But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ (I Peter 3:15-16).
From almost every quarter of the earth we are hearing criticism of two major questions: first, what is the genuine Text of the Bible?; and second, what is the genuine Interpretation of the Text? No other questions are equal to this outcry. What is the Text, and what is the Interpretation of the Text?
The Bible For Our Time
We were reluctant to set our title for this article as: "The Bible In Our Time." Here again, some might think that we are suggesting that the Bible in our time is different than some other time in the past. No, that is not the purpose of the title. This title represents the fragile condition of our world concerning what is the Text and what is the Interpretation of the Text in our time. Or, what are we, as fundamentalists going to do with the Bible, the Word of God, in our time of the flourishing apostasy?
Well, the Bible in our time is the very same Bible in any time past. There is nothing new that is true; there is nothing new about the Word of God in any generation. We need the Bible for our time.
A Fresh Affirmation
It is true, however, that God's people must give a fresh, distinctive, and appropriate reaffirmation of the Bible in each new generation. We must address the age with the Bible in each succeeding generation of the mutation of sin and the advancement of the apostasy. The Devil is not original at all; he cannot really create anything. All he can do, which is quite influential, is to pervert the Word of God and Truth in any field of Natural Theology and Revealed Theology into a new thing. In our time, we are simply flourishing with "new things." The Christian must address these "new things." There is: neo-orthodoxy, neo-pentecostalism, new charismatism, neo-evangelicalism, and the very new "Promise Keepers," who simply perpetuate the ecumenical fellowships while criticizing all who would not join their own, human "promises." This is impossible for us as fundamentalists, because we have already made, and long ago now, promises to keep the biblical Promises of God.
There is a great need to address and reaffirm God's Text and the Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the Text for another generation. We must pass on the Holy Torch that our forefathers gave us when they fell in death.
A Series of Questions Now
There are at least seven series of questions which we must ask in our time concerning the Christian and the Christian Faith. Whenever a Bible Church is born in our time, there must be a line of demarcation drawn by the Word of God for the clarification of exactly what is a Christian and what is his Christian Faith? The following areas of questions must be answered if we are to save the public extinction of Bible Churches with a biblical witness in our time. They are:
First, why are there so many English versions being written and published in our time? Was not the King James Version sufficient to settle what is the Text of the Word of God for English people? Did it not serve us well? Will we bring confusion and doubt now through over 100 new English Versions?
Second, why have three particular, popular Christian religions come together in fellowship and doctrine at this time? Why are the Charismatics, the Ecumenists, and the Roman Catholics involved in fellowship? Why are others coming along, like the Promise Keepers, maintaining the same kind of fellowships? Will there be a return back to Rome in our time?
Third, why has there been a shift away from the historic orthodoxy and the fundamental teachings of the Bible? Is the current emphasis on the teachings and gifts of the Holy Spirit bringing in a change away from biblical doctrine and interpretation through interpreted Texts? Will a new teaching on Spirit become the catalyst away from the dogmatic biblical doctrines of the past? their Creeds and Councils?
Fourth, why are most of the protestant denominations liberal and ecumenical in their new, biblical interpretations, while the conservative biblical interpretations have had to make an exodus to independent congregations? Why are so many professing Christians changing to ecumenical churches in the United States and elsewhere in the world?
Fifth, why are fewer and fewer people presently identified with a fervent belief in the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures? confirming verbal, plenary inspiration? Why has historical research become a greater liberal influence to interpret the Bible? while on the other hand, new-revelationism, through the Charismatics, are bringing doubts, if not the end, of the Old, Holy Scriptures in at least some sections of the visible church?
Sixth, why do only 28% of Americans believe in biblical absolutes? Why is there a falling away in the theological and practical belief in objective truth as espoused by the Word of God? Why do we not hear more direct teaching on the daily Christian life, godliness, conscience, piety, and prayer? Why almost a complete desertion of Christian Ethics?
Seventh, are we entering into a new world religion which was believed and prophesied before? Or, are we observing a "falling away," after Adam's Fall, of the historic Christian Faith, which is called the Apostasy? Are these the days of the nearness of the coming of Antichrist and the False prophet, understood to come to past before the actual second coming of the Lord Jesus back to the earth? Are these indeed like the days before the Flood in Noah's time?
Presuppositional Apologetics
No one should expect a Bible Christian to be in a generation when these questions and these observations are before us without dealing with these pertinent points. It is improper, and unbecoming of us as Bible Christians, to simply watch these things come to past so swiftly in a single generation without the people of God rising up in the defense of their Faith.
In some quarters we are hearing intellectual talk about "presuppositional apologetics." Having read considerable material and seeing a variety of meanings to this phrase, it is indeed becoming God's people to at least see a biblical need of presenting an apologetic defense for their personal faith, addressing, and even attacking, the presuppositions of the time in the context of their own criticism.
We have spoken in several articles of the past, as well as our most recent book, The Eclipse of Hope, that the presuppositions of the 1980's and 1990's have moved into the dark spectrum of great doubt of much of modern, modern christianity. Some believe we are even living in post-modernity, past pre-modern and modern beliefs. We have heard so much heresy, apostasy, and erroneous christianity in the last half of the twentieth century, that the more honorable sinners have come to conclude that christianity is no longer credible, and perhaps not even plausible. Personally, I believe the modern, apostate false Christian teachers and preachers have deeply hurt the world with a damaged announcement of the Gospel. We have been viewing a "crucifying afresh" of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. There are quite a number of honorable deists, atheists, pantheists and agnostics in our time. The last is the most pathetic of all. The agnostic reluctantly contemplates atheism, but leaves his mind in the agnostic state. Of course, all of these are false, but may God help us not to present the Bible in our time in such a weak and/or false way that it will cause anyone to stumble because they are confused about what is the Text and what is the Interpretation of the Text.
Yes, we need Christians who are willing to defend the Bible in the light of the presuppositions of the time. This is what this author means by "presuppositional apologetics."
The work of the entire Trinity is needed in our lives: the love of God, the Father; the grace of the Lord Jesus; and, the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, if we are to meet this challenge of another segment of people who are lost.
This is what we mean by the preaching, teaching, and presentation of "The Bible in Our Time."