The Bible is the foundation.

As Thomas Campbell (another founding father of the Disciples of Christ) proposed on August 17, 1809, "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent. The Bible is a religious book, the supreme book of our faith.

Alexander Campbell wrote, "The bible contemplates man primarily in his spiritual and eternal relations... it is the history of nature, only so far as is necessary to show man his origin and destiny; for it contemplates nature, the universe, only in relation to man's body, soul, and spirit."

The Bible is not a universal book of knowledge. We do not expect to find airplanes or hydrogen bombs, computers and cell phones in the bible, or anything else which was beyond man's ability to discover or understand back in the days when the Bible was written.

The Bible is a book which can be understood. There is no magic, no hidden meaning available to those to whom some special key has been given.

AlexanderCampbell wrote that the words and sentences of the Bible "are to be translated,interpreted, and understood according to the same code of laws and principles of interpretation by which other ancient writings are translated and understood."

God reveals Himself in the Bible through real human beings. The more one understands these writers and the compulsions and conditions under which they wrote, the better one can understand God through them.

Campbell wrote, "On opening any book in the sacred Scriptures, consider first the historical author, the date, the place, and the occasion of it... The peculiarities of the author - the age in which he lived - his style - mode of expression illustrate his writing.

The date, place, and occasion of it are obviously necessary to a right application of anything in the book." The Bible can be understood best when one discovers the writer's immediate purpose and the forces which played upon him.

This fact is central in interpretation of inspired writing. God spoke through a variety of writers, and this variety makes a difference in the ways in which they state their faith. They were ordinary people, in the midst of ordinary lives, and God spoke to them and through them.