Or, why we need good Biblical scholarship.
Students of the Bible have nothing to fear from scholarship pursued in the light of and in submission to the Bible’s claims. Scholars who begin their work with the conviction that Scripture is God’s Word, and who then seek the mind of Christ and the Spirit in their research can bless even lay readers of Scripture with the fruit of their study.
In his article, “The Place of the Book of Acts in Reading the NT,” Gregory Goswell renders a double service for students of the Word (JETS, March 2016). First, he shows how the book of Acts serves to bring coherence to the rest of the New Testament, by carrying the work of Jesus, begun in in the gospels, forward through the Spirit into the next generations. Acts makes a powerful statement in support of the teaching of Jesus and the promises concerning His Kingdom.
Acts also serves to help us understand the rest of the New Testament by providing background for the work of Peter, Paul, and other apostles. Acts helps in keeping the themes and readers of the New Testament epistles in the larger framework of the one Body of Christ. It therefore serves to promote the unity of the Church, the consistency and complementarity of apostolic teaching, and the forward progress of the Gospel and the Kingdom throughout the Roman world.
Second, by studying the canonical arrangements of Acts in lists from church fathers of the second and third century, Mr. Goswell demonstrates the value of looking to our forebears for understanding into such masters. He finds that church fathers’ views of Acts are in line with his own thinking, thus demonstrating the value of the analogy of faith in guiding us to right understanding of God’s Word.
Vigorous, careful, scholarly study of Scripture does not automatically lead to liberalism. Submitting to God’s Word as such, following the internal evidence of divine inspiration and oversight in the composition of Scripture, and touching base with faithful forebears in the faith can lead to understandings of Scripture that build confidence in Scripture's uniqueness and clarify its role – both in parts and the whole – in Christ’s ongoing work today.
T. M. Moore