The Bible is the Word of God

At The Baptist Church of Concordia, “we believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of mankind and the Divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.” That is what it says in our DOCTRINAL STATEMENT. That is what we preach from the pulpit. This is what our Sunday School teachers teach our children. 

I admit, the above statement uses a lot of specialized words. Let me make that statement clearer. We believe the entire Bible was uniquely written by God through men carried along by His Holy Spirit so that the Bible carries God’s authority, is free from error, and is sufficient for life and godliness.

It is important that you understand that we didn’t come up with this. We were taught it, but not by church history or church councils. This comes straight out of the Bible. Consider these three statements that the Bible makes about itself.

First, consider 2 Timothy 3:16-17. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Do you notice that? The Bible claims that it is inspired by God. The Greek word that is translated ‘inspired’ is made up of two words: God and breathed. The Bible claims that it is God-breathed. Thus, that term appears in the first statement above. Since the Bible was breathed out by God, the Bible also says that all of its contents are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. The Bible claims to be the infallible authority for our Christian lives. Finally, the Bible says that through teaching its inspired words and reproving and correcting and training one another in the righteousness that it teaches, the man, woman, boy, or girl of God will be made adequate and equipped for every good work of service to the Lord and the church. The Bible claims that it is sufficient for growing in the Christian life. Thus, we believe that the Bible is inspired by God, infallible, authoritative, and sufficient; because the Bible claims these things for itself and God has proven to us that these things are true about the Bible.

Second, consider 2 Peter 1:20-21. “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” In my simplified statement above, I explained that we believe that the entire Bible was uniquely written by God through men carried along by His Holy Spirit. This is where I got that from. Men (more than 40 of them!) were moved by the Holy Spirit to speak from God. The word ‘moved’ translates a Greek word that pictures wind filling the sail of a boat. Hence, some translate it “men carried along by the Holy Spirit.” As to the point made in this verse, the words were not by an act of human will. Rather, it was God speaking as His Spirit filled these men to speak and write. We should then be careful how we handle the Bible. Since it is the inspired, infallible, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God, we should not be novel or creative or casual in the way that we interpret the Bible. We carefully interpret the Bible by reading it in a straightforward literal manner, accounting for figures of speech and symbols when we come across them. More on that in a different article. To summarize what the Bible says in 2 Peter 1:20-21, the Bible was written by God through men who were inspired by His Holy Spirit to write exactly what God intended them to write.

Third, consider John 17:17. “Your word is truth.” This is a statement made by Jesus in the middle of a prayer. This is what Jesus believed about the Bible! Consider what the Gospels reveal to be true about how Jesus understands the Bible to be true. He said that the Old Testament spoke of Him (cf. Matt 5:17; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39-40). He believed the Bible was perfect in every detail (Matt 5:18). He believed that the Bible is authoritative (Matt 5:19). He believed the Bible was factual history (Matt 19:3-6; Mark 10:3-9; Luke 11:50-51; Matt 24:37-39; Luke 17:28-32; Matthew 10:15; John 3:14). He believed His apostles would write down His teachings with perfect accuracy, because they would be indwelled by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26-27). An honest reading of the Gospel accounts about Jesus’ life and teaching reveals that He believed that the Bible was infallible, sufficient, authoritative, and God-breathed.

In conclusion, these three passages (many more could be added!) demonstrate that the Bible claims for itself infallibility, authority, and sufficiency. These are the only options if the Bible is indeed written by God. At The Baptist Church, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, having been convinced of these things by God’s Spirit dwelling within us.