Some years ago, the Vatican published a 125-page document critical of the literal interpretation of the Scriptures. The document warns that “the fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life.” Tho emphasis of the Vatican statement was that since fallible men wrote the Scriptures, there has to be some discrepancy between what God really said and what was finally written down for our benefit. Of course, the church was happy to supply the “missing link” between what the Scriptures say, and what God must have meant. The document was aimed at fundamentalist groups which have been making headway in converting Catholics throughout Latin America. But everyone—Catholics, fundamentalists, and the rest of us—should be shocked at the arrogance that sets any human authority above the Word of God.

We confess that we believe in the plenary, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, that they are authentic in their material, authoritative in their counsels, without error in the original writings, and the only safe guide of faith and practice. The Scriptures tell us concerning the Old Testament that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21). The New Testament teaches that the apostles spoke words “which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (1 Corinthians 2:13). Thus, God was able to transmit His message reliably in spite of the human element which He chose to employ. Anyway, why should we trust any church official that does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures above the apostles who walked and talked with Jesus, to tell us what God meant?

Because the Bible is the Word of God, we ought to be studying it. Because it is the Word of God, we must be obeying it. If Roman Catholicism is weak on the reliability of the Scriptures fundamentalism is weak on its practice. No amount of posturing, and proselytizing, insisting on the verbal, plenary inspiration of Scripture, is going to save the one who does not himself live it. The new birth, which Christ provided and which fundamentalists preach, is the means by which the Holy Spirit of God comes into one’s life. God’s Spirit in men and women will cause them to live out the Holy Word of God in all of their attitudes and actions. Only the person himself can choose instead to follow the dictates of his own fallen nature, and so fail of the grace of God. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13).

There are indeed “ready answers to the problems of life.” They are to be found in the Scripture. Any faithful church will honor God’s Word, and teach those answers. Furthermore, it will discipline its members to live out those answers to the problems of life before a watching world.

-by Dallas Witmer