New Attitude 2008 Review - Mark Dever & Al Mohler

I'm combining Dever and Mohler together in an effort to actually get through my review of NA messages before NA rolls around again. Also, they both provide a lot of the framework for analyzing for some of the intellectual issues that define how we interact with Scripture. I don't actually have any notes to break down for Mohler's Q&A session but I would recommend you listen to it and think about some of the questions he covers. If nothing else, it challenged me to want to know the Bible better.

Mark Dever delivered the second message of the conference which dealt primarily with the authority of Scripture. He started by saying that faith in Christ can only occur where the truth about Him is known. So the question then became, how can we have confidence in the Bible?

Before he started, he suggested three books that might prove helpful in wrestling with this issue (The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable by F.F. Bruce, Fundamentalism and the Word of God by J.I. Packer, Christ and the Bible by John Wenham). His message was broken down into two main points, the reliability of the Bible and the authority of Scripture.

He began by addressing the reliablility of the Bible. There were four main questions/objections that he addressed. First, how can we know the Bible if there are so many translations available? He responded by saying that this is first an evidence that translation is possible. He then went on to emphasize that decades of work are put into a committee translation so they are reliable.

Second, is what we have what was written down originally? We can be very confident because there is a vast body of ancient manuscripts. Also, there is a stronger body of historical evidence for the Bible than any other ancient work.

Thirdly, is what was written down accurate? Dever first touched on the fact that some of what was written down was originally passed on orally, but memorization is a reliable way of transferring knowledge. Also, people did not have to write it down immediately for it to be accurate. Many writers, such as Paul and Luke were very concerned with historically accuracy. Also, facts are relayed in the Bible which would not be fabricated if someone was making it up. For example, a crucified savior or women being recorded as the first witnesses to the resurrection. Also, early attacks on Christianity did not challenge the resurrection, which lends credence because people would have still been alive who were there.

Lastly, is it true? For this Dever noted that the disciples reaction is a key factor in looking at this. Why would the disciples willingly die for something that they knew was a lie. Obviously, there is a lot more that could be said on the reliability of the Bible, but you could check out some of the resources Dever suggested for more information.

Next, he started to talk about the authority of Scripture in our lives. I don't have quite as good notes for this part as he was rattling off quite a lot of scripture references. I plan to listen to this message again and you might want to snag it off the NA website and do the same. However, Dever did mention that though we can't know God or the Bible fully, we can know them truly. Just because I don't know everything, doesn't mean that I don't know anything. God is the one who is revealing himself to us so it is possible to know him.

He mentioned that studying the Bible is one of the main ways we can be encouraged. Also, the Scriptures are presented as having the attributes of God (There are a ton of scripture references after this point, download the message for the full effect). Also, Jesus did not reject the jewish view of Scripture. Mark said something to the effect of "To follow Christ, we must treat Scripture as Jesus treated Scripture". That's certainly very challenging considering how well Christ knew Scripture and how often he quoted it.

He ended with a couple challenges. God's Word must be applied. We need to ask ourselves if we are building our lives on the Word of God? Also, do we treasure the privlege of reading and hearing God's Word? Finally, what part of the Word am I not putting into practice?