Harold Lindsell

Harold Lindsell (December 22, 1913 – January 15, 1998) was an evangelical Christian author and scholar who was one of the founding members of Fuller Theological Seminary. He is best known for his 1976 book The Battle for the Bible.



Quotes

 * ...love is not enough... truth is also important... Good feelings cannot deliver the homosexual from the judgement of God. If he does not repent, he is doomed, but he is not alone. So are all other unrepentant sinners. God is no respecter of persons; He is also no respecter of one's sexual appetites. Hell will be partially populated by 'caring, honest, whole persons' who are proud they are gay.
 * As quoted by Anita Bryant in The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (1977), p. 111

Battle for the Bible (1976)

 * Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House


 * I regard the subject of this book, biblical inerrancy, to be the most important theological topic of this age. A great battle rages about it among people called evangelicals. I did not start the battle and wish it were not essential to discuss it. The only way to avoid it would be to remain silent. And silence on this matter would be a grave sin. I have written this book largely for evangelical lay people in their pews who may not be aware of the central issue that faces them, their denominations, and their institutions. Because of this I have sought to write simply, avoiding technical language wherever possible. The book itself could be expanded almost indefinitely, for there is no end to the available material. The data I have used comprise only a small part of what I have personally collected for ten years.
 * p. 13


 * This is a controversial book. It has to be. But I have tried to represent matters fairly and objectively. It should be understood and reacted to in the light of the facts. We are all responsible for what we say and write. I hope that I have not misquoted or misinterpreted anyone whose words appear in this book. There is a sufficient material available that makes it unnecessary to do this. In my professional life I have been involved in a number of theological controversies regarding the question of miracles. I have repeatedly stated that the supernatural is taught in Scripture. When anti-supernaturalists try to persuade me that I am mistaken I reply that I did not write the Bible. I only try to reflect what the Bible says. No one can make a case against the supernatural from the data of Scripture. The same idea is true with regard to the people I quote in this volume. Anyone who doesn't like what he says should not blame me for surfacing his opinions. I didn't say those things. The people I quote said them. And anything people, including myself, write is subject to those who read what they write.
 * p. 13-14


 * I have tried to tell it as it is. My responsibility ends at that point, except in those places where my own relationships give me the opportunity to carry through on my own commitment to inerrancy. Every reader of this book has a similar responsibility to do his thing in the place or places where he or she has the same opportunity.
 * p. 14


 * The very nature of inspiration renders the Bible infallible, which means that it cannot deceive us. It is inerrant in that it is not false, mistaken, or defective. Inspiration extends to all parts of the written Word of God and it includes the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit even in the selection of the words of Scripture. Moreover, the Bible was written by human and divine agencies; that is, it was the product of God and chosen men. The authors of scripture retained their own styles of writing and the Holy Spirit, operating within this human context, so superintended the writing of the Word of God that the end product was God's. Just as Jesus had a human and a divine nature, one of which was truly human and the other truly divine, so the written word of God is a product that bears the marks of what is truly human and truly divine.
 * p. 31


 * Inspiration involved infallibility from start to finish. God the Holy Spirit by nature cannot lie or be the author of untruth. If the Scripture is inspired at all it must be infallible. If any part of it is not infallible, then that part cannot be inspired. If inspiration allows for the possibility of error then inspiration ceases to be inspiration. Now no one will assert that the human authors of scripture were infallible men. But believers in infallibility do say that fallible men were kept from error by the Holy Spirit.
 * p. 31


 * Although in hundreds of cases criticisms of Scripture have been shown to be unfounded, those who refuse to believe in inerrancy never seem to be satisfied. Why is this so? Does it not constitute a frame of mind that wants to disbelieve? Does it reflect a viewpoint that says in effect, "I will not believe what the Scripture teaches about itself until every objection has been answered to my satisfaction"? Does this not tell us something about the nature of man who, though he may be regenerated, yet retains strong characteristics of the old nature so that unbelief crops up again and again? May not the real difficulty be a want of biblical faith rather than a want of evidence?
 * p. 161


 * A journey of a thousand miles must come to an end. Even the rain water returns to the ocean from which it came. So the hour has come to draw some conclusions and let the reader make his own decision. I have presented an apologetic for biblical inerrancy. It is based on a legitimate concern. Simply stated, the concern is that evangelical Christianity is engaged in the greatest battle in its history. The central issue at stake is epistemological: it has to do with the basis of our religious knowledge. Does that knowledge come from reason, the church, or from the Bible?
 * p. 200


 * I do not doubt that if evangelicals in concert with each other would stand firm and tall for biblical inerrancy and the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, a new day would dawn and the blessing of God would follow. I can foresee, in that event, a new surge of spiritual power, a new advance in the task of evangelizing the world, and the establishment of churches around the world where Christ is honored, the true gospel is preached, and the kingdom of God manifested in holy power before the eyes of unconverted men. May the Lord speed that day!
 * p. 211


 * I do not look for or expect a time in history as we know it when the whole professing church will believe either in inerrancy or the major doctrines of the Christian faith. There will always be wheat and tares growing together until the angels begin their task of reaping the harvest at the end of the age. Truth shall forever be the scaffold, and wrong forever on the throne as long as time shall last. But whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, God calls His people to faithful service based on unsullied adherence to His Word with the firm conviction that not one jot or tittle shall pass away till all has been fulfilled. When Jesus Christ comes, faith shall turn into sight and what we do not know now we shall know then. And when all of the mysteries of Scripture have been unlocked, we shall see what we have always believed- that the written Word of God is free from all error, and all parts of it in some fashion or another bear witness to the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ the righteous Branch, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
 * p. 211

Quotes about Lindsell

 * HAROLD LINDSELL, Ph.D., D.D., has served as vice-president and professor of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and professor at Columbia Bible College in Columbia, S.C., and at Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago. He is the editor of Christianity Today.
 * About the Author, Battle of the Bible (1976) by Harold Lindsell. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House.


 * Dr. Lindsell mentions that acceptance of inerrancy is the watershed of modern theological controversy. He is right in declaring that the attitude we have toward the trustworthiness of Scripture determines our later position, not only on faith, but also on practice. The evidence that those who surrender the doctrine of inerrancy inevitably move away from orthodoxy is indisputable. It is apparent that those who give up an authoritative, dependable, authentic, trustworthy, and infallible Scripture must ultimately yield the right to the use of the name "evangelical." Dr. Lindsell has done the church, and especially the evangelical cause, a great service in writing this book.
 * Harold J. Ockenga, President of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in April 1976, as quoted in the Foreword to The Battle for the Bible by Harold Lindsell. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, p. 12