Scriptures selfattesting authority question doctrine truthfulness Scriptures

118 What Do the Christian Scriptures Claim for Themselves?
Geldenhuys concludes that this implies that Christ will provide a written
authority for his church the way God did for his people in the Old
Testament:
The fact as such that Jesus possesses supreme divine authority is,
even apart from its being acknowledged by all New Testament authors
and by the whole of the Early Church, of the greatest significance
for the study of the making of the New Testament. For it gives
us the assurance that the Lord of all authority would have seen to it
that, through the working of his power, an adequate and completely
reliable account of and an authentic proclamation concerning the
significance of His life and work were written and preserved for the
ages to come. Because the revelation of God in Christ was complete
and ephapax . . . (once for all), it follows logically that the Lord
to whom all authority in heaven and on earth is given would have
regulated the history of the Early Church in such a way that the
canon of the New Testament would be genuine and all sufficient. 2
This logical deduction that Geldenhuys makes is, in fact, what the New
Testament reveals. From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was preparing
for the transmission of his truth and authority to his church
through authorized spokesmen who would teach with his authority,
commit their teachings to writing, and leave a body of inspired writings
through which Christ would govern his church until his return. Christ
did this by calling, commissioning, and then sending the Spirit to guide
the apostles.
Jesus Chose and Prepared the Apostles
The term apostle is not a synonym of disciple. Disciple means “follower”
or “learner,” and apostle means “authorized representative.”
Listen to the transition from disciples to apostles in Luke 6:12–13: “In
these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued
in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and
chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.” So all apostles are
disciples. But not all disciples are apostles. All Christians are disciples
2
J. Norval Geldenhuys, Supreme Authority: The Authority of the Lord, His Apostles, and the New Testament
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd mans, 1953), 43.