“No, God’s holy word “postulated” that, and Calvin rightly affirmed it.”
All things necessary to become a Christian, live as a Christian, and grow as a Christian are clearly presented in the Bible. Without the Bible we could not know these things. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” As God’s very words, the words of Scripture are more than simply true; they are truth itself (John 17:17). They are the final measure by which all supposed truth is to be gauged.
The Bible is our only source for clear and definite statements about God’s will. While God has not revealed all aspects of his will to us, for “the secret things belong to the Lord our God”, there are many aspects of his will revealed to us through the Scriptures, “that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:2). Love for God is demonstrated by keeping “his commandments” (1 John 5:3). And his commandments are found on the pages of Scripture.
The New Testament affirms that its words are the very words of God. In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter refers to all of Paul’s letters as one part of the “Scriptures.” This means that Peter, and the early church, considered Paul’s writings to be in the same category as the Old Testament writings. Therefore, they considered Paul’s writings to be the very words of God. Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:16, makes this clear when he writes that “all Scripture is breathed out by God.” and as Paul told Timothy, “the sacred writings ... are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).
Paul, in 1 Timothy 5:18, writes that “the Scripture says” two things: “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain” and “The laborer deserves his wages:’ The first quote regarding an ox comes from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy. 25:4). The second comes from the New Testament (Luke 10:7). Paul, without any hesitation, quotes from both the Old and New Testaments, calling them both ”Scripture”; the very words of God. That is why Paul could write, “the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37).
Since the Old and New Testament writings are both considered Scripture, it is right to say they are both, in the words of 2 Timothy 3:16, “breathed out by God.” This makes sense when we consider Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit would “bring to” the disciples’s “remembrance” all that Jesus said to them (John 14:26). It was as the disciples wrote the Spirit-enabled words, that books such as Matthew, John, and 1 and 2 Peter were written.
The “extra-biblical authority” Holy Spirit, doesn’t change the words of Scripture in any way; he doesn’t supernaturally make them become the words of God (they always have been). He does, however, change the reader of Scripture. The Holy Spirit makes readers realize the Bible is unlike any book they have ever read. Through reading, they believe that the words of Scripture are the very words of God himself versus the extra biblical writings and traditions. It is as Jesus said in John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice … and they follow me”.
Where is that written?
That’s quite a list of non-sequiturs you’ve got going there! It’s a veritable tribute to Ronald Reagan’s quip about people who “know so much that isn’t so.”
For example: You equate the Bible with “The Word of God.” You even say “Without the Bible we could not know these things.”
If this is true, how do you explain the story of Simeon in the temple?