Discuss: "The two pillars of true faith in Scripture as God's Word are the objective witness and the internal tesstimony."

The pillars of God's word are ultimately based upon the trustworthiness of God.  Without being able to trust in God for who he is, we would not be able to trust his word for "teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).  The objective witness of Scripture is the trustworthy normative authority on display in the History of Redemption.  We have a comprehesive given to us in Scripture that we must rely upon to provide the message of redemption, in Jesus Christ.  This message is one the whole world needs to hear and be taught as objective authoritative truth.  Without this truth we cannot have the subjective work of the Holy Spirit to truthfully apply the work of redemption to the heart of the hearer.  This is the internal testimony of Scripture to the heart that brings stone to life.  By this true pillar of faith the covenant community can "live by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Thus trusting in the subjective application of God's normative truth to their own heart.  That is what standing upon the trushtworthiness of God's divine revelation produces, a transformed heart made in the image of Christ himself, thus redeeming creation and completing the history of redemption, "from Him, through Him and to Him" (Romans 11:36).

What are the attributes of Holy Scripture and why do they stand or fall together?

The attributes of Holy Scripture are authority, clarity, necessity and sufficiency.  These attributes stand upon the doctrine of God to take their shape.  By Authority, God explimfies his self-authenticating witness to provide Scripture with a transcendant and timeless norm throughout history.  There is no greater authority on Scripture than Scripture itself because it bears the breath of God's authority.  By clarity, God shows the world that he is both transcendant and immanant, so that he can be seen and understood.  That is why man is responsible for his own sin as Romans 1:19 shows us.  Clarity should not be mistaken for comprehensiveness for there is still mystery in Holy Scripture as God is incomprehensible in his transcendance.  But his message is clear, thus the ncessity of Scripture.  Since Jesus Christ is the word of God (John 1:1) we see the two intimately together and thus the immense necessirty of both to provide salvation.  That message of salvation gives the church it's mission as Romans 10:14 shows us the neccessity of Scritpure to provide the life-giving good news by preaching the word.  Ultimately this word provides the message of faith, hope and love to a dead individual who desparately needs the message of salvation.  Finally, by sufficiency, Scripture shows that it is perfect and complete.  There is no need to add anything further to God's word because it is wholly sufficient for its purposes of breathing God's truth into the world and hearts of stone.

With a careful analysis of these attributes we can see the foundation of God's attributes which seal the truth of Scripture.  If these intricately woven attributes of Scripture hold one another up based on who God is, than they all begin to crumble together.  Only a sovereign, immanant and transcendant, creator, sustainer, holy perfect God could ever author the authoratative, clear, neccessary and sufficient Holy Scriptures.

"Mechanical inspiration" and "organic inspiration"

Mechanical inspiration is the view that God dictated precisely down to the letters the inspired Scriptures.  This view maintains that the writers of Scripture were controlled in such a way that thier own perspectives, life experiences and word usage were not a part of inspired Scripture, but that they were mechanically controlled to write only what God wanted them to write.  This view sees God's authority in a very limited way, thus making the human writers of Scripture as nothing more than robots.

While organic inspiration sees the writing of Scripture as utilizing the sum totoal of human lives working through God's creation and providence to give us his breathed word through inspired human writers.  This view seems altogether messier; however, it is more beautiful than can be imagined.  This is the most intricately woven, magnificently authored story in history.  God has shown his ability to provide special revelation, his word, through the amazing grace and divinely inspired writers across centures and cultures.  Organic inspiration ultimately bows down in much greater respect to God's authority by preserving human freedom in the midts of God's amazing story of redemption.

Kline's view of the suzerain-vassal treaty structure

Kline believes that the canon of Scripture is based upon the suzerian-vassal treaty.  As such, the covenant and by extension, all of Scripture is given to man in the form of the Ancient Near East suzarain-vassal treaty.  The suzarain-vassal treaty is comprised of the preamble, or proclomation of who the king is, followed by an historical prologue, or what has theking done, then the stipulations of what is required to maintain the covenant, along with the blessings, cursings and ratification of the covenant.  Finally, the succesion or protection of the covenant to be handed down to future generations.  Kline views all of Scripture through this framework of God as the great king, suzerain and the covenant community as the vassal.

What were the "two tables of the covenant"?

The "two tables of the covenant" were two complete copies of God's covenant made with Moses and Israel at Mt. Siani.  Suzerain-vassal treaties had a documentary clause to preserve a copy for each party.  In this case, since God's dwelling place was with the people with whom he made covenant, Israel kept both copies, which were identical and total in each copy.

"Granting the existence of inscripturated revelation, there are three basic positions on the New Testament canon." What are they?

The three basic positions on NT canon in light of inscripturated revelation are two variations on an open canon and one view on a closed canon.  First, the view that the NT canon is an open human anthology which can be added to as new revelation is found.  Second, the view that NT canon can have have new word revelation given to individual people rather than the covenant people as a whole, maintains an open canon as well.  Finally, the view that the NT canon is closed is based upon the foundational  view of the apostles and prophets found in Ephesians 2: 19-20 and Revelation 21:14.  The closed view maintains the attributes of Scripture's complete sufficiency. 

How is providence distinct from creation?

The distinction between providence and creation is that providence is the preservation and governance of all that God has created.  As author of creation, ex nihilo, only God can sustain, preserve and continuously uphold through His governing power everything that he created.  Thus his providential work is the continual preservation and governance of creation.

The Gift of Revelation

Assignment:
Dialogue paper: Students will write a dialogue on the doctrine of Scripture between two Anglican theologians, J. I. Packer and N. T. Wright. The dialogue should demonstrate a solid grasp of the assigned reading and lectures and should address issues related to the doctrine of Scripture: the role the Bible plays in God’s redemptive purposes (i.e., the Bible as a means of grace), the nature of biblical authority, the meaning of inspiration, and the nature of inerrancy.