1. Why we base our beliefs on the Bible

We do so after the example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who demonstrated to us the importance of God's written Word by appealing to it at all times as the source both of his teaching and his authority.

Christ was a man who had the Holy Spirit without measure, and who spoke with the authority of one who represented God, but in his teaching he directed his listeners to the Word of God as the sole authority and source of Divine teaching:

Matthew 21
16...have ye never read... (Quote from Psalm 8:2)

Matthew 21
42...Did ye never read in the scriptures... (Quote from Psalm 118:22-3)

Matthew 22
31...have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, (Quote from Exodus 3:6)

Matthew 26
31...for it is written… (Quote from Zechariah 13:7)

Mark 2
25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read… (Quoted from 1 Chronicles 24:6)

Mark 7
6...Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written... (Quote from Isaiah 29:13)

Mark 9
12...it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. (Generally cited from Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, et alia)

John 6
45 It is written in the prophets… (Quotes from Isaiah 54:13, Jeremiah 31:24, Micah 4:2)

John 7
37 Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (Quotes from Isaiah 12:3, Ezekiel 47:1)

John 10
34 Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? (Quote from Psalm 42:6)

John 13
18...that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. (Quote from Psalm 41:9)

It is unavoidable that Christ's teaching was not only focussed on God, but on His Word. The teaching which Christ delivered was not a revelation of something new, it was simply the explanation of the gospel message which had been embedded in the Scriptures. It was a revelation, an exposition, not of a new thing, but of an old.