📖 Biblical Definition
The authority of Scripture is the doctrine that the Bible, as the very Word of God, possesses supreme and final authority over the conscience, the church, and all of life, binding men to believe what it teaches and to obey what it commands. This authority is not derived from the church, from human reason, or from religious experience, but rests upon the fact that Scripture is breathed out by God: it is authoritative because God is its Author, and the Word of the sovereign Lord carries His own supreme right to command. Hence the prophets spoke not their own word but “Thus saith the LORD,” and the apostles wrote as those whose word is to be received not as the word of men but, as it is in truth, the Word of God. The authority of Scripture is the formal principle of the Reformation, confessed as sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, and doctrines of men are to be examined. The church does not confer authority upon the Bible but receives and submits to it; she is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, not they upon her. To bow to the authority of Scripture is to bow to God who speaks in it; to set any other authority above or beside it—pope, council, tradition, reason, or experience—is to usurp the throne that belongs to the Word of the living God.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines AUTHORITY as legal power or right to command and enforce obedience; Scripture’s authority is the supreme right of God’s Word to bind the conscience.
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AUTHORITY, n. — 1. Legal power, or a right to command or to act; as the authority of a prince over subjects. 4. Testimony; witness; or the person who testifies. 6. Weight of testimony; credibility... In matters of religion, the authority of Scripture is supreme.
The Word of God, being from the supreme Author, possesses supreme authority over faith and life.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Timothy 3:16 — "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
1 Thessalonians 2:13 — "...when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God."
Isaiah 8:20 — "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
Matthew 4:4 — "...It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Scripture’s authority is dethroned wherever a rival is set beside or above it—the church’s tradition (Rome), autonomous reason (rationalism), or personal experience and feeling (the modern self).
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The authority of Scripture is overthrown not usually by open denial but by the quiet enthronement of a rival authority alongside it. Rome sets tradition and the magisterium beside the Word, so that the church effectively judges Scripture rather than submitting to it. Rationalism, born of the Enlightenment, sets autonomous human reason above the Word, accepting only what passes the bar of the critical intellect and discarding the miraculous, the supernatural, and the inconvenient. Each move dethrones the Bible by installing a judge over it, and in each case the conscience comes to rest on something other than the voice of God.
The characteristic modern usurper is the sovereign self—personal experience, intuition, and feeling. “This is what the Bible says, but this is how I feel,” or “I could never worship a God who…”—and with that, the authority shifts from the text to the self, which approves or rejects Scripture according to its own sensibilities. This is the spirit of the age, and it is fatal, for a Bible that may be overruled by the self has no authority at all. The Reformation answer remains: sola Scriptura—Scripture alone is the supreme judge, to which church, reason, and experience must all submit. To the law and to the testimony: if any voice speaks not according to this word, there is no light in it.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on the prophetic kō ’āmar YHWH (“thus saith the LORD”) and on receiving Scripture as the logos theou (word of God), not the word of men.
Usage
"The authority of Scripture flows from its Author: it binds the conscience because God Himself speaks in it."
"Sola Scriptura confesses Scripture alone as the supreme judge, above church, council, reason, and experience."
"‘The Bible says it, but I feel otherwise’ dethrones Scripture’s authority and enthrones the sovereign self."