Why is it so important to submit to the authority of Scripture?
Answer
Well, accepting and acknowledging the authority of the Scripture as the foundational starting point for all theological reflection and doctrinal claims is important because of what the Scriptures purport to be telling us, and that is this: that God has acted in history. We have to remember that the Scriptures aren't comprised of a set of great religious insights or moral claims. Take like the Quran or the writings of much of the Hindu scriptures or Buddhist writings, those are basically moral proclamations or religious insights produced in the mind of what we might call a "religious genius," the Buddha or Mohammad. But the Scriptures say, God has acted in history, and in these acts — the act of calling Abraham, the act of delivering Israel, the act of sending judgment upon Israel through the Babylonians, the act of bringing Israel back to Jerusalem, ultimately the act of becoming incarnate in the virgin Mary, of being born, of Jesus dying on the cross literally, physically, historically, rising from the dead literally, physically, historically — those are historical events that the Scriptures say they are reporting on. Now, it's important to submit to the teaching of Scripture if the teaching of Scripture is telling us about what God has done. The Scriptures, then, are our only access, our only access in written form to the account of what God has done to reveal himself. That's the only access we have to God's mighty acts of self-revelation. Therefore, the Scriptures themselves become the revelation of God to us.
Dr. Steve Blakemore is the Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wesley Biblical Seminary
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