On The Authority Of Scripture

On The Authority Of Scripture

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, July 2, 2025 (Donate)

Some, even within the church as a whole today, tend to demote the authority of God’s Word. Some do it inadvertently but others openly reduce its pages and verses to be mere guidelines or altogether as "outdated" and "unprofitable."

When God’s Word is set aside, it is man’s fallible and errant ideas that are elevated to supersede God and His infallible and inerrant Word. In essence, when one demotes God as the authority, they are elevating the religion of humanism in its broadest sense. But the issue is over authority.  

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God’s Authority In All Matters

The authority of the 66 books of the Scripture is foundational to all matters. The authority of God’s Word is especially important for building a proper and true Christian worldview because the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, sufficient, and infallible Word of God. Since God is the Creator and ultimate authority, His Word carries absolute authority in all matters it addresses—spiritual, historical, scientific, logical, philosophical, moral, etc.

One might argue that the Bible wasn’t completed until the New Testament was finished so how could anyone have a truly biblical worldview prior to that? It’s true that the Bible was progressively revealed and based on revelation revealed at the time, one could still be developing a proper Christian worldview. These are not contradictory by any means, but God was building a good biblical worldview on top of good biblical worldview that He had previously established as He revealed His Word.

It’s not a problem for God to build good on top of good. Bearing in mind that our all-knowing God knows all things and knew His revealed Word prior to any word of it being revealed to man.

Scripture is not man's opinion about God (like so many false religions that are floating around), but God’s revelation to mankind. As stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed…”—meaning it originates from God Himself. God revealed that He cannot lie by His very nature of being the Truth (e.g., John 14:6; Titus 1:2), the Bible is completely trustworthy.

In fact, the God of the Bible is the basis for trustworthiness, truth, and morality in the first place. If one begins demoting God, they lose the very foundation for such things. In laymen’s terms, if someone says “God is lying in the Bible”, then that person has given up that lying is bad—because they have given up the Bible which is the basis for why lying is wrong in the first place! Thus, they would be undercutting their own argument and self-refuting.

Furthermore, compromising the authority of Scripture—especially in Genesis—leads to undermining key doctrines such as sin, salvation, and the gospel. The historical truth of Genesis (e.g., a normal/literal six-day creation, the existence of Adam and Eve, and a world-covering global Flood) is foundational to understanding why the gospel is necessary.

Jesus and the apostles and other biblical writers affirmed previous revelation (e.g., the Old Testament for instance) as authoritative, and the New Testament continues that authority. Even early church father immediately recognized that their authority was nowhere near on a level of the absolute authority of the Holy Spirit’s work of the New Testament—showing a distinct break.

When Christians elevate autonomous human reasoning (reasoning apart from God’s Word), secular humanistic understandings of science and history, or human-based traditions above Scripture, they place fallible opinions over the infallible Word of God. Instead, all beliefs and ideas must be tested against the clear teaching of Scripture.

God’s Word Is Truth

If God’s Word is neglected as the authority that it is, knowledge becomes meaningless and arbitrary. The Bible must be true to make knowledge, logic, and truth possible. The Bible consistently claims to be God’s Word.

Psalm 119:160, NKJV declares,

“The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”

Because God is the source of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), His Word carries His authority.

Jesus affirmed this in John 17:17, NKJV, praying to the Father,

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

He quoted Old Testament Scripture authoritatively, often saying, “It is written…” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10), indicating that what is written carries divine authority.

All Scripture Is God-Breathed

Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16–17, NKJV:

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

“Inspiration of God” (Greek: theopneustos) means “God-breathed.” This affirms that Scripture is not of human origin, but originates from the mind and will of God, making it binding and authoritative over human belief and behavior. It is not a problem for an all-powerful God to use men and their God-given literary styles and flavors to write His inerrant and inspired text.

God’s Prophetic Word Is Final

2 Peter 1:20–21, NKJV says,

“No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

The Bible claims that its human authors were guided by the Spirit, making their writings God’s message—not their own. Therefore, Scripture doesn’t merely “contain truth” as some errantly say but instead, “it is the truth”.

Jesus Affirms Scripture's Authority

Jesus treated the Old Testament as historically accurate and authoritative. He affirmed the writings of Moses (Luke 24:27; John 5:46–47), quoted the Psalms and the Prophets (Matthew 22:43–44), and said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

He also promised the Holy Spirit would guide His apostles into all truth (John 16:13), laying the foundation for the New Testament’s authority.

Apostolic Writings Carry Equal Weight

The New Testament authors recognized the authority of each other’s writings. Peter referred to Paul’s letters as “Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15–16), placing them alongside the Old Testament. Paul quoted both the Old Testament and the Gospel of Luke as Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18, treating the Gospels and his epistles as God’s authoritative Word.

The entire canon of Scripture is self-attesting—which is a powerful confirmation of its authority.

Scripture Judges All, Is Judged By None

Hebrews 4:12, NKJV says,

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Scripture is the final standard by which all teachings, moral claims, traditions, theologies, doctrines, science, historical claims, other alleged holy books, and other alleged prophets and experiences must be tested (Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:13)—past, present, or future from when the Bible was written. No authority—whether personal, ecclesiastical, or cultural—stands above God’s Word.

Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18–19 warn against adding to or subtracting from God’s Word. These bookend the Bible with a warning: God’s Word is complete, sacred, and not subject to human tampering—though some errantly try (e.g., NWT, JST, etc.). According to the Bible itself, Scripture is authoritative because it is God’s inspired, inerrant, and sufficient Word.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible speaks with divine authority, demanding belief and obedience. As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, NKJV

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Final Thoughts On Scriptural Authority

The 66 books of the Bible alone is the supreme authority because it is the Word of the all-knowing, sovereign God—no other books can be added to God’s Word because they are the works of man and not God. Every aspect of life, education, thought, morality, science, doctrine, logic, and all other subject matter must be brought into submission to God’s revealed Word.

For those who have gone astray and demoted God’s Word and elevated man’s autonomous reasoning above God and His Word—I kindly request that you think about this more deeply and repent. We have all fallen short but we must humble ourselves and get back to God’s authoritative Word.

The authority of Scripture refers to the Bible’s right to command belief and obedience, grounded in its divine origin. According to the Bible, Scripture holds ultimate authority because it is the very Word of God—true, trustworthy, and binding in all matters of faith, conduct, science, history, doctrine, and so on. Sometimes, we need to let go of our pride, and stand in awe of the one who has all authority.

 

Finland School Shootings: The Sad Evolution Connection

Finland School Shootings: The Sad Evolution Connection 

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, July 1, 2025 (Donate) 

“I am prepared to fight and die for my cause, . . . I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection. No, the truth is that I am just an animal, a human, an individual, a dissident . . . . It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!”[1]

Sadly, these words were among the last things said before a self-proclaimed Social Darwinist took action in a shooting rampage in Jokela High School about 40 miles from Helsinki, Finland. At least eight people were reported killed by the student gunman named Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who had an online alias “Sturmgeist89,” in a tragic event that has shocked the country that sits in the far northern region of Europe.[2]

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The Rise Of Evolution

Finland, like many other European nations, used to be very Christian in its culture. They still have a Nordic blue cross on the flag of their country. But over the years, evolutionism began to infiltrate in schools, universities and so on. Evolutionism is a religious view that denies that the Bible is God’s Word and that God is the final authority. Instead, the evolutionary religion has man as the supreme authority. Evolutionists have made clear the meaning of evolution:

“Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer that died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.”[3] 

And: 

“Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear . . . . There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That’s the end for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either.”[4]

In such a religion, if God is left out, then the only other option for supreme authority is mankind. If that is the case, then each person can determine what is right and wrong in his or her own eyes (Judges 17:6). In this little town in Finland, this is exactly what the gunman did, with no regard for human life.

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In today’s culture there is a war over true history. This war is significant, since it deals with how people live their lives. The way people view their history affects how they live their life, i.e., their purpose, goals, and views of morality.

Mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, for example, lived his life believing evolution was true history, and therefore, it affected his theology (believing there was no God) and how he lived his life (without regard for other human life). Dahmer said:

“If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing…”[5]

Fruits Of Evolution

This student professed to be a “Social Darwinist,” which is a fancy way of saying he held to the religion of evolution. Even his revealing quote that initiated this article confirms his evolutionary beliefs. And like Darwin, he felt some people were “unfit” to survive. Charles Darwin wrote:

“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes . . . will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian [Aborigine] and the gorilla.”[6]

Darwin was not afraid to admit that people may one day exterminate others. Many have applied his ideas on a grand scale and others are doing it on smaller scales.

Hitler, Marx, Stalin, And Others

Darwin’s teachings have influenced many in the past, such as Hitler, who tried to get Nazi Germany to conform to evolution. Sir Arthur Keith, a prominent British anthropologist (and evolutionists himself), pointed out that Hitler, based on his writings, was an evolutionist:

“The German Führer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution.”[7]

Karl Marx, Pol Pot, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin—to name a few—avidly held to Darwinian evolution to justify their actions.

Now that evolution is being taught in most parts of the world, it is logical to assume this influence will sadly continue to bear more fruit. But after the fruit that was born by the Marxist teachings of Hitler and Stalin, can mankind afford more fruit like this?

School Shootings and Mass Murders in the US

School shootings in the US often now only invoke brief headlines because so many have occurred. Amish children were killed, and in a Cleveland-area school, a shooter opened fire killing four while cursing.[8] Few forget the evolutionary kids who made news in Columbine, where one of the two gunmen was even wearing a “natural selection” T-shirt while racing through the school shooting fellow classmates on April 20, 1999.[9]

Who Has A Right To Be Upset?

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by any shooting tragedy like this, though nothing can replace those they have lost. As Christians who hold that people are made in the image of God, there is a basis for the value of human life and for absolute morality.

If evolutionists are upset about this tragedy in Finland (or any other school shooting), then on what basis could they make a case to condemn it? On the basis of their materialistic beliefs, what they just observed was a random set of chemicals reacting with another random set of chemicals. Do evolutionists get upset with baking soda reacting with vinegar?

Often, however, even evolutionists are outraged by the school shootings, but in order for them to justify being outraged, they have borrowed from the Christian worldview to acknowledge that such things are wrong.

But the fact remains that these murderers were living a life consistent with the real teachings of atheistic evolutionism. Children catch on quickly and eventually put two and two together. When they are taught that there is no God, no right and wrong, people are animals, etc., then they may reason: “Why not kill or steal?” and so on. It is a logical connection.

Creationwise by Dan Lietha; Image from Presentation Library

So long as evolutionism is forced onto children (no God, people are animals, no right and wrong, etc.) and so long as they believe it and reject accountability to their Creator, then we can expect more of these types of gross and inappropriate actions.

Did God Make The World Full Of Suffering And Death?

In today’s culture, when news like this hits, one of the most common questions people ask is this: “If there really is a loving God, then why did he make the world like this?” It disheartens me to hear the wrong answer to this question—and Christians even, more often than not, are giving the wrong answer.

The answer is to death and suffering is simple. God didn’t make the world like this. He originally made it perfect (Genesis 1:31; Deuteronomy 32:4). There was no death, pain or suffering (Genesis 1:29–30). But due to man’s sin (Adam and Eve) against God, death and suffering entered into creation (Genesis 3). Death is the punishment for sin (Genesis 2:17). We all sin and fall short of God’s holiness and glory (Romans 5:12, 3:23). Thus, according to a holy and righteous God who gave us life to begin with, we all deserve death.

Yet God loved us enough to send His Son to die in our place to offer salvation and peace with God. John 3:16–17 says:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

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God truly is a loving God to have offered Himself a perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty of our sin and to offer us the free gift of salvation. One day those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will experience a world where there is no longer any death or pain and where the tears will be wiped from our eyes by God Himself (Revelation 21:1–4). When we see sad news like this, it should be a reminder that sin is serious and has consequences, but in the same respect the good news of Jesus Christ can set us free from the eternal consequence of sin. When viewing the world’s history and life either through an evolutionary or biblical perspective, only the biblical view has any real hope.

If you don’t know that your sins are forgiven and you are reconciled to God, can I encourage you read the book of John (Link) in the New Testament part of the Bible.  And then turn from your sin, tell God you are sorry and that you gratefully trust in what Jesus did on the cross to pay for your sins.  Then find a church where the Bible is taught and believed as the authoritative Word of God.  

Originally here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/stage/articles/2007/11/08/finland-fruits-of-humanism; Edited; Republished by permission.

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[1] As reported by Sami Torma, “Seven killed at Finland School after YouTube Post,” Yahoo! News; “Finland School Gunman Dies,” AOL News; Anonymous [missionary in Finland], email message to author from a missionary that listed the shooters recent post in detail, November 7, 2007.

[2] Ibid.

[3] G. Richard Bozarth, “The Meaning of Evolution,” American Atheist, 20 Sept. 1979, p. 30.

[4] William B. Provine, Origins Research 16.1 (1994), p.9.

[5] Jeffrey Dahmer, interview with Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC, Nov. 29, 1994.

[6] Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (New York: A.L. Burt, 1874, 2^nd ed.), p. 178.

[7] A. Keith, Evolution and Ethics, Putnam, NY, USA, 1947, p. 230.

[8] “Police: Suspended Boy Shoots 4 at Ohio School,” MSNBC, October 10, 2007.

[9] D. Catchpoole, How to build a bomb in the public school system, Creation 22(1) December 1999, p. 17.