SCRIPTURES COME WITH THE AUTHORITY OF GOD, PART 1.

Scriptures come with the authority of God. Millard J. Erickson says: “By the authority of the Bible we mean that the Bible, as the expression of God’s will to us, possesses the right supremely to define what we are to believe and how we are to conduct ourselves.” 1 God, as the Creator and source of all truth, has the right to command a human’s way of belief and a human’s actions. He has spoken clearly through His prophets and apostles in what is called the Bible. He has shown in its historical content, specially through the books of the Prophets in the Old Testament, how He told His people through this same prophets, that certain events were going to occur, such as impending judgment by the invasion from other nations, such as is seen in the book of Isaiah where the exile of the Israelites took place after God warned them through Isaiah in advance! And all these are historically verifiable events! So Scriptures are “historically authoritative, that is, it tells us correctly what God expected from specific persons at particular times and places.” 2

I believe like Erickson in that the illumination of the Holy Spirit is necessary to give understanding of the Scriptures to a person’s heart. After a person has a born-again experience, then they will be illuminated by personal revelation from the Holy Spirit as they are taught the Word in a church setting initially. They will receive conviction at times, where they need to make changes in their lives; and they will be able to apply the Scriptures in their personal walk. As they become more grounded on the Word under a Pastor’s teaching , then they can search the Scriptures on their own for their own personal edification and in order to edify other believers, and as they mature and become ‘wholly’ in the Lord, they should attend a seminary such as the King’s University in order to grow effectively as mature in the Christian theological worldview and in order to discern what it is that has been taught to them! And of course, it should be Word and Holy Spirit together!

AUTHORITY OF HIS WORD
“So shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me empty,
But it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
And shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. “ Isaiah 55: 11.

NOTES
1Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, ( Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),267.
2Ibid., 267.