BIBLE AS FINAL AUTHORITY?

METGAT · Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2003 11:02 am Post subject: BIBLE AS FINAL AUTHORITY?

I would appreciate help in understanding why so many Christians feel that all revelation ended with the Bible. When I put this question to a Christian friend, he cited 2 Timothy 3:16-17. In my KJV Good News Bible, this passage reads: (16)Keep away from profane and foolish discussions which only drive people farther away from God (17) Such teaching is like an open sore that eats away the flesh. Two men who have taught such thngs are Hymenaeus and Philetus.

I don't see this as saying the Bible is the final authority on anything spiritual. At least I do not infer that anything outside the Bible is necessarily profane and foolish. As is written in other parts of the New Testament, we must "test" the spirits or "discern" new information. Is there something else in the Bible that says that anything following this is not to be accepted as truth?

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Van · Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2003 4:04 pm Post subject: BIBLE AS FINAL AUTHORITY?

Hi, I believe we should accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God. That means if scripture says that you trust in the Lord and rest not on your own understanding, you should accept scripture as authoritive. All of us interprete scripture and do our best to determine the intent of the original authors. But, as can be seen on this discussion board, two people can read the same scripture and determine, perhaps with a little help from there friends, two entirely different teachings.

I think the Holy Spirit guides us as we study the word, and gives us peace or unease when we consider decisions apparently not specifically covered in the Bible. I do not believe in modern day prophets, where God tells you something that applies to others.
And I believe God is consistent, so if you think you have been led to a conclusion differing from the Word of God, you are in error.

I think John closed the book (the Bible) near the end of Revelation such that no one is authorized to add or subtract from the Bible (Rev. 22:18-19). So I think the Koran and the Book of Mormon are bogus.

I trust that the Bible that we have is sufficent for God's purpose, and all the effort to undermine and sidestep the Bible is simply aimed at facilitating disobedence.

BTW, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reads, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

You quote appears to be 2 Tim. 2:16-17.

[This message has been edited by Van (edited 01-10-2003).]

leecappella · Hamster Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 89

Metgat:

I believe that the bible is the inspired word of God. To me, that means that God used human channels (biblical authors) to bring about what we know to be the bible. The debate concerning that may be whether or not these biblical authors, being human and fallible, were inspired without any of their humanity 'contaminating' what was received of them by God. Ofcourse, the other side of that is that the authors, being human and capable of error (fallible), were indeed influenced by their own humaness when they received inspiration from God. Much like any pastor, preacher, etc. today who presents a message to his pulpit, audience, etc. It may be looked upon as an inspired message, but are we to take what a preacher, televangelist, etc. says as 100% correct, without a doubt just because of his title and ignore his human capabilities to err?

1Thessalonians 5:19-22, Paul informs the churches not to quench the Spirit. He also advises, as you stated, to test all things and hold fast to that which is good and discard that which is not. Now, concerning inspiration, of which the bible is, for me that means discernement is required in regards to those things inspired because not all things inspired are considered good and to be held on to. I sereiously cannot approach the bible with the mindset that if it's in the bible, then it is what I must do or not do. I believe discernment is needed in reading this inspired book. I will hold fast to that which is good and discard all else.

If one reads the bible and decides that something does not apply to us today, but it did to those who existed before us due to cultural, societal reasons, then one has just ignored the rule that a lot of christians follow: The bible says. I believe it. That settles it. This 'rule' is ignored because one has considered something other than simply taking the bible for what it says. One has brought in the consideration of the culture and society as it existed for those who came before us. No doubt, when Paul teaches that it is a shame for a man to have long hair, this is a personal view of his, not God's. If it were God's view as well, then what is to be said about 1Samuel 16:7? I once read that we should take the bible as a whole as we attend to its various parts. I tend to agree with that. The case I just presented is a good example of why that is. If we build a theology around a few passages, we may come across something down the road that contradicts that theology because we did not consider the whole of the bible. We only focused on those few passages. Leviticuas 18:22 is also another example. This verse has been focused on singly, taken out of context, and with no regard for the other parts that are associated with it. It takes time to understand certain aspects of God's word. Not a simple opening of the bible and reading it and closing it. Time a lot of people seemingly don't have time to take. Thank the Lord for sending us the Comforter (Holy Spirit) to guide us. And thank the Lord Jesus for being the living Word. He is what our eyes and hearts should be focused on, not the law of the letter. For Christ even broke what was considered the scriptures back when He lived on earth. The bible is a guidebook, it is not God nor Christ. In the end, the final authority is God. If it were the bible and all in it, Christ would not have broken some of the laws in it that some christians today seem to believe we should follow strictly.

Leecappella

Phinehas · Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2003 12:21 pm Post subject:

METGAT,

I believe the starting place for such a study should be to find out what the Bible testifies about itself. You may find these verses helpful as a start:

Psalm 33:4
Psalm 89:34
Psalm 119:89
Isaiah 40:8
Isaiah 8:20
Matthew 5:18
Matthew 24:35
1Peter 1:24-25

Regarding adding to the Word of God through continuing revelation, the verse that Van gave you above (Rev. 22:18-19) is the generally accepted answer to your question.

The other thing to do would be to study the history of the canonization of scripture. Try asking your pastor to recommend a few different books on the subject and then you pick one and read it.

As for 2Timothy 3:16-17, that won't directly serve your purpose because it's referring to the scriptures of the earlier covenant (OT). What it does say that is of value to you is that all scripture is from God, which should tell you that there are writings of which people claim are from God that are not from God. The question is how to tell the difference.

The first thing to know is that the Bible is from God. Once you've got that, then simply compare anything anyone claims to be scripture or continuing revelation with what you know--the Bible. The Book of Mormon, for example, can't possibly be from God simply because there are many things on which the two writings disagree. Same goes for al Qur'an, the Vedas, the Bhuddist writings, the writings of the B'hai religion, etc.

Another test is the test of prophecy. Only the Bible has been 100% accurate up to our time. Al Qur'an does not even contain prophecy.

I'll stop now, but I'm sure you get the idea. You can go to http://www.equip.org/index.html and browse their free materials. They've got really good studies because they don't just give you the answers. They make you look things up so that it becomes your knowledge.

Phin
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“When they chose new gods, war came to the city gates, and not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel. My heart is with Israel's princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the LORD!” Judges 5:8-9

admin · Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2003 2:43 pm Post subject: Re: BIBLE AS FINAL AUTHORITY?

Tiger75 · Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 12:53 am Post subject: The Completed Bible

I believe the bible has been completed and is now mans final Authority in all doctrine but lets turn the question on its head.

Is there anything we need to know that the Bible does not have an answer to?
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Keep on going on!

Tiger