The Scripture

Christian belief in Scripture rests on three foundational convictions: that it is divinely inspired, absolutely authoritative, and entirely trustworthy.

Scripture, though written by human authors, has God as its ultimate author and can be understood as coming from God, as His very words.[1] All of Scripture is inspired, and the original autograph volume of inspiration was free from error.[2] This doctrine, known as plenary inspiration, means that Scripture is infallible truth, free from all error; each and everything contained in it is absolute truth, whether doctrine, morals, history, chronology, topography, or proper names.[2] Importantly, not every sentence contains a truth—for example, Satan’s words to Eve were falsehood—but those words were actually spoken and are recorded with infallible accuracy.[2]

The authority of Scripture flows directly from its divine origin. Scripture possesses the right to command what Christians are to believe, do, and be, and to prohibit what they are not to believe, do, and be.[3] At issue is the nature and extent of the motivating control that canonical Scripture should exercise over the doctrine, discipline and devotion of the church and its members.[4] Submission to Scripture is one aspect of submission to Christ.[4]

The Reformation crystallized this conviction through the principle of sola Scriptura. The Reformers asserted Scripture’s necessity (only biblically taught notions of God will be true), sufficiency (all that needs to be known for godliness and salvation is displayed in the Bible), and clarity (the canonical books exhibit their unity and build up their message from within, so Scripture interprets Scripture).[4] This framework protects Christian faith from human speculation, tradition, and imposed interpretations that lack biblical support.

[1] Gary Derickson, An Exegetical Theology of 1–3 John (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017). [See here.]
[2] William Greenough Thayer Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, ed. Alan W. Gomes (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub., 2003), 91.
[3] Gregg R. Allison, 50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith: A Guide to Understanding and Teaching Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2018), 23.
[4] J. I. Packer, “Scripture,” in New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic, ed. Martin Davie et al. (London; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press; InterVarsity Press, 2016), 824.