Belief that the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament are wholly
trustworthy, historically as well as in matters of faith and doctrine; that such Scripture is the unerring
Revelation of God, the one Rule of Faith, and the final Court of Appeal.

Andy Lines
General Secretary
of Crosslinks

The Canon

The Canon or measuring rod of the Scriptures
recognises their intrinsic authority. Other books
(such as the Apocrypha) may have great value
but do not provide an authoritative rule of faith.
Behind our view of Scripture comes our view of
God; to question the trustworthiness of Scripture
is to question the authority of God Himself.
Scripture does not mislead because it is God’s
own self-testimony. When interpreted in line with
the author’s (God’s) intention and alongside other
Scriptures it is ‘wholly trustworthy’ whether the
Bible is instructing us about our beliefs, our ways
of living or historical events.

Sufficiency

It is the sufficiency of Scripture that is most
under attack in our post-modern society, which
questions the existence of any absolute truth
(other than its own). This is touched on when the
statement refers to Scripture as ‘the unerring
Revelation of God, the one Rule of Faith, and the
final Court of Appeal’. Many who call themselves
Christians whilst assenting to the authority of
the Bible treat it as inadequate in practice. Allow
me to make a few comments about where this
impinges on mission:

■ Many call Scripture’s sufficiency into question
by putting confidence in other things. For
example, we might act as if our evangelism
course is the key to gaining results and put more
store on the method rather than the message.

■ Others are shy of using the Bible and so we
avoid any reference to it until we have prepared
the ground adequately for fear of putting people
off. This takes many well-intentioned forms such
as meeting physical or emotional needs, but it
reveals what we actually think of the Bible.

■ The issue of guidance will also highlight our
view of Scripture; not that the Bible will
necessarily give us the answer, but that we
tend to put more store on subjective ‘inner
promptings’ and a ‘sense of call’.

■ Models of training for service will reveal
something of our view of Scripture. If the Bible
gives access to all that God wants us to have for
our salvation, growth to maturity in Christ and
effectiveness in ministry, then the Bible must be
central to all training. We should not be tempted
to short-cut training in the ‘whole counsel of
God’, however keen we are to get started.

■ We should humbly want to learn from the
insights and perspectives of others in the
interpretation of the Bible, and particularly from
our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world,
but we must not put anyone or any culture
above Scripture.

■ Most importantly of all we must be careful of
anything that undermines the uniqueness of
Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Saviour. This is
a very real threat in Western culture that sadly
infects churches too.

In all things, we should remember that a
challenge to Scripture is a challenge to God’s
authority. More positively, we should overflow
continually with thanksgiving for God’s
choosing to reveal Himself to us and for
speaking to us through His Scriptures.

Crosslinks magazine January 2004 index