Scripture

Revelation: Refers to any act in which God is revealed such as giving the ten commandments. God's nature is revealed to the person who experiences the revelation. God may be revealed through nature, people, miracles and visions.

Propositional revelation: Refers to God directly revealing truths about his nature to people. The propositions are true - beyond debate or doubt. With the Scripture it means the Bible is divinely inspired. The role of the authors of books of the Bible is limited or non - existent. Divine and verbal inspiration of the Bible. You can consult the Bible for guidance.

Non - Propositional revelation - The religious believer recognises God acting in human history and experience. The Bible is a record of human experiences of God. The Bible is divinely inspired: God makes the authors write down their understanding of God and his action in the world. No divine dictation and the reader has to work out the meaning.

Barth: God inspired the Bible, when we study it, the meaning becomes clear. Believed natural theology is wrong. The way humans think is corrupt so we need the Bible.

Bultmann: The Bible was made too simple. We need to demythologize the Bible and read it in a non - literal way. See the Bible as a human document and look at is an entity.

Aquinas: You need Natural and revealed theology. The Bible is necessary because it provides us analogical, allegorical, history and moral behaviour.

The authority of the Scripture:

Direct link of the books with the apostles of Jesus.

Maurice Wiles: Hard sense - has the status of law and because it is divinely inspired it must be followed. Soft sense - The Bible is is a statement from a person but implies they are not always correct.

Issues raised by divine inspiration: Can the Bible be disobeyed ? Some of the passages conflict with many beliefs of Christians.