How Direct Revelation Trumps Sola Scriptura

[Jesus is YHWH]

When I read Calvin's account of how he formulated the doctrine of the Inward Witness, I stepped through the same thinking process that he did. He simply raised the question, as did I, how can God reliably convey to mankind things like:
(1) Which book is the true Word of God?
(2) Which religion is the true religion?
(3) What is required to be saved, if indeed there's an after life?
and I would add
(4) How do we most effectively evangelize to 100 billion people?

Calvin's answer was the same as mine - God must rely on direct revelations experienced as feelings of certainty. This isn't something for the "Pauline era" or "apostolic era". It's needed in all eras.

Hilarious theology oops manology you aspire with feelings . Feelings have nothing to do with God as the change with the wind .

Give scripture for your feelings doctrine not your human reasoning which is foolishness to God.

 

[JAL]

sorry there Paul’s revelation was unique one of a kind and the apostolic era ended with John.

nice try with your evasion and strawman

Sola Scriptura boils down to the claim that bible scholars should run the church.

Now, who do you suppose has been shoving that claim down our throats for 2,000 years? You guessed it - Bible scholars!

And what do you suppose would happen to seminaries if all students and prospective students suddenly reoriented towards direct revelation? You guessed it - bankruptcy!

I'm not saying it's a conscious conspiracy. I'm saying that the human heart is depraved and therefore won't tend to question doctrines financially beneficial.

 

[JAL]

Hilarious theology oops manology you aspire with feelings . Feelings have nothing to do with God as the change with the wind .

Give scripture for your feelings doctrine not your human reasoning which is foolishness to God.

Tell it to Calvin. I take it you reject his doctrine of the Inward Witness? He specifically described it as feelings of certainty.

 

[JAL]

Hilarious theology oops manology you aspire with feelings . Feelings have nothing to do with God as the change with the wind .

Give scripture for your feelings doctrine not your human reasoning which is foolishness to God.

Have you found any exceptions to the rule?

“If I feel certain that action-A is evil, and action-B is good, I should go with action-B.”

I'm all ears.

 

[JAL]

I recall many years ago

Hilarious theology oops manology you aspire with feelings . Feelings have nothing to do with God as the change with the wind .

Give scripture for your feelings doctrine not your human reasoning which is foolishness to God.

I remember many years ago when I had borrowed dozens of R.C. Sproul cassette tapes from a friend. On one of those tapes he asserted, "Some of you will be surprised to hear this, but faith is a feeling of certainty."

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

I recall many years ago

I remember many years ago when I had borrowed dozens of R.C. Sproul cassette tapes from a friend. On one of those tapes he asserted, "Some of you will be surprised to hear this, but faith is a feeling of certainty."

well he was wrong he is not infallible it’s his opinion

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

Have you found any exceptions to the rule?

“If I feel certain that action-A is evil, and action-B is good, I should go with action-B.”

I'm all ears.

No feelings do not determine truth Gods word determines truth .

My answer is neither it’s another one of your strawman arguments

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

Tell it to Calvin. I take it you reject his doctrine of the Inward Witness? He specifically described it as feelings of certainty.

I can care less what Calvin said I care what Jesus and the apostles taught period .

 

[JAL]

No feelings do not determine truth Gods word determines truth .

My answer is neither it’s another one of your strawman arguments

Roughly translated, your words are admitting, "I can find no exception to the rule of conscience."
Thanks for confirming my whole position.

 

[JAL]

I can care less what Calvin said I care what Jesus and the apostles taught period .

Fine. If you reject the Inward Witness, you leave unresolved the contradiction indicated at post 239. Here it is again, since you ignored it the first time. Visualize:

(1) All imperatives must come from exegesis.
(2) Huh? Where then did I get the imperative to accept Scripture as inspired? From Scripture? That would be circular reasoning!

This makes no sense! Look, if you want to cling fanatically to religious nonsense, that's your prerogative. Nothing I can do about it.

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

Fine. If you reject the Inward Witness, you leave unresolved the contradiction indicated at post 239. Here it is again, since you ignored it the first time. Visualize:

(1) All imperatives must come from exegesis.
(2) Huh? Where then did I get the imperative to accept Scripture as inspired? From Scripture? That would be circular reasoning!

This makes no sense! Look, if you want to cling fanatically to religious nonsense, that's your prerogative. Nothing I can do about it.

Inward witness is not feelings so stop equivocating

 

[JAL]

Inward witness is not feelings so stop equivocating

Roughly translated, "I have no resolution for the contradiction identified in post 250".

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

I have no contradictions in my beliefs . Another swing in a miss .

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

INWARD WITNESS
SCRIPTURE IS AUTHENTICATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
by J. I. Packer

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 1 JOHN 2:20

Why do Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, sixty-six books forming a single book of instruction in which God reveals to us the reality of redemption through Jesus Christ the Savior? The answer is that God himself has confirmed this through what is called the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. In the words of the Westminster Confession (1647):

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverend esteem of the Holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart. (I.5)

The Spirit’s witness to Scripture is like his witness to Jesus, which we find spoken of in John 15:26 and 1 John 5:7 (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27). It is a matter not of imparting new information but of enlightening previously darkened minds to discern divinity through sensing its unique impact—the impact in the one case of the Jesus of the gospel, and in the other case of the words of Holy Scripture. The Spirit shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God not only in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) but also in the teaching of Holy Scripture. The result of this witness is a state of mind in which both the Savior and the Scriptures have evidenced themselves to us as divine—Jesus, a divine person; Scripture, a divine product—in a way as direct, immediate, and arresting as that in which tastes and colors evidence themselves by forcing themselves on our senses. In consequence, we no longer find it possible to doubt the divinity of either Christ or the Bible.

Thus God authenticates Holy Scripture to us as his Word—not by some mystical experience or secret information privately whispered into some inner ear, not by human argument alone (strong as this may be), nor by the church’s testimony alone (impressive as this is when one looks back over two thousand years). God does it, rather, by means of the searching light and transforming power whereby Scripture evidences itself to be divine. The impact of this light and power is itself the Spirit’s witness “by and with the Word in our heart.” Argument, testimony from others, and our own particular experiences may prepare us to receive this witness, but the imparting of it, like the imparting of faith in Christ’s divine Saviorhood, is the prerogative of the sovereign Holy Spirit alone.

The illumination of the Spirit witnessing to the divinity of the Bible is universal Christian experience, and has been so from the beginning, though many Christians have not known how to verbalize it or to handle the Bible in a manner consistent with it.

 

[JAL]

I have no contradictions in my beliefs . Another swing in a miss .

Um....the proper way to address a charge of contradiction is to show the resolution. You obviously don't have a resolution.

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

Um....the proper way to address a charge of contradiction is to show the resolution. You obviously don't have a resolution.

I don't have any contradictions .

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

I'm reminded of this

Feelings, nothing more than feelings,
Trying to forget my feelings of love.
Teardrops rolling down on my face,
Trying to forget my feelings of love.
Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it.
I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again.
Feelings, wo-o-o feelings,

 

[JAL]

INWARD WITNESS
SCRIPTURE IS AUTHENTICATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
by J. I. Packer

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 1 JOHN 2:20

Why do Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, sixty-six books forming a single book of instruction in which God reveals to us the reality of redemption through Jesus Christ the Savior? The answer is that God himself has confirmed this through what is called the inward witness of the Holy Spirit...our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart. (I.5)

Thank you for confirming Calvin's doctrine of the Inward Witness.

As J.I. Packer here confirms, the Inward Witness functions as the imperative to accept Scripture as inspired. This refutes the Sola Scriptura claim that all imperatives must be ratified exegetically. This is direct revelation that precedes exegesis, AND it succeeds by creating feelings of certainty, precisely what the above citation refers to as full persuasion and assurance."

This flatly contradicts the Sola Scriptura claim that all imperatives must come from exegesis. And it confirms all the OT incidents where imperatives came from the divine Voice - for example the Voice to Moses at the burning bush, and the Voice to Abraham to slaughter his son. "My sheep hear my voice" (Jn 10:27). Nothing has changed.

And the Inward Witness isn't at work only at the moment of conversion. On the contrary it is my DAILY imperative to CONTINUE accepting the Bible as the written Word of God. If our hearts lost this foundation for one moment, they could easily be turned to the Koran or something else.

Thanks for the citation. Thanks for confirming my whole position.

 

[JAL]

I'm reminded of this

Feelings, nothing more than feelings,
Trying to forget my feelings of love.
Teardrops rolling down on my face,
Trying to forget my feelings of love.
Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it.
I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again.
Feelings, wo-o-o feelings,

This is so funny. You obviously can't find one exception to the rule of conscience! All you can do is make lame efforts save face!

 

[Jesus is YHWH]

Thank you for confirming Calvin's doctrine of the Inward Witness.

As J.I. Packer here confirms, the Inward Witness functions as the imperative to accept Scripture as inspired. This refutes the Sola Scriptura claim that all imperatives must be ratified exegetically. This is direct revelation that precedes exegesis, AND it succeeds by creating feelings of certainty, precisely what the above citation refers to as full persuasion and assurance."

This flatly contradicts the Sola Scriptura claim that all imperatives must come from exegesis. And it confirms all the OT incidents where imperatives came from the divine Voice - for example the Voice to Moses at the burning bush, and the Voice to Abraham to slaughter his son. "My sheep hear my voice" (Jn 10:27). Nothing has changed.

And the Inward Witness isn't at work only at the moment of conversion. On the contrary it is my DAILY imperative to CONTINUE accepting the Bible as the written Word of God. If our hearts lost this foundation for one moment, they could easily be turned to the Koran or something else.

Thanks for the citation. Thanks for confirming my whole position.

nothing about your false doctrine of FEELINGS.