The Bible
What do we believe about the Bible?
Our Belief
There is no other way to know God except that he reveals himself to us. The Bible is God’s revelation to us. The words of the Bible are divinely inspired and infallible, as originally given, and have supreme authority in all matters of faith, conduct and experience. The Bible is sufficient for knowing God. It is not only central to the wellbeing of the church but is able to thoroughly equip the Christian community for life and godliness.
The Bible and Faith
The Bible is God’s Word and is the supreme authority. It is not a source of authority on par with or corrected by fallible human textbooks or philosophies. God’s Word is inerrant both in creation and the rest of Scripture. Jesus could command the wind and the waves to be calm because it was His same voice that spoke the wind and waves into existence in the beginning. Both creation and calming of the storm occurred through the spoken Word and were equally miracles.
The supremacy of God and His Word must unashamedly be the starting point of the Christian worldview. Our faith is built on confidence in all of Scripture. From that confident foundation we accept the Bible’s authority to provide instruction on how we ought to live as holy and blameless children of God both individually and within the church community. Furthermore, this foundation provides the basis on which we can analyse and speak into social and cultural issues.
Verbal Plenary Inspiration is the correct approach to Scripture. This means that God inspired every word, not just the concepts. This approach does not negate the genres of individual books nor the personalities of their human authors. Considering context and the original audience are important hermeneutical principles. This preserves the supernatural historicity and infallibility of Scripture as accepted throughout church history and to the praise of His sovereign glory. A historical reading does not erase the poetic patterns of the created order echoed throughout Scripture or eliminate metaphorical extensions
Science and Miracles
God provides both special revelation and general revelation. Special revelation is the Word of God - the 66 books of the Bible. General revelation is the human experience of living in God's created world and seeking to understand both the visible and invisible things He created (Col 1:16). Science is the process of humans recording observable and repeatable events within God's created world. From this study we develop 'scientific rules and principles' to explain how the world operates.
A belief in the supremacy of the Bible does not dismiss or belittle the study of science. Studying science is a faith strengthening endeavor, congruent with the Bible and is encouraged. However, in today's post-modern world, much of what is called science is actually 'scientism'. Scientism denies the possibility of God or miracles. It is built on extrapolative models that draw conclusions and forecasts of what may have happened a long time ago or what may occur a long time into the future. Those models are fallible. We believe that God, as the Creator of science, has and can supernaturally suspend the rules of science, not on-demand, but when He chooses. Such events are called miracles which we accept and believe as people of faith.