The Authority of the believe it to be inspired by God. Why do Christians https://bible.org/seriespage/1-authority-bible believe the Bible to be a Book inspired by God? Our answer is found in the Bible itself. THE UNIQUENESS OF THE BIBLE The Bible is unique! It is not enough to say that it is a 1. The Bible Claims to Be A of God. unique Book, for it is a collection of sixty-six ancient This claim is found in a large number of places in the Books. Moreover, this unique collection of Books is Bible. It is summed up in two short readings as follows: bound together by a central theme and a unity of purpose which makes the books into One Book. Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for This Book tells of the ways in which God revealed teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training Himself to mankind over a period of several thousand in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God years. This account of the ways in which God has may be capable and equipped for every good work. intervened in human history provides us with a (2 Timothy 3:16-17). description of the nature and the attributes of God No of scripture ever comes about by the completely different from the concept of God found ’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever anywhere else in the entire world of literature. borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by The Bible is history, but history strikingly different the spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21) from ordinary history. Secular history tells of the rise and fall of nations, of great wars and battles, and of the These two short paragraphs give a definition of the ways in which men and nations have affected the Christian concept of the inspiration of Scripture. All peoples of surrounding territories. But the Bible goes Scripture is given by God. It was given in two main ways, further than that. The Bible is an interpretation of first by direct revelation (by which the actual words of history, showing how men (as individuals and as God are recorded by the ): and second by nations) have either been blessed or punished by God inspiration (by which the Holy Spirit guided the for their attitude to Him and His holy laws. It is this prophets as they wrote and thus the prophets wrote unique explanation of the moral and spiritual factors Divine Truth). Let us examine these two aspects of the behind the historical narrative, which makes the Bible Divine origin of the Bible. so relevant to us today. The Bible was given by means of direct revelation. The Bible enables us to discover the will of God for our Nearly four thousand times in the Bible we find words lives because this divine will is made plain in hundreds or expressions such as: And God said... or The Lord of real-life illustrations in the Bible. spoke to , or The Word of the Lord came to Some may ask, “How could such an ancient Book still . You could look up the following references by be relevant?” True, people today are much better way of example: educated than ever before; yet the Bible (in part or the • God spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:4), about 1500 B.C. whole) ranks as the “world’s best-seller.” Every year • God spoke to Samuel (1 Samuel 3:11), about 1000 more than one hundred million copies are sold! So, B.C. when you read the Bible you are in good company, for • God spoke to Elijah (1 Kings 21:17), about 900 B.C. millions of modern people are reading it! Moreover, it is • God spoke to Isaiah (2 Kings 20:1), about 700 B.C. not being read only by people in Western lands! The • God spoke to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:2), about 600 Bible (either in part or the whole) is being read today in B.C. more than twelve hundred languages. The Bible is being • God spoke to (Ezekiel 1:3), about 600 B.C. sold today in the languages of 97% of the world’s • God spoke to (Malachi 1:1-2), about 400 population and is being read in almost every country B.C. and island on earth. For this reason alone, no person is The above dates are given in round numbers to really educated if he has not studied the most widely convey the sense of historical continuity. Thus, God read Book in the literature of the world. spoke directly to His prophets from time to time throughout the entire period of Israel’s national THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE existence commencing with Moses and ending with People must have a true and authoritative basis for Malachi. These holy prophets received direct their faith. Many popular religions are based entirely on from God and recorded them at His human ideas and thus are merely theories or command. Thus, we have here the actual spoken Word philosophies. Christianity is based on the Bible which of God. Christians accept as their final authority because they The Bible was also given by means of the inspiration of These verses clearly teach that the fact of inspiration the Holy Spirit. There are large sections of the Bible and the facts of history when taken together will prove which contain history and poetry. Are these sections whether or not a prophet had written the words of God. nothing more than Jewish literature? Certainly, they are One unique feature of the Bible is the vast amount of classified as Jewish literature, but even the Jewish prophecy or prediction concerning future events it people were able to distinguish between ordinary contains. God challenges men to examine these literature and Divinely inspired literature. “Direct to see whether or not they have been revelation” from God was not necessary when the fulfilled! For a prediction to be fulfilled in the way and in prophets were recording actual historical facts, but to the time foretold by the prophet is proof that God be authoritative history it had to be inspired by God. spoke through the prophet. This test can be applied to Because they were inspired by God, the prophets thousands of predictions in the Bible leading to the were divinely guided in the selection of facts to be conclusion that God has spoken. The Bible’s claim to be written; they were divinely guided in the choice inspired by the Holy Spirit is the only possible answer to of words to describe the facts; and they were divinely the amazing mystery of the foretelling of the future in guided in recording not merely human comment on the accurate detail. facts, but the attitude of God toward the behavior of the persons referred to. 2. The Authority of The Bible Does Not Depend On Our Thus, by Divine inspiration, the prophets were Ability To Understand It. protected from errors in historical fact, from errors in Read the following verses: doctrine and from mistakes made through ignorance. In Concerning this salvation, the prophets who this way the Bible was kept from becoming a mixture of predicted the grace that would come to you searched truth and legend which is what we find in most ancient and investigated carefully. They probed into what books (for instance, the Greek classics). Modern person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was research and archaeology have demonstrated the indicating when he testified beforehand about the astonishing accuracy of Bible history and supports the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent claim that the Bible is inspired by God. glory. (1 Peter 1:10-11) This briefly is what the Bible claims for itself! It is a Book (which, in some parts, is thousands of years old) And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just which claims to be a record of the actual words of God as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to men, and of the ways in which He has dealt with men to the wisdom given to him. (2 Peter 3:15) in history. Can such a claim be tested? Yes! In fact, God requires that we test this claim sincerely. About 2500 You will notice that even the prophets themselves did years ago, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah and not fully understand the words that God spoke through challenged unbelievers to apply a very practical test. It them or revealed to them. They were simply God’s is found in the following verses. Please read them messengers, and often the great truths they wrote carefully: down were too profound for them to understand. No “Present your argument,” says the Lord. “Produce human mind can fully understand Divine truths. your evidence,” says Jacob’s king. “Let them produce A Muslim leader once asked, “Would God punish a evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us man for failing to understand Bible doctrines?” The about your earlier predictive oracles, so we may answer is, “No, we are not punished because we cannot examine them and see how they were fulfilled. Or understand the , but for unbelief decree for us some future events! Predict how future — for refusing to believe what God has said.” The events will turn out, so we might know you are gods. prophets themselves were unable to understand the Yes, do something good or bad, so we might be great truths they taught, so obviously many aspects of frightened and in awe. Look, you are nothing, and Divine revelation are beyond the limitations of our your accomplishments are nonexistent; the one who minds. This problem is partly explained by our next chooses to worship you is disgusting.” (Isaiah 41:21- point. 24). “I am the Lord! That is my name! I will not share my glory with anyone else, or the praise due me with idols. Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; now I announce new events. Before they begin to occur, I reveal them to you.” (Isaiah 42:8-9). 3. Divine Truth Cannot Be Compressed Into The Life How do we know the Bible is true? Here are 5 reasons Span Of Any Human Being. we can trust it. Study this verse: Our affirmation of the Bible’s truthfulness and They [the Prophets] were shown that they were inerrancy follows directly from the fact that the Bible is serving not themselves but you, in regard to the inspired by God. Any teaching that purports to be things now announced to you through those who Christian but is not built on a reliable view of Scripture proclaimed the to you by the Holy Spirit sent is relying on mere human concepts, with no solid from heaven—things angels long to catch a glimpse anchor of God’s timeless truth. A renewed commitment of. Therefore, get your minds ready for action by to the truthfulness and dependability of Scripture would being fully sober, and set your hope completely on be the first step toward healing the sickness found in the grace that will be brought to you when some of today’s theological trends. We believe that the Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:12-13). Bible is inspired and true. We joyfully and confidently commit our lives to its message and gladly proclaim this God is eternal, and we are mortal. For this reason truth to others. Divine revelation is progressive. God’s promises and revelations began in the first era of human life on earth, Biblical Authority and continued through the centuries with new aspects A view that affirms the Bible’s divine inspiration and of truth being added from time to time. total truthfulness is of little value if we do not also have Predictions were fulfilled in some cases hundreds of a commitment to the Bible’s complete and absolute years after they were made, and so the prophets did authority in our lives. And any discussion of Biblical not live long enough to see the fulfillment of their own authority must begin with God Himself, for all authority words. Some of the prophecies in the Bible will not be is located in God. fulfilled until the coming day of judgment. It is foolish God has made Himself known in the Scriptures. Truly, for a man to reject a revelation because it does not fit in revelation and authority are two sides of the same with the local circumstances of his short life span. reality. God declares His authority in His revelation—His Faith in God compels us to believe that God’s inspired Word—and God alone is the ultimate source of revelations embrace the entire period of His dealings authority. with the human race. This is why we continually stress Thus, the Spirit of God has inspired the writings of the the vital need for clear historical perspective in our prophets and apostles, and the Scriptures become the study of the Bible. recognized authority to communicate God’s truth— which is to be taught, believed and obeyed. The Bible is 4. The Authority Of The Bible Is Unchanging As The truly the Book of God’s truth. Because it is completely Source Of Moral Conduct. truthful, it must be wholly trustworthy in its We see this in the verse we began with, 2 Timothy affirmations. Because it is truthful and trustworthy, it is 3:16-17. Because the Bible is given by inspiration of God our final authority in all things that pertain to life and it is profitable. It teaches us the truth about God and godliness. states the kind of moral conduct God requires of us. It is profitable for doctrine, for instruction and for Confidence correction. For this reason, our study of the Bible So, we confess that God has revealed Himself to us. cannot be treated simply as an academic exercise! His revelation has been preserved for us in Scripture by Unless we are willing to obey God’s Word with a the Holy Spirit’s work of inspiration. We confess our sincere heart, we will never learn the deepest truths it belief in the divine inspiration, total truthfulness and contains about eternal life. When we read the Bible complete authority of the Bible. seriously and ask God to speak to our hearts through its And even beyond this affirmation, with willing spirits inspired teachings, we begin to realize that God does and open minds and hearts, we joyfully dedicate indeed speak to men with Divine authority through His ourselves anew to the authority of Holy Scripture, Word, the Bible. knowing that we can place our complete confidence in God’s truthful and reliable Word. ©2017 David S. Dockery David S. Dockery, Ph.D., is president of Trinity International University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. The Scripture quotation is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.

The Reliability and Authority of the Bible each other. Rather, “men spoke from God as they In Whan Kim | South Korea were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). The Bible is the written Word of God, his utterly To read the Bible, then, is to hear the very voice of unique revelation. The word of God expresses who he God. Scripture is God’s own witness to himself for the is, what he has done, and what he is doing down sake of his people and for the sake of his own glory. through world history in both judgment and salvation. God has given this Word to his people as The Inerrant and Infallible Word the only authoritative standard for their faith and life. As the Bible is the inspired word of God, presenting The Bible is necessary because God’s people do not us with God’s words as mediated through human know how to glorify God due to their depravity, as language, it is likewise inerrant and infallible. Indeed, well as their subjective and culturally bound it would be impossible to conceive of the Bible as limitations. The Bible is also necessary in order that divinely inspired and yet untruthful at the same time, his people, knowing what God requires and their for God is utterly truthful ( 1:2; Heb. 6:18). Error failure to do it, can learn of God’s great provision of comes from either deceit or ignorance. Yet God does salvation in his Son, Jesus Christ. not lie, and he is not ignorant. Rather, he is always The reliability and authority of the Bible may be utterly truthful, able to speak no falsehood, and handled by considering Scripture’s (1) inspiration, (2) exhaustively omniscient, able to speak all truth. inerrancy and infallibility, and (3) clarity and This is what we mean by speaking of the Bible as sufficiency. As we consider these marks of God’s inerrant—it is unswervingly truthful in all that it Word, we are reminded that the Bible is both utterly teaches. This perfect truthfulness extends not only to reliable and completely authoritative; believers can matters of doctrine but also to matters of historical depend on it, and believers must yield to it. reliability. Anything less would call into question the The Inspired Word very character of God. In short, just as God is Throughout history God has been acting in mighty absolutely free from all error, so is his Word, the deeds on behalf of his people. As this redemptive Bible. history has developed, God has spoken through “Infallibility” is similar to inerrancy. Infallibility human authors in human language to communicate strengthens and comforts believers by exactly what he wants his people to know about communicating that they can come to the Bible with themselves and about him as their Creator, Judge, absolute confidence that it will not lead them astray. and Savior. These divinely inspired writings have been There are some places in the Bible that may seem at given to his people and collected into a book, the first glance to betray a lack of accuracy and precision, Bible, to become the unified message of redemption which would appear to undermine inerrancy and for God’s people. When we speak of the Bible as infallibility. Examples include imprecise quotations, “inspired” we mean that God the Holy Spirit rounded numbers, unrefined grammar, different supernaturally influenced and oversaw the writing accounts of the same events, or unscientific down of Scripture such that these writings became descriptions. Yet whether the Bible is erroneous or unfailingly reliable and authoritative, a perfect guide not depends upon the definition of the nature of the to any who would trust and submit to them. For Bible. these writings are from God himself. If the Bible is a scientific reference book of some The doctrine of inspiration comes from biblical texts kind, requiring the same kind of precision that such which speak of God “breathing out” his word (2 Tim. texts require, the Bible might be regarded as 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20–21). Hence the Bible is the inspired erroneous. The Bible is not, however, that kind of or God-breathed Word of God. God did this by the book. It is rather a book recounting the mighty acts of Holy Spirit through the writings of the prophets and God on behalf of his people. And while inspired by apostles. This does not mean, however, that the Bible God, the Bible’s human authors wrote in the ordinary is a dictation of his words. We can easily see the language of the people, communicating in a way that unique personality and perspective of each human would be accessible to all. Moreover, the oversight of author in the various books of the Bible. the Holy Spirit does not mean that the unique Nevertheless, the Spirit of God worked through the temperament, language proficiencies, and education human authors—prompting, guiding, and illuminating of each biblical author was somehow suspended them as they recorded the very words of God. when they wrote Scripture. Therefore, while the authorship of the Bible is both While the Bible does, then, come to us in all the divine and human, these are not in competition with earthiness one would expect of a book written by human beings in specific historical times and and benefit from the Bible—on the contrary, the contexts, it is utterly trustworthy and without any central teachings of the Bible are clear to all its error of any kind. This extends to both those parts of readers, regardless of their level of theological the Bible that have to do directly with faith and training. practice as well as to the historical dimensions of the Third, the Bible itself teaches that there is a text. Scripture is flawless, sacred, and divine—a spiritual perception that is available only to those perfect word from a perfect God. who have been born again—the wisdom of is meaningfully received only by Spirit-illumined The Clear and Sufficient Word readers of the Bible (1 Cor. 2:6–16). Like a pair of The question of the clarity (sometimes called glasses to a man with poor , the Spirit makes the perspicuity) of the Bible must be approached the Bible’s pages become clear. Fourth, the difficult from two perspectives: the authorship and the parts of the Bible can and should be understood in readership. From the point of view of authorship, the the light of the clearer parts. Bible has been given to us in perfect clarity. The Bible The Bible is also sufficient for God’s people. It as the divinely breathed word of God reflects God’s provides all that they need to know to live life well, in perfection, and this perfection includes clarity. As glad fellowship with their Creator, walking happily God is coherent, rational, and articulate, so is the with him. The Bible attests that: “All Scripture is Bible. When he addresses his words to human beings, breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for his words communicate with unfailing clarity. The reproof, for correction, and for training in Bible is therefore understandable to the degree that righteousness, that the man of God may be one understands the meaning of the divine author; it complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. is not accessible only to an elite and specially favored 3:16–17). The Bible further attests that it is truth and few. That the books of the Bible were written by light to obedient readers, making them “wise for many human writers from diverse places over many salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15). Therefore, neither addition centuries does not undermine its clarity, for the to nor deletion from the all-sufficient word of God is singularity of the divine authorship guarantees the permissible (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18–19). We should continuity and organic unity of its contents and read and study the Bible humbly, and yet we can also message. do so with strong confidence, asking the Holy Spirit to The Bible is, however, often difficult to guide us into all truth, and expecting that he will do understand—as the biblical authors themselves attest this. (2 Pet. 3:15–16; compare 2 Tim. 2:7)! Yet it is crucial to point out that any perceived obscurity on the part Conclusion of the Bible arises fundamentally from the readers’ In conclusion, the Bible is the only book containing own finitude or fallenness. Obscurity in the very words of the God who created all things, understanding is the fault of the reader, not the showing his creatures his perfect character while also author. explaining his way of salvation in Jesus Christ. The Yet while the Bible is in places hard to understand, Bible is the only inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, this is not because of any elitism on the part of the and sufficient standard for their faith and life. It biblical authors. The Bible is written for ordinary carries absolute authority and is unflinchingly people, not using some kind of heavenly language or reliable. mysterious code words but ordinary, plain language, The Bible is the greatest earthly treasure that could which the Bible’s first readers could readily interpret. possibly be placed in the hands of mankind. It is life- Consequently, those who today earnestly seek to giving wisdom, leading to salvation and maturity. It is understand the Bible can be confident of success in the unique source of delight and joy in Christ. their endeavor. Through the Bible, God addresses his saving message Four clarifying points, however, must be made. to us today. We must read and study it obediently First, Scripture is not equally clear to everybody. and diligently in communion with its living divine Because God was pleased to communicate his saving author and by the help of his Spirit. In this way we message in particular historical contexts, readers shall understand, serve, worship, and glorify him from later times or other cultures must familiarize properly. themselves with the original context if they are to https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study- correctly interpret the Bible. Yet this is not to say, bible/the-reliability-and-authority-of-the-bible/ second, that uneducated believers are unable to read