THE CENTRALITY OF THE
by S. H. Sutherland President of Biola
WORD OF GOD
T hroughout the entire history of Biola (the name comes from the first letters of “Bible Institute of Los Angeles”), the Word of God has been the foundation of every activity and area of instruction. While the school was incorporated February 25, 1908, its roots go back several years previous to that time when Mr. and Mrs. T. C. Horton organized the Fishermen’s Club for men and the Lyceum Club for women. They made no apology for the fact that their two-fold purpose was to study the Bible and to witness in a conscious and persistent effort to win the lost to Jesus Christ. As in the present hour, so in those days the earnest conviction was that this Book is the only infallible Word of God. The founders of these clubs believed the Scripture that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” We also hold that the writers of both Old and New Testa ments, were so guided by the Holy Spirit that in the original languages, the very words which they put down were directed by the Holy Spirit Himself. From its earliest beginnings, Biola has held to the verbal, plenary in spiration of the Scriptures. We be lieve in verbal inspiration because we believe that the Holy Spirit in spired the very words of the writers; and plenary (which means full or complete), because we believe that the Bible, from Genesis to Revela tion, presents the full and complete story of redemption. We underscore the fact that the Bible in its en tirety is fully inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in the original
languages, it is without error or mis take of any kind. Dr. Frances L. Patten, one-time president of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, gives this helpful definition concern ing plenary inspiration: “The books of the Bible, constituting as they do a unity contributing severally to a single scheme of divine grace, claim ing to be a message to men from God speaking in terms of authority concerning duty and destiny, were composed by men who acted under the influence of the Holy Spirit to such an extent that they were pre served from every error of fact, of doctrine, of judgment, and these so influenced in their choice of language that the words they used were the words of God.” It is recognized that men from time to time make mistakes in the interpretation of some portions of the Word of God, but that has noth ing to do whatever with the fact of its complete and total inspiration. In this sense, Biola is bibliocentric. We trust for our salvation the Christ of the Bible. All that we know about the Saviour is revealed in the Word of God. Any experience we have with the risen Christ as believers must conform to that which is revealed about Him in the Bible. Otherwise we dare not trust our experience. One of the tricks of modernists in the last generation, as well as the liberals of this generation, is piously to sound forth the idea that we should be Christocentric. They de clare that we should trust the Christ of our experience. This is absolutely fatal because anyone’s so-called ex- 5
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