What sits on your Bible?

"It all comes down to authority, doesn't it?" Stretching out his hand across the coffee shop table and resting it atop the Bible in front of him, a recent college graduate confessed to pastor Todd Pruitt that he had lost the faith he once professed as a freshman. With heartbreak over those words, Todd, the pastor of Church of the Saviour in Wayne, PA, and host of the event, opened last night's beginning of Westminster's "Full Confidence" weekend conference on Scripture.

Dr. David Garner then powerfully exhorted the church to God-honoring vigilance for the authority and reliability of Scripture's own self-witness and rocked the room with admonitions against failing to do so.  "Passivity turns error into evil." "Rest reaps rot." Pastors are duty-bound, he said, to proclaim the authority, sufficiency, and clarity of God's word rather that "doggedly hold forth with milquetoast and muffins". The "serpentine question" of Genesis 3 is alive in our day and many have already been "snake-bitten" by the "slithering lie" that the Bible lacks relevance. He closed with an almost prophetic announcement that God and His Word would openly triumph on the last day.

Dr. Carl Trueman came through with the second connecting punch of the night, unfolding with his trademark clarity and humor the Early Church Fathers' seed-bed convictions concerning Scripture. Graciously donning (and doing battle with) a "Brittany Spears" earpiece microphone, he drove home the early church's views on the inscripturation, inspiration, and authority of Scripture. He added a few gems of his own as well, but seasoned readers of Ref21 may sympathize as to why I omit them from my first post. 

"It all comes down to authority, doesn't it?" By the Authority who came down for us, and by His Spirit, we can and should repose our full confidence in our Bibles as, indeed, bearing ultimate authority.