The Scripture as Our Ultimate Authority

In this view the teaching office of the church, called the church’s Magisterium, has the task, as the successor of the apostles, of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God (that is, Scripture and tradition), which, when set forth as dogma, is considered infallible truth.⁶ This infallible truth then becomes part of the tradition or divine truth. The Roman Church, in her assumed role as infallible interpreter of tradition and Scripture, thus mediates the authority of the divine revelation of God’s Word to His people. As the Catechism explains, “Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. The Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.”⁷ Roman Catholic writer Mark Shea explains this understanding of the relationship of the Bible to the church and tradition.

The Catholic faith can agree that Scripture is sufficient. But. . . it also warns that there is a distinction between material and formal sufficiency. What’s the difference? Simply put, it is the difference between having a big enough pile of bricks to build a house and having a house made of bricks. Material sufficiency means that all the bricks necessary to build doctrine is [sic] there in Scripture. However, it also teaches that since the meaning of Scripture is not always clear and that sometimes a doctrine is implied rather than explicit, other things besides Scripture have been handed to us from the apostles: things like Sacred Tradition (which is the mortar that holds the bricks together in the right order and position) and the Magisterium or teaching authority of the Church (which is the trowel in the hand of the Master Builder). Taken together, these three things–Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium–are formally sufficient for knowing the revealed truth of God.⁸

Roman Catholicism is not alone in asserting the infallibility of tradition alongside the Scriptures. Timothy Ware, in a popular work on the Orthodox Church, says plainly, “The doctrinal definitions of an Ecumenical Council are infallible. Thus the eyes of the Orthodox Church, the statement of faith put out by the seven councils, possess, along with the Bible, an abiding and irrevocable authority.”⁹ Thus certain teachings of the church are placed alongside Scripture as having equal ultimate authority.

Some Protestants today are encouraging Christians to grant a more respectful place for tradition. They rightfully point out that the historic orthodox teachings on the central tenets of the Christian faith can help guard the church against the dangers of accommodating to the prevalent cultural norms. However, sometimes their emphasis on appreciating tradition comes dangerously close to blurring the status of the Scriptures alone as our ultimate authority. An example of this is seen in the recent work Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism, by Daniel H. Williams, an ordained Baptist minister who also teaches patristics and historical theology at Loyola University of Chicago. He frequently links the Scriptures and the early church fathers together as the normative authority for believers. He refers to “the one apostolic and patristic foundation.”¹⁰ Again he says, “Like Scripture, the consensual Tradition of the church has its source in the triune God himself, coming to us from the Father, through the Son in the Spirit. Scripture and Tradition are not two different sources of authority and truth.” The statement that “the early Tradition of the church provides the grounds for ascertaining its foundation” sounds close to the Roman Catholic view that the church is needed to mediate the authority of the Scriptures to Christians.

The Scriptures Alone

A third view is that the Holy Spirit presents His authority to His people through the Scriptures alone. This classic Protestant doctrine, known as sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”), is well stated in the French Confession of Faith of 1559.

We believe that the Word contained in these books has proceeded from God, and receives its authority from him alone, and not from men. And in as much as it is the rule of all truth, containing all that is necessary for the service of God and for our salvation, it is not lawful for men, nor even for angels to add to it, or to take away from it, or to change it. Whence it follows that no authority, whether of antiquity, or custom, or numbers, or human wisdom, or judgments, or proclamations, or edicts, or decrees, or councils, or visions, or miracles, should be opposed to these Holy Scriptures, but on the contrary, all things should be examined, regulated, and reformed according to them.¹³

The term sola Scriptura also refers to the sufficiency of Scripture, that is, the fact that the Bible contains all truth that is necessary for salvation and the spiritual life. To a people of unbelief who were looking to mediums for direction, Isaiah declared, “Should not a people inquire of their God? . . . To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (Isa 8:19-20, NIV). These words of Isaiah were a favorite saying of John Wesley as he “sought to implement his dictum that every teaching must be tested by Scripture.”¹⁴

Similarly Jesus continually pointed only to the Scriptures as God’s final authority. In response to the rich man’s request that someone from the dead be resurrected to warn his brothers of the judgment of hades, Jesus pointed only to the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). His response to His questioners on one occasion is illustrative of His continual use of the Scriptures alone as the ultimate arbitrator of truth in their conflicts: “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures” (Matt 22:29). He said of the Scriptures, “It is these that bear witness of me” (John 5:39).

Most telling are the times when Jesus rejected the traditions that had been built up around the Scriptures by Jewish religious authorities. Questioned as to why His followers “transgress the tradition of the elders,” Jesus replied, “And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? . . . You invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt 15:2-3, 6). Then, citing the words of Isaiah, Jesus rebuked these authorities for “teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (15:7-9; see also Mark 7:5-13).