Culture, the Bible, and Authority

As a culture, we increasingly see our individual selves as the authority on almost everything. I’ve seen this on something as silly as the reality show “Kitchen Nightmares” or as serious as a lecture on astrophysics.

Consider practically every episode of Chef Gordon Ramsey’s show. A restaurant is dying and he is called in to rescue it because the owners, managers, and chefs don’t know what they are doing. Ramsey offers the chef of the restaurant his expert advice on how to cook better. More often than not, however, the chef’s initial response is: “I don’t need to listen to him, what does he know? Seriously, I’ve been cooking for longer than him. I’ve been cookin’ for thirty years!” They don’t listen and the restaurant continues to die. But that chef sure does know better than the authority in cooking, Chef Ramsey!

In a more serious example from the past, the renowned astrophysicist Robert Jastrow gave a lecture at Dartmouth on President Ronald Reagan’s plan to develop space-based missile defenses. A student sharply challenged him during the question-and-answer period. After a few minutes of back-and-forth, the sophomore finally gave up. “Well, your guess is as good as mine.” Jastrow stopped the young man short. “No, no, no,” he said emphatically. “My guesses are much, much better than yours.”**

In each situation, personal authority trumped professional authority every time. Even though someone is a recognized authority in their field, perhaps we’ve googled a few articles, listened to a couple of podcasts, or scrolled through some headlines on our social media feed. Obviously we know better.

All of this is to make the claim that one of the Bible’s attributes is its own self-attesting, intrinsic authority. It claims throughout that it is the full and final word that has come from the mouth of the living God (see esp. 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). Our own internal feelings or ideas are not the highest authority, nor is anything else that is beside or beyond Scripture. God’s Word alone is the final authority because it comes from God himself.

Thus, Scripture is his authoritative autobiography. Many recognize that Walter Isaacson has written the authoritative biography on Steve Jobs or that Ron Chernow has written the authoritative biography on General Ulysses S. Grant. However, the only one qualified to write an authoritative biography of God is God, and that is exactly what we have in the 66 books contained in the Old and New Testaments. If you want to know what the heart of God is like, you need go nowhere else than there.

**The astrophysics story is taken from Tom Nichols' The Death of Expertise.