The Christian Authority
8 pages of one of the most important issues that the Church must address. The authority of the Bible in the life of believers.
Religious people all must have a standard, a regulative principle, that shapes how they worship. It also shapes their understanding of who they are worshiping and understanding who they are in relation to their god.
Christianity uses the Bible and the Holy Scriptures as this standard for the Christian faith. The Bible was given to man by God through divine inspiration of the human authors. It is without error in its teaching and is entirely true in its claims.
Liberal Christianity departs from the authority of the Bible. Liberalism instead looks to the experience of individuals as the determining factor for what faith is. “The historical account of the Bible is not important for what God is communicating now,” they say.
Machen attacks this false authority, this ever-changing and sandy foundation that liberalism is built upon. He takes 8 pages to argue for the authority of the Bible and for the unbiblical faith of liberal Christianity.
Christian experience is what liberalism bases its faith upon, which Machen writes is false and wrong. But, he says, Christian experience “is useful [for] confirming the gospel message.” It is wholesomely used as a confirmation for the work of God, but it can never act as a substitute for the absolute truth that the Bible is.
The Bible also gives an interpretation for the acts of God. Without looking to the Bible, liberalism and liberal Christians look inward, into their own sinful hearts, for the meaning and purposes of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Their faith departs from God’s intention for his faithful people, i.e. the use of Scripture as the guidance for faith.
The liberal argument against the Bible is the fact that it has errors in it and should not be used as the tool for Christian growth and Christian faith that it was given for. Christianity denies that the Bible is false in its truth claims, and instead pushes that the Bible was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. The authors maintained their personalities in their writings, but the message was given by God. He did not dictate every part of Scripture word for word, but allowed inspired men to write.
Too often, however, the liberal Christian sees the Bible as contradicting itself. Therefore, they dismiss the Bible and everything it says and declare it has no authority over their lives or their faith. Yet, how can they believe in a Christ which comes from the Bible?
The Christian regards the whole Bible as the very word of God. This is the only reason that anyone can believe in Christ. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word of God is true, and so are the words of God.
If Christians doubt the truth claims of the Bible, they doubt the very Messiah that they believe in. Jesus held the authority of the word of God as being supreme in his life. There is no other absolute truth that the Christian may turn to.
Yet, liberal Christians look to themselves for the direction of their faith, for the direction of their minds, for the direction of their lives. They lean on their own understanding of the reality of life, creation, and God. This is not the way that God has prescribed for Christians, and it will never be the way.
[Proverbs 3:5–6]