be to God!” East, in this work, seeks to outline the doctrine of scripture in a way that is representative of a broad swath of Christianity, working from the Canon of scripture to the Rule of Faith found in the early creeds, and the ecumenical councils.

East outlines his doctrine of scripture under six one-word chapter titles:

Source: East explores what it is we mean that scripture comes from God. He explores whether we can form our understanding of scripture from scripture, who is this God who speaks, and how do we understand the inspiration of human authors, specifically, “that the words they naturally will to write are one and the same as those which God wills them to write,” yet without human writers being mere automatons.

Nature: Of what are we speaking by the terms “Holy Scripture” or “Bible”? East would answer, “each and every instance, past, present, and future, of any or all parts of any and all versions of the texts included in the canon of the church’s Scripture.” This supports the translatability of scripture, its fecundity, apparent before my eyes in the seven English versions in front of me as I write. He discusses matters of bibliolatry, biblicism, and individualized versions of sola scriptura. He likens scripture to the offices of Christ. When it is read, it speaks prophetically, it mediates salvation to the world, and it heralds the king.

Attributes. In this chapter, East develops the apostolic necessity of scripture, given the delay in the return of Christ, the holy sufficiency of scripture to accomplish God’s purpose, the catholic clarity of scripture, that scripture’s meaning is only clearly understood with the church, particularly in light of its creeds (an argument differing from the Reformers), and the one truth of scripture to which it unerringly witnesses, making known all we need for salvation.

Ends. Ultimately, scripture guides the exiled people of God in mission toward the consummation of all things in Christ. He describes four ends within this larger picture in life of believers: befriending Christ: beatitude and conversion; following Christ: instruction and edification; imaging Christ: sanctification and perseverance; and knowing Christ: communion and contemplative delight.

Interpretation: He begins with a kind of glossary of terms used in hermeneutical discussion. A highlight of this chapter is East’s proposal that the center of interpretation ought be the worshipping church of baptized believers expectant to encounter her living Lord in both word and sacrament. Private reading, for East comes secondary to this. Also, he challenges historical-critical readings that attempt to discern authorial intent, particularly because this, through the early centuries of the church was subject to Christological readings, where the words of Moses and the prophets are understood in their fullest meaning through the life and work of Christ, a principle evident in apostolic reading of these texts. He argues that we read scripture as God’s inspired word, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as a product and gift to the church of Jesus Christ, canonically, reading these writings as a collection, and interpreted through and in consonance with the rule of faith.

Authority. Here, East discusses how the divine authority of God is mediated to us through the authority of scriptures through the offices of the church. He notes ten questions the doctrine of biblical authority raises that must be worked out in the church’s practice.

This was not a book of same old, same old verities but a thoughtful framing of the doctrine of scripture that avoids the de-supernaturalizing tendencies of modern scholarship and the extremes of bibliolatry while at the same time upholding the wondrous reality of hearing the Word of the Lord together as the people of God. He avoids dangers of privatized versions of sola scriptura as well as fleshly scholarship that fails to depend on the illuminating work of the Spirit of God. He affirms the primacy of scripture and yet the importance of testing our readings of scripture against the Rule of Faith and the readings of the church over the centuries.

For me, this was doctrine at its best, doctrine that led to doxology as I rejoiced in the God who has spoken and who has provided a record of this witness (the section on the confection reminded me of the work of God in preserving and bringing together the inspired texts that constitute scripture). It reminded me of the great drama we enact each time we gather as scripture is both read and proclaimed and under the gracious work of God’s Spirit, we are enabled to hear God speak afresh. I was reminded afresh of how we have been given in scripture all we need for life and godliness. Finally, I appreciated a book that sidesteps our contemporary polemics that often divide to formulate a doctrine of scripture faithful to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Words of Life

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Words of LifeWords of Life by Timothy Ward. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009.

Summary: This book is a Reformed treatment of the doctrine of scripture that begins from a study of scripture’s teaching about itself, moves to a Trinitarian theology of scripture and finally explores the classical affirmations about scripture. Another significant aspect of this book is its incorporation of “speech-act” theory which Ward uses to delineate the relationship of God and the Bible.

Many Reformed treatments of the doctrine of scripture begin with assertions concerning the necessity, sufficiency, clarity, and authority of the Bible. Timothy Ward gets there in the end but pursue a different approach from what I’ve typically seen. He begins by discussing the question of the relationship between God and the Bible, and the issue of how we speak of the Bible as “The Word of God” while lapsing neither into bibliolatry nor elevating the Bible to be a fourth member of the Godhead.

He then begins by looking at scripture’s own account of itself as reflecting the “speech act” of God for the salvation of his people. He summarizes this as follows:

“God chooses to present himself to us, and to act upon us, in and through human words that have their origin in him, and that he identifies as his own. When we encounter those words, God is acting in relation to us, supremely in his making a covenant promise to us. God identifies himself with his act of promising in such a way that for us to encounter God’s promise is itself to encounter God. The supreme form in which God comes to encounter us in his covenant promise is through the words of the Bible as a whole. Therefore to encounter the words of Scripture is to encounter God in action” (p.48).

The second part of the book then looks at the relationship of each person in the Trinity to scripture. This is then followed by a chapter on the doctrine of scripture under the headings of necessity, sufficiency, clarity and authority. Laid out this way, these qualities are informed by and follow as implications of the idea of scripture as the speech action of God. Particularly helpful here was the author’s discussion of what clarity does and does not imply.

The final chapter considers the Bible in the life of Christians. Ward has some trenchant remarks differentiating sola scriptura from a more contemporary version in evangelicalism of solo scriptura. He also addresses the role of the Christian community in relation to scripture and the particular dynamic that occurs when scripture is read and exposited in which the Spirit-given scripture, the Spirit informed and empowered preacher, and the Spirit indwelt congregation come together and God’s people indeed hear a word from God, and not simply human teaching.

This book is an exposition of a Reformed view of scripture at its best. The author draws heavily on Calvin, Turretin, Warfield, and Bavinck while addressing contemporary criticisms and using contemporary approaches to give a fresh account of the doctrine of scripture. Often, contemporary critics of the Reformed view knock down a “straw man” version of this doctrine. I would suggest it would be far more constructive to engage this account. At a personal level, reading this book nourished my enthusiasm for reading the scriptures alone and together with others, and for the preaching of these “words of life.”