1689 Confession - The Bible (part 3)

1. The Scripture is self-authenticating. Its authority does not depend upon the testimony of any man or church, but entirely upon God, its author, who is truth itself. It is to be received because it is the Word of God.

1Thess 2:13; 2Tim 3:16; 2Pet 1:19-21; 1John 5:9.

You don't have to look long or hard to find those that believe that the Bible is nothing more than man-written, women-bashing garbage that does not speak for God (if there is one) nor is it profitable for any purpose. Just so I can save you time, here and here are a couple of prime examples. Then there are others that believe much of the bible is allegory, a book of life-lessons so to speak. But what does the bible say? As the scriptures above mention, the bible is self-authenticating. Why is this important? Because if it did not in any way call itself the Word of God, then why would we believe it to be so? Does this mean that other writings that claim to be Holy Scripture should be accepted as such? No. That's not the final determination that we use to understand what is scripture and what is not, but it's a starting point. As mentioned in the last blog, a couple of books that did not make it into the bible were due to the fact that the authors themselves claimed they were not inspired.

So is there a way that we can see if scripture really is the Word of God? The prophet Isaiah tells us in chapter 46:10 that God says "declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose," meaning that we can trust in God because He has declared many things that has/will come to pass. There have been numerous prophesies about the life and death of Christ alone that all came true, of which Christ Himself had no control over (born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, to name two.) God provides us with future prophesies that become fulfilled so that we can trust that those prophesies that remain will come true. God does not have to prove Himself to anyone (although He has), in order for the truth claims of the Bible to be true, much like I don't have to stand in Africa to know Africa is a real place. God's Word and Work is His whether we want to believe it or not. This reminds me of a book title by Ray Comfort that says "God Doesn't Believe in Atheists". Just because we don't believe something doesn't make it any less real. The fact that there are many people out there today that deny the truth claims of the Bible will not abdicate them of their responsibilities written in the Bible on the Day of Judgement.