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The Bible:
T
he message on the car’s bumper sticker was unmistakable. Shown in big, bold letters, it proclaimed for all to see—“THE BIBLE: A Grim Fairy Tale.” The assertion was a clever play on words, alluding to the wellknown children’s fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. The claim itself is nothing new, as atheists, evolutionists, secularists, and others have asserted for nearly two centuries that the Bible is simply an old book filled with made-up tales. Christians, on the other hand, have for centuries defended—sometimes at the cost of their very lives—these sacred writings as God’s Holy Word, and as such are to be taken seriously as an accurate historical account of God’s dealings with humankind; as prophetic, revealing God’s plans for the future; and as divine instruction guiding how one should live today. Sadly, however, for some time now the nature and purpose of the Bible has become a subject of heated debate even within Christianity, and at the heart of this debate is the authority of the Bible itself. CRISIS OF AUTHORITY
A grim fairy tale or guiding light?
In his outstanding book Understanding the Living Word of God, the late Gerhard Hasel cited an example of the Bible being interpreted in different ways and wrote, “The crisis of the authority of the Bible is thus very much a matter of how it is interpreted; the crisis is deeply influenced by hermeneutics (the principles of biblical interpretation).”1 Further, Hasel writes, “The consistent historical position of representative Seventh-day Adventists has been that the Bible is our only infallible rule of faith, doctrine, reforms, and practice.”2 This reflects well our first fundamental belief as Seventh-day Adventists: 1. Holy Scriptures “The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written Word of God, given by divine inspiration. The inspired authors spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In this Word, God has committed to humanity the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the supreme, authoritative, and the infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the definitive revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God’s acts in history. (Ps. 119:105; Prov. 30:5, 6; Isa. 8:20; John 17:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Heb. 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20, 21.)”3 This balanced, biblical belief in Scripture recognizes that while God did not dictate the Bible word by word (sometimes known as “verbal inspiration”), the Holy Spirit played a vital role in inspiring the biblical authors, who, although coming from different backgrounds and time periods spanning approximately 1,500 years, speak with amazing consistency throughout this collection of ancient documents known as the biblical canon.4 Image: Evgeni Tcherkasski
