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Now let's jump in. The Bible is the inspired, infallible, unchanging Word of God. But what does that mean exactly? Let's learn it together on the 3v Today Show. You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We're here with our host, Dr.
Abadan Shah. And if you're listening for the very first time today, we want to hear from you: 252-429-6069. We want to hear how God is working in your life and your ministry, how He's using this show to touch your congregation, your family, your friends, and your life. Dr. Shah, this series about our foundational beliefs has been so fruitful in our discussions, talking about who God is, talking about the Trinity, talking about the Holy Spirit.
But now we come to where we get all of this doctrine from, and that's the Bible itself. Absolutely. It's all coming from Scripture.
Now, of course, we began with God. But now we have to back up and say, how do we know about God? Where do we get the most accurate information about God? It's from God's Word Himself. I mean, this itself, this is God's Word, which is Scripture.
Now, some people consider. Nature to be scripture as well. This is God's revelation in nature, and then there's God's revelation in scripture. We don't put the same authority On nature as we do in scripture. Yes, Scripture nature also testifies to God.
We read that in Romans chapter one, that how nature is God's evidence that he exists. But if you want to know him If you want to Come to him and find redemption through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. You're not going to find that in nature. Yeah, I can't go look at the clouds and be like, you know what? I think out there somewhere there's a Savior who died for my sin.
Not only did he die, he rose again. Only through him can I have true everlasting peace with the Father. There's no cloud or constellation. Yeah, I don't think it works that way. It doesn't work like that.
And that's why we have to go to scripture.
So, yes, we began with God, the triune God, but now we're coming back to what has that God told us about himself? Mm-hmm. And there's a place where he reveals himself. Everything that we need to know is found right there in the scriptures from Old to New Testament, from Genesis to Revelation. There's some young Christian somewhere having a panic attack in a Philosophy 101 classroom right now because they just heard their professor or some classmate or whomever say something along the lines of, you know, the Bible.
was written by human beings. And not just any human, like, not just one, but many, many human beings over a multi-hundred centuries-year period or whatever. And they're sitting there and saying, you know what? Why can I say this is the word of God? When different people wrote it, different people in different time periods wrote this thing and mashed it all together.
Well, we're going to come to that maybe down in this episode or maybe the next one. But that actually is a witness to the fact that this is the Word of God. The very thing that they bring up that a lot of people from different time zones and different time periods with different occupations and different contexts have said this, yes. But guess what? when you put all those accounts together They're all talking the same thing.
Spread out over as much as. 1500 years when it comes to the Old Testament, 100 years when you come to the New Testament, spread out over that period of time with different occupations. With different continents. You know, the Bible was written over three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe And yet they're talking about the same thing. Yeah.
And ultimately, they're talking about. Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, and more specifically, his salvation, his redemption, his sacrifice for us.
So The very thing that young man or young person is struggling with, like, how can I know this is the word of God? Because so many different people have written it and over such an extended period of time. Actually, that is a huge evidence. for the veracity of Scripture. The truth of the Bible.
But you don't hear that take quite as often as you hear the opposite side. Right. Yeah. Truth is in the eye of the beholder. That's all you can say.
That's right. You hear that used as a mark against scripture more often than used in a positive column, but you're 100% right. There's no way that that could, all those factors could be in place if it wasn't truly the word of God. That's right. There's a lot of people out there who I think, or a lot of Christians even, where it's like the Bible is my source of life.
This is where I get my life. But then there's other where it's like, the Bible is the book that Mima had in her, in her, you know, in the dashboard of her car or on her coffee table. You know, it's a good book, and I bet I could learn some truths about God. But, Dr. Shaw, what is the Bible?
Well, The Bible was written by men. You can also add a couple of women, because you have the book of Esther. Ruth Now, somebody may say, No, some other men wrote that. Maybe, or maybe they wrote a lot of it. Because the accounts that are given are very first hand information.
How would somebody know it unless a first hand person related that information to somebody else, or at least wrote it themselves? Who knows?
So still, I would say Esther and Ruth wrote what they wrote.
So the Bible was written by men, maybe also women, divinely inspired. and is God's revelation of Himself to us. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction, perfect treasure. Of divine instruction, it has God for its author. Salvation for its end.
and truth without any mixture of error. For its matter. I'm getting this definition basically from Wayne Grudem. But other scholars and theologians have also given something very similar. Therefore all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.
Totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us. and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true centre of Christian Union, and the supreme standard by which all Human conduct? Creeds And religious opinion should be tried. All Scripture All Scripture Genesis to Revelation Is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
So the Bible is not just a book about some ancient peoples known as the Hebrews who became the Israelites, who became the Jewish people. And now we come to the Gospels and then we go into the church age, and then there's this apocalyptic book in the end. No. From start to finish, The focus is Christ. Yeah.
You mentioned that word revelation, right? That Christ is the focus of divine revelation. Talk to us a little bit about that. I think we said it a little bit at the top of the episode. But for someone just tuning in or just maybe they're new to all of this doctrine, what do you mean when you say revelation?
Some of me, systematic theologians talk about revelation, they're referring to God's revelation. of himself. There is a general revelation. And then there is a specific revelation. General revelation, we're talking about nature, history.
Human nature.
Okay.
So nature as in Sun, Moon, Stars, the planets. The earth. The creatures in the water, the creatures in the land, human beings, all that. History. How history has moved across the ages.
You know, pre-flood, post-flood. Pre Jesus The incarnation post. You know, after his Resurrection and ascension, what has been so seeing history and how God has worked in history, human nature, how we are built. to love, to care. To care for justice, to care for peace, and then we are reflecting God.
So, in that sense, there is a general revelation. What we are talking about here is more specific revelation, which is the actual words. of God. It's about historical events that demonstrate and even speak to who God is. Divine speech.
Okay, so actual words through historical events, divine speech, and incarnation. Incarnation is the clear way in which God has spoken. And where do you find information about the incarnation? Inscription. Here we are.
sort of more concerned about the specific revelation because that's what scripture is specific revelation of God. Yeah. I like how you mentioned earlier that Jesus was the focus of revelation. And even even like I think it was saying in Hebrews at one point, where, like, God used to speak through prophets, but now speaks through Jesus. That's right.
But at the same time, like, I think we've talked about it on the show where it's Jesus, even in the Old Testament. You know what I'm saying? It's always the second person of the Trinity coming down. And interacting with us. It reminds us that all of Scripture points to Christ.
It always has since the beginning. Everything points to the fact that we need a Savior, and Jesus is that Savior. Amen. Amen. That's right.
Yeah, you're referring to Hebrews 1:1. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son.
So when people say things like, Well, I really wish God would just do like He did in the Old Testament. I wish He would just appear to me, or He'd send a prophet, or He'd do some sign, some unmistakable miracle in the sky. And I guess what the author of Hebrews is saying is, yeah, that would be cool. But listen, he's given you something way better.
Well, he has done it. You know, God did all those things. Those. Couple thousand years with his people Was to lay out for us every possible scenario in which God interacts with human beings. And there it is, Genesis to Malachi, there it is laid out for us.
And even in that, he was promising and prophesying about the coming of his Son Jesus.
Okay, so all that is laid out for us. Does God have to continue doing that and keep writing things? No. He just says, Go to my word. There it is.
It's laid out. But then he works with us on a daily basis. But talks to us through his scripture. Right? And then You know, inspiration.
Inspiration is also very important. Inspiration. is a key word when it comes to scripture. and doctrine It is the transferring of the voice of God. into the vocabulary of human beings.
Doesn't mean it doesn't mean that God just inspired these authors to write something good about him. It means that he directly transpired, like the words that were written were God's words. Absolutely. The Greek word in 2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Inspiration, God, you know, this is like the breath of God, Theopenistas.
You know, God breathed. That's inspiration. It's the breath of God.
So, Moses may have written those words. of say Milk is a dag. Or even further back to Adam and Eve. Mm-hmm. He has written the words, the traditions handed down to him.
He's writing it down, but it is still the word of God. Yeah. You don't imagine that the we don't believe that the authors were paraphrasing God's message. No, this was God's word. Absolutely.
Now, with you, Dr. Shah, as a text critic, you know, you deal with manuscript variants where you can see that there are differences in the manuscripts. Do you still feel like you can hold up the Bible and say this is God's word, even if across manuscripts there are small differences? Of course, I can. It's because.
Those uh differences in manuscripts came due to copying. Try to copy A document with just handwriting. I'm not talking about typing and Or making photo copies, but try to write it with a pen, just copy a page, you'll make mistakes. Yeah, I've made mistakes many times. Like, how did I not see that?
I transposed that word, I dropped a word, I dropped a sentence. Yeah, when I came back, it just. I completely skipped over a line. If you start at one end, you can jump a line, or if it starts with the same word as a different line, you're going to jump around, and lots of opportunities for error. Absolutely.
So, those things happen. But the whole science of textual criticism is to compare these manuscripts, these variants, and with certain principles of textual criticism, you are able to get back to the original text. It is not that complex. It's not that complicated. Yes, it is a science.
You have to learn the science. Once you understand it, it is not that complicated. And we're not talking about, man, there's millions of errors in the Bible. That's not true. There are some people who exaggerate that for Sensational reasons, but in reality, we're talking about a very small percentage of real.
Situations, very, very small percentage. That's why. Anybody can hold up the Bible and say, Essentially, I hold in my hand the word of God without any errors. And we're going to talk about the errors part, too. Yeah, so I wanted to ask you that for the internet troll out there who's saying, but if there's even one, if there's even one error, if there's even one, and maybe we can talk about, as a text critic, you can talk about the difference between.
Manuscript discrepancies versus errors in the text. Maybe we can parse out that difference. But for that person out there who's saying, if there's even one, then the Bible can't be inerrant. How do you look at inerrancy? How do you define inerrancy?
Well, so inspiration is the main doctrine. Inerrancy is a corollary of the doctrine of inspiration. Inspiration, by the way, let me just clarify here: this voice of God, we hold to what's known as the verbal plenary theory of inspiration. Verbal plenary. Plenary is means all.
Verbal, of course, the very words. All the very words of the Bible are inspired by God. All All the very words of the Bible. Are inspired by God. This does not eliminate the human element.
So what do you mean by that? Human authors had different levels of education. On one hand, you had a Moses who was trained in Egypt. And if you've been to Egypt and if you've studied Egyptian history, Man, they at their height of power and and rule, And Egypt was like Britain was You know, a few years ago. Yeah, that's superpower.
Superpower. Or Germany at one time. You know, these were the bastions of education and knowledge. This was Egypt. And guess what?
Moses was right there studying. I mean, imagine he was a brilliant man and being taught by the best of the best in the known world. But then you have other writers. you have Peter, who was not an ignorant fisherman, but at the same time He was He was a Galilean. He knew other languages.
But he was not as well versed as Saint Paul. But then you have a David. I was a musician. He had his own way of writing. And then you had Isaiah, and then you had Daniel, who was one of the wise men.
And then you have an Esther who was a beauty queen. I mean, these are very different people. And yet. What we find is that God has used these human authors through their styles, through their personalities, through their various backgrounds to communicate the same message. That's inspiration.
Inerrancy Okay. It is a theological commitment that is rooted in the teaching of the Word of God. I believe in inerrancy. Why? Because I believe that God doesn't.
Tell us anything wrong.
Okay?
Some people misunderstand inerrancy. Inerrancy means When all the facts are known, and I'm getting this definition from Paul Feinberg, Back in the day when inerrancy was being hotly debated, this is going back into the 70s into the early 80s. The Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy That was that was the final word on it. People like Norman Geisler And you know, some of the other big names of the time were involved in this, like Roger Nicoll. These were the ones who helped draft this statement.
R.C. Sproll was part of this group.
So, the definition of inerrancy. When all the facts are known. The Scriptures In their original autographs, in their original autographs. That's a very important. Caveat in their original autographs means not in the copies.
And properly interpreted. Tenerry is not about the variance as much as is what God wrote to these people In the original autograph. Is that true? That's inerrancy. And textual criticism is I'm trying to get to that place.
Yeah. But what people like Ehrman and others have done is that they have now taken that and extended it out To manuscript differences and then said, ah, there are errors in the Bible. How can he claim inerrancy? There's errors in the Bible. You don't even know.
Can you even get to the original text? Blah, blah, blah. Like, oh, wait, wait. You are. You are taking something that is meant this And by virtue of Similarity in designation, you're extending out to something else.
That's very clever, but that's not very intellectually honest. It's not intellectually honest. That's a good way to say that. Yeah. I think it's great for people to be able to hear that because, as a text critic, you live in this world of textual variants, differences between manuscripts.
You wrote a paper on Acts 8:38, I believe it is. Yeah. And the conclusion of your paper is verse 38 is more than likely not original. Right. But you're still able to hold up the Bible and say this is inerrant because the definition of inerrancy is not what's written in this book that I'm holding has no discrepancy anywhere.
It's that in their original autographs, what God said is true.
Well, I think outlining that is important because when you extend that definition beyond what it was originally intended to be, it points out that this was extended so that it serves an agenda. This was extended to serve an argument that the Bible contains errors when what you're referring to as errors really that's not what we're talking about here. This is not this is not like what we were going to talk about, but just out of curiosity. When you started textual criticism, did you struggle with this? Finding variants, did it, or did you already know what inerran, like, this is what inerrancy means.
I'm not going to be thrown off by these variants. Yes, my first ever. Paper. That are presented in a theological Setting. It was in a regional ETS.
It was held at Southeastern and Wake Forest. My paper was New Testament textual criticism and inerrancy. Mm-hmm. That was my paper. Yeah.
Now, when I began the research for that paper, Somebody else had already written. In fact, several people had written on that subject. Inerrancy and textual criticism. They had written that from an Old Testament perspective and from the New Testament perspectives. And when I came thinking, man, I'm going to explore this subject, I was like, wait.
People have already been talking about it. Wait a minute. But then I took a different angle to it, and it sort of. Added to this body of knowledge that I feel like I made a little dent. Do you still have that paper?
Yes. It was published. No, it was not published, but it was presented at this conference. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah.
But it didn't discourage but it didn't discourage you. You already had inerrancy solved and worked out in your mind. Not in my mind as much as by rigorous study. I spent Almost half a year reading everything on inerrancy. I read Norman Geisler's.
Edited work calling Aaron C, this thick. Then I read the proceedings of the conference on biblical inerrancy, the Chicago Statement. I read the whole thing. Then I worked through some other books by Roger Nicholl. And others that dealt with this whole subject of inerrancy and inspiration and revelation.
This is going back to the. 96, 97. Yeah. I was reading all of that. I think if the average Sunday morning Christian were to attend one of those conferences and hear you speak.
and hear your conclusion that, hey, Acts 8, 38 probably is not original. and therefore probably shouldn't be in. In our Bibles, it would crush them because they're like, Well, what else shouldn't be in there? What must I do to be saved? Yeah, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Yeah, well, that that passage is not there. Yeah, you know. Yeah, but but if it's not there, we shouldn't put it in there, right? And I think you being able to say that, but also being able to say with this definition of inerrancy, I think that we've just misunderstood, myself included. I think we've just misunderstood what the Bible is inerrant is supposed to mean.
Yeah, I think this definition helps a great deal. Yeah, it feels like that. It feels like a mistake. I mean, it feels like you're looking at the Bible and that you, if you say this verse isn't supposed to be in there, like I'm doing something wrong. But holding this up and saying, no, what we still have is the word of God, albeit with some considerations, like, hey, because of manuscript study, this verse probably shouldn't be included.
Yeah, just to clarify, I said a little bit different earlier. You know, see, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? This is Acts 8, verse 36. Then Philip said If you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's verse thirty-seven. Verse 37 should not be in the not 37. Oh, 37. And so that's not found in scripture.
So that's something that we can say: hey, both the Nesalalan text and the Byzantine text omit verse 37.
So all the text-critical nerds out there typing at their keyboards, ready to crucify me, please forgive me. Acts 8:37. Acts 8:37. My fault. But that's just weird.
Your point still stands. Yeah, we may contain errors. The word of God does not. Yeah, that's right. But, Dr.
I mean, I know we did we stayed on inerrancy a little longer than we intended to, but I think this really helps because what you're saying is inerrancy is the word of God as he gave it. Is true and without error. And your job as a text critic and our job as Christians is to try to get as close back to those autographs as possible. That's right. 100% right.
And it's a commitment rooted in the fact that God does not make mistakes and He does not speak mistakes.
So the Bible does not have mistakes.
So the definition, again, going back to it. When all the facts are known, the Scriptures in their original autographs, and properly interpreted, will be shown to be wholly true in everything that they affirm, whether that has to do with doctrine, morality, or social, physical, or life sciences. In all those areas, it is Perfect. That's right. Yeah.
That's inerrancy. Okay.
Like Psalm 30, verse 33, verse 4 says. For the word of the Lord is right. And all his work is done in truth.
So once again, for those who are Wondering or worrying about Discrepancies in manuscripts and variant readings, I hear you, but that has nothing to do with inerrancy. That has to do with the science of textual criticism. And when any scholar or a personality who uses that to say, oh, there are variants, so hence no inerrancy. Ugh they are like Ryan said so well a few moments ago. They are extending out an argument just And and they're misleading.
Yeah, that's right. Misleading the Those who are unaware can be. Of the discussion. Yeah. Well, I think that's why the conversations like this are so helpful.
And that's why, you know, somebody offering your perspective is so unique. The mind of a text critic, but the heart of a pastor that often doesn't interact. I'm sure it's there. I'm sure it's there in other people, but you do it so well. And you have a platform like the Cleaved Today show that helps so many people at home listening and watching to parse out what it means that yes, there are variants in manuscripts.
No, that does not mean the Bible contains errors. Yeah, we've got a few more attributes of the Bible that we want to talk about. We might have to do it on tomorrow's show because we got like four minutes left. But Dr. Shah, talk about for a minute.
The desire to fall more in love with the word. One of the things you said before on the show is that the reason you got into text criticism is that it forced you to get into the word. I think the Bible is one thing that every Christian has and also neglects. And maybe you can talk for a minute about why it's so important that we get into the Word of God. I I don't know how to say this.
I had an unfair advantage that I grew up in a home where the Bible was very, very important. Dad was a pastor. M mom's father was also a lay pastor.
So the Bible was fundamental in our home. Dad was a was a s very well educated, seminary trained Pastor, you know, he did his bachelor's and master's and all that.
So, I had the benefit of listening to solid biblical preaching. But it was also at home. I saw a mom reading her Bible every night. That was her ritual, reading the Bible and praying. And she couldn't do it in the morning because she was a teacher, so had to get up and get going and get us rolling.
But I would see At an early age I saw Dan reading his Bible. and then later on saw my grandmother. who came to live with us. Even before I was born. She is reading the Bible.
In the morning and again in the evening she would read it twice a day. and praying.
So I grew up seeing people Put Great emphasis on the reading and studying of God's Word. And it has made a difference in my life. Great difference.
So so also with Nicole. She saw that in her dad.
So for those of you who who struggle with this, I understand. Maybe you didn't grow up in that. Environment. Choose to make the Bible. Your authority in life.
We're all going to listen to somebody. We're going to listen to the world. We're going to listen to our friends, our family, and even to our own self. But God Himself has spoken. The Bible is God's word.
He has spoken and told us how this world works. How to be blessed? How to know God? How to live for God, how to live for eternity. He's already given it to us, and that's found in the Bible.
So my encouragement to people is Turn to God's word. Amen. And that's why conversations like this are so important. They can help provide a clear view to what scripture is and how it creates a path forward for us in our lives, how it connects us with the truth of who God is and his calling on us. That's right.
And the Bible is going to transform your life. You know, our goal is not for this radio show to transform your life. This radio show can't do it. But this show can connect you with a God who loves you, has a plan for your life, and has revealed himself to you in his word. That's what we want to do.
We want to get you into the word of God every single day. That's right. You can do that by following along with all of our podcasting platforms. You can follow us on social media so you can keep up with all the future updates and share these episodes with your friends and family. You can also do that by supporting the show financially.
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