Sermon Tone Analysis

Greetings and Intro

Doubts took root in my early twenties

Repressed them ....allowing them to grow.

Sin had also crept in my life....which I believe is the ultimate reason why people reject the authority of God’s Word.

Mark Goodwin - God can handle your doubts.

You must deal with them.

Suggested a couple of books to read.

Mere Christianity had a profound effect on me.

I settled it, surrendered my life to him, and laid all my doubts before him.

Church of the Nazarene Article of Faith on the Holy Scriptures

Let’s take a look at the Church of the Nazarenes’ Article of Faith on the Holy Scriptures.

Let’s read it together.

We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

(; ; ; ; ; )

As I studied this Article of Faith, I began to see that its structure answeres four important questions.

What is included in the Bible and who made that determination?

What gives the Bible its authority?

What is its purpose?

How do we interpret it?

As you can see, each of these questions could be its own sermon, and although I was tempted to make an executive decision in Pastor Joe’s absence and declare we’d be spending four Sunday’s on this Article of Faith, and let Joe tackle the last ones, I realized I’m only a part-time Pastor and can’t make that determination in Joe’s absence.

Therefore, I will try to highlight the main points for each of these.

According to the constitution of the Church of the Nazarene, which is included in the Manual, the General Assembly is responsible for making any changes to our doctrine, also known as the Articles of Faith.

According to the constitution of the Church of the Nazarene, which is included in the Manual, the General Assembly is responsible for making any changes to our doctrine, also known as the Articles of Faith.

This Article of Faith has only been changed three times.

The last time it was changed was in 1928.

H. Orton Wiley was the author of the version adopted by the General Assembly.

Wiley was a teacher, evangelist, college president and editor of the Herald of Holiness.

His three volume systematic theology entitled Christian Theology, is one of the most widely used Wesleyan theological resources.

History of the Holy Scriptures

History of the Holy Scriptures

We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

So let’s tackle the first question.

As a protestant church, we have affirmed that the Bible is made up of 66 individual books that were written over a period of 2000 years, by forty authors, in three different ancient languages.

Even though there was a diversity of of authors and genres (including history, biography, poetry, genealogies, letters, prophecy, wisdom literature, , there is an irrefutable unity of purpose.

It was born out of oral tradition, the recorded and compiled across hundreds of years.

Old Testament Officially Ratified by the Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90

27 books of the New Testament were confirmed by the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397

By the time of Christ, the books of the Old Testament were universally accepted and were officially ratified by the Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90.

The 27 books of the New Testament were officially recognized by Athanasius in the fourth century and were officially confirmed by the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397.

The fourth Article of Faith, acknowledges that we recognize the 66 books in the Old and New Testament recognized by Athanasius are the inspired Word of God.

The Authority of Scripture

We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

The second question we want to answer is where does Scripture get its authority.

We can answer that question by looking at 2 Timothy 3:16-17

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The NASB translated “breathed out” with the word “inspired”.

God inspired the authors as they wrote the different books of the Bible, and we also believe that when we say that Scripture is inspired or God breathed is to affirm that God brings life, energy, renewal, and transformation through the Scripture.

We believe the very life-giving breath of God is at work in the Bible.

You may be asking, if Scripture is “God-breathed” was there any human element that was present in the authoring of the different books.

There are two theories.

The first is called “mechanical or dictorial”.

In this theory, the authors were just physical conduits of God’s Words.

They were almost in a trance, writing the words dictated by God.

The second theory is called “dynamical”.

In this theory God inspired the author and he was using the author’s own words as the author thought out the truth and made it their own.

There is evidence that the Biblical authors used both of these methods.

Although there is not agreement on whether any of the Biblical authors used the mechanical method of inspiration, However, in his systematical theology book, H. Orton Wiley claimed there are over 3,000 times that the Biblical authors used the phrase Thus saith the Lord, or The word of the Lord came.

This is often how the Prophets prefaced the oracles they gave.

In addition, in it says,

“Then God spoke all these words, saying,” then he listed the Ten Commandments.

There is also ample evidence the authors were inspired by the Spirit of God as they expressed His truth using their own words.

The Gospels and the Epistles are excellent examples of this.

There is also ample evidence the authors were inspired by the Spirit of God as they expressed His truth using their own words.

The Gospels and the Epistles are excellent examples of this.

H. Ray Dunning, wrote a Wesleyan systematic theology entitled Grace, Faith, and Holiness.

In his discussion on the dynamical theory, he said that it implies there is a historical character of biblical language.

The author is using words they understand what they mean, within their given context.

They are historically conditioned by the writer’s intellectual, cultural, and social environment.

They are even limited by their factual knowledge or lack of it.

This is why interpretation is so important, which we will touch on a little later.

To sum up, I want to quote Frank Moore, from an article in Holiness Today, in 2018.

“As we see it, all authority comes from God. Scripture gives us the self-revelation of God to humanity.

This revelation begins with baby steps of understanding in Genesis.

It then grows across the years to the ultimate revelation of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.” - Frank Moore

Purpose of the Holy Scriptures

We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

This brings us to the purpose of the Holy Scriptures.

We see this in two different places in our Article of Faith.

The first is the use of the word “plenary” and the second is the phrase “inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation,”

Let’s first look at the word plenary.

H. Orton Wiley said that our use of the phrase “plenary inspiration” was meant to convey that the whole and every part is divinely inspired.

Roger Hahn, a professor of New Testament at the Nazarene Theological Seminary said in reference to the use of the word plenary, that Nazarenes are declaring their belief that Scripture is completely inspired by God — not just “sort of Inspired — and that all 66 books of the Old and New Testament are inspired.

Hahn also tied this word to the debate of mechanical or dynamical.

He said that plenary inspiration acknowledges the important and influential role of the human authors but also affirms that this human process was the means by which God communicated the message He wanted to communicate.

Let’s now turn our attention to the phrase, “inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation.”

This phrase is declaring that we believe that the purpose of the Holy Scriptures is to bring us into a right relationship with God and each other.

Its purpose is not to teach us science, although it contains science, it’s not to teach us history, although it contains history, and it’s not to teach us manners, although it does teach us how we ought to live.

I was trying out this section on my husband, and he said, Terry Ballew is going to be upset because you left out Math, and I, as a former English teacher am upset because you left out English…and I thought, you know what, it isn’t a math book, but it contains math and it isn’t an English book, but it is full of beautiful literature.

Then I thought, isn’t it just like God to use the four core academic subjects to help tell his story of salvation!

Jorge L. Julca, the rector of the Nazarene Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, said it this way, “We believe that God’s main purpose throughout Scripture is to offer humanity the hope of redemption from sin and death.

Along with that purpose there is perfect harmony between the prophets, the words of Jesus, and the apostles around the Bible’s essential message.”

Jorge L. Julca

This year, I have been teaching through the book of Acts, and I have detected a pattern in the different speeches that are included in Acts, both those by Paul and the other apostles.

The focus of these speeches, is always on three things; the Deity of Christ, his death, and his resurrection.

Paul wants to make it clear that Jesus is the Son of Man, who is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

As Joe pointed out last week in his sermon on the Trinity, Christ had the same characteristics as God.

He did things that only God could do.

And his death and resurrection were a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, which is why Paul often alluded to or quoted Old Testament passages when he spoke in the synagogues in the cities and towns he visited on his missionary journeys.

The book of Acts and the Epistles reveal to us the theology of the early Christians.

The purpose of Scripture was clear to them.

It tells how paradise was corrupted by sin, resulting in all sorts of evil.