The Authority of Scripture
THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE
Jeff Pollard All scripture is given by inspiration of God.—2 Timothy 3:16
T HE divine authority of the Scriptures arises from God's absolute authority over all creation.1 He is the almighty Creator of all things: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"
(Gen 1:1). As Creator, He owns all things: "The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Psa 24:1).
Since authority is the right to rule, the almighty Creator alone has the absolute authority to govern His universe as its sovereign King.2 And the King declares His authority in the sixty-six books of the Bible. So, from Genesis to Revelation, God reveals His authority to families, churches, and magistrates through His Spirit-breathed Book.3
The Bible is authoritative because God the Holy Spirit inspired it.
Paul wrote, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2Ti 3:16). For that reason, Thomas Watson said, "It is the library of the Holy Ghost."4
Charles Hodge said of that library, "The infallibility and divine authority of the Scriptures are due to the fact that they are the Word of God; and they are the Word of God because they were given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost."5 The authority of Scripture, then, is God's authority.6 We may put it this way: What Scripture says, God says.
The Authority of the Old Testament: The thirty-nine books of the Old Testament are God's voice to His people. The following three things
1 The authority of Scripture is that property by which it demands faith and obedience to all its declarations…By virtue of the fact that Scripture is the Word of God and derives its authority from Him alone, its authority cannot be augmented or disparaged by Christians or the church…The authority of Scripture does not differ essentially from the authority of God Himself. (Robert D. Preus, The Inspiration of Scripture, 88-89)
2 All ultimate authority rests in God. As Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He has the absolute right over all created beings and an all-embracing authority in heaven as on earth.
This final and supreme authority gives Him the unlimited prerogative to command and enforce obedience, to unconditionally possess and absolutely govern all things at all times in all places of the universe. (J. Norval Geldenhuys, "Authority and the Bible" in Carl F.
H. Henry, Revelation and the Bible, 371) 3 See FGB 239, God-breathed Scripture, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
4 Thomas Watson, The Christian Soldier, or Heaven Taken by Storm, ed. Armstrong, 2nd American ed. (New York: Robert Moore, 1816), 27-28.
5 Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1 (New York: Scribner, 1872), 153.
6 The authority of the Holy Scriptures and the authority of God are one and the same things although the one pertains to God and the other to Scripture.—Johannes Andreas Quenstedt
(1617-1688)
Free Grace Broadcaster • Issue 263 affirm this: First, God speaks throughout the Old Testament. The Holy
Spirit enlightened and empowered the prophets, who consistently proclaim, "Thus saith the LORD," and "The word of the LORD came to me."
Furthermore, we read, "And God said," as well as, "The LORD said."
God spoke those divine words to men and women such as Cain, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, and all God's prophets. And as Genesis through Malachi unfold, one book after another confirms God's divine authority in Scripture with distinctive phrases: "the law of the LORD," "the testimony of the LORD," "the commandment(s) of the LORD," "the book of the LORD," "the statutes of the LORD," and "the word of God." With power and clarity, the Old Testament demonstrates the Spirit-breathed, authoritative voice of the Living God, especially in the term "my servants the prophets."
Second, two classes of passages appeal "to the Old Testament text as to God Himself speaking."7 Warfield says that in the first class, "the Scriptures are spoken of as if they were God."8 For example: "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed" (Gal 3:8 cf. Gen 12:1-3). The point is simple: the Scriptures did not exist when God spoke to Abraham. God Himself covenanted with him. Warfield suggests that the authors of Scripture so habitually identified the text of Scripture with God "that it became natural to use the term 'Scripture says,' when what was really intended was
'God, as recorded in Scripture, said.'"9
In the second class of passages, "God is spoken of as if He were the Scriptures."10 For example, Matthew's Gospel records an exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees on the subject of marriage and divorce:
"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" (Mat 19:4-5 cf. Gen 2:24). When we compare Matthew 19:4-5 with Genesis 2:24, Jesus' words, he which made them…said, are remarkable. God did not "directly" speak in that passage! Rather, Moses, God's mouthpiece to Israel, is speaking of God's institution of the first marriage and applying its principles to marriage in every age to come. Warfield suggests again, "In the two together, God and the Scriptures are brought into such [union] as to show…no 7 "It Says:" "Scripture Says:" "God Says" in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield: Revelation and Inspiration, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1981), 283-284.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
The Authority of Scripture
distinction was made between them."11 The words of Genesis 2:24 can be attributed to God only if the writers of the text were so accustomed to identifying the text with the words of God "that it had become natural to use the term 'God says' when what was really intended was 'Scripture, the Word of God, says.'"12
Third, the New Testament affirms the authority of the Old: Jesus repeatedly said, "It is written," in His authoritative preaching and teaching. The author of Hebrews said, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets" (Heb
1:1). Peter said, "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (1Pe
1:21). And Paul said: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2Ti 3:16). Paul's words all scripture point primarily to the Old Testament writings, although they are applicable to the New Testament writings that followed. By these three things, we are justified in saying of the Old
Testament, "What Scripture says, God says."
The Authority of the New Testament: Hodge asserts, "If God gave the Scriptures of the old economy by inspiration, much more were those writings that were penned under the dispensation of the Spirit."13 That unfolds as we read the New Testament. The Gospels speak repeatedly of Jesus and the events of His life with the words, "That it might be fulfilled." And the apostles' writings refer to Christ's gospel of grace as "the word of God," "the Word of the Lord," "the word of Christ," "the word," and "the word of truth." Moreover, by the Spirit's inspiration, the apostolic writings proclaim Jesus, "God with us, the Christ, the Lord, the Savior, the Son of David, the Son of man, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Great High Priest, the only Mediator between God and men, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the King of kings, and Lord of lords!" And the twenty-seven books of the New Testament present Jesus and His church as fulfilling God's covenant promises, prophecies, types, and shadows, which appear throughout the Old Testament. We may, therefore, rightfully consider the Old Testament as "God's promises made" and the New Testament as "God's promises fulfilled."
Consider these examples: The Angel of the Lord said to Joseph, "She [Mary] shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
11 Warfield, 284.
12 Ibid.
13 Hodge, 161.
Free Grace Broadcaster • Issue 263 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us"
(Mat 1:21). Jesus Himself declared, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil"
(Mat 5:17). Following His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and said, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the [Old Testament] scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luk
24:44-47). That same day, Jesus had reproved two disciples on the road to Emmaus: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself"
(Luk 24:25-27). Jesus and His church fulfilled the Old Testament.
Following His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus made provision for the establishment and edification of His churches and the advancement of God's Kingdom. Before His death, Jesus promised the Spirit's inspiration of the apostles' writings: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth" (Joh 16:13). Jesus fulfilled that promise on the Day of Pentecost: the apostles were "filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Act 2:4). After Pentecost, the apostles said things such as, "When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God" (1Th 2:13). So, guided by the Spirit, the apostles wrote down the soul-saving truths of Jesus' person and work of redemption—the eternal Son of God's miraculous virgin conception and incarnation, His perfectly holy life, His crucifixion for the sins of His people, His resurrection on the third day, and His ascension into the eternal regions of heaven! The Holy Spirit inspired and preserved those truths in the writings of New Testament. So, from Matthew to Revelation, the New Testament speaks with God's absolute authority through Christ and His apostles.
Special revelation is essential to the existence of Christianity. Christ builds His churches on the absolute authority of God's truth. We hear it from the lips of our Savior. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father on behalf of His disciples: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (Joh 17:17). Every true church,
The Authority of Scripture
then, is necessarily "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1Ti 3:15). And while God's Word reveals great spiritual mysteries, holy laws, fulfilled and yet-to-be fulfilled prophecies, beautiful poetry, instructive letters, doctrinal teaching, apocalyptic visions, and more, its greatest revelation is the salvation of sinners by faith alone in the crucified and resurrected
God-man Jesus Christ. That revelation calls us to believe on Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. But, dear reader, to reject the Bible's authoritative call is to damn one's soul for eternity. Believe, O believe the revelation of Christ Jesus for your soul's sake!
The Holy Spirit testifies of Scripture's authority. A question remains:
In a world that despises authority in general and the God of Scripture in particular, how can believers be sure of the authority of the Scriptures? The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 answers, "The authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church; but wholly upon God (Who is truth itself) the Author thereof…Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word."14 John Owen agreed: "The Spirit of God evidenceth the divine origin and authority of the Scripture by the power and authority that He puts forth in it and by it, over the minds and consciences of men, with its operation of divine effects thereon. This the apostle expressly affirms to be the reason and cause of faith."15
Finally, the Scriptures speak authoritatively to all of life. "All Scripture…is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2Ti 3:16). Thus, the 1689 Confession majestically declares: "The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience."16 As our deranged and disordered culture descends into the depths of demonic rebellion, lawlessness, and perversion, it needs the infallible rule of saving knowledge in Christ! And with faith in and obedience to Christ, may His people everywhere order their families, churches, and governments according to God's unchanging standard: the divine authority of Scripture.
_______________________ Jeff Pollard: an elder of Mount Zion Bible Church, Pensacola, FL, USA.
Cling to the divine authority of the Scriptures with a death grip!
—C. H. Spurgeon 14 The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Chapter 1.4-5.
15 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. W. Goold, Vol. 4 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 93.
16 Confession 1689, Chapter 1.1, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.