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Scriptural Christianity’s Vision of Bible Authority:
The Bible (Old & New Testaments) as revealed to the hearts and minds of Christians by the power of the Spirit, not by the corrupt natural human mind, is the unique, revealed, factual, accurate, & inspired Word of God, the sole authoritative writing for faith & practice.
God speaks directly through the Bible, creation, the conscience, and other Christians. When God speaks, He never conflicts with his revealed Word in the Bible and never conflicts with His creation.
God reveals and gives the interpretation of Scripture. God forbids any human speculation, imagination, assumption, presumption, presupposition, rationalization, or anything else that adds to or takes from Scripture. The Scripture is very clear in stating that the human mind is evil, deceptive, and untrustworthy to the point that our own minds can deceive us. The battle is for the mind with Satan and the flesh on the one side and the Holy Spirit joined to the redeemed human spirit on the other side.
The church, as it is defined in Scripture, has authority. The human-designed deviations from the Scriptural church dilute this authority. Within the church, there are gifts, offices, and ministries, all of whom have a Bible-defined authority. Scripture defines those who have authority to receive the interpretation of the Bible and administer doctrine to the church. |