Having a High View of Scripture is Essential
by Dr. Corey Miller, Ratio Christi President and CEO
Ratio Christi embraces the authority of the Bible. Francis Bacon, the Father of Modern Science, alluded to the “Two Books of God”: God’s Word and God’s Works (Scripture and Nature). Having a high view of Scripture is vital for understanding our world and for living the good life.
The Bible is taught as literature in the universities because it is a literary masterpiece. I’ve taught it as a professor at a Big Ten university. The Bible literally means “collection of books.” Indeed, it is a collection of 66 books that all point to Christ, the most influential figure in all of human history. It serves as God redemptive plan in history. History is quite literally His story.
However, the Bible is not merely informational but transformational. It changes minds and hearts, families and cultures, and whole civilizations for good. It is the Book of Books that promotes human equality and justice because it grounds human nature not in evolution, not in social contract, and not in government edict. It grounds human sacredness, the sanctity of human life that has governed Western Civilization for millennia, in our being made in the image of God – the Sanctifier of human life.
The conviction that everyone ought to be able to read the Bible in their own language further changed the world. It was even the catalyst that set the conditions of the positive things that emerged in the Enlightenment Period, like democracy, capitalism, and free speech.
The main reason Christians accept the authority of the Bible is certainly not because of blind faith, nor because tradition espoused it, nor because it authenticates itself to us as we read it. Rather, the overriding reason for accepting the inspired and authoritative text is loyalty to Jesus. We are reasonably convinced that He came from Heaven and spoke for God. The most incredible claims were made by the most credible person in history. Jesus rose from the dead, just as the weight of historical evidence, even from outside sources, supports. Despite some idiosyncratic interpretations, this amazing person embraced the whole Old Testament as Scripture. He foreordained the writing of the New Testament by selecting apostles and inspiring them to write a historically accurate and theologically sound account.
We don’t begin by assuming the inspiration of the Bible. We take it as a well grounded piece of historical literature, which it is. The Gospels are first century documents and the records of eyewitnesses. In them, we see Jesus’ life, His death, and His resurrection. We come to believe His claim of divinity. We adopt His view of Scripture. The central authority then is Christ’s authority, not the Bible’s authority. To reject the Old and New Testaments is to reject he authority of Christ, whose authority is unassailable.
Ratio Christi means “the reason of Christ.”
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If you agree that having a high view of Scripture is essential, consider joining our team. We are seeking full time Campus Ministers.
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To hear more about our firm commitment to the authority of Scripture, check out this video:
