The Sufficiency of Scripture
Until I enrolled in a biblical counseling course at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I had never distinguished between the supremacy of the Scriptures and the sufficiency of the Scriptures. John Babler and Frank Catanzaro taught this class, driving home the point the Scriptures are not only supreme, but also sufficient for everything in life. I expected the class to teach us how to counsel people using biblical principles, but instead I learned how to use the Bible to address people’s problems. The expectation these men had of the Scriptures was inspirational. Giving little credence to secular psychology, they taught the Bible could address every problem we encounter in the counseling arena.[1]
Catanzaro posed to the class many times the following rhetorical question: “What is the intrinsic deficiency of Scripture that makes us turn to other sources to find the answers to life’s problems?” He taught us when counseling people, we should “listen for unbiblical thinking and counter it with biblical truth.” Through the respect and faith in Scripture demonstrated by these two professors, a passion arose in me to communicate to the world the relevancy of the Bible in our culture. Babler and Catanzaro reinforced in me the idea that Scripture is sufficient for every endeavor in life and ministry.
This does not mean we do not read other books. Neither of these professors advocated reading only the Bible. That is not the logical conclusion of biblical sufficiency. They were not teaching biblical exclusivity, but rather the Bible presents to us through a variety of literary forms the theological direction needed for our understanding of redemption and sanctification.
[1] For more on biblical counseling, see John Babler, David Penley, and Mike Bizzell, Counseling by the Book (n.p.: Xulon Press, n.d.).