A1.    Bible as basis of systematic theology (Question 1)

• Source of Christian doctrines in the Wesleyan quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, reason, experience; but only the Scripture has the ultimate authority
• Roman Catholic Church chose to affirm a dual source of revelation: Scripture and tradition, of equal importance.

• Decree in AD 1546: The Catholic church affirmed that Christian truth is to be found "in the written books and the unwritten traditions".
• New Catechism (1992): The church "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."

• OT: Jesus quotes or alludes to the OT more than 150 times in the gospels. Jesus clearly equates the words of the Scripture with the words of God: Mt 19:4-5, citing Gen 2:24, "God" and "Scripture" have become interchangeable.
• Lk 24:44, Jesus sweepingly affirmed that the whole OT (all 3 divisions) had a bearing on His mission.
• Mt 5:18, Jesus affirms the permanent validity of even the smallest detail of the Law (probably the whole OT).
• Originated ultimately from the Holy Spirit: Mk 12:36, "David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared…."
• Peter uses the OT as his source of authority; he sees it fulfilled in Jesus (Ps 110:1; Ac 2:33-36)
• The NT writers always quote the OT as authoritative.

• 1Co 14:37, Paul identified his authority as an apostle with the word of Christ
• The authority of Christ was delegated to the apostles whom he selected: they speak "by the Holy Spirit" (1Pe 1:12), both the matter and form of their teaching (1Co 2:13).
• Peter’s reference to Paul’s epistles as "Scripture" (2Pe 3:16).

a. Mechanical or Dictation: personality of the human author set aside to preserve the text from fallible human aspects
• but style, vocabulary would be uniform

• Perspicuity: clear expression
• In support of the Reformers’ stance of sola Scriptura
• The plain sense of Scripture was available to anyone who would let it say what it intended to say. Zwingli thus reproached the Catholics for imposing upon Scripture their predetermined interpretations.

• The knowledge necessary unto salvation, though not equally clear on every page of Scripture, is yet communicated to man throughout the Bible in such a simple and comprehensive form that anyone who is earnestly seeking salvation can easily gather this knowledge for himself, and need not depend for it on the Church or the priesthood. (Berkhof)
• It does not mean that every portion is equally easy to be understood. What it means is "that with ordinary intelligence any person can obtain" from the Word of God itself "the main point of the things he needs to know." (Van Til)
• Pope Leo XIII in 1893: "God has entrusted the Scriptures to the Church (meaning Roman Catholic Church)." The Church is "the perfectly trustworthy guide and teacher," so that the true sense of the Scriptures is to be considered "that sense which has been and is held by our Holy Mother the Church, whose is the judgment of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriputres, so that nobody is allowed to explain Holy Scripture contrary to that sense or to the unanimous opinion of the Fathers." The same tendency is held by the Jehovah’s Witness. This is contrary to 2Ti 2:15.

• John Wesley: "The spirit of God, not only once inspired those who wrote it, but continually inspires, supernaturally assists those who read it with earnest prayer."

a. Homologoumena – books with no dispute, complete agreement

• Song of Songs -- sensual
• Ecclesiastes -- skepticism
• Esther -- absence of name of God
• Ezekiel -- gnosticism, anti-Mosaical teaching
• Proverbs -- contradictory within 26:4-5

• New Testament

• Hebrews -- anonymity
• James -- salvation by works
• 2 Peter -- dissimilarity of style
• 2 John, 3 John -- private nature, limited circulation, another identified as elder not apostle
• Jude -- authenticity questioned, reference to Pseudipigrapha Book of Enoch v.14-15
• Revelation -- authenticity, millennialism

c. Apocrypha – "hidden" or hard to understand; non-authoritative; with historical and devotional value   d. Pseudipigrapha – books rejected by all; express religious fancy and magic heretical teachings, exaggerated fancy, with only some historical value

(15 books, or 14 books if the extra chapters of Esther not counted separately)

• Didactic:

• Wisdom of Solomon (30 BC)
• Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) (132 BC)

• Religious Romance:

• Tobit (200 BC)
• Judith (150 BC)

• Historic:

• I Esdras (150-100 BC)
• I Maccabees (110 BC)
• II Maccabees (110-70 BC)

• Prophetic:

• Baruch (150-50 BC)
• Letter of Jeremiah (300-100 BC)
• II Esdras (AD 100)

• Legendary:

• Additions to Esther (140-130 BC)
• Prayer of Azariah (Song of Three Young Men) (2nd or 1st century BC)
• Susanna (2nd or 1st century BC)
• Bel and the Dragon (100 BC)
• Prayer of Manasseh (2nd or 1st century BC)

• Biblical inference:

• Jude 3 "the faith which was once for all entrusted to the saints", written after all NT books except Revelation
• Rev 22:18-19 John warned against adding to or taking from "the prophecy of this book"

• Decision by the universal Church:

• Council of Carthage (AD 397): Both OT and NT were prescribed as the limit of the canon and the church’s final authority. No other writings, synods, councils, or bishops could assert another or new authority.
• no more prophetic or apostolic spokesmen for God, who are recognized by the universal Church
• need recognition and agreement of the universal Church, but no more council for the whole church

1611 King James Version (KJV)
1881 Revised Version (RV)
1901 American Standard Version (ASV)
1952 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
1966 Jerusalem Bible (JB, Catholic)
1970 The New English Bible (NEB)
1971 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1971 The Living Bible (LB, Paraphrased)
1976 Good News Bible or Today’s English Version (GNB, TEV)
1978 New International Version (NIV)
1982 New King James Version (NKJV)
1985 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB, Catholic)
1989 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
1989 Revised English Bible (REB)
1995 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

God reveals his plan of salvation progressively in history

• Eph 3:3-5,9-10