Standing on the Rock - Biblical Authority in a Secular Age

Standing on the Rock:
Biblical authority in a secular age
By James Montgomery Boice
Hodder & Stoughton. 199 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 340 67142 4

Most of this book was first published under the same title in 1984, when Dr. Boice was deeply involved in the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. It consists of popular lectures given across the States.
It was republished in 1994 - slightly revised and with the significant addition of a chapter on the sufficiency of Scripture (the sermon preached by Boice on his 25th anniversary as Senior Pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia). In the se intervening ten years, he had become alarmed that, though the inerrancy of the Bible might be accepted, its authority was often avoided by evangelicals who failed to accept its sufficiency, and were increasingly adding other direct words from God alongside and even contradictory to Scripture. A British edition has now been published.
Boice begins with evidence that the Bible is the Word of God - plain arguments, very helpful for seekers or new believers. A later chapter gives excellent answers to the supposed internal inconsistencies and the alleged scientific, moral and historical problems that are raised in criticism of the Bible. There is a superb chapter classifying some simple rules on how to interpret Scripture. The writer offers ten principles: four based on the fact that God is its author, another four based on the fact that the Bible is also written by human authors, one on the fact that it was given for a spiritual purpose and one on the need of the help of the Spirit.
All straightforward, wholesome stuff that all along affirms faith in the Bible as God's Word written.

Andrew Anderson

© Evangelicals Now - May 1997
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Main Articles

• The mountain of the wall - the battle for Jerusalem
  The building of Israeli settlements around Jerusalem and Bethlehem and violations of the Oslo Agreement
• What price solitude?
  A pilgrimage to the home of Derek and Jeannie Tangye
• I remember, I remember
  Leith Samuel recalls his younger days and the conversion of some family members
• Inerrancy: summing up the debate
  Views about the inerrancy of Scripture and the importance to the individual, the church, evangelism and defence of the faith
• Let me explain
  Dr John MacArthur clarifies statements concerning the eternal sonship of Christ in his commentary on Hebrews
• How to tackle AIDS - Part 1
  Comments on methods of persuasion (moral and religious) in AIDS prevention programmes
• Why be open to the Holy Spirit? (Bulldog for May)
  Being open to and recognising the operation of the Holy Spirit in church and personal life

Other articles

• The English Patient
• Standing on the Rock - Biblical Authority in a Secular Age
• Jobs and Justice, Homes and Hope
• Comfort in Sorrow
• What Paul Really Said
• Patience of Hope
• New Bible Dictionary (Third Edition)
• The Friendship of the Lord
• Encounters with God
• Following the Shepherd
• Testing the Fire
• Learning to Forgive
• A Book for Family Worship