BIBLE-SUFFICIENCY
This weapon
is good at all points, good for defense and for attack, to guard our whole
person or to strike through the joints and marrow of the foe. Like the seraph’s sword at Eden’s gate, it
turns every way. You cannot be in a
condition that the Word of God has not provided. The Word has as many faces and eyes as
providence itself. You will find it
unfailing in all periods of your life, in all circumstances, in all companies,
in all trials, and under all difficulties.
Were it fallible, it would be useless in emergencies, but its unerring
truth renders it precious beyond all price to the
soldiers of the cross.
C.H. Spurgeon
Spiritual Warfare
in a Believer’s Life, Sermon Matthew 4:4.
Some
persons think they can know God by means of their own human reason. But reason is a blind ally
spiritually. It has always been the
great minds exercising their powers apart from the Word of God who have
produced the great heresies. Some think
they can discover God by listening to a so-called 'inner voice.' But the voice
is often nothing more than an expression of their own
inner desires. Quite a few think that
spiritual truths can be verified by supernatural events or miracles. But the Bible everywhere teaches that even
miracles will not lead men and women to understand and receive God's truth
unless they themselves are illuminated by the Bible (see Luke 16:31). I believe that we can state categorically
that there is no knowledge apart from Jesus Christ and that there is no
knowledge of Jesus Christ apart from a knowledge of
the Bible.
The Bible is
a sufficient source of truth and direction for salvation and for all
significant aspects of life. A person should not search the Scriptures in hopes
of learning the best way to poach an egg or repair an automobile. But when it
comes to issues of sin, salvation, the church, the worship of God, evangelism,
marriage, the education and discipline of children, relating to an immoral
society, or any other aspect of Christian living, the Bible stands alone as
sufficient. God’s Word does not need to be supplemented by human wisdom,
ingenuity, philosophy, or psychology.
Daryl Wingerd
The
Bible is God's Special Revelation, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
I
have convenanted with my Lord that he should not send
me visions or dreams or even angels. I
am content with this gift of the Scriptures, which teaches
and supplies all that is necessary, both for this life and that which is to
come.
Even
though (the Bible) is an ancient document, every person in every situation in
every society that’s ever existed can find in this book
things that endure forever.
Here’s a book that never needs another edition. It never needs to be edited, never has to be
updated, is never out of date or obsolete. It speaks to us as pointedly and directly as
it ever has to anyone in any century since it was written. It’s so pure that it lasts forever.
You Can Trust the Bible, Moody Press, 1988, p. 21-22.
Vainly
do they run about with the pretext that they have demanded councils for the
faith’s sake; for divine Scripture is sufficient above all things.
The
Scripture is the library of the Holy Ghost; it is a pandect of divine
knowledge, an exact model and platform of religion. The Scripture contains in it the credenda,
“the things which we are to believe,” and the agenda, “the things which we are
to practice.”
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 32.
He
doth not bid us take a taste of all sins and vanities, as Solomon did, to try
them: for they are tried already; but
that we should set the Word of God always before us like a rule, and believe
nothing but that which it teacheth, love nothing but
that which it prescribeth, hate nothing but that
which it forbideth, do nothing but that which is commandeth, and then we try all things by the Word.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 36.
The
fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to
immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the
Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room
for their own falsehoods.