In delivering the second installment of his “Truths Worth Contending For” series, President Jason Allen opened Midwestern Seminary’s spring semester with an Academic Convocation message addressing the sufficiency of Scripture. The service took place in the Daniel Lee Chapel on Jan. 21.
Additionally, newly-elected seminary faculty member, Jason DeRouchie, signed the institution’s Articles of Faith during the service.
Allen’s first message of the 10-part “Truths Worth Contending For” series took place during the school’s December graduation service on Dec. 6, 2019, and focused on the inerrancy of God’s Word.
Now, in the series’ second message, Allen argued that believers should contend for the sufficiency of Scripture. Through an exposition of 2 Timothy 3:15-17, he fleshed out why sufficiency matters and outlined 10 application points about how Scripture is sufficient for believers.
Allen explained that if denying biblical inerrancy takes something out of students that nothing else can replace, then to deny sufficiency fails to put something in them. Denying inerrancy removes one’s confidence in the Bible, he added. Underemphasizing sufficiency fails to provide a fuller, more robust, more perennial confidence in the Bible.
One way that Satan can damage the church, Allen continued, is not necessarily by attacking the inerrancy of Scripture, rather it would be through the undermining of the sufficiency of Scripture.
“A subtle undermining of sufficiency questions the relevance of Scripture, the completeness of Scripture, the adequacy of Scripture, the power of Scripture,” Allen said. “This could wreak similar havoc and, indeed, does do similar damage in the body of Christ.”
Allen defined “sufficiency” from 2 Timothy 3:17 saying “that the Word of God, the inspired, inerrant Word of God is given to us, and with it the man of God, the woman of God, is adequate, equipped for every good work.”
The reason it matters to believers, Allen concluded, is that the Scriptures convey all truths necessary for Christian living and Christian ministry. Because it is inerrant—God’s Word is profitable to us for teaching Christian doctrine, the truth of Scripture, how to live the Christian life, and what Christians are to believe. This is all wrapped up with a promise in verse 17, that believers are “equipped to do every good work” as a result of Scripture’s sufficiency.
“You see, brothers and sisters, an errant Bible is an insufficient one,” Allen said. “A Bible that is not without error is a Bible that is not sufficient for Christian ministry.”
In this passage, Paul is telling Timothy that regardless of the difficult circumstances he’s facing, Scripture is enough. Allen said the same is true for modern-day believers.
“For us in this ministry moment and for every generation of Christian ministers, is it not good and fitting and right to, again and again, reassert and re-prioritize the sufficiency of Scripture? Our churches may need much, but what they need most of all is the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Our children may need much, but what they need most of all is the teaching of God’s Word. Our communities may need much, but what they need most of all is the preaching of God’s Word.”
Prior to Allen’s message, DeRouchie signed the institution’s Articles of Faith, which consists of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and the Nashville Statement on biblical sexuality.
DeRouchie, who serves as research professor of Old Testament and biblical theology, was elected by the Board of Trustees in October 2019. As such, by signing the book, he promised to uphold Midwestern Seminary’s Articles of Faith.
To view Allen’s message in full, visit https://www.mbts.edu/2020/01/2020-spring-convocation-with-dr-jason-allen/.
