The Scriptures Alone Are Authoritative

A. Necessity of Scripture- the Scripture is necessary as a witness to the historical character of God's revelation.

B. Authority of Scripture- Scripture is self-attesting. The Scripture has an authority in and of itself as the inspired Word of God.

C. Clarity of Scripture- the knowledge that is necessary to salvation, though not clear on every page of Scripture, and not open to immediate understanding in every passage, is none the less, clear enough for anyone who diligently searches, to discover the truth.

D. Sufficiency of Scripture- The Scriptures alone are sufficient to provide us with the information we need concerning God and His plan of salvation.

2. Comparing the Roman Catholic view of the authority of Scripture and the Protestant view.

A. Roman Catholic view- tradition and the Scriptures are authoritative.

B. Protestant view- the Scriptures alone are authoritative.

3. Explaining the role tradition plays in the Protestant churches.

Tradition enlightens, clarifies, and complements the knowledge that we have from the Scriptures. It is not authoritative, nor is it necessary for a clear understanding of the Word of God.

4. Defining the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

What it's not

A. It's not new revelation.

B. It's not identical with the testimony from experience.

C. It's not the ground of faith.

What it is

A. It is subjective revelation.

B. It is that work which the Holy Spirit inwardly convinces the believer of the truth of the Word of God.

5. Some important points in the Roman Catholic view of revelation.

A. There are two sources of knowledge, reason, and faith.

B. General Revelation- God provides evidence of Himself in nature. This revelation provides certain and true knowledge. General revelation is supplemented by Special Revelation, which is received by faith upon the authority of the church.

C. Two sources of revelation- Scripture and tradition. Now, the Catholic church teaches that there is only one source of revelation, but with two aspects; these are tradition and Scripture.

D. The teaching office of the church must interpret special Revelation.

6. Listing and explaining Feinberg's "misunderstandings" of the meaning of inerrancy.

A. Inerrancy does not demand strict adherence to the rules of grammar.

B. Inerrancy does not exclude the use of figures of speech or of a given literary genre.

C. Inerrancy does not demand historical of semantic precision.

D. Inerrancy does not demand the technical language of modern science.

E. Inerrancy does not require verbal exactness in the citation of the Old Testament by the New Testament.

F. Inerrancy does not demand that the exact words of Jesus be contained in the Bible. The intent must be accurately reflected.

G. Inerrancy does not guarantee the exhaustive comprehensiveness of any single account or of combined accounts.

H. Inerrancy does not demand the infallibility of the nine inspired sources used by biblical writers.