The Bible as Sole and Soul Authority

by    Dr. David S. Dockery                                                                                                                                Vol. X, No. 4, April 1997

[The most critical issue within Christianity today is the degree to which an individual, a local church, or a denomination holds the Bible to be without error or to contain errors. While this article may be a tad academic for the tastes of some readers, I urge you to read it carefully. It sets forth briefly and straightforwardly the case for biblical inerrancy. Bold print within the text has been added for emphasis. TCP]

For almost 20 years Southern Baptists have discussed and debated the nature of Biblical authority. In many ways the intense struggle of the last two decades has pictured the broader struggle within all of Christendom. Strident controversies present in both church and society in many ways demonstrate the crisis of Biblical authority.

The hot ... questions facing the church such as abortion, homosexuality, feminist theology, postmodern concerns, and new age mysticism point to the wide-ranging gap between the message of Holy Scripture and the issues impacting our society. It is vitally important that Southern Baptists maintain their commitment to be a people of the book as we move forward into the 21st Century.

Though our methods must change to adapt to changing times, our message must remain firm and clearly grounded in the inspired, truthful, and authoritative scriptures.

The Bible's Self Description

The Bible describes itself as a special book. Even before the canonization of the sacred books, importance was attached to the sacred writings. Moses wrote, "All the words of the LORD" in the "Book of the Covenant" (Exodus 21:23). Joshua's farewell address was written "in the book of the law of God" (Joshua 24:26). Samuel spoke words about the manner of the Kingdom and "wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the LORD" (I Samuel 10:25). Jesus repeatedly appealed to the authoritative scriptures (see Matthew 19:4; 22:29). Similarly, Paul and the apostles thought of the scrolls as the "very words of God that cannot be broken (see John 10:35). It is "the Word of the Prophets made more certain" about which the apostles wrote, because these words were spoken from God as the writers "were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:19- 21). The Bible itself acknowledges that the prophetic-apostolic word is God's Word written. Without this writing there would be no Scriptures and therefore no word of God available to us.

The Bible's Message

The Bible presents a message about God and his purposes. It describes the creation of the universe, including the direct creation of men and women in a paradise on earth.

The Bible describes the call of Abraham, the giving of the Law, the establishment of the Kingdom, the division of the Kingdom, and the captivity and restoration of Israel.

Scripture sees humankind as fallen from a sinless condition and separated from God. The promise of a coming Messiah who will redeem men and women and reign as King appears throughout the Old Testament.

The message of the Word of God claims that believers are restored to favor with God through the sacrifice of Christ.

It is the confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of the world, that is at the heart of the Christian faith. This message is central to the content of Holy Scriptures.

Contemporary Southern Baptists need not only to affirm this message, but also to affirm the Bible's inspiration, truthfulness, and normative nature. In the midst of the crisis of Biblical authority in which we find ourselves, we need to evidence our concern for biblical authority by careful theological reflection, faithful proclamation, repentance, and prayer. A confession that the Bible is fully inspired and totally truthful is important because it is the foundation that establishes the complete extent of the Scripture's authority.

Contemporary Southern Baptists must choose to articulate a view of the Bible for the contemporary community that is faithful to and in continuity with the consensus of historic positions in the church that have characteristically confessed that the Bible is the written Word of God. Building upon that foundation block, we can relate to one another in love and humility, bringing about truth, fellowship and community and resulting not only in right doctrine, but right practice before a watching world.

The Bible's Inspiration

Through the superintending influence of God's Spirit upon the writers of Holy Scripture, the account and interpretation of God's revelation has been recorded as God intended so that the Bible is actually the Word of God. In writing, these men of God used their own ordinary languages and literary forms that were typical of their day. Yet within this very human activity God was at work. God chose to convey His Word through their words. This divine-human activity is truly the concursive inspiration of Holy Scripture.

When God's Word came to us through human authors, the humanity of the instrument God chose to use can be seen in the product. It is possible to actually see different personalities as we look at various books of the Bible. The style, vocabulary, and particular purposes of the apostle John, for example, are distinct from those of Luke. Yet both final products of their writings are equally the inspired Word of God.

In the history of the church, the divine character of Scripture has been the great presupposition for the whole of Christian preaching and theology. This is readily apparent in the way the New Testament speaks about the Old Testament. That which appears in the Old Testament is cited in the New Testament with formulas like "God says" and "The Holy Spirit" (Acts 4:24-25; 13:47; II Corinthians 6:16). Scripture and God are so closely joined together in the minds of New Testament authors that they naturally could speak of Scripture doing what it records God as doing (Galatians 3:8; Romans 9:17). The introductory phrase "it stands written" is used as a stamp of authority on both Old and New Testament writings.

Because of the Apostolic word's divine origin and content, Scripture can be described as certain and trustworthy (II Peter 1:19, cf. I Peter 1:24-25). As a result, those who build their lives on Scripture "will never be put to shame" (I Peter 2:6).

The Word was written for instruction and encouragement (Romans 15:4), to lead to saving faith (II Timothy 3:15), to guide people toward Godliness (II Timothy 3:16b), and to equip believers for good works (II Timothy 3: 17).

The Bible affirms its own inspiration in II Timothy 3:16-17: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

II Timothy 3:16-17 focuses primarily on the product of inspiration, the final writing of Scripture, though it also includes secondary aspects of the purpose and process. What is being asserted is the activity of God throughout the entire process, so that the completed, final product ultimately comes from Him.

It is a mistake to think of inspiration only in terms of the time when the Spirit moved the human author to write. The Biblical concept of inspiration allows for the activity of the Spirit in special ways in the process without requiring that we understand all of the Spirit's working in one and the same way. In the process of creation and preservation of the universe, God providentially intervened in special ways for special purposes. Alongside and within this superintending action of the Spirit to inspire human writings in the Biblical books, we likewise can affirm a special work of the Spirit in bringing God's revelation to the apostles and prophets.

God's Spirit is involved both in revealing specific messages to the prophets (Jeremiah 1 :1-9) and in guiding the authors of the historical section in their research (Luke 1: 1-4).

We can assert that inspiration extends to the choice of words, even though Scripture's meaning is located at the sentence level and beyond. Thus our understanding of inspiration affirms the dual nature of Holy Scripture -- it is a divine-human book. This recognition enables us to have a healthy understanding of the diverse literary genres represented in Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is the one who, in a mystery for which the incarnation of Jesus Christ provides the only analogy, causes the verbal human witness to coincide with God's witness to Himself.

It is necessary to view inspiration as extending to all portions of Holy Scripture, even beyond the direction of thoughts to the selection of words. We must recognize the element of mystery involved in the process, which does not fully explain the “how” of inspiration. This understanding of inspiration seeks to do justice to the human factors in the Bible's composition and avoids any attempt to suggest that the Bible was mechanically dictated.

We therefore affirm both the divine character of Scripture and the human circumstances of the Bible’s composition in affirming the Bible’s full inspiration.

Truthfulness and Authority

The result of our affirmations about a full view of inspiration calls for a commitment to the Bible's full truthfulness and sole authority. We believe the idea of a completely true Bible is important and adequately describes the results of inspiration.

To affirm that the Bible is completely true means that it is trustworthy, reliable, infallible, and inerrant.

To affirm the Bible's inerrancy means that "when all the facts are known, the Bible (in its autographs) properly interpreted in light of which culture and communication means had developed by the time of its composition, will be shown to be completely true (and therefore not false) in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended by the author, in all matters relating to God and His creation."

This definition of the Bible's complete truthfulness recognizes our need to approach Scripture in humble submission in awareness of God's omniscience and our own finiteness. Instead of maintaining the critic's relative omniscience, we think it best to admit our own fallibility as critics and trust the omnipotent and omniscient work of God over and through the Biblical writers.

While some continue to question the importance of an affirmation of the Bible's truthfulness or inerrancy, this confession is important for the church not because inerrancy is necessary for salvation but because it is important to continue to affirm an orthodox and Biblical confession of salvation and other doctrines as well. This confession remains a foundational issue for all of Christian theology. An affirmation that the Bible is inerrant or completely truthful is the necessary corollary of inspiration and primarily stresses the trustworthy character of God's faithful revelation to humanity.

An affirmation of the Bible's truthfulness or its inerrancy does not imply an exhaustive knowledge of God or any other subject. Neither does it deny human authorship, promise a correct interpretation of Scripture, nor guarantee an accurate preservation of Scripture so as to produce inerrant translations. It does, however, set certain limits upon the range of acceptable answers in the matters of Biblical interpretation and ultimately provides a solid foundation for trustworthy translations of Scripture.

As many orthodox theologians have observed, theology that is not a confession of the Bible's complete truthfulness and authority operates within the circle of human concepts and experience and has no reference point. A renewed commitment to the Bible's full inspiration, truthfulness, and authority is the first step toward healing the deadly sickness in today's theological trends. Believing the Bible to be inspired and true, we can joyfully and confidently commit our lives to its message and gladly proclaim this truth to others.

Conclusion

The Bible is the primary source of God's self revelation for His people today. Even though times and cultures change, the basic needs shared by men and women of all ages and races in all times and cultures remain the same, and thus the message of God is normative, authoritative, and applicable as much for Christians in the 21st Century as the first.

We acknowledge that Scripture speaks to the spiritual needs of men and women, but more importantly it reveals the truth of and about God.

We confess that all Scripture is inspired and is the true, reliable, Word of God for the people of God.

Beyond these affirmations and articulations about the Word of God, we willfully and happily commit ourselves to it by placing our trust and confidence in the truthful, trustworthy, reliable, authoritative Word of God.

[Reprinted from The Indiana Baptist, 27 August 1996. Dr. David S. Dockery is president, Union University, Jackson, TN. Previously he was at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY, as Dean of the School of Theology and VP of Academic Administration.]