Is the Bible Our Only Authority?

This summer our church has been using a good little book by Michael Wittmer called Urban Legends of Theology as a guide to a series of beneficial discussions in our Bible class (Sunday School) hour on Sunday mornings. Using this book as a springboard for these discussions has proven to be an engaging (and provocative) way for our church to dig into several vital theological subjects together, and for that I am grateful.

One of the more important chapters of the book in my opinion is the sixth chapter, which addresses a specific theological “urban legend” that I believe merits serious consideration from independent churches like ours who have a high view of the authority of the Bible. It is the belief that the Bible is our only authority.

I don’t want to rehash what Wittmer says in that chapter here. Rather, in this post what I’d like to do is give a digest of my teaching from the Sunday we covered this issue. Is the Bible truly our only authority? Well, if that’s what you believe, it would make sense for you to consider how the Bible answers that question. So, let’s do that together here.

But first, let’s make sure we understand what Christians mean when they say that the Bible is our only authority.

What does “the Bible is our only authority” mean?

In essence, when Christians say that the Bible is our only authority, they are usually saying that we should look only to the Bible, and not to historical theological confessions of faith or human teachers of the Bible to know what to believe about God and his ways.

When Christians say that the Bible is their only authority, what they are really saying is that they do not believe any human theological/doctrinal tradition ought to be determine what we think and believe about God.

And what human traditions could they be referring to? Traditions like the ancient, ‘ecumenical’ creeds of the church (Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Chalcedonian Definition), along with theologians and biblical interpreters of the past (Austine, Athanasias, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, etc.), the Pope, denominational confessions of faith (WCF, 2LCF, etc.), church doctrinal statements, local church pastors and teachers, modern day Bible teachers, works of theology, and things like these.

It's not necessarily that they see these traditions as bad or dangerous. It’s simply that they ascribe no substantial spiritual or theological authority to them. Such traditions are no more authoritative than their own private interpretations of the Bible and their own personal theological opinions.

The question is, is this attitude truly biblical? Does the Bible claim to be the only authority over Christians and over the church’s faith?

Is “tradition” a bad word?

We should ask here whether the Bible’s attitude toward human theological traditions as antagonistic and negative as that of some Christians. Does the Bible encourage us not to care little about what human theological traditions (the historic and time-tested ones in particular) have to say about God, or about how these traditions teach us to interpret the Bible, or about what they teach us about Scripture? Would the Bible encourage us not to learn from or listen to any theological authority except for itself?  

The Bible commends human theological tradition.

You might be surprised to learn that the Bible actually has a lot to say about human theological traditions and authorities. For instance, it is in the Bible where God commends his church for synthesizing biblical truth into their own words.

An example of this is in Matthew 15:15-18, where Peter confesses Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and Jesus commends him for doing so. It’s important to understand there that Peter is not quoting the Bible in that confession. He is putting explaining the biblical teaching concerning the identity of Jesus into contemporary confessional terms. Peter is synthesizing biblical truth there in Matthew 16:16, and Jesus says he will build his church upon him because of it.

Another example of this is in Matthew 10:32-33 where Jesus says, “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

The word “acknowledges” there is probably better translated “confesses” and has to do with believing and saying the right things about Jesus, and committing to him as he truly is. Jesus is not commending the quoting of Bible verses about him. He is commending the practice of interpreting biblical truth about him correctly, and then believing and saying the right things about him after you have done so, having committed ourselves to him for who he truly is. To do this a person must interpret the biblical data concerning Jesus and then summarize that data in contemporary terms for the purpose of clear and accurate proclamation of the truth about Jesus to the unbelieving world.

Another example of the Bible’s commendation of human theological authorities is in Acts 20:26-27. There Paul is put forward as an example of faithful Gospel ministry for his practice of declaring “the whole counsel of God” to the Ephesian elders (v. 27). I would argue there that “the whole counsel of God” is not every word of the Bible literally, since the New Testament wasn’t even written in its entirety yet, but rather is the summary teaching of all the main doctrines of Scripture. In other words, Paul had put the pieces of Scripture together and taught them in summary fashion to the Ephesian elders, which necessarily means that he had to use contemporary explanatory terms in his theological instruction. And the Ephesian elders were right to have listened to that instruction.

So then, the Bible speaks affirmingly of human theological tradition that is faithful to Scripture. But more than this, the Bible commands the church to establish such traditions.

The Bible commands human theological tradition.

We see this very thing commanded by God in 1 Corinthians 1:10, in fact, where Paul appeals to the Corinthian church to be “united in the same mind and the same judgment.” Put simply, the church there is commanded to think the same things about God, the Gospel, one another, and so on. Yet, they cannot do that simply by saying they believe the specific words of the Bible. They can only do this by interpreting and understanding the words of the Bible (and the main teachings of the Bible) in the same way. Interpreting and explaining the meaning of the Bible, and not just the words of the Bible, is necessary for Christians to be unified with one another in our minds and to be of the same judgment.

We see this same command to establish human theological authority in Jude’s encouragement to the church to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Here Jude is referring to a systematically presented and organized body of Gospel truth; not simply the words of Scripture, but the authoritative interpretation and teaching about Scripture. This is key.

In fact, this is why the “teaching” of the Bible is commanded (e.g., Col 3:16; 1 Tim 4:13, 16). This is what teaching the Bible is all about. It’s about explaining the Bible and its meaning and importance in language the modern-day student of the Bible can understand. This is why God commands the church to teach the meaning of the Bible to future generations, and commands future generations to listen to the teaching of past generations in the church (2 Tim 2:1-2; 3:14-15). In all these places, God is directly commanding the church to establish faithful, human theological traditions.

What’s the real issue, then?

Given these things, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Bible’s view of human theological traditions really depends upon whether those traditions are truly faithful to the meaning of God’s revelation in Scripture or not. If a particular tradition is faithful to Scripture, God commends that tradition in Scripture (e.g., 2 Tim 3:14-15; 1:13-14; Tit 1:9; 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 2 Tim 2:11; Tit 3:8). And if a theological tradition is not faithful to Scripture, God calls the church to reject it (e.g., 1 Tim 6:3-4; Tit 1:9; 1 Jn 4:2-3). And it really is that straightforward.

Now, obviously this puts it on the church to evaluate theological traditions carefully in the light of biblical revelation, which is an issue to be addressed another day. For now, we should at least agree that the wholesale rejection of human theological tradition, as well as the claim that the Bible is the only authority over Christians and over the church, cannot be said to have come from Scripture itself.

Rather, the Bible commends us for establishing theological traditions that agree with Scripture. It commands us to establish such traditions for the sake of future generations. It calls us to examine them together in the light of careful study of Scripture. It commends us for receiving them and passing them on to others, insofar as they agree with what God has revealed in Scripture. It calls us to reject them when and where they contradict Scripture. But it never says that all human theological traditions are bad or wrong or to be rejected.

Now, none of this is to say that all appreciation or reverence for human theological tradition is rightly placed. It is wrong to see human theological traditions as possessing a greater authority than the Bible, or as being more trustworthy than the Bible. It is wrong to view one’s theological tradition as possessing equal authority to the Bible (the Roman Catholic error). It is wrong to say that these authorities can never be questioned or examined by the church. It is wrong to see these authorities as making reading and study of the Bible unnecessary.

All of these perspectives toward human theological tradition are wrong and should be rejected in the light of Scripture itself.

A Better, More Biblical Way

So, rather than saying as Christians that the Bible is our only authority, we should say instead – as Christians have been saying with great intentionality since the days of the Protestant Reformation, at least – that the Bible is our only infallible authority. It is the only theological authority over us that never errs, and never leads us astray, and never teaches us something wrong about God, and his ways, and his world.

Human theological authorities do possess an authority over Christians, insofar as they are consistent with the teaching of Scripture itself. If any human theological authority teaches you something that is truly in the Bible, it should be embraced and received and submitted to on that point. And where it errs, it should not.

But human theological authorities are not bad, in and of themselves. They are very good and right and needed, as long as they teach the meaning of the Bible faithfully.

Closing Reflections

As we wrap up this post, I offer these three simple encouragements.

First, it is important for Christians today to remember that we are not the first ones to read or interpret the Bible. God has been guiding his church faithfully along into the meaning of his revelation for twenty full centuries to this point. Don’t read the Bible as if no one has ever read it before you. It is a good and sanctifying exercise to ask for help as you read and interpret the Bible.

Second, I think it is fair to say, and is something that all Christians should admit readily, that although the best theological traditions[i] are not at all more trustworthy than the Bible; they are more trustworthy than any one of us. We are not the greatest theologians ever to have graced this world. Many who have come before us have earned the right to be our teachers, and we would be wise to at least give them a fair hearing.

Third, the truth is that the best theological traditions can be a great help to understanding the Bible. If you want to become a better student of the Bible, and understand more about the Bible, and grow in your ability to teach and pass on the truth of the Bible, then embrace solid, faithful theological traditions, whether they be the ancient creeds or your local church pastors or your church’s confession of faith. They will help you read the bible better and will guard you from using it in a way that it should not be used. If you want to handle the Bible well, learn from others who have done so themselves.

[i] If you are wondering what I mean by the “best” theological traditions, may I suggest that you pick up this book to get acquainted with them. It will be a great help to you, as it has been to me. https://www.amazon.com/Creeds-Confessions-Catechisms-Chad-Dixhoorn/dp/1433579871/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8QE3YXSZLQLI&keywords=creeds+confessions+catechisms&qid=1691615135&sprefix=creeds+%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1