The Divine Origin and Authority of the Bible

1.The first proof that the Bible is of divine origin and possesses divine authority is the testimony of Jesus Christ to this fact. It is very common for “modern thinkers” to say that they do not believe the Bible as a whole to be the word of God, but they do accept the authority of Jesus Christ. Now, this statement is completely illogical. For if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ, we must accept the whole Bible as being the Word of God, of divine origin, and of absolute divine authority. In Mark 7:13, Jesus calls the law of Moses “the Word of God,” and sternly condemns those who set up their traditions, which were handed down to them, against its authoritative proclamation of God’s will. Here, then, Jesus puts His seal of approval on the divine origin and authority of the first five books of the Old Testament. This is the very portion of the Bible about which there is the most bitter controversy today. If that portion will stand, there need be no concern about the rest. In Matthew 5:18 [NKJV], Jesus says, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” A jot is the Hebrew character “jodh,” the smallest character in the Hebrew alphabet, less than half the size of any other character in the Hebrew alphabet, and a “tittle” is the little horn put on a consonant, less in size than the cross we put on a “t”. So Jesus says that the law of Moses is of inviolable divine authority, down to its smallest part. In John 5:47, He asks, “But if you don’t believe his (Moses) writings, how will you believe My words?”—thus showing the complete foolishness of those who say, “We cannot accept the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures,” but then claim to accept the authority of Jesus Christ. In Luke 16:31, He exposes the hopeless blindness of those who will not yield to the divine authority of the teaching of the law and the prophets by saying, “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.” In John 10:35, Jesus says, “the Scripture can’t be broken.” He has just built an argument on a single word used in the Psalms, and He thus puts His seal of approval on the absolute inerrancy of the Old Testament Scriptures. In Luke 24:27, we read that “beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” It is evident from this that He regarded the testimony of the Old Testament as of divine origin. But still more plainly does He declare their absolute authority and inerrancy in the forty-fourth verse, by saying, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, concerning Me.”