Christian Doctrine: The Authority and Inspiration of the Bible (pt.2)

The Bible is of divine utterance. It is a product of God’s activity. This fact (that the Bible has a divine quality) reveals three truths. First, the Bible is God’s Word. The Bible does simply contain God’s word. The Bible is in and of itself the written word of God. This is the Scriptures teaching concerning itself. The prophets over and over identified their prophecies with the Word of God with a “thus saith the Lord.” The Old Testament is always cited in the New Testament as the speaking of God (Matt 1:22, Acts 28:25). In some passages the Lord and Scripture are so closely identified that they are indistinguishable (Gen 12:1-3 with Gal 3:8; Ex 9:16 with Rom 9:17). In other passages the Lord is spoken of as if he were the Scriptures (Gen 2:24 with Matt 19:4-5). So the Bible regards itself as God’s word.

Second, the Bible is infallible and inerrant. This means the Bible does not deceive or mislead. It contains no falsehood or contradiction. Nothing in Scripture is unworthy of an infallible God who cannot lie.

Contrary to the thinking of many today, it makes a difference whether or not one does or does not accept the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible. Both of these properties are necessary of God’s word. If it contains falsehood or misleads then it cannot be God’s word, because God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). If a person believes that the Bible is in its entirety the word of God then they should have no difficulty believing it is also infallible and inerrant.

Third, the Bible is authoritative in the areas of doctrine and conduct. Whatever the Bible teaches as true the Christian is to believe regardless of popular opinion. Whatever it teaches to live by we are to obey regardless of “new life styles.” To say the Bible is divine in its nature is to say that whatever the Bible says, God says. Until next time, may God bless you and remember that God loves you and so does First Baptist Church.