The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Article to help a friend

1. His presupposition that the Bible is not the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God is self-defeating. There is no way to verify the truthfulness of anything found in the Bible if it is just some book allegedly written by various authors over a period of 2000 years. Thus, for him to pick and choose anything out of the Bible and believe it as true is hypocritical and to be honest, rather silly. And, how would he know anything was corrupted by the RCC without having something to compare the Bible to which hasn't been corrupted?

2. His view might be classified as a sort of Gnosticism and even partially Mysticism, for he has transcended the "normal" method of attaining knowledge, through the teaching of others and reading Scripture to having a direct communication of God and constant divine revelation.

3. John Owen deals with this subject in his article Spiritual Illumination Proved From Scripture. It might appear at first that Owen is either going to provide fodder for your friend's position or that it doesn't deal with it at all, but I assure you that Owen deals with your friend's claims directly and as one might expect, his argument is thorough, succinct, and incontrovertible. I'm assuming, of course, that you are either unaware of this article or if you are, you haven't read it. IF, however, you have read through it I would be interested to know your thoughts concerning how Owen treated the subject and what, if anything, you found salient to dealing with this non-Christian man.