Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 24:3 (Fall 2020)
Article: Editorial: Defending Biblical Authority On The Textual Front
Author: Stephen J. Wellum

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Editorial: Defending Biblical Authority On The Textual Front

Stephen J. Wellum

Stephen J. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and editor of Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. He received his PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he is the author of numerous essays and articles and the co-author with Peter Gentry of Kingdom through Covenant, 2nd edition (Crossway, 2018) and God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015); the co-editor of Progressive Covenantalism (B&H, 2016); the author of God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of the Person of Christ (Crossway, 2016) and Christ Alone—The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior (Zondervan, 2017); and the co-author of Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ (Zondervan, 2018); and the author of The Person of Christ: An Introduction (Crossway, 2021).

Throughout the ages, historic Christianity has affirmed that Scripture is God’s Word written, the product of God’s mighty action whereby human authors freely wrote exactly what God intended to be written and without error (2 Tim 3:15–17; 2 Pet 1:20–21). Why has the church confessed such a view? For the reason that Scripture itself teaches it or attests to it. The affirmation of Scripture’s self-attestation is vitally important for at least two reasons.

First, the Church does not claim for Scripture something foreign to it. In other words, the Church does not confer authority on the Bible and make it something it is not. Instead, precisely because Scripture is God’s Word written, it comes to us bearing witness to itself. Of course, one is free to accept or reject such a claim, but if one does, then one must state the basis for such a rejection. One cannot simply dismiss the Bible “as any other book”

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or simply place the Bible into the same category as other “religious” books as if they are all in the same category, making the same claims, which they do not. If we take the biblical claim seriously, it is simply not a legitimate option for one to do so.

Second, as with any doctrine of the Christian faith, including our doctrine of Scripture, we must substantiate it by an appeal to Scripture. No doubt, this leads to a kind of “circularity” but this should not surprise us. When it comes to ultimate criterions and highest authorities in any worldview (Christian, Islamic, naturalistic, etc.), an argument of this sort is un...