Does EVERY SINGLE SAVED (REGENERATE) PERSON WITHOUT EXCEPTION believe immediately and inevitably upon regeneration, that the entire Bible is the infallible and inerrant Word of God?
Another way to ask this question is: Does every single saved (regenerate) person without exception believe 2 Timothy 3:16-17 immediately and inevitably upon regeneration?
“All Scripture [is] God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of God may be perfected, being fully furnished for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
J. Gresham Machen (the God-hating founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Synagogue of Satan) says in explicit effect, NO they do NOT necessarily believe 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (paragraphing, underlining, and interspersed comments mine).
Machen writes:
“It must be admitted that there are many Christians who do not accept the doctrine of plenary inspiration. That doctrine is denied not only by liberal opponents of Christianity, but also by many true Christian men” (Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism).
According to Machen, it must be admitted that not only do liberal opponents deny 2 Timothy 3:16-17, but “true Christian men” ALSO deny it.
How does Machen know that it is even possible for a true Christian to deny this doctrine? What is Machen’s epistemological source for his brazen assertion? How does Machen know that it is possible for a person regenerated and indwelt by God the Holy Spirit to sit in judgment on the Word of God and to reprove, correct, and to instruct it (2 Timothy 3:16-17)?
“He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).
One does not get to pick and choose what God-breathed words (2 Timothy 3:16) they will reject and which God-breathed words they will “accept” on their own seditious and self-serving terms.
And where do we find the words of Jesus? In just SOME parts, or in ALL parts of the Bible? [1]
[1] Of course, God-breathed words include the accurate and error-free recording of the history of Job’s friends who were told by God that they did not speak rightly or correctly (Job 42:7).
Machen:
“There are many Christian men in the modern Church who find in the origin of Christianity no mere product of evolution but a real entrance of the creative power of God, who depend for their salvation, not at all upon their own efforts to lead the Christ life, but upon the atoning blood of Christ — there are many men in the modern Church who thus accept the central message of the Bible and yet believe that the message has come to us merely on the authority of trustworthy witnesses unaided in their literary work by any supernatural guidance of the Spirit of God” (Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism).
Whatever meaning is nested inside “a real entrance of the creative power of God,” it is NOT that of the “supernatural guidance of the Spirit of God” written in 2 Peter 1:20-21.
Machen has not represented his “true Christian men” as denigrating the God-breathed Scriptures as cunningly devised fables, but “only” as relegating them to a “lower status.” Machen’s “true Christian men” shamelessly deny the VERY SOURCE — and hence, their AUTHORITY — of Scripture (but at least they are “trustworthy witnesses” rather than cunning fashioners of fables, right?)
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received [it] not [as] the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Can Machen’s “true Christian men” (and also Machen himself) express their contempt for God’s Word any more explicitly? This passage says NOT the word of men; but not to be deterred or hindered by this, Machen had said:
“and yet believe that the message has come to us merely on the authority of trustworthy witnesses unaided in their literary work by any supernatural guidance of the Spirit of God” (Machen).
Whether or not these despisers had said that they believed the Bible is the “Word of God” despite their trustworthy witnesses NOT “being borne along” by God the Holy Spirit, is immaterial.
More from Machen:
“There are many who believe that the Bible is right at the central point, in its account of the redeeming work of Christ, and yet believe that it contains many errors. Such men are not really liberals, but Christians; because they have accepted as true the message upon which Christianity depends. A great gulf separates them from those who reject the supernatural act of God with which Christianity stands or falls” (Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism).
And what does the message or account of the redeeming work of Christ depend upon, Machen? The redeeming work of Christ is rooted and grounded in the truth that all of the Bible
“is given by inspiration [Greek: θεόπνευστος] of God and is thus without error. It is the very Word of God. It does not merely contain the Word of God, as if it contained the erroneous words of men mingled with the perfect words of God. The doctrine of inspiration is the first principle from which all biblical doctrines are derived. Its truth is revealed to man by God.” [2 Samuel 7:28; 23:2; Psalm 12:6; 25:5; 111:7-8; 119:43,89; 138:2; Daniel 10:21; John 17:17; Acts 3:18; 1 Corinthians 2:4,12-16; 2 Timothy 2:15;3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 3:15]
Without this first principle of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Theopneustos (θεόπνευστος), the essential gospel doctrines crumble.
“And ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not…I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that [cometh] from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is [one] that accuseth you, [even] Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” (John 5:38, 43-47)
Christ sets forth an eternally-weighty principle. A person cannot accept or reject the God-breathed writings as it suits them. In fact, Christ’s rhetorical questions necessarily imply that if a person does not believe one part, they CANNOT believe the other part.
This Scripture condemns Machen’s “true Christian men” as unbelievers who seek not the honor that comes from God only. Machen (essentially) had alleged that these despisers of God’s word depend on Christ alone for salvation; but it is a Christ of their own vain imaginings.
If they do not believe all of the Writings, then they cannot believe any of the Writings. Jesus Christ implies that this is not possible (e.g., “how can you believe?”). If the God-breathed word is not to be trusted in the alleged “many errors,” then on what basis can it be trusted anywhere else? Here the criterion or standard for judging what is truth and what is falsehood is NOT God’s word, but the antichristian and autonomous SELF.
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them” (Isaiah 8:19-20).
Gresham Machen and his “true Christian men” do not speak according to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and John 5:43-47 because they do not believe the Bible; they are unregenerate. Those “finding many errors” in Scripture and denying that God the Holy Spirit carried holy men along (2 Peter 1:21) seek unto those who peep and mutter their mutiny against the God-breathed word.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed [them] unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:9-16).
The triune God of Scripture’s regenerate people have received His Spirit, which (among other things) results in their being taught by Him to compare spiritual things with spiritual. What does comparing spiritual things with spiritual things involve? It involves spiritual discernment and judgment. He that is spiritual (i.e., he that is regenerate) discerns and judgeth all things by the previously mentioned comparing “spiritual with spiritual.”
The “spiritual with spiritual” is the mind of the Lord; the mind of Christ. The reason that the regenerate person “is judged of no man” is because he has the mind of the Lord Christ, and thus to judge and instruct the regenerate person is akin to instructing Him. The clearly obvious context is that the regenerate person’s words agree with Christ’s, otherwise how could the reason for being “judged of no man” be: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?”?
Those without the Spirit of God (those who are unregenerate) do not rightly judge, discern, or compare the spiritual with spiritual. Their standard is not the spiritual God-breathed word, and thus they seek to instruct His mind revealed in the Scriptures concerning its alleged “errors” in matters of relatively less moment than whatever they consider to be the “central point.”
The “central point” is that of the God-breathed (Theopneustos) Scriptures and holy men speaking by God’s Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Other passages quoted here detail some of the necessary implications of truly believing and trembling at the word of God, as opposed to trifling with it.
“Thus saith the LORD, The heaven [is] My throne, and the earth [is] My footstool: where [is] the house that ye build unto Me? and where [is] the place of My rest? For all those [things] hath Mine hand made, and all those [things] have been, saith the LORD: but to this [man] will I look, [even] to [him that is] poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word” (Isaiah 66:1-2).
Agrammatos 