A Brief Statement

I hold that the Bible, in its entirety, is inspired — “God-breathed” — the very product of God Himself (2 Timothy 3:16). This inspiration came by a dual authorship, the human writers carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20–21), so that what they wrote was at once fully their own words and fully the words of God. As originally given, Scripture is without error (Psalm 119:160); it is the authoritative word of God (John 17:17), His written authority on the earth.

It is sufficient: in it God has granted all that mankind needs to know His own nature (Romans 1:19–20), our need of salvation (Hebrews 9:27–28), and how we are to live and to treat one another (Romans 12:10). That word is contained in sixty-six books — thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New — which together make up the complete and closed canon God has given to mankind.

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A Detailed Exposition

Inspiration

The foundational text is 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God” — or, as it is variously rendered, “God-breathed” and “breathed out by God.”¹ The Greek word behind these translations is theopneustos (θεόπνευστος), a term found nowhere else in the New Testament. It joins theos, “God,” to a root meaning “to breathe,” and so means, quite literally, “breathed out by God.”² Scripture is therefore not the record of men’s search after God but the very exhalation of God Himself. And yet it came through men. I hold that the Bible is completely the inspired Word of God and, at the same time, the words of its human writers — not a dictation that bypassed them, but a dual authorship in which the Holy Spirit so carried them along (2 Peter 1:20–21) that, writing freely in their own idiom and circumstance, they wrote exactly what God intended.³

Inerrancy

Because Scripture is breathed out by the God who cannot lie, it is inerrant — which means, simply, that the Bible is without error; it does not contain mistakes.⁴ This is the plain testimony of the Bible about itself: “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever” (Psalm 119:160); “all His precepts are trustworthy” (Psalm 111:7); “every word of God proves true” (Proverbs 30:5). The doctrine properly concerns the original manuscripts — the autographs as God first gave them — and it is upon those originals that the church’s confidence rests; the providence of God in preserving and transmitting the text assures us that we hold a trustworthy Bible in our hands today.⁵

Authority

The Scriptures, as written, are the authoritative words of God. They do not borrow their authority from the church or from any council; they derive it from their own nature as the word of God, and they declare it of themselves (John 10:35; Romans 3:1–2).⁶ Because they are God’s word, they stand as the highest authority in all matters of faith and practice, and the same word that instructs us also judges us, “piercing” and “discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16–17). This authority does not expire. God has promised to preserve His word, which “stands forever” and remains as binding and as relevant now as on the day it was first given (Psalm 33:11; 12:6–7; Matthew 5:18; 1 Peter 1:23–25).

Sufficiency

I hold that in the Bible alone God has granted us all that is necessary to know our Maker and Redeemer (1 Corinthians 2:10–12). It is true that God reveals something of Himself in creation — His “eternal power and divine nature” are “clearly perceived” in the things He has made, so that men are without excuse (Romans 1:19–20; Psalm 8:3–4). But this general revelation, real as it is, cannot save; it shows that God is, not who He is in redemption. For that, we are shut up to His written word, and there we find everything we need — learned not by intuition or private impression but through the careful exegesis and patient study of the text.⁷

Canonicity

I hold that God has given His word in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven of the New. The same God who, by the Spirit, inspired men to write the books then guided His people to recognize them, gathering the canon by such criteria as apostolic authorship or authority, early and widespread acceptance and use in the churches, and the unique, self-authenticating character of the message.⁸ It must be said carefully: the church did not confer authority upon these books but recognized the authority they already possessed as the inspired word of God. The canon is complete and closed; these sixty-six books are the whole of what God has given.

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Practical Implications

Ministry Emphasis: Teaching / Adult Ministries

The word of God is precious to me in more ways than I can count. We live in an age of instant communication, when a message can cross the world in a moment — and with that speed comes constant change, and a constant temptation to treat truth itself as something fluid. Against all of it stands this: through the long ages God gave His message to us through the writers of Scripture, and it is here still, for me to read, to study, and to learn from. That what I hold in my hands was breathed out by God is, quite simply, a comfort.

I once heard a pastor tell a teenage boy whose parents were going through a divorce that he no longer had to listen to his father, because his father was “not in the Lord.” I challenged him on the spot because that is not what Scripture says. It was the doctrine of bibliology that gave me ground to stand on — the confidence that the word is inspired, that as originally given it is without error, that it is authoritative and sufficient, and that the books of our canon have been faithfully vetted and received.

I would like my own ministry to focus on men who are hurting and broken — sometimes by what others have done to them, sometimes by what they themselves have done — and to lead them through the Scriptures, which are given “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

I have seen it well said that losing confidence in the Word of God leads only to grasping for truth, groping for answers, and grieving in despair.⁹ A solid foundation in bibliology is the remedy: it steadies my own confidence in the word and equips me to help others stand — so that they need not grasp, nor grope, nor grieve, but rest upon the sure word of God.

Not men’s search for God, but the very breath of God — inspired, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, and complete.

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Biblical, Exegetical, Theological, and Historical Notes

The key text reads “All Scripture is inspired by God” (NASB), “All Scripture is God-breathed” (NIV), and “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (ESV) — three renderings of one Greek word, all making the same point: Scripture originates with God (2 Timothy 3:16).
Theopneustos (θεόπνευστος) occurs only once in the New Testament — a hapax legomenon — here in 2 Timothy 3:16. It is a compound of theos (θεός, “God”) and a root meaning “to breathe” or “to blow,” hence “breathed out by God.” See Robert L. Saucy and Bruce L. Shelley, The Bible: Breathed from God (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1978), 44.
“The Bible is completely the Inspired Word of God, and at the same time, the words of the human writers” (Saucy and Shelley, The Bible: Breathed from God, 49); cf. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology (Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1947), 1:72. This dual authorship guards against two errors at once: a mechanical dictation that would erase the writers, and a merely human authorship that would erase God.
“Inerrancy” means “simply, that the Bible is without error; it does not contain mistakes” (Saucy and Shelley, The Bible: Breathed from God, 78).
Inerrancy is properly affirmed of the original autographs — the text as first given by inspiration — while the doctrine of providential preservation assures us that the copies and translations faithfully convey that word. The classic modern statement of this position is The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978).
Scripture’s authority is self-attesting: it claims to be the word of God and is to be received as such (John 10:35; Romans 3:1–2; 2 Timothy 3:16). To our Lord, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), and “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Its authority rests on its divine origin, not on any human ratification.
On general versus special revelation, see Romans 1:19–20 and Psalm 8:3–4: creation truly reveals God’s power and divine nature, leaving men without excuse, but it does not disclose the way of salvation, for which we are shut up to the written word. On the sufficiency and right handling of that word, I have found Jack Deere’s Surprised by the Voice of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 251–269, a useful foil: Deere too readily casts all who rest in the written word as “Bible deists.” A few may indeed venerate the book itself, but to hold the Bible as the sufficient word of God is not deism; it is faith taking God at His word.
On the criteria by which the canon was recognized — apostolic authorship or authority, early and widespread use and acceptance, and the uniqueness of the message — see Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 122–123. The church recognized, rather than created, the canon.
A remark I have seen attributed to Michael J. Svigel of Dallas Theological Seminary: “Losing confidence in the Word of God leads to grasping for truth, groping for answers, and grieving in despair.”