Dr Paul Allen

During the sixteenth century in Europe, the Protestant Reformers fought a battle for the heart of Christianity. One of the key issues they contended for was that of authority. Who has the right to tell Christians what to do? The Roman Catholic Church claimed that the Church itself, according to Scripture and tradition, had supreme spiritual authority over all people. But the Reformers insisted on sola Scriptura—“Scripture alone”—as our chief, supreme, and ultimate authority.[1] This was nothing short of a battle over the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God. In dealing with the issue of sufficiency, it’s helpful to look at 2 Timothy 3:16, a key text in understanding the doctrine of Scripture. Not only does Paul declare, “All Scripture is inspired by God,” but he adds four modifiers, namely that Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” Let’s look at these. “Scripture is sufficient to minister to every aspect of your life...

Likely most Christians would confess that the Bible is sufficient. But, what does that look like? How adequate is the Bible for issues pertaining to life and godliness? What are the practical ramifications of inerrancy? How sufficient is the Bible? Has God really given us enough in these multi-millennia old books to address our modern conundrums? The Sufficiency of Scripture Defined The sufficiency of Scripture means that the words of Scripture are, and have been throughout salvation history, ample revelation from God for people to know him savingly, answer life’s most important questions and carry out his will in their lives. Scripture outfits humanity with everything they need to know and please God. Nothing is lacking from Scripture which man needs to know and do God’s will in life. Whether through explicit commands or implicit principles, the Bible contains everything we need for any component of human life. We do not need additional revelation from God. In artic...

“That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”- 2 Timothy 3:17 We are considering the doctrine of Scripture affirmed by the Protestant Reformers , which is encapsulated in the Latin phrase sola Scriptura. According to the Reformation —and biblical—principle of sola Scriptura, Scripture is the only infallible rule of faith for the church.  Because the Word of God is the only theopneustos —God-breathed—special revelation that we possess today ( 2 Tim. 3:16 ), then no rule of faith can supersede Scripture.   There is no higher court to which we can appeal for faith and practice, for there is nowhere else besides Scripture where we can surely find God’s voice today. That God’s Word is inspired does not mean that He dictated it or that He overrode the personalities, gifts, and stylistic choices of the human authors through whom the written Word of God has come to us. It does mean that He worked in and through these authors such that their words a...