Highlands College Statement Of Faith

Every church should have a statement of faith whether they believe it or not. When a church has a biblical vision, it has the potential to cast trajectory of life to what’s to come. Scripture says in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepth the law, happy is he.” To have a vision is to live. The Highlands College Statement of Faith speaks on this vision with four main points about the Holy Bible. The subjects are its authority, infallibility, inerrancy, and inspiration. For Highlands College this is the backbone to actively pursuing the vision and direction of God. Without a biblical foundation and vision, one cannot grow but will perish. This paper will substantiate the reliability of the Highlands

Many times when people hear the word authority one may think of control or power over something or someone which in an aspect is true. But the one true authority that reigns above all others is that of the Scripture, which there is none greater than but only beneath. In the book, Systematic Theology, Grudem speaks on what the authority of scripture means by elaborating on the idea that every word in the Bible is God’s very own word’s to humanity and to deny or not give credence to them is essentially an act of deliberate rebellion to God. Dockery also speaks on the subject of authority in one the ten articles of the Westminster Conference stating, “The Authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed depenth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God the Author thereof; therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God.” God’s authority is not dependent on any human or structure but on God himself. With that being the facts, since God has the authority to speak, and creation happens Scripture carries the same weight and power.

In his book The Doctrine of the Bible, Dockery defines inerrancy stating, when all the factuality and information encompassing the Bible is recognized, the Bible in its inerrancy, seen with the correct lens is completely without error and is factual in all that it says. The Bible is true in all that it claims because the author who inspired the Bible is truth itself. Proverbs 30:5 proclaims that, “Every word of God is flawless: he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you are a liar.” As the Scripture testifies every word in the Bible is flawless and cannot be added to. Dockery also explains six different views of inerrancy and how out of them all, balanced inerrancy is the more trustworthy one to the precursory discoveries about the nature of revelation and inspiration talked about earlier in his book. Balanced inerrancy as described by Dockery says that “This position stresses that what the Bible affirms is completely true, employing both a coherence view and a correspondence view of truth at appropriate places.” It’s important to note that the Highlands College Statement of Faith stands on the balanced inerrancy idea because there are a lot of view on the Bible’s inerrancy that can take away it’s divinity and human authorship. However, Highlands College stands on the fact that the Bible is a divine book written