The Bible is NOT the Final Authority!

“Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (Psalm 119:89)

Over the years, I’ve heard well-meaning pastors and other Christians say, “The Bible is the final authority!”. I gotta tell ya, they’re only partly right. The Bible is not the final authority—It is THE Authority, in fact, the Bible is the ONLY Authority, Amen?

If you have something in its “final” stages, then you must have something preceding it. Let me say that again. If you have something in its “final” stages, then you must have something preceding it. If a person is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease, that means he or she had to have gone through the initial stages of the disease to reach the final stages. If you’re working on a final draft of a novel that you’re writing, then common sense would tell us that you started with a “first” draft and probably subsequent drafts were written before reaching your final draft.

When we say that the Bible is the final authority in our lives, how many authorities do we go through before we get to the final one, the Word of God? Before we see what God has to say about a particular topic, do we first go to our friends, our pastor, a counselor, a commentary, or a book on prophecy? Whenever we run to something or someone other than the Word of God first, everything else other than the Bible is our authority.

We live in a fast-food, microwaveable, instant gratification, gotta have it now world. Rather than studying God’s Word to attain Biblical truth, we run to a so-called “expert” or someone who “tickles our ears” with their gift of gab. Because what they say sounds so spiritual and profound, we adopt their views even if those views are in direct opposition to God’s Word. Folks, the martyrs in the early Church and throughout history did not go to their deaths holding a commentary or a copy of “A Purpose-Driven Life”. They died because they refused to compromise the authority of God’s Word. If the Bible is not your ONLY authority, then you have deified man and placed his writings on the same level as the Bible.

My question to you is “Are you going to make the Word of God the final authority or THE Authority in your life?” God Bless you and have a great day!