The following quotations are taken from the chapter by Harold O. J. Brown in the book, Reclaiming the Great Tradition:
There can be no question that the Bible, the Word of God, is of the utmost importance for Christians and for the church. . . . The book itself, the actual printed text, can be the agent that brings people to faith in Christ, although more often a human witness or witnesses will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring the message home to the heart of the seeker. . . . . New Testament books were accepted as the Word of God and placed in the New Testament canon because the churches of the time recognized them to be the Word of God; the work of the Holy Spirit enabled the human writers to write God’s words, and it is this work of the Spirit that makes the Scriptures divinely authoritative and preserves them from error. In addition the Holy Spirit was active in the early congregations and councils, enabling them to recognize the right Scriptures as God’s Word. . . . When the Scripture is acknowledged to be the very Word of God, it necessarily becomes the . . . “norm that norms” the other standards, such as creeds, catechisms or manuals of discipline.