What is the bible? It is a book. What is the purpose of a book? To communicate. It is written language. Language is one of the most important aspects of being human, and it is one of the things that make us fundamentally human.
God values language. We see this in the fact that God created all things through speaking, and we see this in the fact that God gave us the Bible as his main source of communicating with us.
I was in a Catholic bookstore the other day. I saw a There was a book there, and when I saw it I fell to my knees and exclaimed “Oh no!” Now, that may seem melodramatic but I assure you that if you get to know me that kind of behaviour should be expected. The title of the book was “Not Scripture Alone: A Refutation of the Protestant Doctrine of Sola Scriptura.”
For those of you who don’t know, “Sola Scriptura” is Latin for “Only Scripture.” In the 16th century the reformers felt that the Catholic Church had gone too far with all its extra-biblical doctrines, and Martin Luther coined that term to communicate that the bible should be our sole source of doctrine.
Now, I’m not trying to come down hard on our Catholic brothers, but that book frightened me, because historically, whenever anyone moves away from using just the bible for teaching, false doctrine abounds. We see this in all the pseudo-Christian cults of our day such as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The moment the bible is not seen as our final authoritative doctrinal source, truth is compromised.
Why do we believe Sola Scriptura? Is it because Martin Luther said it? Hopefully not, because that would be more than a little ironic and utterly hypocritical. No, the reason we believe that doctrine is because before that term was even invented, that was the apostles’ teaching: the bible, and only the bible. In fact, Paul wrote 2 Timothy for the explicit purpose of upholding the bible. It was the last thing he wrote before being executed, and his main goal was to make sure Timothy would be focused on the bible, and on preaching it undefiled.
2 Timothy 3:12-17 says:
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Certain things are important to note here. First, Paul says that knowledge of the bible is what led Timothy to Christ. Not cool music, not a flashy youth conference, but the word of God. God literally breathed out the bible. It is his words directly given to us. And what is the bible used for? Teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness (Godliness). Those are all the things we are called to do as believers. Now, if the bible is God’s perfect words to us written in order to facilitate these things, why would we need any extra-biblical authorities? We don’t, and anything outside the bible falls short.
Another passage just as important to this issue, but quoted less often, is 2 Peter 1:16-21:
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
When Peter says “we” in this passage he is referring to the apostles. He notes two specific gospel accounts that he was eyewitness to. First, the Baptism of Christ, in which he directly heard God’s voice, and second, the Transfiguration, in which he and two other apostles caught a glimpse of Christ’s Second Coming glory. Peter’s pretty much saying, “Listen we didn’t follow stupid stories about false gods, but we witnessed the real God in action.”
What follows however, is one of the most shocking statements in the entire bible. Peter says, this time referring to the entire church, “And we have something more sure.” More sure. Peter says that the written word of God is “more sure” than all of his experiences. He says that the Bible is a better witness of God and all his glory than the Transfiguration was. The Transfiguration was a temporary thing viewed by three men. The Bible is available to everyone, forever. Many Christians today, especially in Charismatic circles, value personal experience over biblical doctrine, yet Peter clearly condemns this with his own reliance on the scripture. Also note Peter’s striking teaching on the divine inspiration of scripture. He says that the Holy Spirit himself wrote the scripture, using the human authors as a vessel by which to commit it to paper.
What then is our duty? To read the bible and obey it. But we don’t do that. I’ve heard so many Christians make comments like “The bible is so mysterious, even the most brilliant theologians can’t understand it all,” and “God will speak to different people in different ways, so we can both interpret this passage in a different way and it will be just as relevant each way.” Those are blatant bold-faced lies. I will address each.
First of all, we can understand the bible. The whole bible. Even the hard parts like Revelation, Daniel and Ezekiel. The Psalmist says “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” How could the bible be those things if it cannot be understood? I’ve heard people say that all the parts regarding salvation are clear, but the other parts may not be understandable. What an excuse. In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul says:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
“Rightly handling” is literally translated “cutting it straight.” It is a reference to carpentry. If you don’t cut your wood straight, you foundation will be screwed and your house will fall down. If you don’t read the bible right, then your doctrine will be screwed and you will fall down. Note that Paul doesn’t say “the doctrine parts,” or “the easy parts.” He says the “Word of Truth.” That’s the whole thing. We’re expected to know and interpret the whole bible properly. The Holy Spirit lives inside us. The same Holy Spirit that wrote the bible. Is He not able to help us to understand it as well?
I’m not saying this is easy. Even the most reputable theologians don’t understand the bible completely. But it is not because they can’t, its because they don’t have the time. If you were to spend 1000 years constantly reading the bible you would still only begin to reap the richness of the text. It was written by God himself after all. But to say that the difficult passages are mysterious and impossible to understand is the most pathetic defeatist attitude I could ever imagine.
Now, for the second argument, that differing interpretation of a passage are okay. That is just a product of our pluralist time. What did we begin by saying? The bible is a communication to us from God. God is telling us something, and what he is saying means one thing. To interpret the bible is not to spiritualize it, or to add our own feelings to it. The bible says one thing. Interpretation and preaching is an educated and challenging explanation of what it says.
Listen: If I teach that our salvation is eternally secure and someone else teaches that we can “lose” our salvation, one of us is wrong. The bible is the judge. A thorough reading of Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 will show that our salvation is secure. Therefore, if someone teaches otherwise, they are wrong. 1 Timothy 4:16 says:
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Doctrine is important. Proper doctrine, from the Word of God alone, enables us to know him, and to lead others to a relationship with him. Paul commands Timothy and the conclusion of his Second epistle:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
(2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV)
So what is the application of this study? I charge you to do the same thing Paul charged Timothy to do. In fact, God himself charges you to do it. God commands that you read his Word, understand his Word, and preach his Word, especially in this time when people do not endure sound doctrine. Of course, you yourself must know sound doctrine to preach it. Therefore, study the bible. I will leave you with Paul’s warning to the Galatians. In it he clearly proclaims the consequences of distorting the gospel:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we [that is, the apostles], or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
(Galatians 1:6-9 ESV)
