Chapter 2 Ultimate Authority

To sail the sea of life in the right direction we need our sails correctly set. Yet, alone we cannot adequately set our sails. Man needs a higher Guide than himself. "There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12). We often hear it said that there is good in all religions. There may be. But searching for the good in man-made philosophies and religions is like panning for gold in the streams of the wilderness, when the gates of "Fort Knox" stand wide open, inviting us to enter and to take all we need. Notice what the Prophet Jeremiah said: "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

True success depends on true character, not on the winds of fortune. This kind of character is not built on shifting sand, but on solid rock. It is not constructed from whims and wishes. It does not spring from the wisdom within us. Rather, it is a gift from outside ourselves, a gift to anyone who will accept it. This gift is the standard of what is good and true. It comes from a loving Heavenly Father; and is set forth and explained in God’s word, the Holy Bible. Here truth is available to all who will acknowledge and follow it.

Christians everywhere try to follow the teachings of the Bible. The Bible is our rule of faith and practice. Man needs a guide; God’s word provides that guide. It is comforting to know that there is a standard of what is truth, a light to which we can go for direction in spiritual matters. We call this the "ground of authority." We all need this ground so that we will not be "carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14).

The Old Testament Scriptures consisted of the law, the prophets, and the hagiographa. These terms referred respectively to the five books of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the "holy writings." The latter group included the historical books and the wisdom literature, such as Proverbs. These Scriptures were called in brief: "The law and the prophets" or "the law and the testimony." This helps us to understand the statement in Isaiah 8:16, "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples." Isaiah also uses a similar expression when he records God’s very simple rule by which to test any teachings: "To the law and to the testimony! if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).

Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the unique Son of God, that He was divine, and that He is the Savior of the world. Even those who do not hold these views, still consider Jesus to have been a very great man, and a wise teacher. A careful study of the New Testament reveals that Jesus emphasized the importance of Scripture over and over again. At that time, of course, He referred to the Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been written.

Notice these examples of what Jesus said concerning the Scriptures: In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, He has Abraham say, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them" (Luke 16:29). When a lawyer asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus responded with the question, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" (Luke 10:26). And the Lord met His fiercest temptations with Scripture quotations, each preceded by the declaration, "It is written" (Matthew 4:4,7,10). On another occasion He said, "…the Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). Thus we see that our Savior ascribed the very highest authority to the Bible. When Jesus was asking His Father for spiritual help for His disciples (and this includes you and me), He asserted the sanctifying power inherent in God’s word, for He prayed, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17).

What do the Bible writers themselves say about the Scriptures? Or we may ask, what does the Bible say about itself? Knowing that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life," and that "No one comes to the Father except through" Him (John 14:6); and knowing that it is the Scriptures that provide the essential knowledge about Jesus (John 5:39), the Apostle Paul writes to the young pastor Timothy,

. . . from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
This is why Paul charged Timothy to "Preach the word!" (2 Timothy 4:2).

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word (Psalm 119:9).
Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You (Psalm 119:11).
Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path (Psalm 119:105).
The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).

One very strong evidence that the Bible was divinely inspired is seen when its predictions are fulfilled. A very clear example of this is to be found in the prophecy made by Daniel, recorded in Daniel 2. Here it is told that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a dream that disturbed him a great deal. But still he could not recall what he had dreamed. Among the captives taken from Judah to Babylon, several young men from the nobility were selected to serve in the king’s court. One of these was Daniel; and he was called upon to remind the king of what he had dreamed and to explain its meaning. The king had seen in his dream a metallic man with a golden head, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet a mixture of iron and clay. Daniel explained that this image represented four kingdoms that were to rule the world, beginning with Babylon, symbolized by the head of gold. The silver, brass, and iron sections represented the three universal kingdoms that would follow Babylon in succession.

Babylon was succeeded by three world kingdoms, just as Daniel the prophet had predicted. In the year 538 BC, the Medes and Persians overthrew the golden kingdom in a night of Babylonian debauchery. This was done under the leadership of Darius the Mede. This conquest by the silver kingdom of Medo Persia had been specifically foretold by the Prophet Isaiah over one hundred years earlier (See Isaiah 45:1-3). The brass kingdom of Greece, led by Alexander the Great, conquered the Persians at the Battle of Arbela in 331 BC. Then the Greeks were defeated by the "iron monarchy of Rome" at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC.

Daniel went on to say that:

. . . as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay (Daniel 2:42,43).

By AD 476 the Roman Empire had fallen apart. Its divisions have become the nations of modern Europe. Intermarriages among the royal families of these nations have not been able to unite them. Despite the efforts of Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Bismark, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Adolph Hitler, they do not cling together. The fulfillment of this great prophecy of Daniel 2, along with many others concerning the future of cities and nations, serves to strengthen our confidence in the accuracy and divine inspiration of the Bible.

But the most conclusive evidence that the Bible is the inspired word of God, is the affect it has on the lives of the people who study it and try to live by its teachings. The human heart is by nature proud, greedy, and profligate. Following the Bible makes the heart humble, generous, and pure. Christians testify to this by their actions and their words. And even unbelievers admit to witnessing a nobility of deportment in the life of a Bible believer. So strong is our confidence in the authority of Scripture, that all Christians accept it as having been inspired by God, and Protestants hold it to be "the only rule of faith and practice." The great leaders of the Reformation, such as Martin Luther, took a firm stand on God’s word.

In view of the foregoing considerations, to which we could add a myriad others, we conclude that we are duty bound to test any religious teaching by comparing it with the Bible. Regardless of how popular a preacher may be, in spite of how rapidly his church may be growing, or how "on fire" he seems to be, if his teaching is out of harmony with God’s word, the true Christian is forbidden to follow him. We are not obliged to believe everything the preacher says. But we are required to test what we read or hear by the measuring rod of God’s word. The people of Berea would not accept the word of even the great Apostle Paul without substantiating it by the Bible. The record says, "they…searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). The whole point of this chapter is to establish firmly in our minds our duty to follow the Bible, and to reject any doctrine that is contrary to what it teaches. Thus we are brought back to this clear rule in Isaiah 8:20: "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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