{"id":69991,"date":"2024-09-30T18:53:58","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T23:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=69991"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:53:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T23:53:58","slug":"the-authority-of-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-authority-of-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"The Authority of Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n<p>Two fundamental and opposite approaches to biblical authority are common today:<\/p>\n<p><strong>View #1:<\/strong> Everything is permissible unless the Bible expressly <strong>forbids<\/strong> it. If the Bible does not say not to, then we can.<\/p>\n<p><strong>View #2:<\/strong> We can do nothing unless the Bible <b>permits <\/b>it, and we can prove it is acceptable by at least the general authority of scripture statements, commands, approved examples, and necessary inference.<\/p>\n<p>The second view is in harmony with Romans 12:2-3, which places responsibility upon us to &#8220;<em>prove what <b>is <\/b>acceptable to the Lord<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The first view allows the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Popes,<\/li>\n<li>Cardinals,<\/li>\n<li>Monks,<\/li>\n<li>Nuns,<\/li>\n<li>A separate priesthood from other Christians,<\/li>\n<li>Infant baptism,<\/li>\n<li>Animal sacrifices,<\/li>\n<li>Burning incense,<\/li>\n<li>Sprinkling for baptism,<\/li>\n<li>Instrumental music (traditional, hard rock, or heavy metal in worship),<\/li>\n<li>Auricular confession (confession to a designated priest),<\/li>\n<li>A diocese of churches, church associations, and synods,<\/li>\n<li>Organization of churches into districts, state, and national associations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nothing in this group should be opposed or forbidden if this view of authority is correct. If this view of authority is incorrect, nothing in this list can be &#8220;<em>proven acceptable to the Lord<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 12:2-3).<\/p>\n<p>The second view is correct.<\/p>\n<p>In Hebrews 7, the writer argues that it would not be permissible for Jesus to be a priest on earth because he was from the tribe of Judah, &#8220;of which tribe the Law spoke nothing concerning priesthood.&#8221; It did not <b>forbid <\/b>it, but it did not <b>permit <\/b>it. It could be proven acceptable if one were from the tribe of Levi and linked to Aaron in genealogy, but no one could prove it acceptable to the Lord to become a priest on earth from the tribe of Judah. Even though the Law did not expressly forbid a Judean priest, the fact remains that it only permitted Levitical priests. The Hebrews writer did not consider the first view above a valid way of establishing authority. He pointed out that the only way for Jesus to be a priest would be to have a &#8220;<em>change of the law<\/em>,&#8221; which is what Jesus did (Ephesians 2:11-15; Colossians 2:13-17). So, under the new law of Christ, Jesus can now be our High Priest (Hebrews 9:9-11). But, now that we are under the law of Christ and not the law of Moses, the rule of &#8220;<em>proving what <b>is <\/b>acceptable to the Lord<\/em>&#8221; still applies under this law (Ephesians 5:10; I Thessalonians 5:21; Romans 12:1-3). If we cannot prove something is acceptable to the Lord, then we cannot do it. It is as simple as that.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Terry Wane Benton Two fundamental and opposite approaches to biblical authority are common today: View #1: Everything is permissible unless the Bible expressly forbids it. If the Bible does not say not to, then we can. View #2: We can do nothing unless the Bible permits it, and we can prove it is acceptable&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[78,964],"class_list":["post-69991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-authority","tag-understanding-the-bible"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85616,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-burden-of-proof\/","url_meta":{"origin":69991,"position":0},"title":"The Burden of Proof","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton We sometimes hear someone say \"prove it is a sin,\" with the idea that unless the Bible says \"this is a sin,\" it is acceptable to the Lord. But, the criteria is that for something to be acceptable to the Lord, one must \"prove it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11888,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-convince-a-roman-catholic-that-infant-baptism-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":69991,"position":1},"title":"How do I convince a Roman Catholic that infant baptism is wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A Catholic and I debated the topic of infant baptism. He used the argument of \"household\" referring to babies as well. When I told him that households could mean teens or servants he said that he would rather follow the practice of infant baptism followed by earlier Christians 2000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49756,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/authorized-aids\/","url_meta":{"origin":69991,"position":2},"title":"Authorized Aids","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Larry Ray Hafley The Bible does not state that Noah used hammers, saws, and axes in the construction of the ark. However, such instruments were authorized by the command, \"Make thee an ark\" (Genesis 6:14). Without the instruction to build the ark, the tools would have been unauthorized. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90803,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-issue-of-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":69991,"position":3},"title":"The Issue of Authority","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Randy Robinson John Mellencamp lamented in song over twenty years ago, \"I fight authority; authority always wins.\" Indeed, authority is a powerful force with which to be reckoned. In the case of this songster, his perspective is easily noted as one who is rebellious against authority, as indicated by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89836,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/by-what-authority-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":69991,"position":4},"title":"By What Authority? (Matthews)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Samuel Matthews \"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;\u00a0 looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12290,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-studied-the-bible-from-an-academic-point-of-view-as-a-historical-document-of-several-communities-making-sense-of-god-in-their-time-of-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":69991,"position":5},"title":"Have you studied the Bible from an academic point of view as a historical document of several communities making sense of God in their time of crisis?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You give your answers in a canonical view; basically, using the Bible as a whole in its entirety to answer the questions. Yet, the core of what the questions address is why did the authors write the apparent contradictions if it was \"inspired by God\"? There was a time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}