Dr. John Bergsma

And then the book of Acts, as well as the post-apostolic writings, show that the apostles shared that authority with successors after them, men that they appointed that they called episkopoi and presbuteroi, priests and bishops, okay?

So, those guys are still around today.

So, my first act of faith is on Christ based on the historical evidence.

And then Christ establishes the church.

And so, derivatively, I believe in the authority of the church.

And the church hands me these scriptures and tells me that these scriptures are the word of God.

ultimately there's no way that I would have of like philosophically or scientifically verifying that this is the word of God, nor does my experience even, because some of these books really move me and some of them don't.

Leviticus leaves me cold in parts of it, but the gospel of John screams inspiration all over, but it's not up to me to decide what's inspired or what's not.

The church gives this to me and tells me that these books from Genesis to Revelation are the inspired word of God.

And based on my faith in Christ and then my faith in church derivative from Christ, I now have a faith in scriptures derivative of my faith in the church.

Yeah.

And I wonder if it's something like this.

And that's why St.

Paul says the church is the pillar and the bulwark of the truth because the church gives us this book and says, this is the word of God.

Yeah.

And that's true of all of us, Catholic or Protestant, because some representative of the church at some point gave us this book and said it was God's word.

And we made an act of faith.

It might've been our mother, might've been our father.

It might've been a friend.

Somebody handed us a Bible and said, this is the word of God as a representative of the church.