The Doctrine of the Word of God

A Theology of Lordship

by John M. Frame

'The Word of God' is a multi-faceted concept. God speaks but Word is one of Jesus's names. God's personal communications take other forms, through prophets, apostles, and the written Word. Frame investigates them all. --from publisher description

Genres: Theology, Christian, Religion, Christianity, Reference, Scripture, Nonfiction

684 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

For his education, Frame received degrees from Princeton University (A.B.), Westminster Theological Seminary (B.D.), Yale University (A.M. and M.Phil., though he was working on a doctorate and admits his own failure to complete his dissertation), and Belhaven College (D.D.). He has served on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary and was a founding faculty member of their California campus. He currently (as of 2022) teaches Apologetics and The History of Philosophy and Christian thought at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Frame's "Doctrine of the Word of God" is a fitting conclusion to his Lordship series. The book is large, but half of it is appendices which supplement arguments in the book. Frame is an approachable writer for the layman, and this book is no exception to that.

The book is well organized, well argued, and irenic. Frame is not ashamed to be viewed as an orthodox Christian, nor is he unduly impressed by liberal, heterodox critics. He understands their arguments, is able to explain them well, and yet holds unashamedly to orthodoxy. This is probably the one thing I admire most about Frame. He is a courageous theologian, willing to stand firm in the face of sophisticated unbelief.

Frame is consistently presuppositional in his approach and so is not swayed by arguments against inerrancy and infallibility. He in fact embraces both terms. This is one of the greatest strengths in the book, is his response to critics of both ideas.

As expected, Frame emphasizes Christ's Lordship throughout the volume as well. This presupposition comes from Scripture, but is foundational to his approach to the whole of it.

I've benefitted tremendously from Frame's writings and commend this volume, as well as the previous three volumes in the series.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fitting end to a fine series. This isn't Frame's best work ever (that would either be DG or DCL) but it is good and there are legitimate reasons for this volume's limitations. Frame wanted to get his book on Scripture out, but he also suspected he might die beforehand. So he gave a shorter version of it. The first 330 pages deal with a perspectival doctrine of Scripture. The last three hundred are book reviews.

Scripture is an organic revelation, but Frame doesn’t mean by organic what 19th century pantheists supposedly meant. For Frame, “Revelations in Scripture, world, and self presuppose and supplement one another; one cannot understand one of them without reference to the others” (Frame 350).

Frame’s book isn’t just another book on Scripture and how it is inerrant or from God or something. Rather, it calls forth our obedience, and this ties with the above thesis: “Every obedient response to Scripture involves knowledge of creation and self” (364). For example, whenever I reason about or from Scripture, that presupposes I know what logic is and how to use it.

The Personal-Word Model

“The main contention of this volume is that God’s speech to man is real speech” (3). Authority: the capacity to create an obligation in the hearer (5).

Covenant and Canon

God’s relation to us is always covenantal, so we should expect a written, covenant document (108). A canon naturally arises because we need to record God’s spoken words to us, and our God is a God who speaks.

Frame builds upon Meredith Kline’s 4 or 5 Point Covenant Model to show the unity of Scripture (148ff):

(1) Revelation of the Name of God
(2) Revelation of God’s mighty acts in history
(3) Revelation of God’s Law
(4) Revelation of God’s continuing presence to bless and curse
(5) Revelation of God’s institutional provisions.

Covenantal revelation is both personal and propositional (153). God reveals his Name, but he does so in propositions (and sentences and declarations).

Our relationship with God is covenantal, and in covenants God speaks to his people (212).

Some of the chapters were quite short and I wish Frame extended his analysis. However, the book reviews show remarkable analysis and depth. See especially his reviews of Enns and Wright.

[C.J. Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew! Just went through this one pretty intensely for a paper, and I'm serious when I say there's gotta be nothing better on this subject in modern scholarship (save Warfield's maybe, if you'd put them in the same timeframes, even).

I'll definitely be coming back to this one again and again.

[Kevin Fulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fitting conclusion to this series of books. Frame built his theology around the Bible and rightly condemns “autonomous” thinking.

I find his thoughts around “circularity” to be fascinating and important. Essentially, all systems of logic/beliefs rest on empirically unprovable presuppositions. Ultimately, they can only be proven with an appeal to themselves/their own system, making them circular. This circularity isn’t necessarily bad, it doesn’t necessarily mean the logic/belief is wrong. This circularity is a logical necessity. And I find that fascinating to think about.

[Alan Rennê · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bom livro! Frame possui excelentes insights sobre a revelação divina, desde o momento em que, como ele diz, ela se origina no coração de Deus e, através de todo um processo desencadeado pelo próprio Senhor, a revelação encontra seu repouso final no coração daquele que responde em fé. O senão fica por conta da visão de Frame em relação à confessionalidade. Mas, no geral, é um bom livro. Recomendo.

[Daniel Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My thesis is that God's word, in all its qualities and aspects, is a personal communication from him to us." So begins John Frame in his book about the doctrine of the Word of God. Further, he argues "that Scripture, together with all of God's other communications to us, should be treated as nothing less than God's personal word." And he is trying, "above all else, to be ruthlessly consistent with Scripture's own view of itself." He is "defending the Bible by the Bible." That sounds (and is) circular, but "unavoidable when one seeks to defend an ultimate standard of truth, for one's defense must itsel be accountable to that standard." He absolutely brings extrabiblical considerations to bear, but he places them under the Bible in terms of authority. We all have something we treat as the ultimate authority in our lives—be it autonomous reason, personal feeling, or something other—and for Frame, that ultimate authority is the Bible.

This work has four parts:
- Orientation
The Personal-Word model (thesis introduced above) and the authority of Scripture
- God's Word in Modern Theology
Modern view of revelation, including how reason, history, and human subjectivity relate to it
- The Nature of God's Word
Defining God's Word and considering it as His controlling power, meaningful authority, and personal presence
- How the Word Comes to Us
The bulk of the volume, looking at many topics, including God's revelation (through events, words, and people), God's Written Word (Old and New Testaments, and the views of Jesus and the Apostles towards them), the canon of Scripture, characteristics of Scripture (including inspiration, content, inerrancy, clarity, necessity, comprehensiveness, sufficiency, transmission, translations, teaching, interpretation, and more), problems, assurance, and other topics.

The above is the first half (334 pages) of the book; Frame then includes ~300 pages of Appendicies (A through Q!) covering related material (often, other articles he has written on this topic from different perspectives).

What a read. Amazing! I read at least 300 pages of this all told, and want to read more. It is magisterial and impressive. Frame has such a way with words: he can clearly and succinctly convey profound concepts like few others I've read. And his devotion to using Scripture was a refreshing change from some theological works that spend more time comparing and criticizing views of other theologians than looking at the Bible itself. This one is highly recommended.

[Cliff Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for the person looking for an intensely biblical view on the Bible itself.

Frame contributes in some new and developmental concepts: the Personal-Word Model, emphasis on divine lordship, triperspectival distinctions on human knowledge, delineating the process of God's word from his mouth to human hearts, and new understandings of general, special, and existential revelation.

[Nate Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, Bible-filled, and profound.

[Oliver Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Believe it or not up to this point I had not read much John Frame. But this book was highly rated and in my library unread so I finally dug into it. I now understand why he is often referenced. While I don't agree with him on everything, I really appreciate his down to earth style. His brand of "something close to Biblicism" is really compelling when it is applied to doctrine of Scripture. Also appreciated the tri-perspectival approach to Scripture. Definitely will be referencing this in the future!

[Joshua Schwisow · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on the doctrine of Scripture I have read. Frame is biblical, thoughtful, deep yet simple in communication, and humble.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Final addition to Frame's Lordship series. A seminal book in the area of Scripture. Defends a classically Protestant/Reformed understanding of Scripture with fresh reflections and insights on current developments. From within the reformed traditions, Frame challenges many assumptions and unbalances of some "strict" confessionalists in the reformed tradition. It will be helpful to have already read Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, since Frame lays out his tri-perspectivalism there (normative, situational, & existential/control, authority, & presence) and assumes a good bit of knowledge of it. Frame is self-referential throughout (pun intended).

A wonderful book to plod through slowly. The chapters are short (4-8 pages each), so you can pace yourself and take in Frames points in small chunks. I read the book by reading 1-2 chapters a day and got through it in 45 days.

It's difficult to tell how influential the book with be, but it's hard to imagine it not being one of the most important and comprehensive defenses of a protestant/reformed doctrine of Scripture in print. It's a nice addition to his Doctrine of the Knowledge of God and Doctrine of God and the Lordship project as a whole.

[Mark A Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here we have a very well-reasoned and well-defended approach to the infallible authority of God’s Word. Frame’s emphasis on the Word has underscored his entire Theology of Lordship series, thus it is fitting to conclude with a renewed focus on the biblical text. Too many appendices (17!) border on tedious, the ideas found there already stated more clearly in the text itself. Nevertheless, this book is worth the effort to read carefully and thoughtfully. Strongly recommended.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

My third volume of John Frame's Theology of Lordship series, and in my opinion the best yet. This work is faithful, orthodox, yet creative in the best sense of the term: thinking deeply and biblically about new applications and implications of the doctrine of Scripture to our lives, while simultaneously defending that doctrine from modern corruptions.

[Lucas Bradburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Frame's methodological approach of allowing the Word of God to shape our understanding of the Word of God is worth the price of the book. Two thumbs up!

[Josh Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!

[Ben Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real delight, and classic John Frame -- clear, lucid, firm, readable, thoughtful.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the final volume in John Frame’s “A Theology of Lordship” series. I recommend all four volumes. In this volume theologian John Frame focus on a theology of the Bible. Readers who are familiar with his other works would appreciate the same rigor and clarity in the way Frame argues that is both sound and creative. Frame is truly one of the most sophisticated and philosophical defender of the classical Protestant Conservative view of the Bible.
The main section of the book is divided into four parts which contain several chapters in each parts. Part one lays the foundation down with a chapter on the Personal-Word Model and another chapter on the Lordship of God and the Word of God. Part two looks at God’s Word in modern theology specifically with the Bible being God’s revelation. Part three examines the nature of God’s Word by asking what is the Word of God and then using Frame’s Tri-perspectivalism explores God’s Word with the triade of control, authority and presence. The bulk of the main section of the book is found in part four in which John Frame looks at the topic of how God’s Word comes to us. Here John Frame talks about things that typically most books on systematic theology rarely talks about when they present a bibliology: Frame discusses about the media of God’s Word, the “phenomena” of Scripture, translations and editions of the ible and textual criticism. I think this is a big plus for this work if you are looking for a work that is a systematic theological presentation on the Word of God while interacting with these important topics.
Like other works in this series John Frame has an appendix section that feature multiple appendixes in which some are rather lengthy. I have always found John Frame’s appendixes as theological gold. These appendixes provide clarifications, reviews of books, etc. However unlike the other three volume half of The Doctrine of the Word of God are appendixes (about 350 pages with the main section of the book and another 350 pages or so of appendixes). One might even say that really there are two books: One being The Doctrine of the Word of God and the second being a collection of Frame’s shorter writings on the Word of God. After I finished the book I realized that I had a better time remembering the appendixes more than I did the main chapters in the book. In particular I enjoyed appendix D in which Frame critiques Dooyeweerd’s movement concerning their view of the Word of God, appendix J in which Frame critiques Peter Enns and also appendix O concerning Frame’s defense of something close to Biblicalism. For those who have previously read other works by Frame would immediately realize that this book has far less footnotes than previous works by John Frame. The reason for this is because John Frame has already explain so much of his methodology in other books and here Frame wants to write freely his thoughts.
Overall a good book and I recommend it for others. I would also suggest that readers read this book slowly over time. I typically read about 5-10 pages a day.

[Caleb Burkhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frame is always somewhat of a mixed bag for me. His strengths are clear, lucid, and tight prose that is easily read and digested. He has thought through his subject matter and has even offered interesting proposals for how to think systematically (mainly his tri-perspectivalism of normative, situational, and existential perspectives). At his best, Frame is a great example of a normative theologian, thoroughly biblical with the endeavor to add something new to the discussion. Furthermore, this book has very short chapters, which though at times frustrating, allows readers to feel as if they are easily making their way through the book.

However, there are areas where Frame makes a claim that is either wrong or unhelpful, and then does not elaborate. For example, in ch. 32, the Sufficiency of Scripture, Frame states that "The Reformers did not dismiss all church tradition in theology and worship, but the main thrust of their work was antitraditional, as was Jesus' stance against the Pharisees" (236–237). Statements such as this could not stand up against contrary evidence, but Frame goes on without acknowledging counter-arguments. Though it is not his purpose to present a thorough historical treatment on the doctrine of Scripture, there are many instances such as the one above that keep this book from being as good as it could be. Frame has stood corrected more than once in his career, but he continues to make the same blunders over and over.

For an introductory book on the doctrine of Scripture, Frame's the Doctrine of the Word of God is a helpful contribution. His engagement with modern liberal theology (and some of the neo-orthodox) is particularly useful for those who may be swayed by such arguments. His tri-perspectival approach, though sometimes over-stretched, allows for a new way of understanding and applying the doctrine of Scripture.

[Christopher Faria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frame introduces a bit of different thinking concerning the accepted division between general and special revelation. Rather than taking a standard approach like most systemics, Frame sticks to his triads of sovereignty, power and presence, then unfolds these as they apply to the Word of God. My only complaint is that Frame does not really mention postmodernism. I found only one footnote, and there is no mention in the index, thus four stars instead of five.

[Curby Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last in John Frame's Doctrine series. The book is a daunting 620 pages but in reality the book is just over 330. The remainder is a series of short articles and books reviews the author penned anywhere from 25 to 50 years ago.

This is a must have for anyone who is serious understanding the theology of God's Word. The book is dense but accessible. It is also rich in apologetics material. Highly recommended.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of really great material here, especially a few golden appendices. Notably however, Frame himself comments that this book isn’t as fleshed out as he would like it to be, but decided to publish regardless for fear he wouldn’t have a chance to finish it. The deficiency is definitely noticeable, so I’d recommend reading other Frame books first.

[Christian Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is Frame’s best. He reaffirms traditional language and definitions of inerrancy, infallibility, and more. However, he adds to the discussion by increasing the scope of the Bible’s message to everything. Frame has done a great service to the church by giving us the best that biblical scholarship has to offer in the area of inspiration and inerrancy.

[Philip Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is depth in this book. So many avenues of thought. The reader should be warned that it is very close to class notes. It is very suggestive but it’s not the finished article. The author even says as much.

[Dane Jöhannsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

With all of its flaws, there are some good parts. Half of the book is sadly made up of previously published articles by Frame. Unfortunately, this book represents the standard fare of modern reformed seminaries. Solid where it is solid, but lacking depth and unction.

[Francis Girard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Théologie systématique de la Parole de Dieu

On reconnaît son positionnement de réformé théonomique. Mais dans l'ensemble, une oeuvre complète. Must read, à lire. Lecture très longue.

[John Rossitto · Rating 5 out of 5]

First introduction to Frame.

Have never been exposed to Frame. I am now sold. Piper says this is one of his best works. His style writing, humility and scholarship make me want to keep reading. This one is at the top of my list.

[Nate Weis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first time reading Frame. It won't be the last.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't like Frame when I started reading him, but after about 5 of his books, I really like him. So far, this is his best work. He covers every angle of the Protestant/Reformed view of Scripture.

[Matt K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old JF has done it again.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favorite text on the doctrine of scripture. Recommended.