When people dismiss the Bible as simply a book of religion, what they are attempting to do is disavow its authority. They merely look at it as a human invention deprived of divine inspiration, thus refusing to acknowledge its authority. That’s not to say that men do not acknowledge the writings of other men and accept them as authoritative, but rather that they don’t particularly care for the kind of men that have written the 66 books of the Bible or the God they proclaim.
It matters very little to them, if any, that Peter, one of the Bible’s 40 authors confessed that Scripture was not an invention of the human will.
knowing this first of all, that 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.
2 Peter 1:20,21
Peter says that God, by the power of His Holy Spirit caused men to write down the words that are given to us in the Bible. God guided them, gave them impulse to write down what He wanted others to know. This wasn’t a collaborative effort by its authors. The books of the Bible were written over a period of 1500-1600 years by individuals of diverse backgrounds and languages. The unity and cohesiveness of the Bible has been characterized as having one authorial voice. The Apostle Paul, another of the Bible’s authors acknowledged that what he wrote came from God.
If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 14:37
Paul wasn’t ascribing authority to what he was writing, but acknowledging God as the source from whence the words came from.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16
Just as your breath leaves you when speaking what was in your mind, Paul said, the Spirit of God moved him to write what he had written. We do not reject the human authorship of the books of the Bible; however, we affirm the divine authorship behind the human.
The one voice of divine inspiration in the writing of the Bible is evident in the exaltation of God and the command for mankind to submit to His authority. God’s authority is inescapable. He’s all knowing, all wise, all holy, all powerful, all seeing, all present, all sufficient, all righteous, all merciful, all gracious, all just, Creator, King, & Lord of all. These are the reasons why men reject the Bible as divinely inspired and worthy of not just acknowledgment, but submission.
For I am the Lord God, and there is no other God besides me; I strengthened you and you have not known me, in order that those from the east and those from the west might know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord God, and there is no other;
Isaiah 45:5,6 – LXX
The sinful hearts of men refuse to submit to God’s authority over them. Apart from God, man will always view himself as being the authority over his life. Secularism has convinced the culture at large today that there is no objective truth and if there is no objective truth, then a divine authority doesn’t exist. Man alone sets his boundaries for what is wrong and right and true and good for him, and anyone else who tells him otherwise is intolerant. As New Testament scholar D.A. Carson has noted, toleration pushed so far one can never say that anything or anyone is wrong—presupposes the greatest evil is to hold a strong conviction that certain things are true and their contraries are false [therefore] confident knowledge in religious matters is impossible (D. A. Carson, A Model of Christian Maturity: An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 10–13 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007), 111. But as BB Warfield stated, the proof of the authority of the Scriptures does not rest on a previous proof of their inspiration. Even an uninspired law is law. But when inspiration has once been shown to be fact, it comes mightily to the reinforcement of their authority.
No-one would ever with honesty and unceasing defiance reject the eyewitness testimony of a person, especially when collaborated by several other witnesses. The Apostle John was a personal eyewitness to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. He was chosen by Jesus Christ to be one of His closest disciples, privy to special times of prayer, teaching, as well as Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection said:
He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.
John 19:35
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:30
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
John 21:24
The acceptance of the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture doesn’t require man’s approval. No one comes to believe these things apart from the Holy Spirit of God bringing the sinner from spiritual death to spiritual life. Whether man believes in Jesus Christ for salvation or not is contingent upon God and not man. Either way, the merciful and just Creator will receive glory. His divine authority demands it.
Providence Reformed Baptist Church 