Jerry C. Brewer
We certainly do not question that God works through His all-sufficient Word. We do question whether God meant the Word to do all that He intends to do. We also question the assertion whether the only means God can act today is through the Word (Phil Sanders, “The Holy Spirit,” Nashville School of Preaching and Biblical Studies, Winter 2005, p. 50).
Like everyone who holds and promotes false doctrine, Phil Sanders, the speaker on In Search of The Lord’s Way, contradicts not only God’s word, but his own peculiar doctrine as well. In the above quote, Sanders refers to the word of God as, “all-sufficient” and then denies its all-sufficiency. He further wrote,
The Word of God is final and all-sufficient as delivered to the apostles in the first century (John 16:12-13; Jude 3; Eph. 4:4-6; 2 John 9-11; Gal. 1:6-9). To ignore, change, or substitute other things for God’s Word is sinful and leads to division and condemnation. By all-sufficient, we mean that the word of God contains all the instruction that is necessary for eternal life and for godliness (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:3) (Ibid, p. 45).
He questions, “whether God meant the word to do all that He intends to do,” while calling God’s word, “all-sufficient.” He further says the word of God, “contains all the instruction that is necessary for eternal life and godliness.” Our question to Sanders is, “What does God intend to do today, either in salvation or sanctification, that He does not do through his “all-sufficient word?”
He questions, “whether the only means God can act today is through His word.” The answer is that is the only way God can do so because God cannot act in a way that is contrary to His nature. God created man as a creature of free will, endowed to a finite degree with attributes of God (made in God’s image) and God cannot violate that free will.
Were God to deal with man in any other fashion, man would be a robot, rather than a creature after God’s likeness. God endowed man with intellect and the ability to reason. That is why He says, “come now, and let us reason together…” (Isa. 1:18). The simple fact is that God has spoken through His Son (Heb. 1:1-2) and expects man to hear and obey that teaching. Everything God intends to do to save man is revealed in the word of God, which is “all-sufficient” according to Sanders.
It is contradictory to claim the word of God is “all-sufficient…for eternal life and godliness” and then “question whether God meant the word to do all that He intends to do,” as Sanders says. That is one more reason we do not recommend or promote In Search of The Lord’s Way.
