Bible
Study
Chapter
1 On Holy Scripture, section 4: The Authority of Scripture
By
Moses Flores
“ The Bible speaks authoritively and so deserves to be believed and
obeyed.”
What’s wrong with this phrase?
“God said it. I believe it. That settles it!”
{Pause here for responses}
This section of the Westminster Confession deals with the authority of the Scriptures, which are the revelation from God.
As a brief recap of where we are at in our study of Holy Scripture, section 1 dealt with the nature of revelation detailing the “how” and “when” God spoke, etc...; section 2 dealt with the canon of revelation from God answering the question of where the revelation from God is today; section 3 briefly detailed those works that are not to be considered as revelation from God (though not exhaustive for we must remember that this confession was written in a time with a particular doctrinal view in mind and not the many others that would arise later in history such as Mormonism or the Watchtower Society). Section 4 brings us to the logical conclusion of the first 3 sections. That is, if God himself, the Sovereign Creator, has spoken and revealed Himself, His law and the way of salvation to us, and has given us the means to properly identify and recognize the revelation of God, then we very words of God revealed to us NECESSARILY carry the authority of the one who spoke the words of Scripture into being!
[Pause here for responses]
We should note first of all that the word “authority” contains the word “author”. An “author” is “one that originates something or gives existence to.” An author is the source of something. Thus, when asked to consider the authority of Scripture, we are essentially asked to consider the source of Scripture. Where did Scripture come from? Who or what authored the words of Scripture? Naturally, it is easy to say, “different men from different time periods.” However, Scriptures own testimony about where Scripture originates from and what it is (ontologically) is much deeper than such a surface response. Lets see what Scripture says about its own origin
· First, there are the numerous phrases contained within Scripture “Thus saith the Lord…” (eg. Jer. 2:4,5; Isa. 45:18-19, etc….)
· 2 Peter 1:19-21 “…holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit…”
· Acts 1:16 “…this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David…”
· 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for doctrine, reproof, correction and training in righteousness.”
· Romans 3:2 “the oracles of God” or “the Word of God”…these were the Scriptures which the Jews were entrusted with.
Clearly, the testimony of Scripture about itself is that the ultimate source of Scripture is God Himself. Thus, the authority of God Himself is carried over to the word of God. Therefore, to disobey or disregard or attempt to usurp or undermine the authority of Scripture is to disregard the authority and glory of God Himself!!! (eg. Liberal textual criticism, Jesus Seminar just to name a few).
Because the Scriptures are the very words of God Himself, Scripture also describes itself as:
PURE
“A LAMP TO OUR FEET’ Psalm 119:105
“A LIGHT TO OUR PATH” Psalm 119:105
“TRUTH” John 17:3, Psalm 119:160
“ETERNAL” Isaiah 40:8; Psalm 119:89
These
and many more testimonies of Scripture about itself should lead us to this
summative statement for this first sentence of section 4 of the Westminster
Confession: Scripture’s authority is derived from its intrinsic nature as a
communication from God and by God to man.”
What necessarily follows is the second sentence…
“This authority does not depend on the testimony of any man or
church but completely on God, its author, who is Himself truth”
The historical context takes us some 100 years after the
Reformation. Protestant and Catholics
are still hammering out there differences and distinctions of doctrine. This document is an expression of those
differences as it was a document of its own time, yet still for all time in so
far as the doctrines are true to the teachings of Scripture. At the time, the Roman Catholic Church (i.e.
the Magisterium) believed itself to be above the word of God (the Scriptures)
in that it was the Church (through councils and tradition) that “decided” or
“determined” which books would make up the canon of Scripture.
The
Reformers obviously recognized this train of though to be in error. They believed that it was the Word of God,
originally through Christ and the apostles now contained in writing alone, that
gave origin and foundation to the Church.
Thus, Protestant doctrines can appeal to Scripture for validating their
doctrines whereas
Think of the confusion one is set up for here! For Rome, she hold to the 66 books in the Bible previously mentioned in section 2 as well as the Apocrypha and “oral tradition” which is said to be equally the Word of God as Scripture. However, the only ones who have this “tradition” are the bishops and the Pope. The problem is that bishops and Popes come and go and have changed their views over time. To this day, bishops and Popes do not always agree so how does one know who is rightly speaking authoritively for God? To use a modern day example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that the Bible is not the final appeal in matters of doctrine. Instead she says there are other standard works which are the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants. Along with that, the president of the Church is said to be the head of the Church (much like the Pope) and is able to speak “authoritively” in matters of doctrine and morals. However, it is historically proven that modern Mormon presidents have contradicted former presidents, including Joseph Smith himself! There are ongoing battles between Mormon theologians, Mormon clergy, Mormon scholars and Mormon apologist as to who is right in their understanding of their own faith! Their faith is nothing more than the shifting sands of the desert!!!
Let me bring the relevancy of this point home. How do we know what the Gospel is? We know what the Gospel is because of the revelation from God. If the Scriptures are not the final and sole authority for matters of faith, then we have no real standard to preach the Gospel! If we defer authority to an institution like the Roman Catholic Church, we have to ask if the Gospel has been and will be the same in all ages. Rome has adder various dogmas that must be believed in order for one to be saved such as the Marian Dogmas and Papal decrees, etc…Mormonism has experienced so many changes about what one must believe about God, Joseph Smith and what one must do in order to inherit eternal life. Their “gospel” has changed over time burdening their followers with more weight. But if the Scriptures are viewed as they are, that is, carrying the very authority of God himself, then what God says is final and the Gospel is settled for all time: “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Without God’s word as the final arbiter of the truth and the Gospel, we are left with nothing more than confusion.
God has not ordained such confusion to exist in His own Church nor within His people. God has not left Himself without witness but has spoken and what He has spoken is now contained in the very pages of Scripture. The Scriptures are the very words of God so that Scripture identifies itself as the breath of God even as breath is released from our mouths as we speak!! Thus…
“The Bible therefore is to be accepted
as true because it is the Word of God”
We accept the Bible because of what it is….the WORD of God…
There is a story of a monk in one of those large European Churches in the middle ages, much like Notre Dame, who would every day seclude himself and stubbornly pray that he would seclude himself daily until God himself spoke to this monk. Day after day he came and prayed, “Lord, I will not leave you be until you speak to me.” The whole time that he was praying this, there were the Scriptures opened on the altar that he neglected.
Brothers and sisters, we have the very words of God in our own hands and readily available to us! The “words of God” are near us! Let us not neglect those words of His. Let us revere them. We should study them and read them daily that we may grow in the grace and the knowledge of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Review Questions