The Doctrine of the Word of God (1)

I. Explanation and Scriptural Basis

• The authority of Scripture means that all the words in SCripture are God's words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.

A. All the Words in Scripture Are God's Words

1. This is what the Bible claims for itself

• 2 Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness"

2. We are convinced of the Bible's claims to be God's words as we read the Bible

• Our ultimate conviction that the words of the Bible are God's words comes only when the Holy Spirit speaks in and through the words of the Bible to our hearts and gives us an inner assurance that these words of our Creator speaking to us.

3. Other evidence is useful but not finally convicing

• As the Westminster Confessin of Faith said in 1643-46

"We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts."

4. The words of Scripture are self-attesting

• Since the words of Scripture are "self-attesting", they cannot be proved to be God's words by appeal to any higher authority.
• If we make our ultimate appeal, for example, to human logic or to scientific truth to prove that the Bible is God's Word, then we assume the thing to which we appeal to be a higher authority than God's words and one that is more true or more reliable.

5. Objection: This is a circular argument

• We believe that Scripture is God's Word because it claims to be that. And we believe its claims because Scripture is God's Word. And we believe that it is God's Word because it claims to be that, and so forth.

6. This does not imply dictation from God as the sole means of communication

• The fact that all the words of Scripture are God's words should not lead us to think that God dictated every word of Scripture to the human authors.
• In instances where the human personality and writing style of the author were involved, all that we are able to say is that God's providential oversight and direction of the life of each author was such that their personalities and skills were just what God wanted them to be for the task of writing Scripture. Their backgrounds and training, their abilities to evaluate events in the world around them, their access to historical data, their judgment with regard to the accuracy of information, and their individual circumstances when they wrote were all exactly what God wanted them to be, so that when they actually came to the point of putting pen to paper, the words were fully their own words but also fully the words God wanted them to write, words God would also claim as his own.