AUTHORITY-BIBLE
The Bible
claims for itself a singular and final authority concerning all matters it
addresses. No other instructions, written or verbal, represent a higher or even
equal authority. This authority was not granted to God at one of the historical
councils of the church; God does not need men to agree with Him or determine
the extent of His authority. The Scriptures carry ultimate authority for one reason:
They are the words of the sovereign Ruler of the universe.
Daryl Wingerd
The
Bible is God's Special Revelation,
Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
When the Word
of God is not set up as the supreme authority, division is inevitable. Such
happens even in evangelical churches, when pastors and other leaders begin
substituting their own ideas for the truths of Scripture. The substitution is
seldom intentional, but it will always happen when the Bible is neglected. A
Bible that is not studied carefully cannot be followed carefully. And where it
is not followed there will be division, because there will be no common ground
for beliefs and practices. When the truth of Scripture is not the sole authority,
men's varied opinions become the authority.
If Jesus, the
sinless and perfect Son of God, limited Himself to speaking nothing during His
incarnation except the truth He received from His Father, how much more should
those who have been called into ministry speak only on the authority of divine
Scripture.
John MacArthur
Titus, Moody, 1996, p. 127.
The true
Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all
churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all
sermons, all writings, all opinions, all
practices. These are his marching
orders. Prove all by the Word of God;
measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the
Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the
Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible.
That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse,
repudiate, and cast away. This is the
flag which he nailed to the mast. May it
never be lowered!
“We think
with our feelings,” Sinclair Ferguson has said.
It’s true. We allow our feelings
to guide our thinking and we shouldn’t.
Emotions are a wonderful gift from God.
And our relationship with God should bring to our lives strong godly
affections. However, our emotions
shouldn’t be vested with final authority.
This should be reserved for God’s Word alone.
The Cross Centered Life, 2002, Sovereign Grace Ministries, p. 48. Used by permission of Multnomah Publishers, Inc. Excerpts may not be reproduced without prior written consent of Multnomah Publishers, Inc.
(If)
preachers wish to preach with divine authority, they must proclaim this message
of the inspired Scriptures, for the Scriptures alone have divine authority. If
preachers wish to preach with divine authority, they must submit themselves and
echo the Word of God. Preachers are literally to be ministers of the Word.
The source of
my authority in this pulpit is not...my wisdom; nor is it a private revelation
granted to me beyond the revelation of Scripture. My words have authority only insofar as they
are the repetition, unfolding and proper application of the words of
Scripture. I have authority only when I
stand under authority. And our corporate
symbol of that truth is the sound of your Bibles opening to the text. My deep conviction about preaching is that a
pastor must show the people that what he is saying was already said or implied
in the Bible. If it cannot be shown it
has no special authority.
The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God, 1
Corinthians 2:1--5, July 13, 1980. www.desiringGod.org.
Used by Permission.
The subject
of spiritual experience is at the forefront of thinking in evangelicalism
worldwide today. A clear line of
division can be drawn between those who insist that the Bible must be the basis
by which all spiritual experience is tested and those who regard experience as
pre-eminent and resist the tests of Scripture.
Is the Word our authority, or is spiritual experience our
authority? The Puritans were strong in
the area of knowing God by heart experience but they sought to test everything
by Scripture. We do well to follow their
example.
Who Are the Puritans? Evangelical Press, p.
142.
The church at
Ephesus faced a culture characterized by immorality. We, too, live in a culture tolerant of sexual
immorality. It is popular to be
open-minded to many types of sin, calling them personal choices or alternative
lifestyles. But when the body of believers begins to tolerate sin in the
church, it is lowering the church's standards and compromising its witness. Remember that God's approval is infinitely
more important than the world's. Use
God's Word, not what people around you are willing to accept, to set the
standards for what is right or wrong.
We are to
believe and follow Christ in all things, including His words about
Scripture. And this means that Scripture
is to be for us what it was to Him: the unique, authoritative, and inerrant
Word of God, and not merely a human testimony to Christ, however carefully
guided and preserved by God. If the
Bible is less than this to us, we are not fully Christ's disciples.
The Preacher and God’s Word.
It is beyond
doubt that Jesus highly esteemed the Old Testament and constantly submitted to
it as to an authoritative revelation. He taught that the Scriptures bore
a witness to him, just as he bore a witness to them. Because they are the
words of God, Jesus assumed their complete reliability, in whole and to the
smallest part.
James Montgomery Boice
Taken from "Foundations of the
Christian Faith-Book I" by James Montgomery Boice, page 45.
(c)1986 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA,
Revised edition. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=991.
Our claim is
that God has revealed Himself by speaking; that this divine (or God-breathed)
speech has been written down and preserved in Scripture; and that Scripture is,
in fact, God’s Word written, which therefore is true and reliable and has
divine authority over men.
If Jesus knew
that Scripture contained human error yet never made this fact known to His
followers, misleading them rather by His insistently positive attitude toward
it, He can hardly qualify as a great moral teacher and the incarnate God of
truth.
Henry Virkler
Hermeneutics, Baker, 1981, p. 37.
First of all,
the evangelical is one who is entirely subservient to the Bible… This is true of every evangelical. He is a man of one book; he starts with it;
he submits himself to it; this is his authority.
D.M. Lloyd Jones
What is an Evangelical? The Banner
of Truth Trust, 1992, p. 42. Used by Permission.
Holy
Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by
His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it
touches: it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms;
obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge,
in all that it promises.
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
A Short Statement, n. 2.
Here it is,
plain and unvarnished. Unless I am
convinced of error by the testimony of Scriptures or...by manifest reasoning I
stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience
is taken captive by God's Word, I cannot and will not recant anything...On this
I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Martin Luther
The authority
of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man's reason.
Martin Luther
From the
Garden of Eden, to the experience of Job, to the temptation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the present day, Satan has tried to move man away from submission to
the authority of God and His Word. If he
cannot do it through direct enticement or challenge, he will attempt to do it
through all manner of subtlety and deception.
That is why one must be careful not to embrace new revelations that come
through any avenue: impressions, intuition, visions, dreams, tongues, or
prophecy. As noted previously, such
undermine both the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.
John Napier
Charismatic Challenge by John Napier,
Providence House Publishers, 2003, p. 112. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
We must not
allow our emotions to hold sway over our minds. Rather, we must seek to let the
truth of God rule our minds. Our emotions must become subservient to the truth.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 140. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
As far as the
apostles were concerned, they were as weak as any other men. They were uneducated, very ordinary men. Yet they are given this privileged position:
they will deliver the Word of God through the Son to the world. From God the Father,
through the Son, through the Spirit, and through the apostles to the world. In this sense, the apostles are
"foundational" to the church...Theological and ethical instruction
from the apostles is universally binding.
Indeed, it is "from God to us."
Fred Zaspel
Tom Wells and Fred Zaspel, New Covenant
Theology, 2002.
There is
nothing so deluding as feelings. Christians cannot live by feelings. Let me further tell you that these feelings
are the work of Satan, for they are not right feelings. What right have you
to set up your feelings against the Word of Christ.
C.H. Spurgeon
Since no
daily responses are given from heaven, and the Scriptures are the only record
in which God has been pleased to consign His truth to perpetual remembrance,
the full authority which they ought to possess with the faithful is not
recognized unless they are believed to have come from heaven as directly as if
God had been heard giving utterance to them.
John Calvin
God speaks in
the Scriptures, and by it teaches the Church herself; and therefore His
authority in the Scriptures is greater, the authority of Him that teaches, than
of those by whom He teaches as the authority of a king in his law is greater
than that of an officer that proclaims them.
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 56.
The Word of
God never returns empty handed, frustrated, and defeated. It always, and without exception,
accomplishes the pleasure of the sovereign God because He has decreed that His
divine plan shall prosper in each single detail (Isa. 55:11; Acts 13:48).
TULIP, The Five
Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture, Baker, 1979, p. 22.
The idea of sola Scriptura is that there is only one written
source of divine revelation, which can never be placed on a parallel status
with confessional statements, creeds, or the traditions of the church.
Scripture alone has the authority to bind the conscience precisely because only
Scripture is the written revelation of almighty God.
R.C. Sproul
Twilight
of the Idols, Tabletalk, June 2008, p. 7, Used by Permission.
The Bible was
the only book Jesus every quoted, and then never as a basis for discussion but
to decide the point at issue.
Authority
resides in God’s inspired Word (the Bible) interpreted by God’s Spirit
operating through Spirit-taught human agents.