Sabbath School for Adults: Lesson 4:The Bible–the Authoritative Source of Our Theology

Thursday April 23


The Bible

The Holy Spirit, who has revealed and inspired the content of the Bible to human beings, will never lead us contrary to God’s Word or astray from the Word of God. For Seventh-day Adventists, the Bible has a higher authority than human tradition, experience, reason, or culture. The Bible alone is the norm by which everything else needs to be tested.

Read John 5:46, 47 and John 7:38. For Jesus Christ, the Bible is the ultimate source for understanding spiritual matters. How does the Bible confirm that Jesus is the true Messiah?

Some people claim to have received special “revelations” and instructions from the Holy Spirit, but these go against the clear message of the Bible. For them the Holy Spirit has attained a higher authority than God’s Word. Whoever nullifies the written and inspired Word of God and evades its clear message, is walking on dangerous ground and is not following the leading of God’s Spirit. The Bible is our only spiritual safeguard. It alone is a reliable norm for all matters of faith and practice.
“Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 671.
The Holy Spirit should never be understood to replace the Word of God. Rather, He works in harmony with and through the Bible to draw us to Christ, thus making the Bible the only norm for authentic biblical spirituality. The Bible provides sound doctrine (see 1 Tim. 4:6), and as God’s Word is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. It is not our task to sit in judgment over Scripture. The Word of God, rather, has the right and the authority to judge us and our thinking. After all, it is the Written Word of God Himself.

Why is the Bible a safer guide in spiritual questions than are subjective impressions? What are the consequences when we do not accept the Bible as the standard by which we test all teachings and even our spiritual experience? If private revelation were the final word in spiritual questions, why would this lead to nothing but chaos and error?