Christian Research Journal Reads Episode 125: The Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit: How Do You Know That the Bible Is God’s Word?

This is Episode 125 of Christian Research Journal Reads.This is an audio version of the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL article, “The Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit: How Do You Know That the Bible Is God’s Word?”  by James N. Anderson. This article first appeared in the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL, volume 39, number 05 (2016).https://www.equip.org/articles/internal-testimony-holy-spirit-know-bible-gods-word/

 It was accompanied by Postmodern Realities Episode 106 Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit. 


This podcast presents audio versions of Christian Research Journal articles. As the flagship publication of the Christian Research Institute, the Journal seeks to equip followers of Christ to think and to live Christianly—to exercise truth and experience life. Truth, especially essential Christian doctrine, forms the basis for how we live our lives in Christ. As the apostle Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Tim. 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”The Christian Research Journal enjoyed a print incarnation of almost 45 years. Now exclusively an online publication, the Journal consists of thousands of free articles. We hope that through these audio articles you are not only equipped to proclaim and defend your faith but that as a disciple you also draw closer to Christ in your walk with Him.  You can find the written version of each article that is an episode of Christian Research Journal Reads at the website of the Christian Research Institute, equip.org. All Christian Research Journal articles at equip.org are completely free and do not require a subscription and are not under a paywall.All episodes will be available at the following podcast platforms with more being added daily! You can help spread the word about this new podcast by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on and telling others!Our Website at the new special link and off our Journal main page. 



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is episode one hundred twenty five of the Christian
Research Journal Reads Podcast. The Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit?
How do you know that the Bible is God's Word?
By James N. Anderson. This article first appeared in the
print edition of the Christian Research Journal, Volume thirty nine,

(00:30):
number five in twenty sixteen. The Christian Research Journal Reads
Podcast presents audio versions of Christian Research Journal articles. To
read the full text of this article and its documentation,
please go to equip dot org. That's e qu ip

(00:51):
dot org.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
The Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit. How do you
know that the Bible is God's Word? This article is
by James ZEN Anderson and is read by an automated voice.
If you're a regular reader of the Christian Research Journal,
I suspect that question immediately prompts you to think of
arguments and evidences for the divine inspiration of the Bible. Take,

(01:16):
for example, the fulfilled biblical prophecies, the astonishing consistency and
unity of the Bible's message despite having many human authors
over hundreds of years, and the testimony of Jesus, who
confirmed his claim to be the son of God by
his resurrection from the dead. Those would be good thoughts,
but there's a problem with answering the question in that way.

(01:39):
If a Christian's knowledge that the Bible is God's Word
depends on being able to marshal various arguments and evidences,
then surely only a small minority of Christians actually know
that the Bible is God's word. The majority of Christians
may believe it, but they don't know it simply because
they're not familiar with these apologetic evidences. It never been

(02:00):
asked to justify their beliefs in that way, and they
wouldn't know how to do it if they were asked. Obviously,
it would be very unfortunate if it turned out that
most Christians don't actually know that Christianity is true. It
also seems quite implausible. Take my late grandmother, for example,
where Christian faith towered over mine. Should I conclude that

(02:21):
I knew something she didn't, namely, that the Bible she
built her life on is indeed God's Word because she
was enabled to martial arguments and evidences in the way
that I can to think that would be not only
implausible but also a helatist. It would imply that only
those Christian believers who attain to a certain level of
intellectual sophistication can enjoy knowledge of the divine inspiration of

(02:44):
the Bible. Yet that would be quite at odds with
the practice of Jesus and the Apostles, who routinely appealed
to scripture on the assumption that their audience knew that
scripture was divinely offered and therefore divinely authoritative. Fortunately, we
don't need to set such a high bar for knowledge
of basic Christian truths. There's a more generous view. Indeed,

(03:07):
a more gracious view that has been the mainstream perspective
among Protestants since the Reformation. A classic formulation can be
found in the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought
to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony
of any man or church, but wholly upon God, who

(03:29):
is truth itself, the author thereof, And therefore it is
to be received because it is the Word of God.
We may be moved and induced by the testimony of
the Church to a 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

(03:51):
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

(04:13):
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 hearts. No four things
asserted here. First, the Confession states that the Bible is
the Word of God simply because it is authored by God,
and therefore it has intrinsic authority regardless of what any

(04:35):
one says or thinks about it. Scripture is God's Word
as a matter of objective historical fact. Second, the Confession
says that the Christian Church has an important role to
play in people coming to believe that the Bible is
God's Word. The Church bears witness to the divine inspiration
of Scripture, and that counts for something, even if it

(04:55):
is not sufficient in itself. To establish that the Bible
is God's word. Third, the confession acknowledges that scripture exhibits
all the marks of a divine revelation. It possesses many
incomparable excellencies that are evidences of its divine authorship. Again,
these are objective facts about the Bible. Finally, the confession

(05:18):
asserts that in order to have an assured knowledge that
the Bible is God's Word, there must also be what
reformed theologians have called the internal testimony of the Holy
Spirit iths, an inward work of the third person of
the Trinity in the heart and mind of a believer,
bringing about a kind of direct apprehension that the Bible
is God's word. My s e be here my voice.

(05:42):
One of the Biblical texts cited in connection with iths
is John ten twenty seven, where Jesus says, my sheep
hear my voice. According to Jesus, the reason his Jewish
critics didn't believe his claims was because they were not
among my sheep verse twenty six. What then, defines Jesus
sheep they hear his voice. Jesus is referring here to

(06:06):
a spiritual apprehension rather than a mere physical reception of
his words. The sheep are those who recognize the voice
of the Shepherd. As they hear his voice, they know
his true identity. But this knowledge cannot come through merely
natural means. An analogy may help here. I imagine most
readers have had the experience of receiving a phone call

(06:28):
where the caller's opening words are simply, hey, it's me.
Even though those words could be said by anyone. I'd
wager that nearly every time you've receive and it's me call,
you knew immediately and certainly who the caller was. But
how did you know since the speaker didn't give a name.
It's simple, you recognize the person's voice. You didn't engage

(06:50):
in some process of deduction from various evidences that you
identified in their speech. You directly perceive the identity of
the caller. Something anelogus takes place when the spirit bears
witness to scripture. The Bible bears all the objective marks
of a divine revelation, but we nevertheless need eyes and
ears to recognize it as such. That spiritual apprehension is

(07:13):
one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we
read or hear the words of the Bible. The indwelling
spirit brings about in our hearts and minds a conviction
that these aren't merely human writings. In short, the spirit
of God enables us to hear the voice of God
speaking in the Word of God. This account of how
we know that the Bible is God's Word has a

(07:34):
number of theological virtues. I'll mention just two here. First,
it honors the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. Our
knowledge of the great truths of the Gospel, which are
revealed in the Bible and by which we are saved,
doesn't rest on our own intellectual abilities or efforts. It
puts all believers on an equal footing. Anyone, regardless of

(07:57):
their level of intellect or education, can know that the
Bible is God's word, saging knowledge of God is a
supernatural divine gift, not a natural human achievement. Second, this
account comports with the Protestant conviction that the Bible it
is a self attesting revelation. We don't accept its authority
on the basis of some other authority, the Pope, theologians, scientists, historians,

(08:22):
et cetera. But because God himself testifies to it. Since
the Bible is God's word. It has the highest possible authority.
No one other than God is in a position to
testify to its authority Compare Hebrews six thirteen. Thus, it's
only appropriate that our faith in the Bible is secured
by the internal testimony of God's spirit. A fellow sophical

(08:46):
defense of IHS, the reform view, has theological attractions, but
is it philosophically credible. One of the most sophisticated defenses
of IHS has been developed by Alvin Plantingeto. In a
trilogy of books known as the Warrant Series, Plantinga analyzed
the necessary conditions for human knowledge. He concluded that a

(09:07):
person this knows some proposition P only if one s
beliefs P two, P is true three as a belief
in P is produced by a cognitive faculty that is,
a functioning properly in an appropriate environment, and b successfully
aimed at truth. Plantinka describes how this account can explain

(09:29):
various kinds of knowledge we take for granted, since perception,
knowledge of the past, knowledge of basic moral truths, knowledge
of abstract truths about logic and mathematics, even knowledge of
the existence and attributes of God. The last of these
he attributes to a census to vinitatis, a cognitive faculty

(09:50):
that produces what the Ellosians call the natural knowledge of
God when it comes to knowing that the Bible is
God's word. However, Plantinga recognizes that we possess no natural
faculty that could deliver such knowledge. Nevertheless, iths can be
seen as analogous to our natural cognitive faculties in a
way that meets all the necessary conditions for knowledge. If

(10:13):
P is the proposition that the Bible is God's word,
and as is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has
brought about a recognition that P is true, we can
say that snows P because one as believes P two
P is true M three as a belief in P
is produced by a kind of cognitive process, albeit a

(10:34):
supernaturally enhanced one that is successfully aimed at truth. Plantingas
is certainly not the only philosophical explication of the reformed position,
but it is the one that has been most rigorously
developed and defended so in c on CRN s add
or ees sed. In this last section, I want to

(10:54):
address briefly three concerns the reader might have with the
view I've sketched. The first concern is that it would
be intrinsically subjective, which in turn implies a subjectivist view
of knowledge. Admittedly, there is a subjective aspect to ITHS,
since the Holy Spirit operates on the subject of knowledge
internally and does so on an individual and selective basis.

(11:17):
In reality, however, there is a subjective aspect to every
type of knowledge. Consider my knowledge that I at sereal
for breakfast. That's subjective in the sense that it's my
memory that supplies this knowledge, and I'm the only person
who has direct access to memories of my past experiences.
Does that imply subjectivism about knowledge? Not in any objectionable sense.

(11:41):
Another concern is that ITHS is no more respectable than
the Mormon doctrine of the burning bosom, and thus anyone
who holds the reform view must forfeit the right to
criticize the Mormon view. According to the Mormon teaching, if
you want to know whether the Book of Mormon is true,
you should pray to God about it, and if it
is indeed true, God will cause that your bosom shall

(12:03):
burn within you. Therefore you shall feel that it is right.
This experience is taken to confirm the divine origins of
the book. We should note, however, several crucial differences between
Hi TEDHS and the Mormon view. ITHS doesn't involve any
flee slaying test, as the Mormon practice does. The internal

(12:24):
witness of the spirit is entirely a divine initiative. ITHS
doesn't involve any inference from a subjective feeling. The Christian's
knowledge that the Bible is God's word may be accompanied
by a kind of cognitive experience, but it isn't based
on a deduction from any such experience. I feel that
the Bible is true, therefore it is true would be

(12:46):
a gross distortion of the Reform view. ITHS doesn't operate
independently of objective evidences for the divine authorship of the Bible. Rather,
it involves a spirit enabled apprehension of those evidences. In contrast,
the Mormon teaching suggests that one can come to know
that some book is from God regardless of whether there

(13:07):
is any publicly examinable evidence. In effect, the burning Bosom
test tries to do an end run around the issue
of objective evidence. A third concern is that IHS would
make apologetics redundant if someone can know that the Bible
is God's word without relying on arguments and evidences. Doesn't
that put Christian apologists out of a job? Not at all.

(13:31):
In the first place, we should distinguish between knowing and showing.
I can know that the Bible is God's word without
arguments and evidences, But if unbelievers ask me why they
should believe that, it won't do to reply simply the
Holy Spirit bears witness in my heart. In order to
show others that it's true, I need to provide them

(13:51):
with reasons to believe it. I need to engage in apologetics,
which the Holy Spirit may be pleased to use to
bring those unbelievers to Christian faith. Moreover, while apologetics may
not be necessary for an initial knowledge of the divine
authorship of Scripture, it may be necessary to nourish and
protect that knowledge. Christians today increasingly are confronted with intellectual

(14:13):
attacks on the Bible, which give rise to doubts. Christian
apologetics is one of the God given means of resolving
those doubts, so there's no necessary conflict between iths and
Christian apologetics. It iss ensures that every Christian can know
the truth about the Bible, while apologetics acquits Christians to

(14:34):
defend and demonstrate that truth.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Thank you for listening to another episode from the Christian
Research Journal Reads podcast, which provides audio articles of Christian
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