The Unique and Authoritative Nature of the Bible

When is the last time you considered what makes the Bible different from all other religious and philosophical books ever written? Christians would be greatly encouraged and strengthened in their faith by occasionally reviewing the absolute uniqueness and authority of the Bible.

In the Christian Bible we have the full and perfect revelation that God our Creator gave to mankind. We can place our complete trust in what the Bible says, for it is God’s own Word.

The Bible is Inspired.

All Scripture is “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). The entire canon of the Bible, all sixty-six books, is inspired by God. God worked through human authors using their thoughts, personalities, education, and gifts, to write down for all generations His perfect revelation.

Each author wrote without adding to or subtracting from anything God wanted revealed. No portion of Scripture comes from an author’s personal interpretation or speculation (in the original manuscripts). Nothing in these manuscripts originated in the mind or will of man (2 Peter 1:20-21). Those who spoke and wrote the Word of God did so under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 2:21; John 14:26). God’s Spirit therefore guaranteed that God’s revelation to man through each author was exactly according to His perfect will.

No book has ever been so perfectly preserved in the history of mankind.[1] The Bible we have today is, therefore, genuinely God’s Word and can be trusted completely.

The Bible is Inerrant.

A biblical view of inspiration cannot be divorced from inerrancy (“without error”), for they are intertwined. If the Bible is indeed inspired, it is also inerrant, for a holy and omnipotent God authored it. There are no errors in God’s Word, no half-truths, regarding anything spiritual or material, including both history and science. The Bible continually gives this unchanging testimony of itself (Numbers 23:19; Psalm 19:7-11; 119:43, 89, 96, 142, 151, 160; Proverbs 30:5; Matthew 24:35; John 17:17). When the Bible’s details are put to the test, they will always prove true in the end, as Christian apologists often effectively demonstrate.[2]

The Bible is not merely infallible, as some attest. Infallibility means there is no possibility that any spiritual teachings in God’s Word can be proven false, but other kinds of details in Scripture potentially can, such as history or science. Infallibility without inerrancy is a deviation from the Bible doctrine of inspiration. We can trust in every single thought and fact given to us in Scripture.

The Bible is Sufficient.

Believers in Jesus Christ today can have total confidence in the Bible. God’s Word is true, even as God is true (John 17:17). All His words come to pass (Deuteronomy 18:15-22). Through the Scriptures we have everything that we need to know God and how to live for Him (2 Peter 1:3).  It is through the Bible that we are taught by God’s Spirit, disciplined and trained in righteousness, and made fruitful workers in God’s service (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

All extra-biblical wisdom and philosophies of man outside of the inspired Word of God is at best ideas tainted by the limitations of weak and sinful men. Satan aggressively uses alternatives to God’s truth to lead men away from Him (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Biblical counseling redirects us to God’s truth for salvation and sanctification, the renewal of our minds according to God’s revealed truth (Romans 12:1-2). Secular therapy and medication cannot achieve what God’s Word alone can.[3]

The Bible is Authoritative.

Because the Bible is inspired by God and inerrant, it has full and final authority over mankind. God-breathed, the Scriptures are in a category far above all religious ideas, philosophies, and scientific theories conceived of by men. It is both accurate and authoritative in all matters of faith, practice, and fact. There is no other resource ever written that is like the Christian Bible.

It demands faith and obedience.

God’s Word is not merely the only source of truth worthy of complete trust. As God’s revelation about who He is, who mankind is, and His will for mankind, Scripture must be obeyed. All must repent, believe the central message of the Bible, the Gospel, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Revelation14:7; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 26:12-23; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

The primary task of those that teach and proclaim the Bible is to lovingly and patiently guide people to understand and obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Once they believe, they must then begin the process of learning to live according to the inspired and authoritative Word of God.

Unbelief and disobedience have consequences.

Because the Bible is our Creator’s own revelation of Himself to mankind, it is inspired, inerrant, sufficient, and authoritative. To reject it or tamper with it is a great evil that will not go unpunished. It is significant that in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, in its last chapter says this about those who reject God’s Word:

“Behold, I (Jesus) am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:12-13).

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Revelation 22:18).

The Christian Bible is the perfect and complete revelation of God to mankind, worthy of our faith and trust. It is God’s unique revelation to us, authoritative in every way. Let’s read it, meditate on it, remembering this powerful realities about what it in our hands.

[1] If you would like to study the topic of the preservation of Scripture more fully, consider starting here, a three-part series on the Bible’s preservation on the blog, Theology in 3D: Do We Still Have God’s Words? The Preservation of Scripture?. Another is a three-part series on Proclaim and Defend, Do We Still Have God’s Words? The Preservation of Scripture.

[2] Consider further study about the truthfulness of Scripture here: The Truthfulness of Scripture on the Grace to You blog.

[3] If you would like a thorough treatment of the sufficiency of Scripture for all of life, Heath Lambert’s A Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry is excellent.