A
Baptist Page Article
Baptists and the Bible
John
Murton
- leader of one of the first Baptist churches of England
"The
rule of faith is the doctrine of the Holy Ghost contained in the sacred
Scriptures, and not any church, council, prince, or potentate, nor any
mortal man whatsoever."
Benjamin
Keach - Early Baptist dissenter in England circa 1640.
"The
Bible evidences itself to be God’s Word by the heavenliness of
its doctrines, the unity of its parts, its power to convert sinners
and edify saints; but the Spirit of God only, bearing witness by and
with the Scriptures in our hearts is able to persuade us that the Bible
is the Word of God." (Keach’s Catechism, Question
5)
John
Gill - famous Baptist pastor in London and author of The
Body of Divinity.
"Let
us therefore bless God that we have a better rule and guide to go by;
‘a more sure word of prophecy to take heed unto.’ Let us have
constant recourse unto it, as the standard of faith and practice."
(Body of Divinity, p. 25)
Andrew
Fuller - Baptist pastor, author of The Gospel Worthy of
All Acceptation, and close friend of William Carrey.
"If
the Scriptures profess to be Divinely inspired, we must receive them
as such, of if we would be consistent, disown the writers as impostors
… As the sacred writers considered themselves as Divinely inspired,
so they represented their … writings as the infallible test of
Divine truth." (Works, Vol. 2, p. 196)
Adonirum
Judson - Baptist missionary to Burma (circa 1800’s)
"The
Word of God is the golden lamp hung out of heaven, to enlighten the
nations that sit in darkness … The Bible, in the original tongues,
comprises all the revelation now extant which God has given to this
world … This perfect book is the sacred deposit in the hands of
the church … Woe be to him that attempts to obscure the light of
the lamp of heaven."
Francis
Wayland - President of Brown University (circa 1850’s)
Preaching
"proceeds upon the supposition that the Bible is the Word of the
living God … This is the truth which the minister of the Gospel
is sent forth to utter. This is the beginning, the middle, and the end
of his teaching."
J.L.
Dagg - One of the first writing
Southern Baptists.
"God
Himself is the author of the Bible. When we read its sacred pages, we
should realize that God speaks to us, and when we suffer it to lie neglected,
we should remember that we are refusing to listen to God." (Origin
and Authority of the Bible, p. 28)
Basil
Manly Jr. - one of the four original professors of Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary and the first president of the Southern Baptist
Sunday School Board.
"The
doctrine which we hold is commonly styled Plenary Inspiration or Full
Inspiration. It is that the Bible as a whole is the Word of God, so
that in every part of Scripture there is both infallible truth and Divine
authority." (The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration, pp. 59-60).
Charles
Spurgeon - The Prince of Preachers
"We
who believe the Holy Scripture to be the inspired truth of God cannot
have fellowship with those who deny the authority from which we derive
all our teaching …" (Sword and Trowel, Nov 1887, p.559)
B.H.
Carroll - Founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary.
"It
has always been a matter of profound surprise that anybody should ever
question the verbal inspiration of the Bible of the Bible … When
you hear the silly talk that the Bible ‘contains’ the Word
of God and is not the Word of God you hear a fool’s talk. I don’t
care if he is a Doctor of Divinity, a President of a University covered
with medals from universities of Europe and the US, it is fool’s
talk." (Inspiration of the Bible, p. 20).
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