From Cover to Cover: Believing the Entire Bible

Many Christians affirm the authority of the Bible, but often, when pressed, they only believe or submit to parts of it. We highlight “life verses”, quote Jesus in red letters, and subtly sideline the rest, as if the black letters weren’t also written by the Holy Spirit. However, honoring God means honoring the Bible from cover to cover.

Two terms describe the authority of Scripture: "Sola Scriptura" and "Tota Scriptura." While many Christians may know Sola Scriptura, Tota Scriptura remains less familiar yet equally vital.

Sola Scriptura means that Scripture alone is the final authority in both the beliefs and the life of the believer. Nothing else should be added to the Bible as a source of final authority. This view, while prevalent throughout Church History, reached a watershed moment during the Reformation as a response to Roman Catholic abuses, which had added many extra-biblical teachings and practices to its theology. As Luther declared at Worms, "The Word of God shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel." The Reformers believed that while tradition and history were good, Scripture alone should be the basis for Christian doctrine and practice.

Tota Scriptura: The Totality of Scripture

If Scripture alone is our final authority, then every part of Scripture carries that authority. This is the necessary implication of Sola Scriptura: not only Scripture alone, but all of Scripture. Tota Scriptura refers to the totality of Scripture. Scripture alone is our final authority, and all of it carries that authority. This means that "life verses" like Jeremiah 29:11 or Philippians 4:13 don't have more weight in our lives than other passages. The "words in red" are not more authoritative than the "words in black," nor is the New Testament more authoritative than the Old Testament. All of Scripture is God's word, and therefore all of it is authoritative.

A truncated Sola Scriptura can produce selective obedience, where favorite passages are embraced and others ignored. Tota Scriptura closes this loophole by insisting that God's Word must be received in its fullness, not in fragments. We don't have the freedom to treat some parts of the Bible as more God-breathed than others. All of it is God's Word.

While some passages may no longer apply today in the same covenantal way, such as the civil and ceremonial laws tied to the Old Covenant, they are not to be ignored as if they cannot teach us anything today. Though ceremonial laws no longer bind us covenantally, they still reveal God's character, our need for cleansing, and the foreshadowing of Christ's priestly work.

Those who seek to subvert Christianity, whether pagans, atheists, gnostics, or heretics, often emphasize one part of Scripture over another. Gnostics in the early church prioritized obscure mystical interpretations while rejecting the Old Testament entirely. Contemporary critics embrace the Sermon on the Mount while rejecting the conquest of Canaan, or claim to love Jesus while dismissing Paul. But Christians must recognize that rejecting any part of Scripture ultimately means making themselves a judge over God's word.

Since the Bible is one Word, all of it interprets all of it. This safeguards against "canon within the canon" approaches that pit Scripture against itself. Instead, believers should seek to honor everything that God has spoken by exalting the meaning of what He has said.

This is the goal of systematic theology, which seeks to create a worldview in which all of Scripture is exalted and all the teachings of Christianity are emphasized. However, honoring the totality of Scripture does not mean that every single word, line, and verse must be explained in the most thorough definition. Rather, it means teaching the full weight and intent of God's revelation, the balance of things, leaving nothing out that was of primary importance, and never ducking the hard bits.

Answering Common Objections

Having explored the importance of Scripture's totality, we must address two common objections: the role of the Law and the reliability of the canon.

One objection to Tota Scriptura concerns the current authority of the Law. All of God's Law retains authority as God's Word, though Christ has fulfilled its covenantal functions. The question is not whether it has authority, but how that authority applies in light of Christ. As John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, "The gospel does not abrogate the law, but confirms it." There are intramural debates about specific applications, but all agree that God's Law retains authority because it remains God's Word. So we mustn’t confuse the two ideas, “does this have authority,” with “to what degree of application does this have?” These are two different concepts that we must work through discerningly. 

Another objection concerns the authority of the canon of Scripture itself. The canon is the list of books considered to be divinely inspired and therefore authoritative for the Christian faith. The church did not create the canon but received and recognized the books that bore divine marks, affirmed by the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. These marks included apostolic origin, theological consistency, Spirit-empowered usefulness, and broad reception among the early churches. I would encourage you to check out Canon Revisited by Michael Kruger for a more in-depth discussion on this. 

The 66 books we possess are the totality of God's written revelation. Tota Scriptura not only affirms the authority of every word of the 66 books, it also denies the possibility of any other text, tradition, or revelation standing on the same level as Scripture. There is no Scripture beyond these 66 books, and there is no part of these books that may be dismissed as less than God's Word. This guards against both subtraction and addition: we cannot remove books from the canon, nor can we elevate progressive prophecy, mystical experiences, or cultural reinterpretations to the level of Scripture. For further reading, I have written on this here.

Ultimately, the authority of Scripture is not determined by human opinion, but by the divine authorship of the Bible. As Christians, we affirm that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and therefore, it carries the weight of divine authority in the life of the believer.

Affirming Scripture from Cover to Cover

Tota Scriptura calls us to receive all of God's Word, not selectively, but entirely. We must not pit Scripture against itself or place ourselves above it. Systematic theology helps us embrace this fullness by synthesizing all that God has revealed. While not every verse must be exhaustively explained at once, nothing essential can be ignored.

In an age of deconstruction, where people selectively embrace biblical passages while dismissing others, Tota Scriptura provides the necessary corrective. Without Tota Scriptura, Christians pick and choose verses, the church bows to cultural pressure, and heresy flourishes. With Tota Scriptura, the church is safeguarded, believers are nourished on the full counsel of God, and Christ is exalted in all of Scripture.

Tota Scriptura leaves us with no room to edit God. We don't get to add to His Word, and we don't get to subtract from it. This can be done overtly by writing something new and crossing things out, or it can be done by assuming something into the text that is not there (think Eve in the Garden, “...do not even touch”) or ignoring what is on the page. We don't get to exalt certain parts as more God-breathed than others. The whole Bible is the whole Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation. To affirm anything else is to set ourselves above Scripture, to affirm all is to submit humbly beneath it. And only under the full authority of God's Word can the church remain faithful, nourished, and equipped for every good work.