(Part 1)
Most Christians would agree that the Bible is our authority, but how does the Bible itself claim to be our authority? How do we become persuaded that the claims of Scripture to be God’s Word are true?
In the Old Testament there is a phrase seen quite often, “Thus says the Lord”, which appears hundreds of times. This phrase in those days would be recognized the same as “Thus says the king”. This phrase is used to lets the hears know that the following words cannot be challenged or questioned, they must be obeyed.
When a prophet spoke in God’s name in this way, every word he spoke had to come from God, or he would be a false prophet. To disbelieve or disobey anything a prophet says is to disbelieve or disobey God Himself. “Thus says the Lord,” is to demonstrate that within the Old Testament we have written records of words that are said to be God’s own words.
In the New Testament, Paul affirms that all of the Old Testament writings are of God in 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) which says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”.
Peter made a similar statement that the writings of all Old Testament are of God. Peter tells us that “no prophecy was an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” The ultimate source of every prophecy is never man’s decision about what he wanted to write but rather the Holy Spirit’s.
Many other passages could be cited here, but the pattern of attributing to God the words of Old Testament should be clear. In several places it is all of the words of the Old Testament Scriptures that are said to be from God. (see Luke 24:25, 27 and 44; Acts 3:18 and 24:14, Romans 15:4).
What about the New Testament writings, are these considered to be Scriptures too? First we must understand that the Greek word graphe (scripture) was a technical term for New Testament writers. It was used over 50 times referring back to the Old Testament, but it was also used in the New Testament to these writings as scripture too. In 2 Peter 3:16 Peter classifies Paul’s writings as scripture; Paul’s epistles were to be considered God’s written words.
Finally in John 14:26 and 16:13, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would bring all that he has said to the disciples’ remembrance and would guide them into all the truth. This indicates a special work of the Holy Spirit whereby the disciples would be able to remember and record, without error, all the Jesus had said. Similar indications are found in 2 Peter 3:3; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; and Revelation 22:18-19.