IMPOSTERS

Now, let’s look at how the nature of God effects the claims of what I believe are the only two major written works – other than our Bible – that have adherents who believe these works are in some sense "inspired."

We are talking about Mormonism and the Book of Mormon, and Islam and the Koran. Both of these works are given as true and historical. Both have much criticism with which to deal and with which we have no intention of examining today.

But, both works claim to be in harmony with the Bible, so both begin by making a claim to a "final" place in the history of revelation. This means they claim that the final truth in history is in them or will come through them.

Islam declares a great prophet yet to come, a king or warrior king known as an "emahdi." Mormonism teaches that continuing revelation comes through the twelve apostles who, at any given time, rule the Mormon church. So, the finality of revelation (in both instances) is denied. Instead of final truth resting in the enscripturated Word of God, it rests in the hands of MEN! This is truly a monumental, dramatic alteration in the faith – this is a total shift in the source of authority. In the place of the infallible work, we now have the binding authority of a group of men. "New revelations" supplant the Biblical one. Imagine, beloved, coming to church one fine Sunday morning and discovering that your Pastor, or Session, or Presbytery, or General Assembly, or Whatever – has decreed a New Revelation. It makes no difference at all how ridiculous or sublime the revelation may be, THIS IS HORRIFYING. And yet, millions of people all over the world are in exactly this situation every day of their lives. Suddenly, the idea of committing ourselves to the authority of the Bible is not merely rational – but essential. The Word of God is the final revelation because it was authored by the God of the Word – and reveals the consummation of the ages.

A Biblically orthodox theology, which we must all pursue, says the Bible is "verbally inspired," meaning that every single word is God-breathed; it says that the inspiration of the Bible is "plenary," meaning that the sum total of the Scriptures is God-breathed – there is no Book of the Bible that shouldn’t be there, there are no portions of Scripture which are not God-breathed. This means that God, who cannot lie, who IS truth, has spoken to us "Covenantally." We can depend on Him to keep His Word to us, because He is the God who keeps His Word – He cannot lie. So when God covenants with Abraham and says in Genesis 12:1-3



1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

2 "I will make you into a great nation

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you."

… we can depend on His Covenant Word to be true.

C. Van Til, a modern theologian to whom we owe a great debt, puts it this way:

"… we may thus call this view of God and His relation to the world the covenantal view. As such it is exhaustively personal. There is no area in which man can find himself confronted with impersonal fact or law. All so-called impersonal laws and all so-called uninterpreted facts are what they are because they are expressive of the revelation of God’s will and purpose." (The Doctrine of Scripture, 1967, p. 37)

What Van Til is saying here is that in all of Creation there is no such thing as "nuetral" facts or events. Everything exists as an expression of what and who God is, and that He covenantally (He cannot lie, and He is truth) relates to all Creation, including you and me.