The
Word of God
We believe and teach that the Holy Scriptures,
as represented in the sixty-six books of the Bible (i.e. the Protestant
Canon), constitutes the infallible and authoritative Word of God
and is God's special revelation to mankind.
These Scriptures are God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), and thereby,
are absolutely inerrant and infallible in the original autographs.
Like the Living Word of God, i.e. Christ, the written Word of
God is fully divine and yet genuinely human. The Holy Spirit superintended
a variety of human authors, including their personalities, backgrounds,
and styles (Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:15-17) resulting in the
production of God's book, the Bible (2 Peter 1:20-21).
We believe and teach that although no one
text-type or any particular version derived from it necessarily
represents the autographs identically at every place, many of
the various traditional and contemporary English translations
should be looked upon as being reliable conveyers of God's Word
to mankind.
In the light of all these truths, the Bible is fully authoritative,
i.e. it alone is our infallible rule for faith and all practice
(Deuteronomy 32:44-47;
Isaiah 1:10;
8:16,
20;
30:8;
34:16;
40:6-8;
55:11;
Jeremiah 23:29 ;
Zechariah 7:12;
Matthew 4:4
,7
,10;
5:17-19;
John 10:35;
2 Timothy 3:15-17;
Hebrews 4:12-13). Believing unreservedly
in the total truth and trustworthiness of Scripture, we employ
the literal-grammatical-historical method of interpretation.
