The Bible claims divine authority for itself in at least two ways. First, it provides historical examples of its authority. In the earliest history recorded in the Bible, God spoke directly to humanity, and his speech carried authority. In the account of the creation and Fall in Genesis 2–3, God commanded man to cultivate the Garden of Eden and not to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve, however, chose to listen to the spoken word of the serpent instead of to the spoken word of God. In doing so, she rejected the authority of God’s word. Adam, in turn, listened to Eve’s spoken word instead of to God’s word, also rejecting God’s authority. But the authority of God’s word was not destroyed by these actions. Rather, God enforced his spoken word’s authority by punishing Adam and Eve, and all creation with them.

Later, in the days of Moses, God encoded his spoken word in written form. Instead of simply telling Moses what the Ten Commandments were, he carved these laws on stone tablets. And they carried not only God’s authority, but also his promise to enforce these laws with power, both by blessing the obedient and cursing the disobedient.

Many centuries later, when God’s people had rejected the things written in Scripture, God sent foreign nations to afflict them in war.

We have a similar confirmation of the authority of Scripture in a variety of New Testament examples. For instance, in John 17:12, Jesus prayed these words:

I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Here, he indicated that both his protection of the eleven and his losing of the one were done in accordance with Scripture.

Besides proving Scripture’s claim of authority through historical examples, the Bible also proves its authority through explicit claims. One of best-known statements claiming authority for the Bible is found in 2 Peter 1:19-21, where Peter wrote:

We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention … For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God.

Here Peter indicated that the Old Testament prophetic writings continue to be authoritative in our day. Because these prophecies were inspired and authorized by God, they form a binding moral standard to which we must “pay attention.” That is, we must believe what the prophets wrote, and obey what they commanded.

If the Bible is God’s word, there can be no higher basis of authority. You can’t appeal higher up than the Bible because the Bible is God’s word, so you can’t have the church corroborating its authority, or tradition corroborating its authority, or some inner peace that, as we read the Bible, we detect it to be the word of God. Although that is true, the Holy Spirit does witness to the Bible’s self-authenticating nature, and that’s an important concept, but ultimately, the Bible authenticates itself. [Dr. Derek Thomas]