Michael S. Heiser on Authority of Scripture
Scripture alone is the final, only infallible authority
"I'm not anti-creedal or opposed to denominations, I am opposed to using creeds and denominational preferences to filter the Bible." — drmsh.com/about/. And on the Westminster Confession: "The Confession doesn't do anything to really help you or move you toward the notion that we ought to be reading the Bible in light of its own ancient original context."
THE POSITION
Holds the biblical text as the authority and treats creeds as genuinely useful but secondhand and historically conditioned — his standing objection is to reading Scripture through a confession rather than to confessions as such. The ancient Near Eastern and Second Temple context functions as the interpretive control for reading the text, not as a second authority beside it.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
18 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Old Testament and Semitic languages scholar (PhD, Wisconsin, 2004), Scholar-in-Residence at Faithlife/Logos, and host of the Naked Bible Podcast. Argued that the Hebrew Bible assumes a real divine council of lesser elohim under Yahweh, and held that this reading defends rather than threatens the deity of Christ.
Cite this page
"Michael S. Heiser on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/heiser/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/heiser/scripture-authority).