Reimagining Biblical Authority
How is the Bible Authoritative and What Does it Mean in Practice?
People debate many things about the Bible depending on where in the world they live.
In India, the pressing topic is how the Christian Bible compares with the Muslim Qu’ran and the Hindu Vedas. In Malaysia, Christians are not allowed to translate Elohim and Theos as “Allah,” but they can in Indonesia. In North America, there are acrimonious debates about Scripture as inerrant, and what that means in relation to science, history, and literal interpretation. In other places in the world, it is illegal to possess a Bible or quote the Bible, like North Korea. Catholics regard the Bible as the supreme source of theological truth, but only in conjunction with tradition and church authority.
I would argue that the distinctive feature of a Protestant or evangelical view of Scripture, embedded in the mantra sola scriptura, is belief in the authority of Scripture in theology, ethics, and in the life in the church.
For evangelicals, the essential affirmation about Holy Scripture is that it is God’s word to us, for us, and it is authoritative, which is to say that it is normative not negotiable.
We cannot pick and choose whether God’s word can be obeyed. For, as followers of Jesus and those who hold to the teachings of the apostles, we must hold the same reverence for and adherence to the Scriptures that they had, which necessitates an attitude of submission to the teachings of Scripture.
We believe that Scripture contains God’s will, it is true and trustworthy, and “cannot be set aside” (John 10:35).
This is the historical position of Christian churches:
Anglican 39 Articles, article 6 (1571): “authority” and “sufficiency” of Scripture
Westminster Confession 1.5 (1647): “infallible truth and divine authority” of Scripture.
Armenian Evangelical Churches of Turkey (1846): “The Holy Spirit, our Comforter, Who inspired the sacred scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, Our supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct, and Who breathes new life into all believers.”
World Assembly of God Statement of Faith art. 2 (1916): The Bible is inspired by God and is “the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct”
National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith (1942): “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”
In some churches, however, the Bible is not authoritative, it is poetry, the substance of liturgy, but it is not definitive for life, faith, or ethics.
I once did some talks for a mainline Christian group from Paul’s letters – nothing controversial – and one attendee was incensed about having to listen to four talks from Paul! This person complained with the utmost disgust about having to listen to talks from the letters of Paul.
For some denominations, the Bible is not prescriptive for the religious life of the churches; everything the Bible teaches is up for debate, compromise, and negotiation. In the minds of some Christians, to treat the Bible as authoritative would turn it into a “Paper Pope,” or means you are a fundamentalist.
Now I can understand how abuses of the Bible can lead to that allergy. For example, many people preach the authority of the Bible, but what they mean is the authority of their interpretation. Or else, some people fail to understand how the Bible has been abused as a source of oppression and become a tool of harm for many others. I’ve heard an African bishop say of Anglican evangelicals, that they “Believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Bible,” in other words, bibliolatry.
Even so, in many churches today, and according to many contemporary theologians, the Bible at best provides some sage lifestyle advice or sound bites for a few socio-political projects one is invested. But after that, it is culture or politics that is the real truth that drives someone’s life.
Such positions cannot be mapped onto the ancient church, the Reformation, or most churches in the global south today.
That said, we do need to specify why the Bible is an authority as well as how and when it is not an authority. We need to, if you can bear with me, problematize biblical authority so that we can better and more faithfully articulate it!
Let me explain what I mean by using three main points: The meaning of scriptural authority, the descriptive/prescriptive distinction, and going beyond the Bible biblically.
The Bible’s Instrumental Authority
Even if we believe in biblical authority, the Bible is not our highest authority. Our highest authority is the Lord Almighty, the Lord who has all might, power, and supremacy.
Consider the words of the Westminster Confession 1.10: “The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”
Scripture is not authoritative because of its teaching, its power, its practical utility, or because of some magical quality, but the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture is our authority. Sadly though, Protestants often leave out the Holy Spirit part and just focus on Scripture as authoritative in and of itself, which is problematic.
Note that in the Great Commission, Jesus did not say that all authority is given to the books you shall write, he said “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me” (Mt 28:18). John did not say and the Word became a book, but the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14).
God’s Spirit speaking through the inspiration of authors and the teachings of Jesus are the supreme authority.
Note, I am not trying to separate God from the Bible. Quite the opposite, I am trying to show how biblical authority must be nested in our account of the triune God. You cannot have biblical authority without the Trinity! But often we say “biblical authority” without reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. Precisely why, if you ask me, bibliology should be rooted in pneumatology (see my Evangelical Theology as an example and similar claims made by Andrew McGowan in his book The Divine Authenticity of Scripture).
Thus, the Bible is authoritative because it contains the Father’s will, it conveys the teaching of God’s Son, and its power and purpose is instantiated by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture is authoritative because it is the self-communicative act of the triune God. If we forget that, we will be led into bibliolatry.
The Bible is instrumentally not intrinsically authoritative because the Holy Spirit who inspires and illuminates Holy Scripture is our authority through Scripture.
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