Scriptural Authority
Posted
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
by
Brian Beers
Categories:
Bible
The furor over the inerrancy of Scripture has been at a fever pitch for decades now. One might get the idea that it is more important to toe the line on inerrancy than it is to believe the deity of Jesus. After all, is it even possible to believe the Messiah without ascribing to The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy?
Collectively, we seem to have forgotten that faith is central to well…our faith. We each trust Scripture to varying degrees, and it is this trust of Scripture that I want to emphasize. We cannot get away from the need to trust scripture. The certainty that is claimed for Scripture is a matter of faith, but it is promoted as though it was established by the scientific method.
There are many different degrees of confidence that a person may have in Scripture. Most of these fall far short of the certainty that many have in the Scriptures, but we must first acknowledge our dependence on the testimony of others.
This list is limited to external reasons to recognize the authority of Scripture. They are organized in order of increasing contribution to our confidence in the trustworthiness of Scripture.
1. It exists.
Someone wrote these documents, and we are free to consider their thoughts. This is the same level of authority that any book has today.
2. It is old.
Old things have a mystique about them. To perceive the thought of a different age can be enlightening. The contrast to modern thought reveals to us that there are vastly different perspectives on life.
3. It has endured.
And it has endured actively. This is not some obscure document, once forgotten and only recently unearthed. It has had a continual influence on the thoughts of people from the time that it was written. For this reason it should be considered seriously.
4. It is believed.
Thousands of people from different nations, different backgrounds and educations base significant decisions about their lives on these documents. These people attribute a level of authority to these documents. This raises the possibility of personal authority.
5. It has been believed.
When multiple generations acknowledge a consistent authority that authority is more trustworthy. The likelihood that these documents are a valid authority is increased.
6. It was believed.
In the early days of each book in Scripture people lived who knew the author. These people were in the best position to reject the validity of book as Scripture. Since those who were best equipped to understand the author’s meaning did not reject it, we too may have confidence in its authority.
These six reasons to trust the authority of Scripture lead us to the point of considering the claims of Scripture. How does Scripture establish its own authority? This is a question for another day. I hope this list will encourage us to come to Scripture without being afraid of skeptics. Even without the hedge of full, total, absolute, complete, entire, plenary inerrancy that has been cultivated around the Bible we have enough reason to have complete confidence in it.
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