Authority and Authorship
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
Is the Bible an outdated collection of irrelevant religious writings? Today, R.C. Sproul shows us the difference between the fallible writings of men and the infallible Word of God.
Get R.C. Sproul’s booklet Can I Trust the Bible?, his teaching series Hath God Said? on DVD, and lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3911/donate
Meet Today’s Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Does the Bible simply give to us the assorted collection of insights or the wisdom of a primitive Jewish people? |
| 0:10.8 | Or do we have here a written document whose author is actually God. |
| 0:30.5 | Growing up outside of the church, I did assume that the Bible was merely a collection of wisdom, mythology, and rules. I was unaware that it claimed to be the fairy words of God |
| 0:37.2 | himself. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and you're listening to the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. |
| 0:44.6 | Knowing that the Bible, unlike all other books, is inspired by God, our creator, |
| 0:50.4 | who knows us better than we know ourselves, changes everything and changes how we view the scriptures. |
| 0:57.5 | All week, R.C. Sprold is helping us to view the Bible correctly, respond to critics, and explain how it is that we receive the collection of books. |
| 1:07.0 | But today, he considers the Bible's claim that all Scripture is inspired by God. |
| 1:12.6 | Here's Dr. Sproul. |
| 1:13.6 | In our first session, in our study of the authority of Scripture, we spent some time going over the historical background for the crisis of authority that we face in the church and |
| 1:28.8 | also in the world today. |
| 1:30.6 | You recall, I made mention of the fact that Luther coined the phrase Solascriptora by the |
| 1:38.1 | scriptures alone, which became one of the battle cries of the Protestant Reformation. |
| 1:44.3 | And as time was running out in that first segment, we were discussing the meaning of the |
| 1:49.5 | term authority, and I defined the word authority at that time briefly by saying the right |
| 1:57.2 | to impose obligation. |
| 1:59.6 | And we look, for example, at the episode of the encounter |
| 2:02.6 | Jesus had with the centurion, who knew what it meant to be under authority, to be able to say |
| 2:07.5 | go and people would go and so on. Now, I want us to notice here something of irony in this |
| 2:16.0 | word authority. We have an expression in our culture that we call |
| 2:20.7 | the golden rule. And the facetious definition of the golden rule is whoever owns the gold |
... |
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