K Neill Foster

Welcome to Classic Christianity

First published by Christian Publications, Inc., 3825 Hartzdale Drive,Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011 Republished by www.kneillfoster.com in 2005. K. Neill Foster, Publisher. Paul L. King, Editor. A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, Editorial Voice.


WELCOME TO: CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE E-ZINE


#3 CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE INDEX
===================================================
1) THE PUBLISHER ON "THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD"
2) THE EDITOR ON "THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD"
3) A.W. TOZER ON "AN AUTHORITATIVE WORD TO DIE FOR"
4) A.B. SIMPSON ON "THE BIBLE IS EVERYTHING OR IT IS NOTHING"
5) CHARLES SPURGEON ON "OUR CHAMPION'S WEAPON"
6) A.J. GORDON ON "APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS"
7) RECOMMENDED READING: TOZER TOPICAL READER
8) OSWALD CHAMBERS ON "THE STANDARD OF THE WORD"
9) G. CAMPBELL MORGAN ON "JESUS' CLAIMS ABOUT HIS WORD"
10) JOHN A. MACMILLAN ON "PERFECT ACCURACY"
11) JOHN W. HALEY ON "ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES"
12) CHURCH FATHER JUSTIN MARTYR ON "CONTRADICTIONS"
13) RECOMMENDED READING: THE TOZER CD-ROM LIBRARY
14) CHURCH FATHER HIPPOLYTUS ON "THE SCRIPTURES AS A HOLY FOUNTAIN"
15) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
16) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


1) THE PUBLISHER ON "THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD"

"I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture" is an unqualified affirmation of the authority of the Bible's Old and New Testaments. It does not mean that there are not difficult passages and apparent conflicts in what the Word says, such as in the various readings of the inscriptions over the cross in the four Gospels. There are many of these passages which require and receive the attention of the scholars. It is after these considered attentions that godly men still say, "I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture."

That is our determined stance here at CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY, that we do affirm the inerrancy of Scripture. Even though in these later years after Harold Lindsell's BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE, the struggle for the full authority of Scripture is often eroded by hermeneutics, it is now possible to affirm inerrancy and then explain it away by interpretation. In some ways, the "battle for the Bible" was both won--and lost, lost through hermeneutics.

Some "bold" souls are saying, "I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture IN ALL THAT IT AFFIRMS." As soon as that equivocation is uttered the battle is lost. Watch us carefully here--our determination is to hold to the full authority and inerrancy of Scripture without equivocation.


2) THE EDITOR ON "THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD"

We live in a day in which even some camps of evangelicalism have acceded to biblical criticism and some "evangelical" theological schools and seminaries have dropped "inerrancy" from their statements of faith and/or watered down its meaning. Quotes from the Early Church Fathers show that attacks on the infallibility of Scripture occurred even in the second and third centuries, just after their compilation. The attempts of Marcion and the Gnostics to truncate the New Testament canon essentially served to affirm most of the New Testament books by about 175 A.D. Such attempts to discredit the Word of God have not ceased through the centuries. These classic Christian writers continue to provide us an anchor which holds fast in the storms that attempt to beat upon the authority of the Bible as the infallible Word of God. Their counsel, though decades and centuries old, is still timely today.


3) A.W. TOZER (1897-1963) ON "AN AUTHORITATIVE WORD TO DIE FOR"

Everybody is writing and everybody is talking, but for dying men there is not one word of authority anywhere, except as you hear the sure, true terrifying words of Jesus Christ. Not a newspaper in the world gives me a word to die for. Literally millions of words are printed every day, but the only authoritative word ever published is that which comes from the Holy Scriptures.[1]

It doesn't take science to prove God and His Word. Some people are worried, they say, about whether we have the infallible Word of God. As far as I'm concerned, grant me God Himself, and I'm not worried about His writing a book. Grant the Being and Presence of God, and that settles it![2]

In searching the Holy Scriptures two facts need to be faced squarely: One is that in the body of revealed truth there are no real contradictions; the other, that contradictions do sometimes appear to be present. To admit contradictions is to deny the infallibility of the Word; to deny that they seem to be there is to be unrealistic and put ourselves at the mercy of our enemies. . . . Christ, being the incarnation of truth, cannot utter contradictions. There must be an explanation which will preserve the organic unity of His teachings and reconcile two seemingly inconsistent passages.[3]

[1] A.W. Tozer, THE TOZER PULPIT (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1994), 1:1:147.

[2] Ibid., 1:1:33.

[3] A.W. Tozer, THE WARFARE OF THE SPIRIT (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1993), 29-30.


4) A.B. SIMPSON (1843-1919) ON "THE BIBLE IS EVERYTHING OR IT IS NOTHING"

There is no testimony that needs to be more emphatically pressed upon the hearts of men today than the inspiration and supreme authority of the Word of God. . . . The Bible stands apart from all other books, and has survived and will survive all the attacks of its enemies. It is like the electric torch that shines over the water of New York Bay, struck by the wing of many a seabird that dashes against it in its reckless flight, but still shining on unmoved while the foolish and reckless assailant falls bleeding and wounded at its feet. It is an anvil which has worn out many a hammer of hostile criticism, while the anvil still remains unshaken amid the wreck of all that have assailed it. . . .

It is very sad and humbling to see the tendency of . . . those who, if they do not reject the Bible altogether, will compromise its supremacy and question its infallible authority. The Bible is either everything or nothing. Like a chain which depends upon its weakest link, if God's Word is not absolutely and completely true, it is too weak a cable to fix our anchorage and guarantee our eternal peace. Thank God, we have reason to accept it as the supernatural revelation of a supernatural God, the word not of man, but the Word of God that lives and abides forever.

A.B. Simpson, PRESENT TRUTHS OR THE SUPERNATURAL (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., reprint 1967), 22-24.


5) CHARLES SPURGEON (1834-1893) ON "OUR CHAMPION'S WEAPON"

We have a surer word of testimony, a rock of truth upon which we rest, for our infallible standard lies in, "It is written." The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is our standard. . . . The Bible is the Word of God, and is pure, unerring truth. In it, and nowhere else, is infallibility.

The grand, infallible book is our sole court of appeal, the sword of the Spirit in the spiritual battles that await us. I zealously exhort you to take this part of the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist the great enemy of our souls. I commend to you this unfailing weapon "It is written." . . . This is our Champion's own weapon. . . . When Jesus Christ was assailed by Satan in the wilderness, He had a great choice of weapons with which to fight Satan, but He took none but this sword of the Spirit: "It is written." . . . "It is written" enabled Him to look down from the dizzy height and baffle the tempter still. . . . "It is written" swept aside the snares of ambition and laughed at the fascination of power. No change in His mode of warfare was required. The infallible Word availed in every position in which our Lord found Himself, and so shall it be with us. . . .

The Holy Spirit is in the Word, and the Word is, therefore, living truth. Be assured of this, and because of it, take the Word as your chosen weapon of war.

Charles Spurgeon, SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN A BELIEVER'S LIFE (Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1993), 72-73, 75-77.


6) A.J. GORDON (1836-1895) ON "APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS"

The one great reason for holding the inerrancy of Scripture is: If it is God the Holy Spirit who speaks in Scripture, then the Bible is the Word of God, and like God, infallible. . . . It should be expected that under the scientific method apparent contradictions should appear and constantly multiply. The Bible is a sensitive plant, which shuts itself up at the touch of mere critical investigation. . . . The scientific method is futile for understanding the words of the Holy Spirit: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived . . . but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). . . . Faith holds not only the keys of all the creeds, but of all the contradictions. He who proceeds under the conviction that the Bible is the infallible Word of God will find discrepancies constantly turning into unisons under his study.. . . The contradictions of man may really be the harmonies of God. An uncultivated listener, hearing an oratorio one of the great masters, would detect discords again and again in the strains. As a matter of fact, what are called "accidentals" in music are discords, but discords inserted to heighten the harmony. Again and again alleged discrepancies of Scripture jar the ear but then are reconciled. With what emphatic and enhanced harmony the words of the psalmist, speaking by the Holy Spirit, fall on our ear: "The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7).

A.J. Gordon, THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1964), 179, 181-182.


7) RECOMMENDED READING: TOZER TOPICAL READER

TOZER TOPICAL READER--Compiler Ron Eggert has produced a comprehensive 700-page, 1,337-entry, two-volume set that classifies Tozer's published works under various topical headings. Scripture referencing and indexing is also included. An
indispensable source for pastors, teachers, speakers and devotional readers. Foreword by Warren Wiersbe. Two-volume set, Cloth. 0-87509-838-X

Order from Christian Publications by calling 1-800-233-4443 (in North America) or fax 1-717-761-7273 or web: www.christianpublications.com.


8) OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874-1917) ON "THE STANDARD OF THE WORD"

The WORDS of God and the WORD of God stand together; to separate them is to render both powerless. Any expounder of the words of God is liable to go off on a tangent if he or she does not remember this stern, undeviating standard of exposition, namely, that no individual experience is of the remotest value unless it is up to the standard of the Word of God. The Bible not only tests experience, it tests truth. The Bible tests all experience, all truth, all authority by our Lord Himself and our relationship to Him personally.

Oswald Chambers, GOD'S WORKMANSHIP (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1997), 95.


9) G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945) ON "JESUS' CLAIMS ABOUT HIS WORD"

The mere reading of the words of Christ brings us into an atmosphere in which we are conscious of the august sublimity of Christ's conception of the value of His own teaching. . . . He declared that His word believed leads to the Father, and constitutes the medium of age-abiding life. . . . His words constitute the foundation upon which men must build--His teaching is the foundation of character. . . . His words constitute the test of the inspiration of life. . . . His word is declared to be the Divine standard of judgment. . . . He Himself declares that His words shall not pass away. . . .

He claimed that the things He had spoken (which at first often appear to be so fragmentary and broken and scattered, but in their very brokenness and scattering there is a grand scheme) constitute the complete testimony of God to men. . . .

His last claim is that His teaching is final. Heaven and earth pass, but His words abide, and they are complete. . . . These are superlative claims. . . .

He challenges us today: "Build on My words and you will build well and forever."

G. Campbell Morgan, THE TEACHING OF CHRIST (New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1913), 8-10, 14, 13.


10) JOHN A. MACMILLAN (1873-1956) ON "PERFECT ACCURACY"

There is perfect accuracy in all the statements of Scripture. This could not be otherwise when we consider that its Author is the Spirit of Truth. Wherever, therefore, apparent inaccuracies are pointed out in any part of Holy Writ, we, who believe God, are bound to trust His Word before that of man. It is much more reasonable to think that the critics have misunderstood the text, or possess insufficient evidence, or are (as has been often the case) biased in their judgments, than the record given to us should be faulty in any part.

John A. MacMillan, THE ADULT FULL GOSPEL QUARTERLY (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications), Nov. 17, 1935, 21-22.


11) JOHN W. HALEY ON "ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES"

It is the duty of the Christian scholar to look difficulties and objections squarely in the face. Nothing is to be gained by overlooking, evading or shrinking from them. Truth has no cause to fear scrutiny, however rigid and searching. . . .

I cannot but avow, as the issue of my investigations, the profound conviction that every difficulty and discrepancy in the Scriptures is, and will yet be seen to be, capable of a fair and reasonable solution. . . . The Bible will stand. In the ages yet to be, when its present assailants and defenders are mouldering in the dust, and when their very names are forgotten, the sacred volume will be, as it has been during centuries past, the guide and solace of unnumbered millions of our race.

John W. Haley, ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, n.d.), vi, x.

Note: John Haley was a late nineteenth century biblical scholar, linguist and Christian apologist.


12) CHURCH FATHER JUSTIN MARTYR (c. 110-165) ON "CONTRADICTIONS"

You are mistaken if you think you can drive me into a corner because of a quotation, and if you want me to find a contradiction in the Scriptures, I would never venture to think or to admit such a thing. Even if a passage which seems to contradict another were laid before me, I still remain firmly convinced that no passage contradicts another. In such a case I would rather say that I cannot understand the words and shall do my utmost to get those who imagine contradictions in the Scriptures to share my conviction.

Justin Martyr, DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO THE JEW, 65.2, Eberhard Arnold, ed., THE EARLY CHRISTIANS (Rifton, NY: Plough Publishing House, 1970, 1972), 159.


13) RECOMMENDING READING: THE TOZER CD-ROM LIBRARY

THE TOZER CD-ROM LIBRARY

What could be more useful or spiritually invigorating than a Tozer CD which contains over fifty works (books and booklets) of A.W. Tozer plus several books by A.B. Simpson? Includes Parsons Quick Verse LibraryTM and is STEP compatible. Platform: WindowsR 95/98 Version 3.0, boxed package shrink-wrapped 0-87509-868-1

Order from Christian Publications by calling 1-800-233-4443 (in North America) or fax 1-717-761-7273 or web: www.christianpublications.com.


14) CHURCH FATHER HIPPOLYTUS (170-236) ON "THE SCRIPTURES AS A HOLY FOUNTAIN"

I have thought it right to set these matters of inquiry clearly forth to your view, drawing largely from the Holy Scriptures themselves as from a holy fountain, in order that you may not only have the pleasure of hearing them on the testimony of men, but may also be able, by surveying them in the light of divine authority, to glorify God in all. . . . For these Fathers [prophets and writers of Scripture] were furnished with the Spirit, and greatly honored by the Word Himself. . . . For they spoke not of their own power (let there be no mistake about this), nor did they declare what pleased themselves.

Hippolytus, "Treatise on Christ and Antichrist," THE EXTANT WORKS AND FRAGMENTS OF HIPPOLYTUS, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., THE ANTE-NICENE FATHERS (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1978), 204.

Editor's Note: Hippolytus was a disciple of Irenaeus.


15) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q: What are the Higher Life and Keswick Movements?

A: They are holiness revival movements from the late 1800s and early 1900s which emphasized sanctification from Reformed rather than Wesleyan theology. Higher Life originated in the United States, whereas Keswick started in England. There are differences in theology, but they are close cousins. Higher Life leaders include A.B. Simpson, A.J. Gordon, William Boardman, D.L. Moody, R.A. Torrey, S.D. Gordon. Keswick: Hannah Whithall Smith, A.T. Pierson, F.B. Meyer, Jessie Penn-Lewis, Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, Amy Carmichael.

More on Keswick and Higher Life next issue.
===================================================
16) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Hello from St. Croix USVI. I was thrilled to receive your e-mail. Just reading about the books and quotes on prayer were so uplifting. We are down here as missionary operators of WIVH (West Indies Voice of Hope). . . . One of the first things I read on your e-mail was "Releasing Power in Missions"--"Much prayer for the cause of missions by those at the home base means power released on the mission field, and . . . WEAKNESS at home means weakness on the mission field." Oh, that the people at home would realize the POWER in PRAYER. God bless you as you serve Him through e-mail. --Jim and Judy Whitman

I am relatively new to the web and found your web page in my search for information. What a blessing to find the source for all the Tozer books! During my visit to your web site I subscribed to CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/E-ZINE and within a week I received Vol. 1, Issue 2. I fully agree with the statement in your subscription section, "Welcome to a spiritual adventure!" . . . God bless you--this is a great e-zine. --Dale Hostetter


VOL. I, ISSUE 3, August 1, 1999. Published every other month 2/1; 4/1; 6/1; 8/1; 10/1; 12/1. Archives on www.kneillfoster.com.
===================================================
Copyright 1999, Christian Publications, Inc. Republished by www.kneillfoster.com 2005.