02. Doctrine of Scripture
The Bible is the Word of God, a unique and special means of God revealing himself to humanity in a written form. The Bible tells God’s true story and invites all humanity to participate in it. This is sometimes called the metanarrative, or the overarching story of God and his working in and through all creation and all human history.[1]
The Bible is inspired by God. God the Holy Spirit moved in and through human authors to select the very words and produce the entire text of Scripture, while utilizing the unique personality, style, and vocabulary of each human author[2] (2 Pet 1:21; 2 Tim 3:16).
The canon of Scripture is the list of books that are recognized as being inspired by God. The word canon comes from the Greek word kanon and refers to a measuring instrument. There are 66 books comprising the Old and New Testaments that have been measured and recognized as canonical. The canon is closed, which means that no additional books can be added to the canon, nor can any books be taken away from the canon[3] (Deut 4:2; 2 Tim 3:16; Heb 1:1-2; Rev 22:18-19).
The Bible is inerrant, meaning that it is free from error in the original documents and does not affirm anything that is false. Our understanding of inerrancy takes into account ordinary language of everyday speech, approximations in numbers, variations in the spelling of names, and edited versions of what was passed down through oral tradition[4] (Prov 30:5-6; Heb 6:18).
The Bible is altogether accurate and trustworthy. It alone teaches a complete Christian worldview and is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks. The Bible is written in such a way that all things necessary for salvation and spiritual life are clearly set forth. However, we acknowledge that there are difficult passages in Scripture that are not easily understood. In such cases, clearer passages should guide us in our interpretation of passages that are less clear (Ps 19:7; 119:130; Luke 16:29-31; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:3; 3:15-16).
An accurate understanding of the Bible is reached through a literal, historical, grammatical, cultural, and contextual interpretive process, using accepted rules of interpretation.[5] A literal understanding of scripture takes into account figures of speech and different literary genres.[6] In addition to inspiring the human authors of Scripture, the Holy Spirit is also the supernatural Teacher of Scripture, guiding us to understanding as we diligently read and study (John 16:12-15; 2 Tim 2:15).
While there may be several applications of any given passage of Scripture, there is only one true interpretation. In stating this, we do not assume that we alone have that one true interpretation, but we are continually striving to understand it by God’s grace, through rigorous study, and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:19-21).
Notes
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For further study, see Bartholomew & Goheen, The Drama of Scripture.
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This is often known as verbal, plenary inspiration: Verbal, meaning that the very words of Scripture (not just the general idea of the words) are inspired by God. Plenary, as in “whole” or “complete,” meaning that every word of Scripture (not just certain words, like the words of Jesus) is inspired by God.
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We acknowledge that the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches include in their canons a collection of Jewish writings from the intertestamental period, known as the Apocrypha. These writings, while valuable as historical documents, were never widely recognized as canonical by the Jewish community that produced them, nor has there been widespread consensus in Church history for including them in the canon. The Roman Catholic Church did not officially declare the Apocrypha to be canonical until the Council of Trent (1545-1563), and this decision was in direct response to challenges raised by the Protestant Reformation regarding catholic teachings and practices that were based solely on apocryphal texts. Therefore, we stand in the tradition of the Reformation and the majority of the Church throughout history in recognizing the 66 books of the Old and New Testament—and no others—as inspired, authoritative, and therefore canonical. For more, see Geisler & Nix, From God to Us: How We Got Our Bible (Chicago, IL: Moody,1978), ch’s 6-10.
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APPENDIX D: THE CHICAGO STATEMENT ON BIBLICAL INERRANCY (1978) - A SHORT STATEMENT
1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.
2. Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.
3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.
5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible’s own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.
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See, for example, Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation and Duvall & Hays, Grasping God’s Word.
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Biblical literary genres include narrative, law, poetry, prophecy, epistle, etc. Each genre has unique characteristics that must be understood for accurate interpretation. See Duvall & Hays, Grasping God’s Word, ch. 14-22 and The Bible Project video series “How to Read the Bible.”
Resources for Further Study
Beginner
Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, The True Story of the Whole World, 2009.
Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word, 2016.
J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Journey into God’s Word, 2008.
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 2014.
Vaughan Roberts, God’s Big Picture, 2002.
The BibleProject video series: “How to Read the Bible”
Intermediate
Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, 2014.
F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, 1988.
J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word, 3rd ed., 2012.
Norman Geisler and William Nix, From God to Us, 2012.
Wayne Grudem, Making Sense of the Bible, 2011.
Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, 1970.
Advanced
Edmon Gallagher and John Meade, The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis, 2017.