As I mentioned in the last post, Christianity is being attacked from within. There are groups that carry the label of Christianity, but reject core truths of the belief system. Because these groups teach and speak from an apparent place of authority, many become misled as to what they should believe. They either reject God entirely, or they are deceived into believing in a false version of Him. So I wanted to address a doctrine within Christianity that is foundational for the others we will go into in subsequent posts.
“Scripture alone” is a doctrine that, put briefly, means the Bible is the ultimate authority when it comes to matters of Christianity. This doctrine was articulated initially during the Protestant Reformation in response to the new teachings (such as Purgatory) being added into Christianity and placed on the same level as Scripture. This teaching does not say that you can never feel like God is telling you something new, but that anything you feel led to must be in line with the essence of what has already been given in the Bible. The reason for this is not because Christians worship a book, as some have claimed, but because the book contains the words of God Himself. His Holy Spirit inspired every writer of Scripture to write exactly what they wrote.
Peter makes this claim in 2 Peter 1:16-21: For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain. We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
In that passage Peter is speaking of being eyewitnesses of Jesus, and that all the prophetic words of Scripture are completely inspired by the Holy Spirit, not created by man. Again, it is not that Christians worship the Bible as an object or symbol, but we worship the God it describes, and that God has chosen to speak to us through the authors of the writings that make up the Bible. The Bible is made up of two parts. The Old Testament contains the Hebrew Scriptures that were very obviously accepted by Jesus as the word of God. The New Testament holds the firsthand accounts and letters of the apostles and their companions. All 66 books were accepted by the early church and agreed upon as the authoritative word of God. I wrote more about this in a prior article you can read here. I would recommend reading that older post to have more information on how we got the Bible and why it is reliable. My goal today has more of a focus on attempts to change Scripture.
The Attack
The Bible contains some uncomfortable stories and claims. For instance, Genesis would require something beyond an R rating if made into an accurate film adaptation. The conquest of Canaan in the Old Testament can be difficult to stomach. It doesn’t get much easier to handle when reading through the violence and perversion described in Judges. And what about the wrath described by the prophets of the Old Testament?
Then there’s the New Testament. The one that brutally kills our hero. The one that has lots of confusing regulations for carrying out church services. The one that has the fire and brimstone of Revelation.
Oh, and what about the part that points out our sins that we hold so dear?
Actually, almost all the uncomfortable passages of the Bible are either stories that happened as a result of sin or are not easy for us to accept because of sin that we want to be supported.
Our sin and rebellion against God are the true problem. But instead of admitting that, much of today’s Progressive Christianity wants to find ways to mutilate the Bible. They want to cut out parts that are uncomfortable and just keep the parts they like the sound of.
Here is an example. Brian Zahnd is a famous pastor and a gifted speaker who is a leader in the Progressive Christian movement. He will say many things that are true, and then carefully sneak in lies that are easy to miss. For example, look at this quote he has on his view of the Bible.
Zahnd said, “All Scripture is fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ. So if you don’t see it in Jesus, let it go — because even the Bible must bow to Jesus.”1
Zahnd claims to view Jesus as the ultimate source of authority. So do I. But then Zahnd goes on to say that the Bible must bow to Jesus. He says this as if there is a battle between the Bible and Jesus. He says that since Jesus and the Bible don’t always agree, then you must choose Jesus and reject the Bible. He uses several of those uncomfortable passages mentioned above as reasons this must be true. The problem with his view is that there is no disagreement between the Bible and Jesus, unless you are worshiping a made-up Jesus. Jesus said, …“It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus said to live on every word God has spoken. Jesus accepted the Bible as God’s words. That means Jesus believed you have to accept it all. God is multifaceted, and reading all of what He revealed in Scripture will show His character. If you only accept parts of it, you are making God something of your creation, not worshiping the true God.
Zahnd used a common tactic among leaders of this Progressive Christian movement. Most of what they say are things you can agree with, but then they will slip in a completely false idea in hopes that you miss it entering your mind. This is also seen in another progressive Christian leader, Tony Campolo, who started the Red-Letter Christian movement2. This is a movement that puts emphasis only on the words of Jesus instead of all of Scripture. He is doing the same thing that Zahnd did, painting Jesus as not always agreeing with Scripture. Once again, the problem is that Jesus always agrees with Scripture; never once does he say he believes a Scripture should be disregarded.
Maybe that’s because He wrote it all.
This is not a new issue. One final example is that Thomas Jefferson published his own version of the Bible that took out everything that made Jesus appear to be God, including the resurrection itself!3 If we pick and choose what we accept, then we truly aren’t accepting any of it.
The Defense
Paul said, I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him (Galatians 1:6-9)! That is very direct. If you change the message revealed throughout Scripture, a curse should be on you.
Jude writes specifically about this issue, Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude 1:3-4). First of all, as Mike Winger points out4, Jude speaks of the faith in a way that is a direct reference to the doctrines of Scripture, and how it was given to us once and that it was for all Christians. Then he goes on to say that immoral people are sneaking in perversions of God’s grace as a license to sin and deny Jesus as God. Sound familiar?
The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible’s authors to write a perfect group of documents pointing toward the good news of Jesus. 2 Timothy says that it is all God-breathed. We are not worshiping and idolizing the Bible in and of itself, but the message that its entirety contains is the one tangible and objective way to verify the character of God and His message of salvation. All other matters of the faith should be decided based on how the Holy Spirit leads us to interpret passages of the Bible. God gives us no room to pick and choose what we accept in His word. If there is something we don’t like, we need to examine ourselves to see if there is a sin issue between us and God, not if there is an issue with what God has said.
As stated earlier, defining the doctrine of “Scripture alone” occurred at the Protestant Reformation as a response to people uplifting their personal revelations and traditions to the same level of authority as Scripture. The Bible doesn’t give us that privilege. Any new revelation or practice must first be vetted through what God has already established in His eternal word. If it contradicts that, it should be thrown out. This doctrine also allows us to personally investigate everyone’s claims about God ourselves–from Brian Zahnd to the Pope. We may not always reach the same conclusion, but the Bible always gives us the same starting point from which to discuss and pray for guidance.
True Christianity takes all of the Bible as the ultimate, objective, tangible word of God. That’s not to say that some of the later traditions can’t be accepted or that they will affect your salvation (as long as they don’t contradict scripture), but the danger is that if people begin claiming apostolic, scriptural authority, then eventually that can lead to a Gospel contrary to what we received, and unfortunately with much of modern-day Progressive Christianity, that has already happened.
References
Convictions 