The Doctrine Of The Sufficiency of Scripture
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.SC., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, August 20, 2025 (Donate)
Biblical Doctrine Of Sufficiency
The biblical doctrine of sufficiency is that Scripture, the 66
books of God’s Word, contains everything necessary for all matters, including
faith, salvation, and godly living. This means the Bible is the ultimate
authority (thus, it relates to the doctrine
of authority) and is fully adequate to address every area of life when
rightly understood.
The doctrine of sufficiency is not to be misunderstood. It
does not provide exhaustive knowledge on every subject, but it does give
the foundational truths and framework needed to interpret the world and life correctly.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 declares that all Scripture is
God-breathed and equips believers for every good work. This sufficiency applies
not only to spiritual matters but also to how Christians should understand
history, science, morality, and human purpose.
For example, the Bible provides the framework for
interpreting origins, showing that God created the world in six days, rather
than leaving the question to human speculation or naturalistic assumptions.
In practical terms, the sufficiency of Scripture means that
believers need not look outside God’s Word for ultimate answers about
morality, salvation, science, history, or the meaning of life. While
extra-biblical information can be helpful, it must be tested against Scripture
(1 Thessalonians 5:21). Thus, sufficiency guards the church against error and shows
that God has already given His people all they need for faith, life, truth, preconditions
for knowledge, obedience, and so on.
The doctrine of sufficiency simply upholds that the 66 books
of the Bible are the complete, authoritative, and trustworthy foundational
truth in every aspect. The sufficiency of Scripture is a key biblical doctrine.
This means that the Bible contains everything necessary for knowing God’s will,
salvation through Jesus Christ, and how to live a life pleasing to Him.
Scripture alone is the ultimate and perfect guide for faith, practice, science,
history, philosophy, and life.
Deriving The Sufficiency Of Scripture
The sufficiency of Scripture means that the Bible is
complete, comprehensive, and fully adequate for instructing us in all essential
matters of the Christian faith including how to live a godly life. This is
based on quite a few verses beginning with:
“All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God… that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped
for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, NKJV)
No additional revelations, traditions, or human philosophies
are needed to understand God’s will for salvation, creation, morality, or
spiritual growth. Another verse from which we can learn about sufficiency is:
The law of the LORD is
perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making
wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the
heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; The
fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is
great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11, (NKJV)
This discusses the Law of Moses being perfect, pure, right, and enduring.
Consider also what the Holy Spirit said through Peter:
As His divine power has given to us
all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of
Him who called us by glory and virtue. (2 Peter 1:3, NKJV)
God’s Word is sufficient in that it pertains to all things
for life and godliness. Consider what the Holy Spirit spoke through Jude (the son
of Mary and Joseph, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, and full brother of James),
when he wrote:
Beloved, while I was very diligent
to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write
to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all
delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3, NKJV)
The faith has been delivered to the saints (Christians) once
and for all—this means all generations from that point forward. It is unnecessary
and wrong to try to add alleged new prophecies to God’s sufficient Word.
Furthermore, there are no new apostolic works and books from
alleged prophets since the completion of the New Testament. The New Testament
fulfilled the Old Testament predictions of a new covenant (e.g., Jeremiah
31:31-34), a coming Messiah (e.g., Micah 5:2; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 53; Daniel
9:24-27), and eternal salvation (e.g., Daniel 2:44, Isaiah 9:6-7, Zechariah
14:9). This means that Koran (Qur’an), Book of Mormon, apocrypha, gnostic
writings, Watchtower/Awake, or any other alleged writing or prophecy (i.e., “God
told me to do this instead”) is not Scripture. The 66 books of the Bible are
sufficient, and nothing else.
Sufficiency And Genesis
Sadly neglected by some churches today, the doctrine of sufficiency
also applies to Genesis (the foundation of the Gospel). The Bible clearly
teaches:
·
God’s perfect Creation in 6 days (Genesis 1-2; Exodus
20:11; 31:17; Deuteronomy 32:4)
·
Humanity’s origin and purpose (Genesis 1–2)
·
The Fall/Curse, entrance of death and suffering origin
of sacrifice (Genesis 3)
·
The problem of sin that needs a solution (Genesis
3)
·
The Flood and the Ark (Genesis 6-8)
·
Sacrifice Continued (Genesis 8)
·
Covenant with Noah (Genesis 9)
·
The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11)
·
Genealogies (Genesis 5, 10, and 11)
·
God’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ’s
once-for-all final sacrifice for sin (built on Genesis; Romans 6:10; Hebrews
7:27, 9:12, 10:10)
·
The requirements for faith and obedience (built
on Genesis)
·
The promise of eternal life (built on Genesis)
Of major importance is that the Bible, in Genesis
specifically, is sufficient to explain the true history of the universe,
including:
· The six-day creation
· The origin of death and suffering and why we need a Savior
· The created kinds
· The global Flood of Noah’s day/most rock layers that contain fossils
· The origin of nations, languages, and people groups
Believers don’t need to rely on secular humanistic
scientific models such as evolution or the Big Bang to understand the past.
God's Word, beginning in Genesis, provides a perfect, reliable, and sufficient
foundation for interpreting the natural world.
Rejection Of Human Authority Over Scripture
One should never place interpretations of science,
philosophy, or tradition above the Bible. When Christians attempt to
reinterpret Genesis (or any other part of Scripture) to “fit” secular models,
they imply that Scripture is not sufficient in areas like origins and history.
This undermines biblical authority and opens the door to compromise by
elevating man’s ideas to supersede God and His Word.
When Christians treat secular humanistic interpretations of science
or unreliable human philosophy as a higher authority than Scripture, they
undermine biblical sufficiency. The Bible should be used a sufficient authority
to look at subjects like science and philosophy, without negating the Bible and
trusting autonomous and error-prone human thought and interpretations on the
subjects.
In today’s secularized culture, one specifically need to be
alert not to compromise with evolutionary ideas, since God’s Word already gives
a trustworthy, sufficient account of creation, the Fall, and the Flood. God
disagrees with the world’s false re-written mytho-history of big bang, millions
of years, and evolution.
Sufficient For All Of Life
The Bible is also perfectly sufficient to guide Christians
in:
1. Ethics and morality
2. Marriage and family
3. Church practices and governance
4. Civil governance
5. Discerning truth from error
6. Responding to cultural issues
7. Dignity, honor, respect, truth, love, and justice
The point is that the entire Christian worldview must be
built on the sufficiency of Scripture, beginning in Genesis. The Bible, when
taken with the authority that it is, helps believers to make sense of life and the
world. Trusting the Bible leads one to be able to respond to the challenges of
the modern secularized world and all the false religions around the world with full
confidence and truth.
Conclusion
The sufficiency of Scripture means that the Bible alone
is fully adequate to instruct us in all matters of salvation, Christian living,
foundation for origins and science, and understanding reality. Christians do
not need to add man-made ideas or alleged prophetic books and claims to God's
Word, nor do they need to reinterpret it in light of modern secular religious
views.
Scripture is complete, clear, and trustworthy—able to make us wise unto salvation and fully equipped for every good work. Scripture tells us all we need to know to be saved and to grow in Christ—starting with Genesis—which is the foundation for every major doctrine of theology directly or indirectly. Adding to or subtracting from the 66 books of Scripture—through man’s ideas or religious traditions—undermines its sufficiency.
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Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in
2015 as a personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a
501(c)(3). He has spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in
churches, colleges, and universities. He is married with four children.
