THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY OF A PUBLISHED ARGUMENT

   An anniversary marks the date of a notable event. January 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the initial publication of the basic logical argument for the inspiration and authority of the Bible as set forth by the late Thomas B. Warren. Dr. Warren provides background concerning the development of this argument in the following statements from his book When Is an Example Binding?

I have given many years to the study of the inspiration and authority of the Bible. I have taught this course in the college classroom both on the undergraduate and on the graduate level for a number of years. I have preached on the subject many, many times. I have studied books by the dozens in which men have sought to prove the inspiration and authority of the Bible. Yet I have been keenly disappointed in all of these books in at least one point; namely the fact no basic logical argument was set out to explain why what the men did actually showed that the Bible was the inspired word of God. Spurred by that failure of these various books, I was motivated to give thought to this matter over a period not only of months, but of years. Already, in The Spiritual Sword of January 1970, the Harding Graduate School Lectures of 1971, and in the Gospel Advocate of July 27, 1972, I have set out the basic argument which proves that the Bible is the word of God. The basic argument is set out in a formal logical way—with premises which are true and an argument which is valid. (vii-viii)

   Due to declining health, followed by his death in 2000, Dr. Warren was unable to complete a set of books he had planned on the explication of this argument. His files do contain hand-written notes on various elements such as the All-Sufficiency of the Bible, which he proposed as a title for one of the planned books. Among those notes is a statement about how the Bible “relates to man’s basic needs.” He wrote, “God’s lamp burns abidingly in every age. It is never out of date.”

   I am reminded of a story told by Vance Havner in his book Seasonings. Interestingly, Havner’s book was published 50 years ago—the same year as Warren’s argument for the Bible! Havner tells about an old preacher who, on foot, set out after the evening service to find his way along the edge of a dangerous cliff to the cottage where he was to spend the night. He had no lantern, and flashlights were then unknown. An old farmer, sensing the preacher’s predicament, lighted a bundle of pine branches and handed it to the minister saying, “’Take this, it will light your way home.’ ‘But what if the wind blows it out?’ ‘It will see you home.’ ‘But what if the rain extinguishes it?’ ‘It will see you home.’ ‘But what if it burns out before I get there?’ ‘It will see you home.’ And see him home it did” (cf. Havner 9-10).

   The Psalmist wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Psalms 119:105). Theological smoke-screeners try to hide the great doctrine of the Bible in the clouds and darkness of skepticism, but they cannot successfully invert its torch or quench one ray of its light.

   The Bible may seem old-fashioned to those “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). However, man’s little flashlights fail again and again, and the Bible keeps on glowing. Critics scorn it. Skeptics laugh at it. Change agents dilute it. But it will see us home!

   Thomas B. Warren’s argument for the inspiration and authority of the Bible demanded its conclusion 50 years ago: The Bible is the word of God. Today, the same argument demands the same conclusion. Forever, this argument will demand this conclusion. God’s lamp does burn abidingly! The word of the Lord endures forever (Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:25). The Bible affirms it. Warren’s argument proves it.

Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director