Doctrinal Highlight: Of Sacred Scripture

I. Revelation
God has revealed Himself to mankind through general revelation and has spoken through the special revelation of Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, and through Sacred Scripture, the written Word of God. He has revealed Himself to all mankind by displaying the excellencies of His glory and demonstrating His own goodness, wisdom, power, moral character, and other divine attributes through His works of creation, His providence over history, and the internal witness of the human conscience. This general revelation is sufficient enough to leave all men and women without excuse concerning their sin and their responsibility to glorify God, their Creator. However, this general revelation is insufficient in giving sinful men and women the knowledge of God necessary for salvation. Therefore, God, in accordance with His lovingkindness toward His people, has revealed Himself propositionally at various times through His prophets and apostles, declaring His will to His people. Through the superintendence of His Spirit, God moved upon these men to write the Sacred Scriptures for the preservation and propagation of His special revelation of Himself. These writings have been preserved in the Bible which is the perfect Word of God.

II. Its Necessity
Though Sacred Scripture is not necessary for knowledge of God’s existence nor of His moral character which are obtainable through the light of nature, they are most necessary for the knowledge which is able to make one wise unto salvation, for the sustaining of spiritual growth in the life of a believer, and for the knowledge and understanding of the will of God. The insufficiency of general revelation necessitates special revelation through Sacred Scripture which provides the necessary light needed to have fellowship with God. Without Scripture, men and women are left in darkness and are condemned by their sins, having no hope of salvation. Furthermore, since special revelation has ceased to be given apart from Sacred Scriptures themselves, believers who are deprived of Sacred Scripture have no Word of God to provide the food their souls needs nor the guidance to conduct their daily lives. Thus, believers need the pure milk of the Word of God in order to grow, mature, and please God by glorifying Him and doing His will.

III. Its Canonicity
Sacred Scripture consists only of the books contained within the Old Testament and the New Testament, and these books alone are the inspired, authoritative Word of God and stand alone as the standard for all Christian faith and practice. The books of the Old Testament are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These thirty-nine books are canonical because of their claim to divine authority, their recognition by the Jews, Jesus, the apostles, and early church as inspired, and their consistency to each other in doctrine. The books of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, two epistles of Peter, three epistles of John, Jude, and Revelation. These twenty-seven books are canonical because of their apostolic origin (either authored by an apostle or someone closely associated with an apostle), their recognition by the early church as divinely inspired, and their consistency in doctrine. Though the church recognized the canonicity of the sixty-six books, their canonicity was not established by the church but by God, their Author. The canon of Sacred Scripture is now closed and complete with these sixty-six books; no additional books are necessary nor to be expected in the future.

The Apocrypha has no place in the canon of Sacred Scripture for they contain doctrine incompatible with doctrine found in the canonical sixty-six books and do not claim for themselves the authority claimed by the canonical books. Moreover, they were never recognized as God’s inspired Word by the Jews, by Jesus, by the apostles, nor by most of the early church. Therefore, they possess no authority over the people of God and are to be regarded as nothing more than human writings.

IV. Its Inspiration
All Sacred Scripture is inspired by God, being breathed out by Him through human authors. The Scriptures were written under the extraordinary, superintending influence of the Holy Spirit upon the human authors to record propositionally an accurate account and true interpretation of God’s special revelation exactly as God intended so that they are the Word of God. Moreover, the human writers were fully conscious of what they were writing with all their sense aware of the revelatory process. They were not mere secretaries of the divine revelation copying a divine dictation, but each author reflected his own personality, writing style, grammar, background, and historical situation along with his own specific concerns, intentions, and audience in mind as he wrote. Nevertheless, each word is still at the same time fully divine so that the Bible is exactly as God intended in every minute detail, making God the chief Author of Sacred Scripture.

V. Its Authority
Since Sacred Scripture is divinely inspired, having God as its Author, it is the absolute authority for faith and practice. The teachings of Sacred Scripture are the teachings of God. To obey Scripture is to obey God, and to disobey Scripture is to disobey God. Furthermore, the final authority for all religious controversies rest not in any church or office, but solely upon the Scriptures themselves, the Word of God. Sacred Scripture obtains its authority from God and demands no earthly defense for its own authority. It was not established by any church, tradition, human institution, or office but by God alone; and it is, thus, self-authenticating, giving abundant evidence to itself as the Word of God. Since it is the inspired Word of God, there is no other authority greater than Sacred Scripture itself to establish its authority. The direct affirmations of divine inspiration, the efficacy of its doctrine, the consent of its parts, the majesty of its style, the heavenliness of its subject matter, and many other incomparable excellencies all attest to the authentication of Sacred Scripture as the Word of God.

VI. Its Truthfulness
All of Sacred Scripture is completely true and trustworthy in all of its teachings; and, thus, it is a safe, reliable, and sure rule and guide in all matters. Because God, who is Truth, is the Author of Scripture, it possesses the attribute of complete truthfulness. In its original autographs, Sacred Scripture is inerrant, being entirely free from all falsehood, deceit, errors, and mistakes. Likewise, it is infallible, never misleading or failing in what it teaches. Scripture’s inerrancy and infallibility are not limited to religious matters of faith and practice but extends to the fields of history and science. The biblical occurrences such as the lack of technical precision, grammatical and spelling anomalies, phenomenological language, hyperbole, round numbers, figures of speech, anthropomorphisms, topical arrangement of material, and other aspects of ordinary human language does not in any way nullify the inerrancy and infallibility of Sacred Scripture. It remains fully truthful to the degree of precision intended by the human authors. Moreover, any supposed errors and discrepancies do not invalidate the truthfulness of Scripture, but once everything is known, they will all be shown to be completely true.

VII. Its Sufficiency
Sacred Scripture is completely sufficient for knowledge concerning salvation, faith, obedience, and every aspect of godly living and contains all that God purposed to reveal to His people at each stage of redemptive history. Though God could add more words to that which He has already spoken to His people in His Word, nothing else is needed to supplement or add to Sacred Scripture except the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Thus, no other writing, doctrine, tradition, new revelation, or any other supposed authority should be added to Sacred Scripture or considered equal to Scripture. God does not require anything of His people that is not already revealed explicitly or implicitly in Scripture, nor does He consider anything to be sin which Scripture does not already explicitly or implicitly regard as sin. Thus, the people of God should emphasize what Scripture emphasizes and be content with what is revealed in Scripture without seeking further revelation. The people of God should diligently study and search the Sacred Scriptures for guidance in doctrine, counseling, church polity, and every aspect of Christian living, for it is sufficient in itself through prayer and the Holy Spirit fully to communicate the will of God and thoroughly equip and furnish the people of God for every good work.

VIII. Its Perspicuity
Sacred Scripture being divine revelation is clear as a whole; and, thus, comprehensible to all believers who possess the normal acquired mental ability to understand human communication regardless of their gender, age, education, language, or cultural background. Though the Scriptures are clear, all things revealed in Sacred Scripture are not equally perspicuous in themselves. The clarity of Sacred Scripture does not negate the role of trained ministers to assist in determining a more precise and deeper understanding of the divine revelation of the Word, acknowledging that its truth is affirmed within the context of a believing community. Nor does it abrogate the role of the Holy Spirit to illumine the heart and mind of believers to understand, grasp, and obey the truth of the Word of God. Furthermore, Sacred Scripture clearly reveals to unbelievers aided by the Holy Spirit those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation.

IX. Its Interpretation.
The perspicuity of Sacred Scriptures conveys that it can be properly interpreted with grammatical-historical exegesis through diligent and careful study. God having superintending the process of its writing, the meaning of any text is fundamentally grounded in the authorial intent of the human author inspired by the Holy Spirit. Though the meaning expressed in each text is single, definite, and fixed, there are many applications which may be justly derived from that meaning. Moreover, because of its unity, harmony, and consistency Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. Therefore, each text should be interpreted within the framework of all Scripture which is centered upon redemption through Christ. Furthermore, obscure texts should be interpreted in light of more plain texts. Though the Scriptures are essentially clear, the illumination of the Holy Spirit is needed to fully grasp, comprehend, and obey the text.