Christian View of Authority | Rapp Report Daily 001 | Andrew Rappaport | SFE | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Scripture Alone as the Authority for Christianity

This week we're going to take a look at Christianity and what it believes. We're going to start with its authority, and what we're going to start with is the fact that for Christianity, the authority is scripture, God's word, alone.

Scripture alone. That word alone is very important. It means that we do not hold the church, any church, any group of people, anyone, as the only authority that can interpret scripture. This is a major difference between Christianity and many false religions, because we would say that the scripture is interpreted by the individual through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the Holy Spirit indwells the Christian, and that gives them the assistance they need in interpretation. It doesn't mean that they can always get a right interpretation, but it means that we don't need a church or other men to interpret scripture for us, but we have the Holy Spirit that can help us in that process.

The Canon of Scripture and the Exclusion of the Apocrypha

When we speak of the scriptures, we're talking about the 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books without any of the additions commonly referred to as the Apocrypha. We believe that the Bible is inspired by God, the very breath of God, and because of that, it is trustworthy and without error.

Because in its original, when God spoke it, it is author is God, therefore there can't be errors. We also believe that this is sufficient for every aspect of faith and practice. There's no aspect of Christianity that we don't turn to God's word to get the answers.

The Sufficiency of Scripture for Faith and Practice

So this is an important difference with us and other religions. We turn to God's word alone, and even though we know that men can misinterpret, we're going to put our trust in God's word and that alone.

No other sources, no other men. We trust that the scriptures are sufficient.