Bibliololgy & Canonization

Bibliology - Plenary Verbal Inspiration

“ All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness”                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2 Timothy 3:16
“the Scriptures themselves are divine, i.e., were inspired by the Spirit of God.”                                                                                                                               ~Origen (185-254 AD)

Tracing the Canon back to God

“And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18).

“And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:16; 34:1, 28)

Etiology of sacred status of the canon

Moses to the people of Israel in reference to the words of God’s law: “For it is no trifle for you, but it is your life and thereby you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess” (Deut. 32:47). Moses warned the people of Israel, “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2).

Growth of the canon

Further additions were made to this book of God’s words. “And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God” (Josh. 24:26). God commanded Isaiah, “And now, go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come as a witness for ever” (Isa. 30:8). Once again, God said to Jeremiah, “Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you” (Jer. 30:2; cf. Jer. 36:2–4, 27–31; 51:60). Malachi was the last book to be added at about 435 BC

Cessation of Prophecy in Israel – Inter-testamental period & translation of Hebrew Scriptures to Greek

“Thus there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them.” 1 Macc 9:27

“And the Jews and their priests decided that Simon should be their leader and high priest for ever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise “ 1 Macc 14:41

The Septuagint LXX was produced by seventy-two jewish scholars summoned by the Greek king of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphus to translate Hebrew scriptures into Greek, for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria

Canon at the time of Jesus

In the words of Josephus a 1 century Jewish historian of priestly aristocracy "We have but 22 books, containing the history of all time, books that are believed to be divine. Of these, 5 belong to Moses, containing his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind down to the time of his death. From the death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes the prophets who succeeded Moses wrote the history of the events that occurred in their own time, in 13 books. The remaining 4 books comprise hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life. From the days of Artaxerxes to our own times every event has indeed been recorded; but these recent records have not been deemed worthy of equal credit with those which preceded them, on account of the failure of the exact succession of prophets. There is practical proof of the spirit in which we treat our Scriptures; although so great an interval of time has now passed, not a soul has ventured to add or to remove or to alter a syllable; and it is the instinct of every Jew, from the day of his birth, to consider these Scriptures as the teaching of God, and to abide by them, and, if need be, cheerfully to lay down his life in their behalf."

*22 book list of Josephus = 39 books of the Old Testament of The Protestant Bibles

Development of NT Canon

Early Christians inherited a canon consciousness from Judaism. A corpus of writings considered sacred. This consciousness and guided by the principle of Apostolic Authority and Teaching would work in The Church to produce a group of writings called the New Testament. Most of The New Testament was completed before The Great Fire of Rome, 64 AD. Before the turn of the Century John would also add to this body of writings.

Letting Ancient Voices Speak for themselves

Irenaeus(125-202 CE) who was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gau explains
“Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.”

According to Clement of Alexandria(150-215 CE) who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria
“But, last of all, John, perceiving that the external facts had been made plain in the Gospel, being urged by his friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel.”

This Body of Writings is quoted authoritatively and extensively in the 1-2nd Century Christian Literature of Clement, Barnabas, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp. Irenaeus quotes from what forms our New Testament 1819 times, Clement of Alexandria quotes 2406 times and Tertullian 7259 times.

Defining the canon

The Early Church would soon be pushed to define this authoritative corpus precisely. Marcion son of the wealthy Bishop of Sinope in Pontus By 144 AD, at age 34 had caused such a stir, that his teachings were the subject of an investigation and condemnation. He would be excommunicated for holding heretical views and the donations of 200,000 sesterces made to the church returned. Marcion believed that the God of the Old Testament was an evil creator god that Jesus came to destroy. Marcion's canon consisted only the gospel of Luke to the exclusion of the other three gospels. He also accepted all of Paul's writings but he would "cut out" any Old Testament quote or anything else that contradicted his theological views.

Melito bishop of Sardis Jewish by birth travelling to the east to determine the correct organization of the Old Testament would inform us that he "learnt accurately the books of the Old Testament," especially "how many they are in number, and what is their order."

It is not until A.D. 200-about 170 years after the death and resurrection of Christ-that we first see the term "New Testament" used, by Tertullian(160-220 CE). The term “testament” (Hebrew berîth, Greek diatheke), means “covenant.” and the terms 'New Testament' and 'Old Testament' appears in 2nd century Christian Literature. Hippolytus(170-235 CE), likening the church to a ship, compared its tillers to "the two testaments". Cyprian (170-235 CE) who was bishop of Carthage used the terminology of "old and new," without the word "covenant," in reference to the scriptures: "As you examine more fully the scriptures, old and new, and read through the complete volumes of the spiritual books". The English word Bible is derived from the Koine Greek t? ß?ß??a (ta biblia - “the books”). While Christian use of the term can be traced to around A.D. 223.

Origen around 240 AD would produce the Hexapla, word-for-word comparison of the Greek Septuagint with the original Hebrew Scriptures, and other Greek translations. The Peshitta was also produced during the second century AD as a translation in Syriac from the Hebrew.

During the Diocletian persecution the sacred books of Christians would be burnt. So Constantine would promise the Church of 50 Codex of The Bible. So Eusebius who is also regarded as the 'Father of Church History' cause he attempted a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century 'ecclesiastical history' would produce a list of universally accepted books, disputed and spurious cause the canon wasn't fixed by then.

Athanasius bishop of Alexandria in his Easter letter of A.D. 367 to his episcopate lists the 27 the books of The New Testament in the present Catholic and Protestant Bibles and After the list he declares, “these are the wells of salvation, so that he who thirsts may be satisfied with the sayings in these. Let no one add to these. Let nothing be taken away.”

In 382, Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome to produce Latin translation of The Bible, known as the Vulgate which again has the same list.

The Council of Carthage( 397) issued a canon of the Bible on 28 August 397 which again ruled on the same 27 books of the NT which is still the same in all the Catholic and Protestant Bibles.

 

 

 

Literary Philosophical and Biblical survey of Free Will : Determinism and Compatibilism

Literary examination 

In Greek mythology, the goddesses known as the Fates, or Moirae, spun out the destinies of men and women. With the resurgence of confidence in human agency in fifth-century Athens, the Greeks began to develop more subtle conceptions of the relationship between fate and free will, especially through the tragedies of their theater. Sophocles’s Oedipus the King presents the classical treatment of human action as determined by fate or free will, or a convergence of the two. Such a convergence is understandable through a thought of the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “Man’s character is his fate [daimon]”

In a further exploration of fate and autonomy, human action in Roman poet Virgil’s The Aeneid, translates itself into a founding myth, whereby personal good yields to the greater good of nation formation. It is Aeneas, fleeing to Italy after the fall of Troy, who, according to prophecy, will there found a noble and courageous race, which in time will surpass all other nations. Thus, in this nationalistic epic, divine agency and human aspiration—both personal and civic—constitute fate

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth Unlike Oedipus the King and The Aeneid, both of which revolve around a single, defining prophecy,  Shakespeare’s tragedy operates with two, one propelling the rise and the other underwriting the fall. The prophecy of the three witches incites the protagonist into evil in the first half of the play; then, symmetrically in the second half, the suddenly unveiled prophecy regarding Macduff seals Macbeth’s defeat and death. Shakespeare's character, Macbeth is not a helpless victim of fate as he was in complete control of it. He is aware of his fate and it is his actions that fulfill it.

In Jacques the Fatalist and his Master a novel by Denis Diderot, written during the period 1765-1780, Jacques's key philosophy is that everything that happens to us down here, whether for good or for evil, has been written up above on a "great scroll" that is unrolled a little bit at a time.

Philosophical examination

Some of us live life like the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus(270-341 BC) thinking human agents have the ability to transcend necessity and chance.
"...some things happen of necessity, others by chance, others through our own agency. ...necessity destroys responsibility and chance is inconstant; whereas our own actions are autonomous, and it is to them that praise and blame naturally attach. "

Yet there are some like those in ancient times who discount contingencies and advocate hard determinism. Leucippus the 4th century BC Greek atomist philosoher dogmatically declared an absolute necessity which left no room in the cosmos for chance.
"Nothing occurs at random, but everything for a reason and by necessity."

There are two kinds of the kind, fatatlism and strict causal physical determinism

Fatalism is the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. It is the view that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually do. Included in this is that man has no power to influence the future, or indeed, his own actions. An attitude of resignation in the face of some future event or events which are thought to be inevitable. Homer the ancient Greek poet on fate says "Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. We are all held in a single honour, the brave with the weaklings.
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much."

Determinism holds that every thing and event is a natural and integral part of the interconnected universe. From the perspective of determinism, every event in nature is the result of (determined by) prior/coexisting events. Lucretius(99-55 BC) the Roman poet and philosopher says
"If all motion is always one long chain, and new motion arises out of the old in order invariable, and if first-beginnings do not make by swerving a beginning of motion so as to break the decrees of fate, whence comes this free will?"

Some though like Cicero(106-43 BC) the Roman statesman scholar and lawyer in denial of fate and determinism emphasize the preeminence of free will in the face other things. He says
"If there is free will, all things do not happen according to fate; if all things do not happen according to fate, there is not a certain order of causes; and if there is not a certain order of causes, neither is there a certain order of things foreknown by God."

Still others live as though it were a lottery, Herodotus(425-484 BC) the Greek historian writes
"For assuredly he who possesses great riches is no nearer happiness than he who has what suffices for his daily needs, unless it so hap that luck attend upon him, and so he continue in the enjoyment of all his good things to the end of life. For many of the wealthiest men have been unfavoured of fortune, and many whose means were moderate have had excellent luck "

Scriptural examination 

When I examine scripture regarding these things which is the standard of truth with regard to all things, I find God providentially governs as ruler over all human affairs
Psalm 22:28 says
"For the kingdom is the LORD'S And He rules over the nations."
1 Chronicles 29:11 says
"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all."

and a special providence in the interest of those who love him. The New Testament is filled with promises which affirm that God will answer the prayers of his people and work in their lives. The Apostle says in Romans 8:28a "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him"
John Calvin(1509-1564 CE) one of the important reformational figures writes "... all things are divinely ordained. And it is to be observed, first, that the Providence of God is to be considered with reference both to the past and the future; and, secondly, that in overruling all things... the design of God is to show that He takes care of the whole human race, but is especially vigilant in governing the Church, which he favours with a closer inspection."

Secondly , Off God's foreknowledge and predestination
Isaiah 46:10 says
"Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure "
Isaiah 42:9 says
"Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."
Prov 16:4 says
"The Lord has made everything for its own purpose,
Even the wicked for the day of evil."
Calvin says "Let it, therefore, be our first principle that to desire any other knowledge of predestination than that which is expounded by the word of God, is no less infatuated than to walk where there is no path, or to seek light in darkness." Scripturally God's foreknowledge and predestination does not compel one against the free exercise of his will. As Augustine(354-430 CE) one of the important patristic figures clarifies "You would not necessarily compel a man to sin by foreknowing his sin. Your foreknowledge would not be the cause of his sin, though undoubtedly he would sin; otherwise you would not foreknow that this would happen. Therefore these two are not contradictory, your foreknowledge and someone else’s free act. So too God compels no one to sin, though He foresees those who will sin by their own will"

Thirdly, God is not the author of sin, he sets before us choices of life and death, to obey or disobey him
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Augustine on Free will writes “For the first free will which was given to humanity when it was created upright, gave not just the ability not to sin, but also the ability to sin.”


Finally God can work providentially to bring about good from my intended evil
Genesis 50:20 says
" you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
Augustine in the Enchiridion writes "And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it is regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our admiration of the good; For the almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge, has supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would never permit the existence of anything evil among His works, if He were not so omnipotent and good that He can bring good even out of evil."

What's happiness got to do with ethics Aristotle ? Aristotle's enquiry of man's chief end. .

In one of Aristotle’s most influential works the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle begins his ethical enquiry by his search for the highest good, the end or goal for which we should direct all of our activities. He says if we knew what we are to achieve we can lay down laws to the attainment of its end. The highest good has three characteristics: it is desirable for itself, it is not desirable
for the sake of some other good, and all other goods are desirable for its sake. Aristotle thinks everyone will agree that the terms “eudaimonia” (“happiness”) and “eu zên” (“living well”) designate such an end.

By enquiring into our ecclesial literature I observe how our ecclesial writers note how in common human experience this true happiness that Aristotle talks about eludes us.  C.S. Lewis says “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Blaise Pascal one of the prominent figures of the 17th century scientific revolution writes "And thus, while the present never satisfies us, experience dupes us and, from misfortune to misfortune, leads us to death, their eternal crown. What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange thing that
there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable in taking His place."
                                                                                                         
                                                                                                         
One of the profound patristic figures Augustine(354-430 AD) ascribes man's chief end to be God himself. Augustine writes "The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and consequently He is unchangeable good, hence truly eternal and truly immortal. All other good things are only from Him." Augustine again goes on to write chiding the philosophers "It is the decided opinion of all who use their brains, that all men desire to be happy. But who are happy, or how they become so, these are questions about which the weakness of human understanding stirs endless and angry controversies, in which philosophers have wasted their strength and expended their leisure. To adduce and discuss their various opinions would be tedious, and is unnecessary.For we made selection of the
Platonists, justly esteemed the noblest of the philosophers, because they had the wit to perceive that the human soul, immortal and rational, or intellectual, as it is, cannot be happy except by partaking of the light of that God by whom both itself and the world were made; and also that the happy life which all men desire cannot be reached by any who does not cleave with a pure and holy love
to that one supreme good, the unchangeable God. " For Scripture says "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11)

Ecclesial literature is replete with our affirmation, Dutch 19th century theologian Herman Bavinck wrote  “God, and God alone, is man’s highest good.” And its Scriptural warrant found herein,  "For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things." (Psalm 107:9). Jesus also says  “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me
shall never thirst.”

Scripture says "But your iniquities have separated you from your God: your sins have hidden his face from you " (Isaiah 59:2). One of the immediate effects of the Fall was that mankind was separated from God. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had perfect communion and fellowship with God. When they rebelled against Him, that fellowship was broken. They became aware of their sin and
were ashamed before Him. They hid from Him (Genesis 3:8-10). John Owen one of the prominent puritan figures writes "By nature, since the entrance of sin, no man hath any communion with God. He is light, we are darkness; and what communion hath light with darkness?." Thus "God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” (Mere
Christianity, CS Lewis)

Aristotle says " Since happiness is an activity of soul in accordance with perfect virtue" and Jesus endorsing the teaching of the 'Golden rule' by Rabbi Hillel(110 BC-10 AD) reduced our ethical requirements to two commandments. "Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40). Augustine writes “When therefore the will...cleaves to the immutable good…. man finds therein the blessed life…. For if God is man’s supreme good…it clearly follows, since to seek the supreme good is to live well, that to live well is nothing else but to love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind. Ethics are here, since a good and honest life is not formed otherwise than by loving as they should be loved those things which we ought to love, namely God and our neighbor”

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"It is profoundly true that the ancient world was more modern than the Christian. The common bond is in the fact that ancients and moderns have both been miserable about existence, about everything, while medievals were happy about that at least. I freely grant that the pagans, like the moderns, were only miserable about everything—they were quite jolly about everything else. I concede that the Christians of the Middle Ages were only at peace about everything—they were at war about everything else.The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones. Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian "
 - GK Chesterton(1874-1936 AD), Apostle of Common Sense

The Law and the Gospel - Explicit Gospel

The Law and the Gospel - Explicit Gospel

Natural Law 

Natural Law is the knowledge of right and wrong availed by natural reason without the aid of special revelation. A definition of a 1st century BCE jurist, statesman and orator Cicero to our aid "True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions. And it does not lay its commands or prohibitions upon good men in vain, though neither have any effect on the wicked. It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is, God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst penalties, even if he escapes what is commonly considered punishment." (De Republica, 3.33.  Cicero)

Greek ethical philosophy stressed on the aid of right reason (orthos logos) in the attainment of the good life, eudaimonia the Greek word commonly translated as happiness or welfare. These two ends don't always meet. Sir William Blackstone who wrote a commentary on the laws of England writes "the task would be pleasant and easy; we should need no other guide but this(natural light of reason). But every man now finds the contrary in his own experience; that his reason is corrupt, and his understanding full of ignorance and error." Sin has darkened our senses and our minds, thus corrupting knowledge availed by natural light (John Calvin, Institutes 1, IV). This concerns the doctrine of original sin which we shall treat subsequently. The natural light thus corrupted can be distorted and sometimes perverted as Thomas Aquinas notes "are distorted by passion, evil habits, or evil natural disposition. Thus Julius Caesar remarks that the Germans once did not regard theft as evil." Thus natural reason aided by a special help & revelation becomes fit to its attainment of its ends. As Blackstone writes "when a workman forms a clock, or other piece of mechanism, he establishes at his own pleasure certain arbitrary laws for its direction; as that the hand shall describe a given space in a given time; to which law as long as the work conforms, so long it continues in perfection, and answers the end of its formation. This then is the general signification of law, a rule of action dictated by some superior being: for its(creature's) existence depends on that obedience."

A digression into Divine law is wanting here but I have just a tad bit more to say on natural law so just hang in there. In Romans 2:14-15 Paul makes reference to this natural law which is by means which God judges those he hasn't handed over the letter of the law.

So how did it go with those of received the letter of the law. Not too Great. Here we go !!

Divine Law

God in his sovereignty with no obligation towards the fallen man, called a nation by grace to be separate unto him. Varro (116 BC – 27 BCE) the Roman scholar extolled the Jewish image-less practice of worship (frg 8 Cardanus, City of God 4.31). Tacitus the 1st century CE Roman historian says "The Jews. . . conceive of one god only and that with the mind only; they regard impious as those who make from perishable materials a representation of gods in man's image" (Tacitus, Histories 5.5.4). Hypocrisy though didn't evade this special nation, Tacitus writes  "Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men.  They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; among themselves nothing is unlawful. "

The Verdict

Then Verdict then, "Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins." Ecclesiastes 7:20.  In Romans 11 Paul declares they are declared guilty both those under natural and divine law. In the instance of the women caught in adultery, Jesus said 'He who is without sin can cast the first stone' and the crowd withdrew. In a reading from eastern (Vedic) literature, the Vedic writer confesses

"Whatever law of thine, O God, O Varuna, as we are men, Day after day we violate."  - Hymn 25  Varuna , Rig Veda

The pious devout zealous adherents to the law among us are quick to the confession 'our  righteousness is like filthy rags'. Our failings go beyond us, it's in our nature to err. We inherit this sinful nature from our common progenitor who by his one act of disobedience steeped us all in sin (Romans 5:19). The Indian succession act 1925 credits both debts and assets of the father to the son.

"After the heavenly image in man was effaced, he not only was himself punished by a withdrawal of the ornaments in which he had been arrayed—viz. wisdom, virtue, justice, truth, and holiness, and by the substitution in their place of those dire pests, blindness, impotence, vanity, impurity, and unrighteousness, but he involved his posterity also, and plunged them in the same wretchedness. This is the hereditary corruption to which early Christian writers gave the name of Original Sin, meaning by the term the depravation of a nature formerly good and pure" - Theologian John Calvin On Original Sin

Our philosophers are humbled by fallibility. We are easily prone to false beliefs and our judgments fallible. David Hume writes "In all demonstrative sciences the rules are certain and infallible; but when we apply them, our fallible and uncertain faculties are very apt to depart from them, and fall into error. We must, therefore, in every reasoning form a new judgment, as a check or control on our first judgment or belief; When I reflect on the natural fallibility of my judgment, I have less confidence in my opinions, than when I only consider the objects concerning which I reason; and when I proceed still farther, to turn the scrutiny against every successive estimation I make of my faculties, all the rules of logic require a continual diminution, and at last a total extinction of belief and evidence" *(A Treatise of Human Nature). Yet "Nature by an absolute and uncontrollable necessity has determined us to judge as well as to breathe and feel." This is definitely a very pitiable state; this is our state. If at all there is salvation christian theologians note it has to come from outside, B B Warfield the Princeton theologian writes "man naturally cannot rise above himself, and unfortunately the self above which he cannot rise is a sinful self." Blind don't lead the blind. Philosophical concerns overflow into other areas; Scientists about human errors that creeps into their experiments, jurists about fallibility of human justice and socio-political administrators of fallibility of human socio-political organizations

Means of Grace

As the old adage goes 'To err is human to forgive divine', the only way God could be just benevolent and gracious all at the same time is by offering himself up on a cross in a levitical type penal substitutionary atonement as an appeasement to God's wrath. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. This is the paradox of Christianity we are saved from God by God for God, that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved "    Romans 10:13

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."         Romans 10:9

"In the unrevealed religions God is known only as He has revealed Himself in His acts of the creation and government of the world. Natural religion is of course good in its own proper place and for its own proper purposes. Nobody doubts — or nobody ought to doubt — that men are by nature religious and will have a religion in any event. There is nothing "soteriological" in natural religion. It knows nothing of salvation.  It grows out of the recognized relations of creature and Maker; it is the creature's response to the perception of its Lord, in feelings of dependence and responsibility. When the creature has become a sinner, and the relations proper to it as creature to its Lord have been superseded by relations proper to the criminal to its judge. Natural religion is dumb. Of course Christianity does not abolish or supersede this natural religion; it vitalizes it, and confirms it, and fills it with richer content. But it does so much more than this that, it transforms it, and makes it, with its supplements, a religion fitted for and adequate to the needs of sinful man. " * 

                                                -B B Warfield, early 20th century Princeton Theologian 

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*Quote not ordered the same way in the original, but authorial intentions I hope are preserved in its quoting 

Claim of Harmony of Faith and Reason in the Christian Confession – Priest and the Philosopher co-workers in service to Christ

Claim of Harmony of Faith and Reason in the Christian Confession – Priest and the Philosopher co-workers in service to Christ

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves."
   ~ From Fides et ratio (English: Faith and Reason) a papal encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998

Christians as Logicians

          “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord " Isaiah 1:18
       
The law of non-contradiction which is simply unsurpassed in Aristotelian logic, that Aristotle (in Metaphysics IV (Gamma) 3–6 ) says on denying the principle of non-contradiction we could not know anything that we do know, finds employment in works of Justin a 2nd century Christian apologist. Justin in his Hortatory Address to the Greeks destroys arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and  takes every thought captive to obey Christ(2 Cor 10:5) declaring the poets and philosophers unworthy authorities of metaphysical truths his Greco-Roman World held as orthodox, for they proposed warring opposites and contradicting ideas.

Christians as Empiricists

             "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He."  John 13:19

The Christian faith is strongly rooted in certain historical facts as Paul declared 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile' (2 Cor 15:17) and thus has an empirical foundation. Justin (100-165 CE) was certainly an empiricist too when he showed the Greeks that their own historian Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BCE)  had made record of the antiquity of Moses in Egypt. As an empiricist he is certainly not alone in Ecclesial Tradition, Sir Francis Bacon through his popularization of an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, which has since become known as the scientific method. Another British Empiricist Bishop George Berkeley published "The Analyst", a direct attack on the logical foundations and principles of calculus and, in particular, the notion of fluxion or infinitesimal change which Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz had used to develop calculus. Berkeley saw this as part of his broader campaign against the religious implications of Newtonian mechanics and against Deism. It was arguably as a result of this controversy that the foundations of calculus were rewritten in a much more formal and rigorous form, using the concept of limits.When empirical science ran into conflict with revealed word during the Galileo controversy, Galileo maintained “Holy Scripture could never lie or err...its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.” and in the lines of Francis Bacon “There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power”. The scope of resolution then lies in the fact that while Scripture remains supreme and infallible our understanding of it is fallible, capable of err. Certainly the contemporary world is no short of evidentialists who take for empirical evidence of God's action in history, off events recorded in the Bible. Almost 27% of Biblical material at the time written was prophetic and have come to detailed fulfillment and some impending ( Israel's election, exile & destruction, promise of restoration and gentile inclusion and conflict and final Triumph over her enemies ). Historicity is a serious issue for the evidentialist. There are numerous extra-biblical sources that attest  Biblical events names and cities. Claims are made that in about 150 years of Jesus’ existence 52 authors of friends and foe in all 72 sources reference him, Archaeologist assert that while the heavens declare the Glory of the Lord there is also plenty of evidence in the rubble and ruin. A number of Biblical cities and events are attested by Archaeological finds, a total of 50 people in the OT and 30 in the NT can be attested by seals and inscriptions in the findings.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, American rabbi, archaeologist, president of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, who is credited with discovery of 1,500 ancient sites, said:  "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted [overturned] a Biblical reference.  Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical  statements in the Bible.  And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries."  Time Magazine.

Christians as Rationalists

           "For since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made" Romans 1:20

John Scotus Erigena (815-877 CE) the Irish theologian who was a part of the Carolingian Renaissance said " And if someone thinks we are wrong for employing philosophical arguments, Abraham (father of our faith) for example, knew God not by the letter of Scripture, which did not yet exist but by the movement of the stars. For just as one proceeds from sense to understanding, so by way of the  creature one goes to God. "      

Certainly the medieval schoolmen were rationalists. Saint Thomas Aquinas(1225-1275 CE) in The Quinque viae (In Engluish "Five Ways" or "Five Proofs") asserted the strong metaphysical necessity of God's existence; causal factual & logical necessity. Peter Lombard placed rational justification for belief in God in the first book of the Sentences, which was used as standard textbook in medieval universities. Yet 'If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous. Saint Augustine says "Reason would never submit, if it did not judge that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit. It is then right for it to submit, when it judges that it ought to  submit."  Submission is the use of reason in which consists true Christianity.'(Pensees Section IV, by Blaise Pascal) . Thus medieval schoolmen placed reason subservient to revelation. Aquinas In the Summa Contra Gentiles proposed a "two fold truth" about religious claims, "one to which the inquiry of reason can reach, the other which surpasses the whole ability of the human reason."

Christians as Presuppositionalists

            “Unless you believe, you will not understand.” Isaiah 7:9

“Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”
                                                -Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE)

Immanuel Kant in his critique of pure reason redefined the role of reason in metaphysics to understand itself, to explore the powers and the limits of reason. Presuppositionalists' like Cornelius Van Til often have this habit of taking a jab at the evidentialist and rationalist on the grounds that everyone has presuppositions. Beliefs assumed to be true without evidence or justification, something the Cartesian philosopher René Descartes would call foundational beliefs. These ideas are found in the writings of Aquinas itself, that Theology defined as queen of all sciences(Letter from Galileo to Madame Christina, 1615 CE)  subservient to none but utilizing the service of others ; philosophy as its handmaid( Stromata, Clement of Alexandria 150–215 CE) ; that Theology so defined its non-demonstrable first principles contained in the articles of faith can only be accepted on account of its own persuasion that " No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit." 1 Cor 12:3. Presuppositionalists' emphasize basicality of belief in God. Perhaps this is why Jesus being God, truth himself the source of all truth & its highest authority couldn’t qualify his statements anymore than in himself. " Jesus  answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. "   " John 14:6

It does not hurt to mention the thesis (reformed epistemology) of American analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, whose contention in 3 vol. warrant series is that Christian belief is warrant basic and does not require any evidence. The argument it yields against evolutionary naturalism is definitely worth reading. It goes something like this. If your belief producing cognitive faculties were formed by an unguided natural process you have to reason to trust them as reliable.  


"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
                                                        -  C.S.Lewis