Now, if Scripture is authorized revelation, as I insist it is, it is also revealed authorization. What do I mean by this? Is it not simply restating the same point? Perhaps it is, but I don’t believe so. When I say that Scripture is revealed authorization, I am saying a couple of things, actually. First, I am saying that those who authored the texts of Scripture had a sense of the significance of what they were doing. Moses, certainly, had direct instruction from God on many occasions: Write this down, Moses. In Paul’s writings we find clear evidence that he recognized that what he was writing bore the full authority of God’s authorization, and it humbled him greatly. But, it’s not just these two. The prophets, certainly, recognized the God-breathed nature of their words and deeds. The Psalmists, I would suppose had some idea that what they were writing were more than just a poet’s musings.
But, there is a second, more significant point to be made here, and that is that Scripture, being the authorized revelation of God to man, should be expected to contain record of His authorization. If this is in fact God’s testimony to His creation, His revelation of Who He Is and what He requires, then we ought to expect that there will be, at some point, a record therein to indicate that He has in fact authorized the message contained in its pages. Never mind the mark of papal imprimatur, which is, quite frankly, of no value to anybody. These pages must necessarily bear the mark of divine imprimatur.
His authorization is contained, to be sure, in the very fact that these texts, despite having been written by multiple authors across multiple millennia, remain self-consistent. The Truth they teach is unaltered, non-contradictory, unchanging. Yes, we see shifts in how God deals with His people in various ages, but there is a singular, overarching framework that defines the whole. There is, to borrow the popularly abused phrase of our own era, an arc of history. It bends from Eden to the Cross, and continues from the Cross to Christ’s Return.
Let me set one more point here, where we are considering the conjunction of revelation and authorization, and this is one that makes many folks uncomfortable. If, in fact, these pages contain the authorized revelation of God and reveal His authorization, then they also set the bounds on revelation. If this is, in fact the sum of what God saw fit to reveal, then to seek more becomes sinful. If Jesus meant what He said when He said that He had said all that God gave Him to say, then we seek to take matters into our own hands and assume the throne ourselves when we insist that God reveal more to us. There are questions we may ask which He may choose not to answer. There is no crime in asking, but when we allow the asking to become insisting, then it is high crime indeed. Wisdom dictates that where God chooses to be silent, the wise man ceases to make noise.
