The Authority of Scripture

The authority of Scripture is a topic that has been touched upon in several blog entries but always associated with another topic being addressed in my Sola Scriptura series, and this is technically part 13 of that series. For a lot of Protestants, the authority of Scripture is an unquestioned ‘given’. They generally place Scripture above everything, at least in their minds, even if they do not live their lives that way. Most never actually think about the authoritative place Scripture has and consequently are generally ignorant about the topics I’m going to present below. And that ignorance helps to keep them from actually reading and knowing Scripture, or applying it to their lives, as is their charge from both Jesus and the apostles. And all is seemingly ‘fine’ in their lives until someone challenges that belief and asks them to prove that the Bible is really the one and only Word of God, over and above other religions. This challenge, whether a question, a confrontation, a snicker and/or a look, can cause them to question that authority and its role in their lives. When that happens, they generally do not have any information to support what they have always said they believed and then far too many start to drift away from orthodoxy or from faith altogether. My hope is to help restore someone’s shaky faith, and remind them of the reasons why Scripture is our only firm foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What It Means

All true Christians need to agree that Scripture is the authoritative and inspired Word of God. To disagree with this is to lose the right to call oneself a Christian, since it is Scripture that tells us who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us. If you reject Scripture, then you by default are rejecting Jesus. He’s relegated to a ‘nice man with a beard’ when He calls Himself God (John 10:30; 8:58). Christians need to understand and believe that Scripture is what God has communicated to man about Himself. It is Scripture that proclaims its own inspiration, because mankind does not have any right or ability to claim it for Scripture. The Bible was written by 40 different authors from kings to fishermen, over a span of 1500 yrs and proclaims a single message about a coming messiah, Jesus Christ, that would save mankind from their sins. As we have already seen with 2 Pet 1:20-21, Scripture is a divine work, not a human work, as its authors were walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, which means that Scripture comes from God (2 Tim 3:15-17; Heb 1:1-2).

And we have also seen in 2 Tim 3:16 that Scripture is God-breathed. It was God who spoke through men to write both the Old and New Testaments. Men wrote down the words, but the Holy Spirit was the author. In 2 Tim 3:16-17, Paul was saying that Scripture is sufficient to make someone perfectly equipped for knowing and doing the will of God because it was Scripture that was given to mankind for that purpose.

So, this is how God wants us to regard His Word – all of this is straight from Scripture:

Pure – perfect – sure – truth – eternal – forever settled in heaven – it sanctifies – it causes spiritual growth – it is God-breathed – it is authoritative – it gives wisdom unto salvation – it makes the simple wise – it is living and active – it is a guide – it is a fire – a hammer – a seed – the sword of the Spirit – it gives the knowledge of God – it is a lamp to our feet – a light to our path – that which produces reverence for God – it heals – makes free – illuminates – produces faith – regenerates – converts the soul – brings conviction of sin – restrains from sin – is spiritual food – is infallible – inerrant – irrevocable – it searches the heart and mind – produces life – defeats Satan – proves truth – refutes error – is holy – equips for every good work – is the word of the living God (Ps 119:9-11, 38, 105, 130, 133, 160; Ps 19:7-11; Ps 111:7-8; Isa 40:8; Eph 5:26; 2 Tim 3:15-17; Jer 5:14, 23:29; Mat 13:18-23; Eph 6:17; Ps 107:20; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet 1:23, 2:2; Act 20:32; John 8:32, 10:35, 17:17) [1]

And I agree with William Webster when he said, “It is impossible to find a more convincing argument for the sufficiency of Scripture than these descriptions.” [2] These words and phrases describe how God and the writers of Scripture viewed His Word. They speak of the nature and function of Scripture in the believer's life. They provide additional proof that the Word of God is sufficient in every way.

As we have already touched upon in previous blog entries, the Catholic Church does not believe that Scripture alone is sufficient, or that it is the complete message of God that mankind needs, but must be supplemented by tradition. In many respects, this position is not all that different from Charismatics who do the very same thing when they supplement Scripture with ‘prophetic’ words they say come from God. The question is not whether God can speak to His people via prophecy or tradition, the real question is, does it have the same authority as Scripture? Can it ever supersede Scripture? So I ask – if Scripture makes us wise, guides us, gives us the knowledge of God, makes us free, illuminates us, lights our path, produces faith, is infallible, inerrant and irrevocable, searches the heart and the mind, produces life, defeats Satan, convicts us of sin, restrains us from sin, proves truth, refutes errors, saves us and equips us, then how can it not be sufficient for the faith and practice of the church?

If God’s message to mankind needs to be supplemented by tradition, if tradition was really given to the Church as a separate source of ‘special revelation’, then why is this never mentioned in Scripture? I would ask the very same question of Charismatics, except prophecy is mentioned in the New Testament. But the kind of tradition appealed to by Catholic teachings is not in Scripture (and actually, neither is the kind of ‘prophecy’ appealed to by Charismatics. But that is a topic for another day). And as we’ve seen previously, Scripture was and still is the inspired, God-breathed words that God still speaks to mankind. But we cannot even see a valid concept of tradition in Scripture, so we cannot appeal to it as having any existence at all. And stating that tradition is unwritten so it cannot be produced is a terrible line of argumentation. Am I really to believe that for over 2000 yrs no one has ever thought to write these traditions down? Or that they are so ‘holy’ that they cannot be written down? So we have to believe they exist, believe that they are co-equal with Scripture, but we can’t know what they are?

Some Catholic apologists have tried to say that the Scriptures may be profitable for the believer, but they are not sufficient as a ‘rule of faith’ without the addition of ‘tradition’. But this position only serves to undercut the very ‘faith’ they say they are promoting, since the traditions they promote cannot be produced. In essence, they say I cannot gain salvation from Scripture alone; I need tradition. But I cannot know what those traditions are, even though I need to know them to gain salvation, since I need both Scripture and tradition. That doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense, because the only way that salvation can be attained without knowing the traditions would have to be through the Catholic Church and its priests, I suppose, since they would supposedly know the traditions, even though they themselves do not know what those traditions actually are. It's just a vicious circle of absurdity.

According to Catholic apologists, we cannot truly be Christians with only Scripture, yet every church father took their inspiration to write from their knowledge and study of Scripture, whether they wrote commentaries or apologetics, or letters of encouragement or correction, all of their writings were done from their personal study and knowledge of Scripture. Do you see the paradox we get into here? If Scripture has to be supplemented with an unknowable ‘tradition’, then there is no provable and verifiable Christian faith without some special class of “Christians” with a special ‘knowledge’ (gnosis) that they only are allowed to have. It’s a 2000 yr old game of ‘telephone’, that leaves Christianity looking like a mystery ‘religion’ that resembles Gnosticism.

Ignoring 2 Tim 3:15-17 for the moment, some have claimed that no New Testament writer has ever stated that the Scriptures were sufficient for the faith and practice of the Church. In fact, the word ‘sufficient’ is not even found as a description of Scripture! And they would be correct, but neither is the word ‘Trinity’ found in the New Testament, even though the truth of the Trinity stands on the same basis as the sufficiency of Scripture does. The word ‘Trinity’ never appears in Scripture, yet we know it to be a true, biblical understanding of who God is by what the New Testament writers wrote (Gen 1:26; Isa 48:16; Mat 3:16-17; Mat 28:19; 1 Pet 1:1-2; 2 Cor 13:14; Luke 1:35; Rom 14:17-18). And is this not also true of the sufficiency of the Word of God, as I have shown above? (Ps 119:9-11, 38, 105, 130, 133, 160; Ps 19:7-11; Ps 111:7-8; Isa 40:8; Eph 5:26; 2 Tim 3:15-17; Jer 5:14, 23:29; Mat 13:18-23; Eph 6:17; Ps 107:20; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet 1:23, 2:2; Act 20:32; John 8:32, 10:35, 17:17) But since we do have 2 Tim 3:16-17, we know that Scripture is sufficient, as this verse clearly says it is. (Please refer back to: God-Breathed Scriptures - Sola Scriptura, Pt 8)

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. (2 Pet 1:2-3)

Jesus’ View

This is a question that I don’t think is asked very often – what was Jesus’ view of Scripture? Here are a few examples to show how highly He thought of Scripture.

Jesus used Scripture to answer and rebuke Satan’s misrepresentation of Scripture in Mat 4:1-10. Three times Jesus quoted Scripture in His reply to the devil using the phrase, “it is written,”

• But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Mat 4:4 – Duet 8:3)
• Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Mat 4:7 – Ex 17:2)
• Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” (Mat 4:10 – Duet 6:3, 10:20)

In Mat 22:31, Jesus pointed the Sadducees back to Ex 3:6 when He said concerning the Scriptures, “have you not read what was spoken to you by God”,

“But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Issac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (Mat 22:31-32)

Again, while speaking to the people that followed Him, Jesus said concerning Himself and Scripture, “not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished,”

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Mat 5:17-18)

He said that Scripture cannot be broken in John 10:35, and in John 17:17 He said, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” Jesus affirmed the historical existence of Adam (Mat 19:4), Cain and Abel (Luke 11:51), Noah (Luke 17:26), Jonah (Mat 12:40), creation (Mark 10:6-9) and the existence and reality of heaven (Mark 9:44-46). And in Mat 22:23-33, Jesus used Scripture to correct the false teachings of the Sadducees about their denial of the resurrection saying, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.” And lastly, there is Luke 24:13-27 where we see Jesus after His resurrection walking with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, where Jesus does this,

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:27)

All of this shows that Jesus taught that Scripture is inspired by God, and to be regarded as truthful, as well as infallible, inerrant and historically reliable. This also means that it is authoritative as a guide to how we are to live, and an all-sufficient rule for our faith. “It is significant that Christ never appealed to tradition as a standard of authority; instead He used Scripture to correct the errors of tradition.” [3]

To underscore that point, when the Pharisees questioned Jesus about his disciples not honoring their traditions in Mat 15 and Mark 7, Jesus’ answer was to question their traditions by quoting Scripture, Lev 20:9 (Mat 15:4), to refute them. He then explains why their tradition was wrong in Mat 15:6, and rebuked them in Mat 15:7-9 by quoting Scripture again, Isa 29:13. Jesus told us in John 8:55 that He kept God’s word. Everything Jesus did was governed by Scripture because Jesus was the fulfillment of Scripture.

Mind Boggling Probabilities

Some believers just ‘believe’ that Scripture is genuine and true and never allow their trust in the authority of Scripture to be shaken. Others look into both history and science and accept Scripture as God’s Word because there was a historical person named Jesus, who actually lived in the timeframe spoken of in Scripture. He wasn’t a myth. Both Jewish and Roman Historians of the day document that He did in fact live, performed miracles and died on a cross. When we look at the universe, we know by science that the universe is expanding from a central point, and that the matter, the substance of the universe, seems to have come into being via some unique event like the big bang. So we know it had a starting point, which means that something or someone started it, which is to say, someone created the universe. But none of these conclusively ‘prove’ that Jesus was who He said He was.

There are many religious books that claim to be inspired: the Book of Mormon, the Koran, and the Hindu Vedas are only a few with such claims. But none of these books contain predictive prophecies. Only one does that, the Old Testament Scriptures (the New Testament does as well, but those are still in the future). If in fact these predictive prophecies were fulfilled by a single person, that fact, in and of itself, would prove that the Bible was truly inspired and would demonstrate its authority as God’s one and only Word.

And that is what we see when it comes to the Bible. The Old Testament contains well over 60 verifiable prophecies (actually around 300) from Genesis to Malachi about a redeemer, a messiah, a savior, that God would send into the world to redeem His people. And it can easily be shown that it was Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection that fulfilled all of these Old Testament prophecies. And what’s more, Jesus said He was the one that the Scriptures spoke about, the messiah, God in the flesh, who came into the world to die for all mankind, and the chances that any one person could accidentally or purposely attempt to fulfill all of these prophecies is a statistical impossibility.

So, how many were fulfilled by Jesus? There are a number of lists, and people categorize them differently, but most all of them include over 300 fulfilled prophecies. But let’s trim this number down to something manageable for our mind to grasp. The Old Testament said that the Messiah would be:

• A direct descendant of David (1 Ch 17:11-14)
• Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
• Born of a virgin (Isa 7:14)
• Preceded by a messenger (Mal 3:1)
• Enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech 9:9)
• Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zech 11:12)
• The 30 pieces of silver would be used to by a field from a potter (Zech 11:13)
• Beaten and He would not attempt to defend Himself (Isa 53:7)
• Crucified, having His hands and feet pierced (Ps 22:6-8; 22:16)
• Perform miracles (Isa 35:5-6)
• Suffer and die for the sins of the world (Isa 53:8, 12)
• A source of salvation for the gentiles (Isa 49:6)
• Buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isa 53:9)
• Raised from the dead (Ps 16:10)
• Both God and man (Isa 9:6)
• The Son of God (Ps 2:1-12)

That is more than enough for this example. Now, let’s pair this down even further to just 8 prophecies. If just 8 of these prophecies were fulfilled by a single person, the odds of that happening is 1 in 10 to the 17th power (or 10^17), which is 1 with seventeen zeros after it. (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000) I don’t know who thinks of these illustrations, but here is one I found interesting. If you covered every square inch of the state of Texas with 10^17 silver dollars, the depth of the silver dollars would be 2 feet deep. And here is another one to boggle your mind further. The probability of Jesus fulfilling just 8 of the above prophecies is equivalent to the chance that a blind folded person would have in selecting a marked silver dollar in the 10^17 silver dollars placed randomly somewhere within those 2 feet deep stacks which cover the entire state of Texas! If the number of prophecies fulfilled is increased to 48, those odds now go to 1 in 10^157 power, or 1 with 157 zeros after it. Now expand that to 300 fulfilled prophecies. [4]

What this should tell you is that it is with absolute certainty that Jesus is exactly who He says He is, and it proves the absolute certainty of the authenticity and authority of Scripture. The Scriptures are the authentic inspired, and God-breathed words of God.

Conclusion

As you can see the Old Testament is quite unique, and no religion has ever matched the uniqueness of Christianity. But if you want to believe that God is a myth, you are free to do so. Just like if you want to believe that Scripture isn’t enough, that it needs some nebulous ‘tradition’ to complete it, as if Scripture isn’t sufficiently unique, or authoritative, you are free to do that as well. But I hope you can see just how unique, authoritative and sufficient the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, really are.

The consequence of this authority that Scripture has, is that it has to mean something profound in our lives. It has to be trusted as the very words of God Himself to mankind. It means that God has spoken to us and preserved those ‘words’ for all generations. It means that it must be believed and it must be followed. If it does not mean these things, then we don’t accept its authority, and in essence, we reject the God of the Bible. To continue living our lives like there are no consequences, is to reject the authority that the Scriptures have over our lives, its right to guide us and direct us, and its power to convict us of our sin, and our complacency.

It is not enough that we simply acknowledge Scripture’s authority. It has to drive change in us because that is the purpose of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, it’s the purpose of Scripture. Salvation isn’t ‘fire insurance’ to keep us out of hell. Jesus gave everything for us. He laid down His life for us. Our salvation means that I die to me and live for Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal 2:20)

 

For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices [deception] of speech. Even to me, who tell [you] these things, give not absolute credence, unless [you] receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.

Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 318-386)

Church history has repeatedly and clearly proven one thing: once the highest view of Scripture is abandoned by any theologian, group, denomination, or church, the downhill slide in both theology and practice is inevitable.

James White

Footnotes

[1] William Webster, The Church of Rome at the Bar of History, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1995), p. 4. 

[2] Ibid.
[3] William Webster, The Church of Rome at the Bar of History, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1995), p. 5.
[4] This drew upon a few sites for some of the statistics, such as: Allacin's Free Illustrated Summaries of Christian Classics, The Christ of Prophecy, and The Mathematical Probability that Jesus is the Christ. Thank you for your diligent research and write-ups.

All Scriptures quotes are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Revision, unless otherwise noted. Verse links from Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/

For the best treatment of Sola Scriptura in book form, please consider investing in the 3 volume set of: David T. King, Holy Scripture, Ground and Pillar of Our Faith, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 (Battle Creek, WA: Christian Resource, Inc, 2001). It's the guide I'm using to integrate some of my own study on this important subject. This book set is inexpensive and worth every penny.