Throughout our book, we have been operating from a specific understanding of Scripture. Namely, we believe that the Bible is fully inspired by God. As God’s own Word, the Bible is our highest authority. Additionally, since the Bible is God’s own Word, everything it teaches is true. Practically speaking, the Bible has total trump-card power over every competing claim. This idea isn’t new.
In the words of the Reformation-era Belgic Confession, Articles 3 and 5:
We confess that this Word of God was not sent nor delivered “by human will,” but that “men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God,” as Peter says. . . .
We receive all these books and these only as holy and canonical, for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith. And we believe without a doubt all things contained in them—not so much because the church receives and approves them as such but above all because the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they prove themselves to be from God. For even the blind themselves are able to see that the things predicted in them do happen.1
In the last century, a man named Francis Schaeffer helped many people understand the gospel. Through his writings, speeches, and countless personal conversations, he used his unique gifts to reach out to a world set adrift on the shoreless sea of secular humanism.
A short distance from where Schaeffer lived in the Swiss Alps, one can stand at a geological formation known as a watershed. Perched at this point on the mountains on a rainy day, you can stretch out your arms and, on one hand, touch moisture that will wind its way from streams, to rivers, to the warm tides of the Mediterranean Sea. On the other hand, you can feel the brush of raindrops that will eventually work their way into the frigid waters of the North Sea. In other words, a watershed is a dividing line.
We believe that our approach to the Bible is the great watershed issue of the Christian faith. Is the Bible God’s revelation to humankind, or is the Bible a collection of people’s thoughts about God? That is the question. If it is the latter, then we are under no obligation to order our lives around the teachings of Scripture. If the former, then the Bible is the most precious possession on earth—God’s own perspective on life’s ultimate issues.
We offer four reasons Christians should receive the Bible as God’s inspired, perfect Word:
First, Jesus Treats the Bible This Way
In John 10:34–35, we read, “Jesus answered them,‘ . . . Scripture cannot be broken.’” “Cannot be broken” is actually one Greek word (outhenai). That one word indicates that nothing in the Bible can be discarded or destroyed. Unlike every man-made thing, the Bible will never crumble and fade. It is perfect.
Second, This Is How the Bible Speaks of Itself
In 2 Timothy 3:16–17, Paul wrote:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Notice a few important points: First, Paul says that “all Scripture is breathed out by God,” or inspired. In other words, we can’t pick and choose. The whole product is a gift from God. Second, Paul uses the word Scripture, in Greek, graphe—a written thing. This indicates that the writings themselves have primacy. The Bible doesn’t “become” the Word of God as we read it, or simply “communicate” the Word as the Holy Spirit moves through it. The very writings themselves are divine speech. Third, Paul uses the phrase breathed out. This indicates that God himself is the cause of Scripture. He is the origin of the Word. Finally, Paul says that Scripture is “profitable.” In other words, Scripture can do what it does because it is what it is. Because Scripture is God’s Word, it can transform our lives!
A second example worth noting is 2 Peter 1:19–21:
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed . . . knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Notice something important: According to Peter, God not only inspires the authors with his words, he guides them to record those words accurately, so that all the words of Scripture are God’s own words.
Third, Believers Throughout the Centuries Have Affirmed This
We could give many examples. Here are two from the early church. Writing in the second century, Justin Martyr commented:
Since I am entirely convinced that no Scripture contradicts another, I shall admit rather that I do not understand what is recorded, and shall strive to persuade those who imagine that the Scriptures are contradictory, to be rather of the same opinion as myself.2
In other words, because Justin Martyr was convinced that Scripture is God’s Word, he knew it could never present inaccurate, contradictory information.
Augustine, considered the greatest theologian of the church, outside of Paul, affirmed:
It seems to me that the most disastrous consequences must follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books. . . . For if you once admit into such a high sanctuary of authority one false statement . . . there will not be left a single sentence of these books which, if appearing to any one difficult in practice or hard to believe, may not by the same fatal rule be explained away.3
Fourth, Our Own Lives Confirm This
Scripture is self-authenticating. We believe that the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible is at work in the life of every believer, confirming its truthfulness. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). He promised to send his Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). True believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, will want to believe God’s Word. Just as the E strings in a piano will resonate with a perfectly sung E note, the “strings” of a believer’s heart will resonate to the tune of God’s Word.
Even more, when believers order their lives according to God’s Word, we discover true life! The psalmist wrote: “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7). In other words, our lives are transformed and changed when we embrace the Bible as our final authority. This deep, heart-level transformation is one of the most convincing evidences that the Bible is what it claims to be: God’s Word.
These are just a few examples of the many reasons we have to place our full confidence in the Bible as God’s holy Word. We would encourage you to explore this for yourself. Specifically, we suggest you check out Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem (chapters 2–8).