Are the Scriptures Sufficient?

 

By "sufficient" we mean that nothing else is required to know God's will. Nothing! No church, no priest, no pope, no holy guru. If it is sufficient, then each one of us has an individual responsibility to dig the truth out for ourselves from the most accessible book on the face of this earth. We cannot blame our eternal fate on the fact that "we got on the wrong bus." The command to identify false teachers applies to each one of us. Jesus said: "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father who is in heaven." Kind of scary isn't it?

In this short article we intend to provide sufficient proof from the Bible itself that it is sufficient, and thus all of the conclusions given in the paragraph above are true. The evidence given is from the Bible itself, and critics will challenge this as not being an objective, independent authority. We agree. However, if you reject the clear teachings that will be presented, you have no other choice but to reject the entirety of the Bible. For if the parts that we present are not truthful and accurate, then who among us is qualified to tell us which parts apply and which parts are blatant lies? We ask you to get your Bible out and look up the references, since we do not have room here to quote the scriptures that form the basis for our conclusions. Your time and energy will be well spent and richly rewarded, and your faith will be increased greatly (Romans 10:17). Please study the context.

14 Evidences of Biblical Sufficiency

1. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into all the truth (Jn. 16:13), not just part of it.

2. At the end of these days (now) God has spoken to us through his Son (Hebrews 1:1).

3. The message of God's "great salvation" has been fully revealed and confirmed by miracles (Hebrews 2:3f).

4. New revelation was proven by clearly supernatural events (e.g., Acts 2:1-11)  no one can claim such things occur today.

5. Paul stated (in the context of discussing these spiritual gifts 1 Cor. 12, 13 and 14) that when the full-grown revelation was completed, the miraculously obtained parts would be done away (1 Cor. 13:8-10).

6. James called this final revelation the "perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25).

7. "His divine power hath [past tense] granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).

8. That which is to be believed was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3)

9. We are warned against any deviation from that which was originally delivered (Gal. 1:8f).

10. Scriptures (inspired writings) have the full capability to provide everything that we need for salvation (2 Tim. 3:16f).

11. Despite having miracles, the apostles and writers of the New Testament drew heavily upon the Old Testament to determine truth (e.g., see Acts 2:14-36).

12. Paul warns us not to go beyond the things that are written (1 Cor. 4:6), and Peter warned to speak only with the oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11).

13. We are commanded not to add to or take away from what has been revealed (Rev. 22:18-19). That which applies to the book of Revelation applies to the entire Bible in principle. Have there been any additions to it in the past 2000 years?

14. The burden of proof is on those claiming to speak for God to prove this claim consistently with "that which is written."

Ye often hear it said ...

"That's just your interpretation."

but in Ephesians 3:4, referring to his writings, Paul stated:"...when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ"

 

If we can have the same understanding as Paul did by reading what he wrote, then where else should we look for such understanding? When we hold to the belief that the bible is not understandable, is that not an accusation against God that He either cannot or does not want to give us a statement of His will that we can understand?  It is true that many people use the Bible to prove highly contradictory doctrines. Does this make the Bible deficient?