Chapter 4--The Authority of Scripture

I think we all know that Scripture is directly from God--it is His Word to us. Therefore, it has complete authority in our lives above anything else. It is to be exalted to the highest priority in our lives because it is the Creator speaking directly to us. It should command our attention, devotion and obedience.

Most of the writers of the books of the Bible made statements like "Thus saith the Lord" or "what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord." Titus 1:2 and Numbers 23:19 says that God never lies and Jesus said that "Your Word is truth." John 17:17. Peter says that 'men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." We are to live by every Word from the mouth of God (Matt 4:4) and Moses writes that the Words of God are not idle words; they are our very lives (Deut 32).

Therefore, our duty is to read, study and immerse ourselves in God's Word and then seek to apply it diligently in our lives. To not do this is to neglect what God would have us to do. The goal of the Christian life is to bear fruit and grow in grace and knowlege of God and bring glory to Him (Colossians 1); we can't do this apart from God's authoritative truth.

Chapter 3--The Canon of Scripture

Chuck already posted some thoughts about the Canon, and the article Jon posted was great. Since we have been discussing why to study and grow in the Lord, and a little about how God speaks to us, we should spend some time digging into the Canon. Like the article from leaderu said, most people do not know how to defend the canon of Scripture from attacks from other religions or worldviews. I think its clear in Scripture that we have faith combined with reason, though reason is always subservient to faith (the problem in the Catholic church is that they have this backwards). There are exhortations in Scripture for us to use reason and to seek wisdom from God at all times. The parables of Christ were founded squarely on logic and reason, and often times He used human reason to turn the Pharisees back on their own arguments. So I think as Christians commanded to always be ready, in and out of season to explain why we believe what we believe, we need to be able to make a case for why we believe in the inerrancy and completeness of the Canon--the Word of God.

This chapter is a little longer but full of great information on how we received the Canon. We should approach this chapter with the goal of being able to make a very short, concise statement on why we accept the Bible as God's inerrant Word. And then have resources for further developments of this argument if needed. The chapter has some references to some books that look really good, and I would love to see any other links you all might know of like the one Jon sent out.