Throughout time, one of the most commonly challenged topics has been that of Biblical authority. Individuals doubt the Bible’s inerrancy from a human perspective, clouded by sin; how can one trust that the Scriptures are constant in a world that is filled with change and error? Nonetheless, acquiring the answers to questions such as these provide individuals with an unshakable foundation for understanding Biblical theology. According to Elwell’s Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Authority refers to, “spoken or written words whose accuracy has been established and can be fully trusted” (Elwell). For one to accept that the Gospel holds all authority is an extremely powerful step to a proper understanding of Biblical theology. To fulfill …show more content…
This idea refers to a Divine Will that communicates with its other parts in order to give the influence of the Holy Spirit upon chosen individuals (Elwell). These individuals then proceed to copy the words given through the Holy Spirit as a trustworthy and authoritative revelation from God. Answers in Genesis theologian, Jason Lisle noted that, in order to believe the Bible’s divine inspiration, there would have to be consistency throughout the entire text. He also stated that, “This internal consistency is what we would expect if the Bible really is what it claims to be—God’s revelation” (Answers in Genesis). There is much evidence in support of this belief, displayed countless times in the Scriptures through prophetic events. 2 Peter 1:21 states that, "for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from …show more content…
Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Scriptures are true and flawless because they were given by a perfect God (John 17:17). One of the strongest arguments for inerrancy is this very concept; if God is perfect, then everything He says must also be perfect (Proverbs 30:5). Additionally, through all of church history, the church has believed in the Bible’s inerrancy. Calvin, a great reformer, noted that, “The Spirit of God…appears purposely to have regulated their (Biblical author’s) style in such a manner; that they all wrote one and the same history, with the most perfect agreement, but in different ways” (Elwell). Thirdly, the idea of Epistemology plays an interesting role in this argument; this theory states that if one rejects the Bible’s infallibility, he will also lose the basis for wisdom and knowledge. Thus, with this belief, a single error in the Bible renders the entire Scriptures susceptible to falsehood. The final argument is the slippery slope, which states that if one denies inerrancy, he will also succumb to surrendering his foundation of Christian
The Bible is read and interpreted by many people all over the world. Regardless, no one knows the absolute truth behind scripture. Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, wrote “Biblical Authority” to help people understand what he describes as six different parts that make up the foundation to ones understanding of scripture. He defines these six features as being: inherency, interpretation, imagination, ideology, inspiration, and importance. As Brueggemann explains each individual part, it is easy to see that they are all interconnected because no one can practice one facet without involuntarily practicing at least one other part.
In his book, Structure of Biblical Authority, Meredith Kline explains, describes, and defends the suzerain-vassal paradigm of the biblical covenant and canon of Scripture. Scripture’s authority, according to Kline is not merely related to its ontology (that God has spoken it); but in its basic economic form, Scripture is a covenantal document and therefore is authoritative. It is through this covenant that God binds himself to his covenant people and they to him. As our covenant suzerain, God sovereignly rules his vassals with covenant stipulations.
D.A. Carson introduces the essay by explaining the overall difficulty of interpreting the Bible in honesty and truth. Because the Bible is the Word of Truth, Carson informs the reader of the importance in understanding the Word of God before accepting the difficult task of interpreting it. He continues by focusing on the idea of hermeneutics and three primary ways that the interpretation of text has changed in the past few years.
The nature of Scripture and the authority of Scripture are two characteristics carefully entwined in such a way that creates an impossibility for them to not affect each other. They directly influence each other. Evangelicalism, Liberalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy all have differing views of the nature and authority of Scripture. Evangelicalism takes up the view that the Bible, Scripture, is infallible (Lane, 2006, p. 255). Scripture is God’s word and is therefore fully truth (Lane, 2006, p. 256). People under Evangelicalism equate Scripture with God’s spoken word, and they believe that though God and humans are both authors, the human author was divinely prepared by God to write out His word (Lane, 2006, p. 257). They believe that “the Bible is the supreme authority for faith and practice” (Bingham, 2002, p. 162). Liberalism takes a different view on the Scripture. In Liberalism, religion is “nothing but feeling and experience” (Lane, 2006, p. 238). This reduces the authority and value of Scripture. Scripture is not seen as God’s word or His revelation but as a written record of the experiences of humans, which takes away from its divinity and authority (Lane, 2006, p. 239). Schleiermacher, the father of Liber...
Inspiration Theory Contained within the Bible is a consortium of books that are as various as they are numerous. Their genres range anywhere from histories, to letters, to narratives, to poems, and even beyond that. Something that binds all of these books together, however, is the means by which they were inspired. The muse that breathed these books into life is consistent from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21; that muse is the Holy Spirit. Many authors penned books that have been believed by many to belong in the Bible, but what separates those Apocryphal documents from the pure, holy scriptures of the Bible is the Holy Spirit; the one that inspired them.
There are many things that people who lack biblical knowledge wouldn’t understand, if someone didn’t provide them with answers. Most Christians know that the Bible has authority, but for non-believers, this is a hard concept to understand. Many non-believers, struggle with just having faith and believing what the Bible says is true. When people say that the Bible has authority, they are explaining that there are commands, and laws for believers to follow. The term authority is the right and power to command and give laws (Elwell 153). In Matthew 21:23-27, Priests and Elders of the people questioned Jesus’ authority. Verse 27 says, “Then he said, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” In Luke 4:31-36 Jesus drives out an impure spirit from a man. Verse 36 says, “All the people were amazed and said to each other, what words these are! With authority and power he gives orders and they come out!” Elwell explains that biblical authority has to begin with God (154). “Revelation is therefore the key to God’s authority so that the two, revelation and authority, ma...
“The necessity of Scripture means that the Bible is necessary for knowledge of the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life, and for certain knowledge of God’s will” (Grudem 54). Grudem claims that the Bible is necessary for salvation, and that one must hear the gospel or read it, in order to come to Christ. Matthew 4:4, states that man cannot live on bread alone, but on the word of God. This verse affirms the statement that Scripture is necessary for maintaining a spiritual life. (Grudem 54-5). The issues of the necessity of scripture is so important, because I feel it defines and unites our faith. Without a need for scripture, faith would ultimately be
If a rule of life can be likened to a trellis, then scripture will be the timber that eventually becomes the latticework. Therefore, studying and assimilating the scripture is essential to our growth and development as leaders to the sons and daughters we are called to influence and compel to greater heights in Christ. Not only did the Psalmist declare that storing up the Word in our hearts keeps us from sinning against the Lord, Paul also revealed to Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (Psalm 119:11, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, King James Version). Therefore, if we aspire to accomplish, great works in God, and fulfill our callings, we must know, understand and adhere to the teaching expresses in God’s Word. Moreover, as much as we’d like to dismiss this notion, Scazzero (2014) exclaimed that “we live in a culture shaped by the beast” (p. 43).
The Word of God is used by theologians as a baseline narrative of revelation, and then they try to determine what is meant by God. Opponents of theology will point to certain parts of scripture that are quite obviously not scientifically accurate, and use these facts to discredit the Word. Ratzinger would retort by saying that the Bible should be considered unequivocal; it is in fact a living document much like the Constitution. He states, “It is untenable on the basis of the objective structure of the Word, on account of
This week our studies concluded with offering students opportunity for reflection on continuing debates over biblical inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Our objectives included understanding the continuing debate of the doctrine of inerrancy and N. T. Wright’s bibliology in relation to some of his dialogue partners. Our final reading came from Denis Farkasfalvy’s book, Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture. This paper’s focus is my reflections of the material presented.
Scripture has throughout time held inherent authority with the people of God. The Old Testament Israelites clinged to the Torah as their perpetual connection to Yahweh. From the book of Matthew onwards the Old Testament, especially the Law, were held dogmatically by Judaism while the newer writings, the New Testament, were not only rejected but opposed violently when the Christians began to view the newly penned books as inspired. Moving past the first century into contemporary times it is still observed that the Bible, the Word of God, holds a place of life-altering authority in the minds and hearts of the Judeo-Christian religious. What however does it mean for the scripture to “have authority?”
However, if the Bible is inspired, then it must be completely true because God only speaks the truth. Inspiration and inerrancy are two sides to the same
Inerrancy is trustworthy in the bible, and its teachings and declaration are respected. The word is used by traditionalist Protestants and plays a major role in the faith about the bible. Strict inerrancy states that the bible in its present form has no error, hence as God’s word, should be followed. Contrary, limited inerrancy according to Catholics, talks about the Bible having no errors in certain matters such as faith, morals and salvation. The belief system also states that the Bible contains errors in scientific observation matters as well as historical events.
The Bible is the infallible, inspired, inerrant Word of the living God. I grew up hearing this from pastors, teachers and evangelists. I have come to believe that the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God because the Bible itself claims it, Jesus and the early church fathers believed it, and textual unity supports it. First, the Bible claims, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives” (2 Timothy 3:16, NLT).
Metzger defines Biblical inspiration as the doctrine in Christian theology that the authors and editors of the Bible were led or influenced by God with the result that their writings may be designated in some sense the word of God. Migliore writes in Faith Seeking Understanding that the Bible is identified without qualification with God’s words. It is authoritative by virtue of its supernatural origin and the direct identity of its words with the word of God. With the Bible being inspired by God, Migliore writes that its scripture is without error and true in all matters of history and science for which it speaks. (Migliore: Pg. 50) He also states that scripture is the unique and irreplaceable witness to the liberating and reconciling activity of God in the history of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)