Carlos Bovell and the internal witness of the Spirit of the Truthfulness of Scripture

While the mystical experiences of their authors initially worked "externally" to foster the earliest believers' commitment to gradually receiving the NT writings as Scripture, there is an even more important facet to Scripture's authority that stems from within believers. Aside from the social mechanisms of institutional control that became operative in Christian cultures and sub-cultures (which worked to discourage radical breaks from inherited, religious traditions), another, and arguably more important, subjective component was also at work. What might be called the Bible's "internal" authority derives from the fact that, upon reading Scripture (or hearing Scripture being read), believers find that the Christian Bible is a provision from God to Spirit-filled Christians, which acts as a means of grace for communing with him. By contemplatively reading the Bible and hearing the Bible being read, believers can commune with God "in" the glorified Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Bible exerts its authority upon believers internally by virtue of its being designated by God to serve in a capacity of facilitating communion with God in Christ by the Spirit. Since a disproportionately small percentage of believers have the raw experience of having the resurrected Christ appear to them (much less instruct them). God more regularly coordinates the Spirit in the texts with the Spirit in believers. (Carlos R. Bovell, “The Internal Authority of Scripture” in Carlos R. Bovell, ed. Biblical Inspiration and the Authority of Scripture [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf & Stock, 2015], 90-110, here, pp.90-91; italics in the original)