2Timothy2:19 *"Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness*”.
*THE DOCTRINE ON THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURES*
Another fundamental doctrine of orthodox Christian faith is the belief about the inspiration of the bible. That is, we believe the bible is the inspired word of God and it is the final authority on matters of doctrine. We stand with scriptures in its entirety not against it.
2 Timothy 3:16 says, *"ALL SCRIPTURE( including the old testament) is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right*" ( Emphasis mine).
Intentionally, I put the phrase "all scriptures" in caps with old testament in bracket because some are teaching that old testament is not God's word and that the God of the old testament is not the same as the God in the new testament. This is heresy.
The man who began that heresy in 4th century is Marcion of Sinope. The church declared him a heretic. Since then till now, he is called Marcion the heretic. He believed a lesser wicked god( demiurge) featured in the old testament but a gracious one is featured in the new testament.
This heretic compiled his own bible by removing old testament completely and including a few new testament books. He edited old testament references from the new testament books he selected. He subscribed to docetism, a belief that Christ's physical body is not real.
To start with, the early church in Acts of Apostles up until many centuries after did not have a complete bible that we know today as old and new testament. The only bible they had was old testament.
In their meetings, they used only old testament for exhortation, teaching and edification. From the old testament, they established doctrines coupled with the letters some of the apostles wrote which hadn't been compiled at that time.
To buttress this point better, when Paul said all scriptures is inspired by God, he meant old testament because at that time, that was the only scripture they had. The new testament books were being written at that time. Nothing like Matthew- Revelation.
Most writers of the new testament did not know their books will be compiled into a single volume with old testament books that we now call bible. They only wrote to edify the saints but church fathers saw the hand of God in their writings and were included in the bible
To say the old testament is not inspired by God sounds blasphemous. Paul will be surprised to see this crop of preachers deriding the same books they used in their fellowship back in the days.
*The old testament books are not lesser in inspiration than the new testament books*.
This is what Peter says about prophecy of the bible, *"Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, [21] or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God*"( 2 Pet 1:20-21).
The bible is not a book written by human will or man's sagacity. God Himself inspired holy men who wrote what is written in the bible. Orthodoxy (conventional Christian belief) says, "The Bible IS the word of God".
The moment we believe the bible is the word of God, we won't have problem agreeing with God about what he wrote in it. The bible does not contain the word of God, it is the word of God.
Those who view the bible with the lens of a book written by humans will have problem obeying what is written in it. Beware of those who revelations beyond the bible.
Father, I thank you for your word. I receive the grace to obey everything written in it in Jesus name.