Okay, exactly where does the Bible tell you 2 Timothy is scripture?
“Okay, exactly where does the Bible tell you 2 Timothy is scripture?”
It is written by the apostle Paul. Apostles were those directly ordained by Jesus to be authoritative teachers of official doctrine.
Of course, we only know that because we see it happening in the gospels, and in Acts. So then, we can dispute their authority, and etc. It is indeed circular reasoning. The Bible claims to be God’s Word; it proves itself; the various books were cited as authoritatively God’s word in other books; its prophecies all came true, except for the ones we still wait upon (Jesus’ second coming), it all agrees with itself; and the Holy Spirit causes us to recognize God’s very voice in it.
Certainly we can see the early church so accepted it. Perhaps this trumps the “Scripture verifies itself” argument in your mind. But even Scripture details failures and want of right doctrine and living in the early church times. So, while the church’s acceptance of the Bible is certainly reassuring, for me I can’t make the church’s acceptance the criteria for believing it. The Bible stands on its own authority.
“Okay, exactly where does the Bible tell you 2 Timothy is scripture?”
2Pe 3:15-16 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; (16) As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
All the epistles of Paul are considered scripture, as he claimed to be writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is also true of all the writings of the Apostles or their close associates. Paul, for example, quotes the Gospel of Luke and calls it scripture.