Tim Keller on Authority of Scripture
Scripture alone is the final, only infallible authority
THE POSITION
Scripture is the final authority, and Keller puts it in the first person rather than leaving it to confessional inheritance: because the Bible has the right to interpret our experience and to critique every culture, it is what we must look to as final. Setting out what defines an evangelical he names the full authority of the Bible as the sole and supreme rule of faith and practice, and 'sole' is doing work — it leaves no co-ordinate authority in tradition or in a teaching office. On disputed texts he holds that the arbiter is Scripture itself: only the Bible can tell us how to read the Bible.
WHY THERE IS NO QUOTATIONThe tier is established and not researched because the pass read two freely published Gospel in Life articles and one review article in full, not the primary texts — The Reason for God ch. 7 and Preaching were reached only through third-party quotation, so neither is claimed here. There is no quotation for a second and separate reason, and it is not copyright: the three pieces actually read are free to read, and no excerpt was kept from any of them. They were not recorded by title either, so recovering one means redoing the search rather than reopening a source. No scripture reference is recorded: the three articles this rests on are not the place he expounds a text on the question. His 2015 sermon 'The Bible and Experience' is listed against 2 Peter 1:12-21 and is where he teaches why the Bible has authority, but the audio was not heard and no transcript was located — so it is a lead for a later pass rather than a reference this position demonstrably leans on.
22 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian, New York. Known for apologetics addressed to urban skeptics and for a notably winsome register.
Cite this page
"Tim Keller on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/keller/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/keller/scripture-authority).