It seems almost incredible to believe but the twin pythons of deception are attempting to strangle the Church of Jesus Christ in America by denying the very Word of God. On one side there is the Emergent Church Movement (ECM), wrapping itself around the Evangelical Church from within, and then there’s the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), holding more and more Evangelical leaders in its grip from without. Both organizations are openly promoting things taught by demons, which deny the inerrancy of the Bible, and yet they still wish to be known as Christians. Amazingly, in many parts of the Evangelical community of Laodicea, this is precisely what is happening. However, I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised, for this has been Satan’s strategy from the very beginning – Yea, hath God said? (Genesis 3:1)

Living In Strange Times

Who would ever have thought that the Evangelical camp could have become so confused that people who deny such an essential doctrine of the historic orthodox Christian faith as the infallibility and the inerrancy of the Bible could even be considered Evangelical? Yet as the result of years spent acquiescing to the unregenerate by the Church in America, and its employing pragmatic secular business practices with the Body of Christ, the grieving Holy Sprit is/has withdrawn. And to fill the horrendous void the man-pleasers have rushed in with their over-emphasis on love of God which has then clouded the proper view of the majesty and holiness of Almighty God. Things have gotten to the point that not only are people such as Brian McLaren, one of the most influential spokesmen for the ECM–who denies the inerrancy of the Bible–being accepted as leaders in the Evangelical church, but now there are even Christian professors and apologists who are busy making preparations to accept the non-Christian cult of Mormonism into the Church as well. These are strange times indeed. Isaiah 5:20 comes to mind – Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

Let me give you just a quick example of what I am talking about concerning the first python of deception. We look at Brian McLaren who is a leading theologian within the ECM. The following comes from Pastor Bob Dewaay in “Emergent Delusion: A Critique of Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy,” which is an article Dewaay did on McLaren’s book. In Issue 87 of the Critical Issues Commentary he writes:

The following extended quotation from McLaren aptly illustrates the reason the Bible cannot function authoritatively for postmodern thinkers:

How do “I” know the Bible is always right? And if “I” am sophisticated enough to realize that I know nothing of the Bible without my own involvement via interpretation, I’ll also ask how I know which school, method, or technique of biblical interpretation is right. What makes a “good” interpretation good? And if an appeal is made to a written standard (book, doctrinal statement, etc.) or to common sense or to “scholarly principles of interpretation,” the same pesky “I” who liberated us from the authority of the church will ask, “Who”
sets the standard? Whose common sense? Which scholars and why? Don’t all these appeals to authorities and principles outside the Bible actually undermine the claim of ultimate biblical authority? Aren’t they just the new pope? (http://www.twincityfellowship.com/cic/articles/issue87.htm)

It becomes quite clear that this alleged minister of the Gospel could better be classified as a “professional” agnostic. If Jesus of Nazareth had spoken with the kind of vagaries we just read, then who in the world would have possibly troubled to crucify Christ? At best the Jewish leaders might have just stood there scratching their heads as they tried to figure out what in the world He was even talking about! And at worst, these relgious figures would have simply walked away saying: “Yikes, I sure do feel sorry for the disciples who try to listen to that every day, and then have to memorize it!”

The LDS Church, our other python, has long been on record as denying the inerrancy of the Bible. In the 8th Article of Faith of the Mormon Church we read – “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.” Not really too far from the gibberish McLaren just uttered above. As you talk to those of the LDS faith you will find that in practice this 8th Article of Faith actually functions as an escape hatch for the Mormon whenever you show them something in the Bible they don’t happen to agree with.

Here is what LDS apostle Orson Pratt taught about the Bile in his work entitled “The Bible Alone An Insufficient Guide,” as cited by Utah Lighthouse Ministries:

Many Protestants say they take the Bible as their only rule of faith … What evidence have they that the book of Matthew was inspired of God, or any other of the books of the New Testament? The only evidence they have is tradition…. If it could be demonstrated by tradition, that every part of each book of the Old and New Testament, was, in its original, actually written by inspiration, still it cannot be determined that there is one single true copy of those originals now in existence…. What shall we say then, concerning the Bible’s being a sufficient guide? Can we rely upon it in its present known corrupted state, as being a faithful record of God’s word? We all know that but a few of the inspired writings have descended to our times, which few quote the names of some twenty other books which are lost…. What few have come down to our day, have been mutilated, changed, and corrupted, in such a shameful manner that no two manuscripts agree. Verses and even whole chapters have been added by unknown persons; and even we do not know the authors of some whole books; and we are not certain that all those which we do know, were wrote by inspiration. Add all this imperfection to the uncertainty of the translation, and who, in his right mind, could, for one moment, suppose the Bible in its present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows that even one verse of the whole Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same sense now that it did in the original? … There can be no certainty as to the contents of the inspired writings until God shall inspire some one to rewrite all those books over again…. No reflecting man can deny the necessity of such a new revelation (http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech12a.htm, italics in original)

And exactly how this organization, which has always had such an open hostility toward Holy Scripture, can ever be considered Christian is simply beyond me. But this is what we are faced with here in this approaching day of evil as the twin pythons of deception attempt to crush the life from the Christian Church here in America. These surreptitious snakes from Satan undermining the cardinal doctrine of the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible as they slowly try and slither their way into the mainstream of Evangelicalism. The Emergent Church endeavoring to wrap itself around the undiscerning from within, while the LDS Church is busy with its own ploy to entangle the innocent from without.

The Proper View Of The Bible

The historic orthodox Christian Church has always held that the Bible was without error in everything it happens to speak to, and further, that it is the final authority for faith and practice for the Christian. We also know that the Holy Spirit never had anything preserved in Scripture unless it is exactly what God wanted us to know. And this would include even the very words that a given human author would choose as he was writing what would later prove to be Holy Scripture. The Bible says – All Scripture is God-breathed – as we read in 2 Timothy 3:16. You will notice here that we read “all” Scripture is inspired by God, and not just the things we happen to like as our more liberal counterparts would propose.

By way of review, this is what is known as the plenary verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture. Without being too technical, plenary means “full,” and verbal refers to the actual words themselves. The inspiration of God covers completely, the things that the human authors wrote about–or more properly–what God “revealed” to them, right on down to the very tenses of those words – e.g. past, present, etc. that were used by those writers. Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis and theology, Dr. Milton Terry, in his classic book on interpretation of Scripture Biblical Hermeneutics tells us:

It may be safely asserted that, in some sense–[but not entirely]–the sacred writers were used mechanically; they were often employed as the media of words and symbols they could not comprehend. They were inspired dynamically, for they were actuated by a supernatural force and wisdom which supervised their work and directed them so as to secure the very purpose of the Almighty. In their inspiration there was a verbal element, for God is represented as speaking by “the mouth of all his prophets.” “Behold,” he says to Jeremiah (i, 9), “I have put my words in thy mouth.” Paul claims to set forth the saving truth of God “not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit” (1 Cor. ii, 13) (pp. 137,138).

With the ECM’s mysticism of eastern contemplative spirituality now coming from within our Lord’s Church, through the teachings of men like McLaren, Satan has been able to cause more and more people today to find it hard to trust the writers of Holy Scripture were actually inspired by God. While these heretical views have no basis in fact, it has become even more imperative for those of us who have the forums to begin to speak up and defend this crucial doctrine concerning the Bible. The Devil is fast sowing his confusion about how God’s Word was originally received, and there can be no doubt that this assault by his evil forces upon Holy Scripture is going to be an escalating attack as the evil day draws near. And it is also a sad truth that the lack of trust in what God has said in the Bible is the only way the Evangelical camp could have arrived at this point where men behind the pulpit are now so afraid to stand for the truth.

Those of us who really are the children of the living God are well aware that we can trust the Bible because Christ Jesus told us we could – I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished (Matthew 5:18) and Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away (Matthew 24:35). God wants His Church to let everyone know that the issue before us right now is the very same as when Adam first stood up on this planet: “Are you going to believe what I tell you?”

Now let’s look a little further at the inspiration of the Bible in order that we might have a better grip on it. The Evangelical Dictionary Of Theology informs us:

The main principles of plenary inspiration are (1) God is the author of the Bible, in varied ways; (2) the focus of inspiration is the writers of the Bible–there is author rather than text orientation; and (3) the writers have been inspired in all that they have written, though in varied ways. (p.929)

Essentially what we are talking about here is that the Church has always held that the Scriptures now contained in the Old and New Testament of our Bible are the very Words of God. And we have arrived at this understanding from what Jesus of Nazareth–our Lord Himself–taught. In His response to Satan in Matthew 4 the Master said – It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The key to understanding what Jesus is telling us here is to realize that He is quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 of the Hebrew Scriptures as a word that comes from the mouth of God.

As to the reason we can trust that what we have in the New Testament is also the Word of God, again we turn to the Master as He tells His disciples – He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:24-26). Again, by looking closely at what Christ has said we can see here that He is equating what He is saying with a word that comes from the mouth of God. And the Master is also telling us that there would be more Scripture to come.

We look at one last thing about the verbal inspiration of the Bible before we move on. You need to realize that while the Bible is indeed to be considered as God’s Word, the Devil has been attacking this idea through a philosophy called relativism in order to weaken our belief in absolute truth. What he has done is to sow much confusion about this subject in our fickle society and this strategy has proved quite successful in causing much doubt–even within the Evangelical church! But the great theologian Dr. Charles Hodge told us the truth as he wrote in his classic Systematic Theology: “the sacred writers were the organs of God, so that what they taught, God taught” (Vol.1, p.156).

What is particularly important to understand about the inspiration of the Bible is that not only did the men chosen by the Holy Spirit faithfully record what God wanted them to, but they also wrote His thoughts down in the just way the Lord moved them to as well (see–2 Peter 1:21). In the Kingdom of the Cults Dr. Walter Martin put it this way:

If we believe that God inspired the writers, we must believe the grammar of the Bible is inspired as well; how else could He have conveyed His thoughts without error? Would God commit His inspired words to the failing grammatical powers of man to record? No! He could not do this without risking corruption of His message; therefore, as the wise and prudent Lord that He is, He most certainly inspired the grammar of His servants that their words might transmit His thoughts without error, immutable and wholly dependable. (p.117)

The Human Instrument

The best illustration I could give as to how this inspiration worked would be for us to picture the Apostle Paul in our mind as our exemplar. He has some very real concerns about the church at Corinth. So one night he decides to write a letter to them in order to address these issues. Now as he writes what is in his own mind, God the Holy Spirit steers those thoughts to record what He also wants recorded for the generations to come as well. Here we have the classic example of Hebrews 4:12 – the Word of God is a double-edged sword. While we know from history that Paul is writing to the actual church at Corinth, God Himself–at the very same time–makes sure that His human instrument is also writing what will be necessary for future churches to know. And this is why the Lord chose the particular time in human history that He did for the New Testament to be written.

You see it couldn’t have been any men who would write, it had to be those men because their thoughts at that time would have been exactly where God wanted them to be. As Holy Scripture says – Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord – Psalm 139:4. The doctrine of plenary verbal inspiration teaches that when the Apostle Paul sat down to write he wrote what he personally had intended to write. However, God already knew what Paul would want to write, and so God the Holy Spirit simply steered His Apostle’s thoughts all the while revealing any extra information that would be needed for our Lord’s Church down through the ages. And in doing so, God also kept Paul from including anything we wouldn’t need in his letters.

Hopefully this example has proved helpful for you to understand just where the twin pythons have erred. Here is Dr. Terry once again: “Every devout Christian will acknowledge that this inspiration was plenary [or full] inasmuch as it has furnished in all-sufficient fullness a revelation of the mind and will of God (p.188).” Let me offer one concluding thought on this subject. The divine inspiration of the Bible is vital to our discussion of the sovereignty of the one true and living God in this tepid age we live in. Unless we return to forming our doctrines by exactly what the Bible actually says, then God will not empower our witness for Him. And herein is what has been lost amidst all the discussion surrounding the overly seeker sensitive purpose driven life and the Emergent Church Movement. No matter how user-friendly the message, or attractive the package, we can never escape the fact that it is the Lord Himself Who must draw the true seeker to Christ. The human agent that He may happen to use in order to accomplish this task is completely secondary to the glory of God.

The only way we can ever hope to see anything resembling revival in this squalid nation would be for Church of our Lord to begin once again conforming ourselves to His living Word–Jesus Christ of Nazareth and to His written Word–the Bible. This is the only way that we have any real chance to see change in our churches, in our communities and in our culture. So, as we leave the subject of the inspiration of the Bible this comment from Dr. Millard Erickson, distinguished professor of theology at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, sums up our position. For as Christians it “is our contention here that inspiration involved God’s directing the thoughts of the writers, so that they were precisely the thoughts He wished expressed… [And we]…have concluded that inspiration was verbal, extending [even] to the choice of words (Christian Theology , p.242).”

Where Are The Real Men Of God?

You might wonder why is it I take the time to go over something so basic as the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Most of those would call themselves Christian would already say that they believe that the Bible is the Word of God. And I’m sure that they mean it as well. However, there are a couple of reasons why I write as I do in this work. The first is that an unbiased view of the contemporary Evangelical scene makes it obvious that things are horribly amiss. So-called Evangelicals like Brian McLaren are now able to openly deny the orthodox view of the Bible, and still be considered among the leading teachers in the Church! And then, we also have well-known preachers within the Evangelical community who seem to have trouble confining their teachings to the Bible. Consider this bit of information about David Jeremiah–a leading Southern Baptist pastor–and some rather odd quotations in his teachings from the Slice of Laodicea weblog in a piece called “Life Wide Open–To Eastern Spirituality?” by Ingrid Schlueter:

Those who wonder why Dr. David Jeremiah has made the decision to back Ken Blanchard’s peculiar blend of evangelicalism and New Spirituality need only read his book, Life Wide Open to see that he himself is wide open to the teachings of those embracing eastern contemplative spirituality. Life Wide Open has just been republished in a new edition for a new set of readers. Deborah Dombrowski writes:

“In light of the fact that in David Jeremiah’s 2003 book, Life Wide Open, he favorably quotes feminine spiritualist Sue Monk Kidd ( When the Heart Waits), contemplative Calvin Miller (Into the Depths of God), Buddhist sympathizer Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), emerging church leader, Erwin McManus, and mystic sympathizer Jim Collins, it may not be any wonder that he has partnered up with Ken Blanchard who is a board member of the Hoffman Quadrinity Process Institute and a participant in the interspiritual, New Age organization, Heartland Circle.” (http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/)

The other reason to look again at the correct doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture–in addition to the inmates running the asylum within the Evangelical camp–is that it has become vital for you to know how to defend this view of the Bible to others. Not only that, but it is our job to tell people why we Christians believe that these Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, because it is readily apparent–from the sorry shape this nation is in–that far too many people today simply ignore the Bible altogether. And is it any wonder? The honest person will have to admit that this same avoidance of biblical truth is happening much too often inside the Church of Jesus Christ as well. Just look at what has been coming from Evangelical pulpits in the past couple of years!

However, I can tell you this in the Lord, all those New Age philosophies and these pragmatic seeker sensitive ways of sharing the Gospel being used by so many Christians right now simply will never work in helping people come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Men and women, I write this as an exhortation: Let us go back to the good old-fashioned Bible preaching and Bible believing methods of the past–the ones we can see that God has already blessed–like those once preached by the great men of God we all say we respect. Truly when you measure the David Jeremiahs and the Brian McLarens and the Rick Warrens by the D.L. Moodys and the G. Campbell Morgans and the Robert Murray McCheynes there is an appaling lack of continuity in what is being taught by that first group of fifth-rate man-pleasers. Today the Church has become afraid to use her God-given discernment and is unfortunately all too willing to accept anyone who comes naming the name of Jesus regardless of what they say about our precious Christ.

But the big difference between a real man of God, and these impostors we see so often within Evangelical circles today, is easy to see from your knees. As G. Campbell Morgan once said:

The Devil’s methods of opposition are those of alliance and antagonism, and the only serious one is the first. Let us beware of it. Do not let us imagine that we can take into our fellowship and enlist under one banner men who simply affirm truth about Jesus, unless in their own lives there is an absolute loyalty to the Lord Christ. Antagonism is the creation of force for the kingdom of God. Put a man in prison for Christ’s sake, and the earthquake will surely follow, and the work will spread. (http://www.swordofthelord.com/biographies/MorganGCampbell.htm)

Beloved…Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore…