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Can We Trust the Bible as Our Authority
Go to school, especially a humanities class in college, and you will hear the Bible ridiculed. A professor might even ask, “Why do believe in God?” Or, “Why do you think the Bible can be trusted as your authority?” Bluntly put, “Why are you a Christian?”
Before giving your answer, listen to Peter’s rebuttal to doubters who claimed he and others were following cleverly devised myths (2 Peter 1:16). Besides him being an eyewitness which we not, we can stand with him in his defence of his being a believer which was the written word of God (2 Peter 1:20-21):
1. “Above all, you know this:”
• The Bible is a well-known, handed down, protected, group of manuscripts written over a period of 1500 years, by 40 different men, from kings to farmers, on 3 continents, in three different languages, with one continual consistent theme. The scriptures were not something hidden, esoteric, or only for the few or enlightened.
2. “No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man;”
• The writers do not claim to be speaking solely on their own, and therefore do not claim these writings as a man’s work about God. These writings both forth-tell God’s present will, and foretell the future. All this was was seen by eyewitnesses as fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. He is acknowledged as a historical man who claimed to come from God, as did the prophecies about him. He fulfilled these as written by prophets.
3. “instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
• While penned by prophets, these same could not explain all that they said from a human perspective. This is because the words and ideas were from the Holy Spirit. This what inspiration is. The Bible is not smart men talking about God. It is God revealing himself and his plans to man. Being carried away by the Spirit, inspired writers didn’t understood what they wrote. This means they were not the source. God was and is. Prophecy is the mind of God, not made-up ideas by humans. How could anyone write about the future unless revealed by Someone who knows the future?
This is why I accept the authority of Scripture as more than something I grew up with, or even because the written word has given me a religious experience, or even because the Bible contains wisdom, philosophy, and theology. The scriptures are not man’s word about God and man (that describes all the other religious texts in the world including the Koran). The scriptures are God’s words about God and man, and God’s plan to bring harmony back between the two. Since God is my authority, His word is His character and hence my authority. Trusting the Bible as our authority is not worshipping the Bible. It is recognizing that God cannot be separated from his words. His word is his bond because he is trustworthy.
Are you willing to trust God and his word? It is trustworthy because God is trustworthy.
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