Chapter 19
The Authority of the Scriptures

As we believe and confess the Scriptures of God sufficient to instruct and make perfect the man of God, so do we affirm and avow their authority to be from God, and not to depend on men or angels. We affirm, therefore, that those who say the Scriptures have no other authority save that which they have received from the Kirk are blasphemous against God and injurious to the true Kirk, which always hears and obeys the voice of her own Spouse and Pastor, but takes not upon her to be mistress over the same.
—THE SCOTTISH CONFESSION—

¹⁹ Quench not the Spirit.
²⁰ Despise not prophesyings.
²¹ Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
–1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 (KJV)–

²⁰ But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. ²¹ And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? ²² When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
–Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (KJV)–

The passage evidently assumes such an occasion for consulting the prophet as was usual among the pagan, e. g., an impending battle or other such crisis (compare 1 Kings 22:11), in which his veracity would soon be put to the test. Failure of a prediction is set forth as a sure note of its being “presumptuous.” But from Deuteronomy 13:2ff we see that the fulfillment of a prediction would not decisively accredit him who uttered it: for the prophet or dreamer of dreams who endeavoured on the strength of miracles to seduce to idolatry was to be rejected and punished. Nothing therefore contrary to the revealed truth of God was to be accepted under any circumstances.
—BARNES’ NOTES ON THE BIBLE, DEUTERONOMY 18:21–

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Dr. Jack Deere, Why I Am Still Surprised by the Voice of God (Zondervan, 2022).

Dr. Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy In the New Testament (Crossway, 2000).

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Baptism and Gifts of the Spirit (Baker, 1996).

Dr. Archibald Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience (Banner of Truth, 1998).

Henry Blackaby, Hearing God’s Voice (B&H Books, 2002).

Ryan Denton, Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure (Aneko Press, 2025).

Robert Tuttle, Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition (Francis Asbury Press, 1989).

Samuel Rutherford, A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, pp. 42-43.

F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (InterVarsity Press, 1988).