fellowship with fellow believers and even with angels. It will pro vide a new dimension to living that will permit the exploration of a new universe or existence. There is authority over life but within that authority is the most fabulous freedom found anywhere in all human experience. There is a godly balance between authority and freedom. There is the author ity which the Lord Jesus Christ alone authorizes. In that authority comes the freedom of a clear con science, unlimited fellowship and attainment of life's eternal goals. There is undoubtedly an impor tant authority and freedom of life which only the Lord Jesus Christ can provide. In addition, we must realize the added extreme value to the foundational understanding of the Word of God. That the Bible claims to be the authoritative voice of God is undeniable. To remove the assertations of the Scriptures themselves concerning their au thority would be to reduce them to meaningless scrap. We know the Bible is infallible as a result of di vine inspiration. The message of Christ's sover eignty and supremacy cannot be proclaimed apart from the setting in the whole context of the Bible. No wonder we find that the Scrip tures are attacked from various sources. The attack of higher criti cism which began in the middle of the 18th century was a result of so- called German rationalism, French skepticism, and English deism. From this set of naturalistic pre suppositions the subtle but vicious attacks began. Today there is the claim that the old modernism, ra tionalism, or humanism is not as popular or feasible. The new lib
eralism speaks of the message as being all important. As Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones states, "In spite of all the talk about a new situation we are still left with the position that man's knowledge and man's un derstanding are the final arbitors in the last court of appeal." Even more subtle than the neo-ortho- doxy to which I have just referred is another attitude. There are those who hold a changing view toward the authority of the Scripture. Someone has called this theory that of double-revelation. Those who hold to this state that in the area of religion the Bible is authoritative. In matters of science, however, the voice of scientific understanding is authoritative. The practical out working of this position is to reject the idea that the Bible has any thing to say authoritatively about matters of science. When it ap pears to speak on such matters its language must be interpreted to agree with the conclusions of mod ern science. This would be accept able to conservatives if the current conclusions of science were actual final truth. No fact is more firm, however, than the fact that all too many scientific conclusions, given at certain specified periods of time, are really not firm nor realistic. I do not intend to turn my confi dence in the infallibility of the Word of God in its ability to speak intelligently upon any subject with in its contents to some current conclusion of fallible science, how ever persuasively it may be stated at the moment. If we Christians have studied wisely and well, we know about the reasons for having confidence in the Word of God. Think of what the Scriptures claim for themselves.
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