Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 26:3 (Fall 2022)
Article: Editorial: Further Reflections On The Importance Of Scripture For Theology And The Church
Author: Stephen J. Wellum

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Editorial: Further Reflections On The Importance Of Scripture For Theology And The Church

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, 2012, 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).

In this issue of SBJT, we are continuing to reflect on the doctrine of Scripture and its significance for the life and health of the church. As I noted in my editorial in SBJT 26.2 (2022), there are many reasons why the doctrine of Scripture and a proper understanding of biblical authority is crucial to affirm today, but the most significant reason is due to the fact that without an authoritative Word from the Creator and providential Lord who knows and plans all things, we would have no epistemological warrant to affirm that God has spoken definitively and objectively. Without a reliable and authoritative Bible, we could hypothesize about God and the world, but none of

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our hypotheses would be properly warranted and grounded. Apart from an inspired Scripture, that is, Scripture is God’s Word due to his extraordinary or supernatural action in and through the human authors (2 Pet 1:20–21) which results in a “God-breathed” (theopneustos) text (2 Tim 3:16–17) so that Scripture is completely authoritative and trustworthy, we would have no objective foundation on which to warrant our beliefs.

Does this statement sound too strong? Many have thought so, but this statement is not hyperbole; instead, it is a sober reality. Why? For this reason: apart from such a foundation, any statement of Scripture could be false. But if this is so, how would we determine that one or numerous points of falsity? Ultimately, we would need an independent criterion to allow us to determine which statements of Scripture are tr...