Video Transcript: Scripture (9:27)

Hi, I'm David Feddes. And we're going to be talking about believing the truth in this mini course. And I'm going to be going through the statement of faith of Christian Leaders College and Institute.

The first talk that we're going to have is on Scripture. Our statement of faith says the Bible is God's inerrant Word, the only final authority for faith and life. The Bible is without error. And it is our supreme guide in all matters of faith and living. 

The Bible says all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now that word God breathed or inspired by God means that the source of all the biblical writings is God Himself. And because God has breathed it out, it's true. 

And it's useful. It's useful for teaching us the way things are, it's useful for something we don't enjoy quite as much as much rebuking us when we're wrong, and then correcting us and showing us how to get back on the right track again, and providing training in righteousness so that we can get mature and readied and equipped to do what God wants us to do. 

A similar passage occurs in 2 Peter when he talks about the Scripture, not just being from humans, but from God Himself. No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 

Somehow, mysteriously, the Bible is human words, written by human authors. But all along, they're speaking from God and the Holy Spirit is carrying them making sure that the words that they spoke in the words that they wrote, were exactly what God wanted to be said. And so the divine origin of Scripture is so very important to remember. 

The Bible is inerrant, every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him, do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. Jesus Himself said, scripture cannot be broken. The Bible says in several places, God never lies. 

So if the Bible is inspired by God, if people were carried along by the Holy Spirit as they wrote the Bible, we can be sure that the Bible is true, and without error, because God never lies and His scriptures cannot be broken. 

Now the Bible is given for a major purpose, the Bible is written to correct our thoughts about everything under the sun. There are many ideas that we can gain elsewhere about medicine or how to build a car that the Bible doesn't reveal. But the Bible is supremely about the Savior. Jesus Himself said to some of his opponents, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, the Bible is about Jesus. The Bible is revealing who Jesus is. 

The Old Testament part of the Bible was pointing forward to Jesus and preparing people for the coming of Jesus and helping them to get to know who God is, even before he came to us, in the person of Jesus. The Bible says that the Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And that statement comes right before the statement that all scripture is God breathed and is profitable. 

So what's it profitable for? It's profitable for making you wise for salvation, for giving you eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. When you read the Bible, or any particular passage of the Bible, and you're thinking of it totally disconnected from the reality of Jesus, then you're not really understanding what the Bible is about, or understanding even what that particular passage is revealing until you've connected it to the way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Bible is true, it's about Jesus, and it's the final authority. And because it's the final authority, Scripture stands above everything else. It stands above our personal experiences. Sometimes people say, well, I, I just have a sense that God wants me to do this, but if their sense of what God wants, goes against what the Bible says that personal experience you is misleading. T

There have been people who even said, well, I had a vision of an angel telling me this that was claimed by Muhammad. And that was claimed by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion. But those experiences that they claimed were out of line with what the Bible teaches, and therefore those personal experiences were misleading. 

Sometimes people say, Oh, but I feel like the loving thing to do would be to say that all brands of sexual behavior are okay. And people can't help what they feel love is love. They don't want they don't want to be guided by the Bible. They want to be guided by their personal sense of the situation. But Scripture stands above all that scripture stands above other books. 

There are other books that claim to be from God, the Book of Mormon, claims to be from God, but it is added to the Bible. And the Bible is the final authority. The Bible says that in former times, God spoke to the prophets in various ways, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his Son. 

That's from Hebrews 1. And because Jesus is the final revelation of God, the New Testament books that reveal him and explain his mission and apply it to us are the final books that God is going to be revealing for the public building up of his church, because Christ is his final revelation. 

We should not therefore rely on other books presented by Other religions as standing alongside of the Bible, or being able to add to what the Bible reveals about God, and about faith in Jesus and about how to live in a way that pleases God. We also have to be aware that tradition, would replace the Bible or come alongside the Bible. 

In Roman Catholic belief, sacred tradition is exalted to a position alongside the Bible, where traditions of the church are equated with or even raised above, the teaching of the Bible, where things declared by the pope officially, are said to be infallible, and just as certain eras of revelation as anything that's in the Bible, but that's putting tradition at the same level as the word of God. And we don't believe that a Christian Leaders College we don't believe that traditions, no matter how noble or how ancient, have the same standing as the word of God Himself written in the Scriptures. 

And if we don't believe in the traditions of various churches, or in the personal experiences of various people as being on a par with the Bible, we certainly don't believe that unbiblical, modern ideas have the right to challenge the truth of the scriptures. 

When the Bible tells us in the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. We don't fall for the modern idea that stuff just randomly happened, and came into being when the Bible reveals us, reveals to us God's will and how to live, then we don't listen to voices that claim to be improving on the Bible, updating the Bible, say, oh, but now the Spirit is leading us into fresh ways. Be aware of that a good rule of thumb is, if it's new, it isn't true. And if it's true, it isn't new. 

That's what the truth of the matter is, when it comes to the things of God, and the walking with Jesus Christ. Now, that's not to say that there are no true new scientific discoveries or medical discoveries or discoveries of various kinds. But when it comes to who God is, and how God saves, and how God wants you and me to live, there is nothing new God has revealed all that He wants us to know about him all that He wants us to know about salvation, all that He wants us to know about how to live in a way that pleases Him. And God has done all that in the written words of the Bible. And that's why we say in our statement of faith, the Bible is God's inerrant Word, the only final authority for Faith and Life