remember, the Bible is uniquely the property of God's people. It is not God's gift to an unbelieving world as some naïve believers may think. It is the treasured inheritance of those alone in whom the Spirit of God dwells – who is the ultimate Author of this precious Book.

the spiritually illumined (the simple born-again Christian), the Word of God is self-authenticating. As we read its words the Holy Spirit gives an inner assurance to each believer of its divine authenticity. But, as the Bible itself says: "the natural (unregenerate) man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor.2:14).

So each person must choose between: the vox Dei and the vox mundi, the voice of God and the voice of the world.

The voice of the world is that 'truth is established by authority of office' (such as church hierarchy, eg. the papacy; or some other system), or by human intellect (such as rationalism). Rationalism is a system of thought which assumes that the human reason is capable of sitting in judgment upon and evaluating all human experiences, and which therefore denies the necessity of any supernatural revelation whatsoever from God.

On the other hand: the Biblical principle, as it was given typical expression for instance in the Westminster Confession, is the voice of God speaking in the soul:

"The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, ... the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God... Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts" (I:IV, V).

False Scriptures, produced by heretics and pseudo-Christian cults, moved Christians to publicly spell out what is of God. The Christian view is called the canonicity of Scripture. This decision did not give authority to Scripture as some think. (i.e. That the church produced the Bible, and it is therefore its superior in doctrine: the Catholic papal-view). The Holy Spirit produced Scripture – through inspired individuals – not by committees, or religious office bearers, or Church conferences of any kind. The Spirit moved special individuals at special times to produce His Word – the Bible (2 Peter 1:20,21).

These more than 40 individuals include: kings, fishermen, and priests; a herdsman (Amos), a civil administrator (Daniel), a medical doctor (Luke), a military leader (Joshua), and so on...
The Bible was written in the desert (Moses), in a dungeon (Jeremiah), on a journey (Luke), in a prison colony (John), on three continents (Asia, Africa, Europe), and in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek).
It deals with the most controversial issues of life and yet through all this variety of person, place, time, and subject, it has a unity unparalleled by any other literature in all human history!

This intrinsic awareness of the Bible's inspiration by the first Christians is an important guide to us.
The apostle Peter places Paul's writings on the same high plane with "the other Scriptures" saying:
"Paul ...in all his epistles ...as also the other Scriptures" [that is, the Old Testament].
Paul, in his turn, speaks in one breath of the Old Testament Torah and the Gospel of his friend, Luke, as both equally "Scripture" (1 Tim.5:18), even though the ink on Luke's writing was hardly dry. In other words, it did not need time to become inspired and therefore authoritative to all believers.

It is certainly not length of time or the decisions of church councils that have conferred authority on the Bible. From the very beginning of church history the Spirit-filled believer has had an immediate awareness of the authority of the authentic – the Word of God.
See the illustrative anecdote at page bottom from the life of William Maldon.