The Authority of the Bible

Revelation

General Revelation
- Creation
- Conscience and self-evident truths
- God’s hand in the events of life
Special Revelation
- Jesus living on earth
- The Bible
- Dreams, visions, prophecies
- The Spirit leading us to think like Jesus

Sola Scriptura
“Belief that Scripture is the final and only infallible authority for the Christian in all matters of faith and practice.”
Not a book of medicine, chemistry or mathematics
But if it does speak about a subject, it is infallible
Provided we understand it correctly
(e.g. earth at centre of universe?)
But beware of an independent arrogant spirit

We need Guarding against the attitude that says
“You can’t tell me what to do—the Bible is my only authority” as an excuse for simply being rebellion
God has not just given the Spirit to you alone, but to all Christians through the ages
- We need each other’s help in understanding God’s word
- A guy once looked at my library and said “huh! All I need is the Bible”
There is value in seeing how Christians have understood parts of the Bible down through the ages
- They may be wrong, but we need to weigh it and not just assume we are the only one’s who have true understanding

Updated on 2015-06-18 by Andrew Fountain