Scriptural Authority

but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

Last week we hopefully answered three major questions that you must be convinced of in order to adequately defend your faith. We concluded that our beliefs are important, that we must know what we believe and why we believe it. We asserted that the Bible is the surest, safest, and most sound authority for our beliefs, because as God’s word, it is the final authority.

But I left you w/ a question unanswered, how do we know the Bible is truly God’s word, and therefore authoritative, and not another religious book like the Koran?

2 Tim 3:16

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 390 Seven Wonders of the Word

1. The wonder of its formation—the way in which it grew is one of the mysteries of time.

2. The wonder of its unification—a library of 66 books, yet one book.

3. The wonder of its age—most ancient of all books.

4. The wonder of its sale—best-seller of all time and of any other book.

5. The wonder of its interest—only book in the world read by all classes of people.

6. The wonder of its language—written largely by uneducated men, yet the best book from a literary standpoint.

7. The wonder of its preservation—the most hated of all books, yet it continues to exist.

The Power of the Word

“Inspired” that the NASB and the NKJV use comes from the Latin Vulgate Bible which uses the verb inspiro.

In the Greek text it is θεόπνευστος and it only appears one time and place in the greek text and that’s here in 2 Timothy.

This word comes from 2 words θεος (God) πνεω (breath out). πνεῦμα is the Greek word for spirit.

So you can see God’s word came about b/c the very Spirit of God breathed it upon its authors.

Gen 2:7 God breathed on Adam and he became a living soul.

John 20:22 Jesus breathed on the apostles and they were born again.

So you can see that even the very breath of God is inherent w/ power!

He who knows the word of God does not lack for strength in the midst of the fight; he does not lack for nourishment in the time of scarcity, nor does he lack direction in the journey of life.

Prov 16:20 says “he who gives attention to the word will find good.

C.H. Spurgeon - The more you read the Bible, and the more you meditate upon it, the more you will be astonished with it. He who is but a casual reader of the Bible, does not know the height, the depth, the length, and breadth of the mighty meanings contained in its pages.

We should be insatiable when it comes to God’s word.

Every Sunday preachers urge their respective congregations to read the Bible for themselves; yet their pleas fall on deaf ears.

So why do we not give it the attention it deserves?!

B/c we must first believe in the authority and person of God before we can believe in the authority of the Bible.

How do we know it is the true word of God?

External Evidence (Head Knowledge)

Every religion has its own sacred writings. For example Hinduism — the Vedas; Buddhism — the Triptaka.

The Bible’s main competitor is the Koran b/c Islam is the closest to Christianity of all religions.

The Bible is the only book to tell of something happening years before and it coming to pass w/ 100% accuracy.

Isa 41:21-24; 46:8-11.

bethinking.org reports that:

Archaeological discoveries also affirm the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Archaeologist William F. Albright observes:

The excessive scepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth-and-nineteenth centuries, certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.

And equip.org states that:

Burial Plaque of King Uzziah. Down in Judah, King Uzziah ruled from 792 to 740 BC, a contemporary of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. Like Solomon, he began well and ended badly. In 2 Chronicles 26 his sin is recorded, which resulted in his being struck with leprosy later in life. When Uzziah died, he was interred in a “field of burial that belonged to the kings.” His stone burial plaque has been discovered on the Mount of Olives, and it reads: “Here, the bones of Uzziah, King of Judah, were brought. Do not open.”

The Bible was written by 40 different authors over a period of 2k years and is made up of 66 different books; yet contains one major theme.

The Koran was written by one man in the short course of his life.

The Koran references and affirms the Bible; the Bible never references the Koran or any other religious writings.

Read from the Koran 5:68; 3:3; 9:29-30; (Kill unbelievers9:5; 47:4).

The Koran affirms the Bible; but Islamic scholars believe the Bible has been corrupted by misquotation. Yet, as I have just read to you, Muhammad himself affirmed it in his time.

We have manuscripts that go back to the second and third centuries.

Internal evidence (Heart Knowledge)

Once you accept Christ, the Holy Spirit will testify to you of the authority and infallibility of the Bible.

Heart knowledge of the word is where the power is, including the power to argue and reason for its validity and inerrancy.

1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP

But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

Those who argue against scripture say uninformed things like: “the Bible contradicts itself,” or “it’s nothing more than the words of men,” or “it’s outdated and irrelevant for today.”

The message of the Bible transcends both time and culture; but the form is bound to time and culture.

We must interpret it according to its language, cultural setting, its geography, and its chronology.

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