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The thesis project topic is on Inspiration and Bible Archaeology. The project's main reason is a perceived lack of confidence in the Bible's stories being real. The project addresses this worldview, which causes this belief to influence our church members. The study includes an explanation of the post-modern world view concerning the certainty of historical events. A Biblical viewpoint is addressed, and the relationship with this to Bible inspiration is explored. A survey is given to individual members of the congregation, which gives questions concerning these issues. Two interventions are then presented, one in which the debates concerning the United Monarchy of Israel is presented to show the differences between the minimalist's and the maximalist's view of these historical issues in the field of Biblical archaeology. The second intervention is presented to show historical matters as they apply to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then it will be explained how this is important to spiritual growth and confidence because of the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible. This apologetic issue is vital in challenging the church in understanding the issues that cause people to lose confidence in the Holy Scriptures. It includes examples of how to address these issues.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to show that the doctrine of open theism denies the doctrine of inerrancy. Specifically open theism falsely interprets Scriptural references to God's Divine omniscience and sovereignty, and conversely ignores the weighty Scriptural references to those two attributes which attribute perfection and completeness in a manner which open theism explicitly denies. While the doctrine of inerrancy has been hotly debated since the Enlightenment, and mostly so through the modern and postmodern eras, it may be argued that there has been a traditional understanding of the Bible's inerrancy that is drawn from Scripture, and has been held since the early church fathers up to today's conservative theologians. This view was codified in October, 1978 in the form of the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy. These three sources provide more than ample understanding of Biblical inerrancy by which to measure the views of open theism. Open theism criticizes a traditional view of God's attributes, not the least of which are God's omniscience and sovereignty. The underlying agenda for their efforts is to retain a high view of man's free will. The end result of their efforts is an explicit denial of the full and complete Divine omniscience and sovereignty of God as presented in the Scripture, which in turn commits a violation of the doctrine of inerrancy. The implications of such denial are significant to the doctrine of God and a high view of Scripture.

One of the most important distinguishing marks of the Christian faith is that it is a revealed religion. The Christian faith professes that God has graciously and with authority revealed himself to his creatures. Therefore, the doctrine of Scripture, specifically biblical, is an issue of central importance in any theological formulation that is distinctly Christian. Despite the centrality of biblical authority in the system of Christian faith, there is perhaps no other doctrine under greater reproach. In light of the increased criticism of the doctrine of Scripture, Christians have adopted various theologies of revelation in order to explain what the biblical text is, how it relates to God, and how it functions authoritatively. And yet many of these proposals fail to take advantage of the resources provided by the communicative categories of the rich Christian trinitarian tradition. Specifically, very few evangelical proposals related to biblical authority consider how the specific modes of subsistence related God the Father (unbegottenenss), God the Son (eternal begottenenss), and God the Holy Spirit (procession) contribute to a Christian understanding of divine authorship. This dissertation is an exercise in dogmatic and exegetical theology that gives an account of the relationship between biblical authority and trinitarian communicative activity. This dissertation will argue that the Bible is authoritative because it has God the Father as its source, God the Son as the content and mediator of the Father's speech, and God the Spirit as the efficacious power who speaks the Word that he receives from the Father and Son. Therefore, Scripture is authoritative because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit all speak, with one voice, an authoritative Word.

Chapter 1 introduces the thesis, methodology, and outline of the dissertation. It also includes a brief historical survey of the doctrine of inerrancy and a study of the factors that led to the formation of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (hereafter, ICBI) and original writing of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (hereafter, CSBI). The final section of this chapter examines the initial usefulness of the CSBI among evangelicals. Chapter 2 traces the developments that occurred within evangelicalism with regard to the doctrine of inerrancy immediately after the formation of the ICBI and the writing of the CSBI. This study is followed by an examination of major contemporary developments concerning the doctrine of inerrancy. In this latter section, the works of several important evangelical scholars who have recently attempted to reframe the inerrancy debate are examined and assessed in order to demonstrate the resilience of the CSBI and note the areas that require reformulation. Chapter 3 begins a three-part reassessment and reformulation section in which the CSBI's nineteen articles of affirmation and denial are studied in their original context and in light of the contemporary challenges examined in chapter 2. Chapter 3 examines specifically Articles I-V. These articles deal chiefly with matters related to the doctrine of revelation. Chapter 3 offers several modifications to these existing articles as well as proposing two new articles. Chapter 4 is the second part of the reassessment and reformulation section. This section comprises and examination of Articles VI-XII. These articles deal primarily with matters related to the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy. This chapter examines these articles in their original context, offers several modifications to the existing articles, and proposes the addition of two new articles. Chapter 5 is the final part of the reassessment and reformulation section. This section examines Articles XII-XIX. This section examines Articles XII-XIX. These articles deal mainly with miscellaneous issues related to the doctrine of inerrancy. Chapter 5 examines these articles in their original context, offers several modifications to these existing articles, and propses the addition of two new articles. Chapter 6 is the concluding chapter in which I summarize my research and offer suggestions for future studies in this vital area. I recommend that a new group of evangelicals gather together to reconsider the CSBI as it currently stands and use the work provided in this dissertation to begin a conversation toward a revised statement.

This dissertation examines the Protestant doctrine of Scripture's self-witness of divine authority. Chapter 1 examines the current evangelical milieu. The doctrine has become nearly obsolete in the discussion of systematic theology. Consequentially, wherein lies authority has been greatly misunderstood in Protestant circles. Chapter 2 surveys the doctrine through the history of the church. Particular note is made of Augustine, John Calvin, John Owen, and Herman Bavinck. This chapter evinces the near consensus of the church that the authority for the Church is found preeminently in the Scriptures. Chapter 3 summarizes post-conservative, Stanley J. Grenz and John R. Franke, attempts to ground theology in Scripture plus culture and tradition. This chapter does not offer a critique as much as it aims to represent post-conservatives in their own words. Chapter 4 looks at how the Old Testament viewed itself--particularly through the ministries of Moses and the prophets. YHWH chose representatives who would speak to the covenant community and write down the stipulations and history of YHWH's relationship with Israel for posterity. Chapter 5 looks at the New Testament, which follows the paradigm instituted by the Old Testament. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, God's promises find their fulfillment, which foments his commissioning of the Twelve Apostles to be his spokesmen. Chapter 6 ties together the threads that cohere in the two testaments of Scripture. It makes explicit the claims of Scripture that God is a se, he communicates with his creation, he uses spokesmen, and his written Word is its own witness for its authority. Chapter 7 defines the doctrine of Scripture's self-witness and applies it to tradition, culture, and the task of apologetics. The chapter explicates the thesis of the dissertation that Scripture's self-witness must be the ground of systematic theology.

The book of Joel presents a myriad of problems to the honest interpreter. For example, the inability to date firmly the book makes it exceedingly difficult to find an original meaning for the work. In addition, the failure of scholars to come to a consensus on the connection between the locust plague and the Day of Yahweh theme in the book exacerbates the interpretive problems further. This dissertation is an attempt to elucidate the meaning of the book of Joel by focusing on the Day of Yahweh and its subthemes in the book via the methodology of canonical criticism. Canonical criticism claims to offer a way out of the single original meaning impasse in interpreting a text. Brevard Childs solves the single meaning dilemma by transferring the authoritative meaning to the canonical meaning of the final form of the text as shaped and passed on by the believing community. James Sanders rejects any single meaning in the tradition process as normative and wants to catalog all the meanings and the hermeneutical process each believing community used to arrive at each meaning. When Sanders's method is applied to several stages of the book of Joel, it reveals a developing understanding of the Day of Yahweh in Joel by the believing communities from preexilic through intertestamental times. The Day changed from one of covenant curses (exemplified by the locust plague) to an eschatological Day when a teacher of righteousness would precede the apocalyptic salvation of Judah. Although the canonical-critical method offers some fresh understanding of Joel by focusing on canonical readings, it does not solve the hermeneutical dilemma because it is dependent on historical-critical method as well for its readings of the book. Further, Sanders's method merely replaces the difficulty of finding the original meaning of a text with the problem of choosing between several hypothetical meanings of a text.

The inerrancy question is not the key issue of biblical authority, but the living and obedience of the word of God.

A discussion of new biblical trends and historical information regarding the correctness of the Bible.

Rally to support the inerrancy issue of the Bible.

The working hypothesis of many contemporary New Testament researchers is that the documents with which they are working are the products of a lengthy and involved evolution. It began, of course, with the work and teachings of Jesus, but, the final arrangement and form, officially recognized as the Canon, did not take shape until well into the second century--far removed from the historical Jesus. The hypothesis which this study seeks to test is as follows. The books of the New Testament are authentic artifacts of the Apostles' respective ministries. They were received, accordingly, by the first century church as inspired of God and authoritative. Along with the Old Testament they formed the Canon of faith and practice. They were not measured by orthodoxy so much as they were the measure of orthodoxy. One predictable corollary to this is that the early Christian writings should not be characterized so much by creative genius as by a preoccupation with understanding and faithfully elucidating the teachings of the New Testament and eliminating those ideas which contradicted them. In order to test this hypothesis the Christology of John's Gospel and Epistles is examined in relation to Patristic, Nicean and Chalcedonian Christology. This examination shows that the Gospel and Epistles of John make specific assertions about the person of Christ which persistently influenced early Christian writers and which both provoked and resolved much subsequent discussion. When John's ideas are placed against attempts to understand the person of Christ in the early centuries of the Christian era there is a remarkable similarity to that which was accepted by the church and that which is observed in his writings. Just as conspicuous is the fact that only those speculations which radically differed with his ideas were considered problematic. This is precisely what one would expect, given the hypothesis at the outset of this study.