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Is Sola Scriptura Taught by the Bible Itself?
(Part 1 of 3)
Sola Scriptura – Godsaid or Manmade?
Omni Satis Sola Scriptura (All-Sufficient Scripture Alone) is both retroactive (prophets, Christ and apostles based their entire oral body of Gospel Truth backwards to Old Testament exclusively) and prospective (Christ’s apostles and Holy Spirited authors like Mark, Luke, Hebrews writer reduced the entire oral body of New Testament Gospel Truth forward in Matthew-Revelation exclusive of all else). Theopneustosed became Theographed. Spirit-breathed-out became Spirit-written-down. God-spoken became God-scripted. The Lord through the Word of the Lord disclosed lots of revelation for Moses up to Malachi. All that’s left is all we’ve got in God’s Book Volume 1: selective highlights, excerpts, extracts, summaries of extended and abbreviated quotations. The Father through the Son disclosed lots of revelation to the apostles and their colleagues (Stephen, Philip, Barnabas, Apollos, Mark, Luke, Timothy, Titus). All that’s left is all we’ve got in God’s Book Volume 2: condensed summary in Matthew – Revelation.
The Lord in His wisdom determined that no other/further oral or written material from prophecies, sermons, letters, writings, preachings, private conversations, prayers, epistles or any communication whatsoever from God to men or person to person was necessary for Scriptural inclusion. As Pilate said, ‘ho gegrapta gegrapta’, ‘quod scripsi scripsi’: ‘what I have written I have written’. Don’t expect any more or less. God gave us enough as it is. Why would anyone seek after a third epistle to the Corinthians or a fifth Gospel or Acts 29 or Revelation Part 2 or what any apostles may have verbally or otherwise left church leaders in Jerusalem or Antioch or Ephesus or Rome or …? If it wasn’t Gospeled or Epistled, it missed God’s cut. Didn’t make heaven’s grade. Excluded from official publication. Extra Scriptura non-essentia.
God is Absolute Authority. Period. Therefore, God’s Word is His Say-So, revealed Absolute Authority. Period.
The unknown Word of God not revealed or unpreserved is inaccessible. Only the known disclosed preserved public domain record of God’s Word is accessible: The Bible. Period. Holy Scripture alone is holy enough and scripture enough to qualify as God’s knowable accessible revealed absolute authority over us. Period.
Jesus and Paul call nothing else produced on earth claimed from heaven as Holy or Scripture, let alone Holy Scripture. It is Written. Settled. End of debate. Amen.
As Revelation swears, ‘These are the true words of God (very words and verified as such).’ All the Bible’s own claims stand up over thousands of years. All rival claims pale.
The Bible is its own supreme court of appeal, its own witness, judge, and jury. Heaven-Justified as inherently Righteous in its own divine right absolved of all human accusation. God’s Own Book – AutoTheography – insists readers take Him at face value as perfectly reliable. Each page, each word, each truth invites hearers to listen in on the Lord’s Very Voice in a personal audience with One supremely greater and grander than any mortal world-famous leader, statesman or celebrity. Not through crass ventriloquism, but by willing collaboration as journalists with a Primary Source revealing full true eyewitness background for their individual non-fiction accounts.
Spiritiloquism: authors spoke and wrote from God propelled-coached-geniused-sourced-supernatural respiration by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Bible as Sacred Scripture claims to be God-narrated reality, heaven’s official stance and recorded account of true events, from God’s perspective in mortal form.
The same One who gives a believable Bible must also give a biblical belief. He who renders Himself readable must also make its readers renderable to its truth content.
His command and invitation: Believe 100% of His Bible 100% and be blessed. Or else not … Choose your choice, but consequence follows as light follows sun and dark follow sunlessness. All who elevate tradition or extra-biblical texts to holy sacred inerrant status actually have two bibles, with the second primely governing the first.
This is the enemy’s way with all cults throughout history. Later texts fill out and fine-tune the Prior Text. “God also said” is added to “God said.” This is the only case where we should act the devil’s advocate: “Did God (really?) also say…?” Anything outside of or beyond or after Genesis-Revelation is automatically disqualified as nonscripture.
You are either a MonoBiblist or polybiblist. You are fully committed to One Volume and One Volume Only. Or else to two volumes: the One (Wise) and some otherwise.
Is anything in the Bible God’s absolute ultimate perfect Truth? We have God’s Word on it. Is anything outside the Bible claiming to be from God really His Truth? We have to take someone else’s word for it.
The original Jewish faith is monotheist and monobiblist. One God, Jehovah; one scripture-book, tanakh – (Old Testament). Islam is monotheist and monobiblist. One God, Allah; one scripture-book, Quran. The authentic original Christian faith is monotheist and monobiblist. One Triune Godhead; one scripture-book, Holy Bible.
Corrupted professing versions of evolved progressive churchianity may or may not be monotheist. But they are always polybiblist: the Bible PLUS added revelational texts of equal or greater (tacit if unadmitted) authority and quality. Just as inspired and infallible and essential to interpret and fill in what missed the last apostle’s deadline for final formal finished official divine publication (that would have or should have been fully includible per authority of church leaders deemed of sacred status as and when seen fit to pronounce as such at any time). All admit the Holy Bible is completed. But some assert it is incomplete and insufficient. New prophetic or apostolic doctrinal revealings are needed to obtain the full counsel of God for fullest church faith to receive the whole Jesus-truth, part of which was left out of the Bible itself.
The upshot is that God had something vital to say to mankind. He chose much of his message to be on tablets and texts and parchments and scrolls. Through no fault of God’s Own, some crucial truth remained in oral form passed down by word of mouth from the apostles to the early churches. Or later God chose to add P.S. or P.P.S. as Post Scripture or PostPost Scripture as often as He raised up new prophets to reveal needed added truths Beyond the Bible. All absolutely dependent on taking the various conflicting claims of church groups at their word based on the persuasive power of church leaders to convince their followers.
Since the Holy Bible is God-narrated reality written by men (not always dictated like most of Revelation, but freely composed by human authors as Spirit-breezed), it would be as if every word for word and letter for letter text is a direct citation from Heaven itself. God does not take kindly to anyone speaking for Him when in fact He has not spoken (see Jeremiah’s prophecy of wicked false-prophets Zedekiah and Ahab roasted in Nebuchadnezzar’s vengeful fire – Jer. 29).
When Moses recites, “In the beginning…”, he is quoting the Lord God. All of Moses’ writings are direct quotes from heaven itself if he is truly a prophet of God.
Same with Joshua. Judges. Ruth…Malachi. Matthew…Jude. When John recites, “The revelation of Jesus Christ… Amen.” in the Bible’s closing book, he is quoting the Lord Jesus for the Lord God in the Lord Spirit. Picture the entire Holy Bible with Quote Marks as spoken from God’s very mouth (as Jesus citing Moses said).
TheoLege (God-Spoken). ChristoRhema (Christ’s Lyrics-as-Vocals). PneumaPneustos (Spirit-Breathing – like air passing the vocal cords out of the lips).
Genesis 1: And God said, “Let there be light…and (at once) it was so (and at once it was seen!)” The very first genesis of GodSaid absolute truth.
Solum Verbum Domini Dei – Only the Word of the Lord God, period.
Genesis 3: The serpent (Satan) said, “Did God (really?) say..?” The enemy’s prime assault on truth is to plant seeds of doubt about what is GodSaid.
There are only three options for Eve and all people ever since: GodSaid, SatanSaid, ManSaid. We are enjoined to test the spirits whether they are from God or not.
If they are in fact GodSaid (from spirits of prophets, apostles, Holy Bible) = Supreme, Absolute, Infallible, 100% Certain Truth from Heaven. If SatanSaid, utter lies to be resisted and rejected as temptations to sin against anything GodSaid. If ManSaid must be vetted to see if GodSaid or SatanSaid and treated accordingly. If unknown for sure can be safely set aside for re-evaluation until settled for sure one way or another. (Today’s Berean test is Bible-friendly vs. Bible-hostile;
Pro-Scripture vs. Anti- {instead/in place of} Scripture).
Prophets from Abraham to David to Elijah to Isaiah to Jeremiah to Malachi to John Baptizer: “The Word of the LORD came to/upon him…”
Solum Verbum Domini Dei – Only the Word of the Lord God, period. (See 2 Peter 1)
Matthew 4: Jesus replied to Satan 3 times: “It is written..” Where exactly? The Hebrew Bible. Law of Moses. God’s Word.
He did not cite rabbi’s, law experts, Gamaliel or Hillel, Jewish elders, oral tradition or ancient/recent wisdom handed down from the fathers or even prophetic John Baptizer’s considerable personal mortal insight as the greatest (holy man of God) born of woman. He used God’s Word, period. Holy Scripture, period. Public Domain written Truth from Heaven, period.
Matthew 4: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every spoken word from God’s very mouth.” (Moses in the Law of the Hebrew Scripture).
The Son may have heard secret things from his Father, but unless he told us, no one knows and it’s none of our business. God may well have uttered amazing things to people throughout Hebrew history, but only what is permanently publicly documented in Old Testament Scripture counts as having verified validity for all those not privy to direct heavenly oracles and prophetic revelation. All the Bible is excerptive, not exhaustive. God saw to it the world had what was necessary, sufficient and complete. To speculate about unwritten communication from God is dangerous guesswork and often mere flimsy whimsy and, frankly, cultish, gnostic (secret private wisdom disclosed to a select elite few in control of the deeper hidden person-to-person divulging to insiders of God’s truth on a par with Scripture itself) = combo of manmade and devil-drivel.
Matthew 23:2 Jesus said, “The law teachers and Pharisees (not Sadducees) sit in Moses’ seat (as designated authoritative custodians of Scripture preserving, delivery, interpretation, enforcement). You must obey them and do all they tell you. But do not follow their (bad unscriptural) example seeing they do not practice the very scriptures (Moses and Prophets = God’s Word) they preach…They love to be greeted as ‘rabbi’, ‘master’, ‘father’, ‘teacher’ (prominent titles of recognition and positional priority over ordinary people similar to today’s ‘most divine all holiness’, ‘right reverend’, ‘archpriest’, ‘cardinal’, ‘saint so and so’, ’eminence’, ‘excellency’, ‘divine beatitude pope patriarch father of fathers pastor of pastors prelate of prelates thirteenth apostle’). You are not to call anyone (or allow someone to title you) like that since you have only one Master and you are merely brothers, one Father who is in heaven, one Teacher the Christ (myself).”
Obey and follow Scripture as your appointed leaders instruct consistent with your personal accountability to know and understand Moses and Prophets in good conscience. Conservative/Perservative leaders/teachers mentioned vs. liberal Scripture-deniers like Sadducees. Since Moses prophetically spoke of Christ, to reject Christ is to reject the Moses who prophesied about him. Such rejecters’ anti-Mosean authority (such as hypocrisy, manmade traditions) can be safely (Bereanly) rejected before God.
Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus said, “Go make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all I have commanded you…” The apostles and early church could not carry out this mandated commission to make disciples even among gentile converts in faraway lands without a universal standardized all-inclusive codified Scripture-as-ultimate-absolute Authority. The Lord Jesus knew just as the Hebrew Faith could not have been reliably preserved fault-free unless Moses and Prophets reduced God’s commands to permanent written form, so the ChristianChurch Faith could not be either unless Jesus’ designated prophetic Apostles and Holy Spirited-authors reduced to SacredWritings-equivalent-to-HebrewScriptures all Jesus’ commands to be observed. All God’s commands to be observed? Holy Scripture only. All Christ’s commands to be observed just as Jesus himself taught? Holy Scripture only. Sola Scriptura is the binding permanent God-commissioned body of heaven-revealed teaching (100%, no more no less) to have officially sanctioned disciple-making status with absolutely nothing more necessary and sufficient to accomplish the Lord’s purpose.
Mark 12:24 Jesus replied, ‘Aren’t you in error because you know neither the Scriptures nor (thus what they speak of about) God’s power?’ Sola Scriptura in so many words.
Jesus sets the self-evident agreed-as-pre-given ultimate benchmark to grade truth claims (right/wrong, pass/fail, sustained/overruled) taken for granted by His audience, friend or foe. As the perfect ideal infallible Rabbi of Rabbi’s, Teacher of Teachers, Doctor of Doctors, Professor of Professors, Jesus uses a classic standard technique of appeal to supreme authority as conclusive to settle the matter. Scripture gets the final definitive role as arbiter, umpire, referee, supreme court, quoting God Himself as Judge to adjudicate: “What God Says is Say-So, Amen.” No other sources, writings, authorities, traditions, oral or written commentaries or august body of revered wisdom is of consequence. Scriptures, period. Moses to Malachi, period. Prophetic Revelation from God Himself, period. What is the Lord’s publicly taught uni-basis of truth vs. error?
Scriptures Only. Scriptures Enough. Scriptures Pull Rank. Scriptures Sovereign. Scriptures Settle God-issues. Every Scripture reader and professed follower is held accountable by the Son of God as Master Instructor to know Scriptures for oneself as the surefire guaranteed way to both withstand error and thus understand God’s power.
God’s Written Word always and ever and only has the right to insist on the last word on anything it chooses to address. Jesus declares that God declares, and that’s final!
Acts 5: Peter said to the Sanhedrin leaders (including Pharisees like Gamaliel and pre-conversion Saul, law teachers, high priest, chief priests, elders), “We must obey God himself rather than mere men! We are witnesses of what the God of our Fathers did through Prince Savior Jesus now resurrected from your crucifying him, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those (like us and all true disciples) obeying him.”
In case of conflict with those sitting in Moses’ seat or claiming to sit in Church’s seat or Christ’s seat or Scripture’s seat, individuals are conscience and Scripture bound to obey God himself rather than mere men. We will answer to God for how each person reads/interprets Scripture, not the way officials claiming to represent Moses or Sanhedrin or Church presumably do (they will give account for their leadership/teaching). God through Scripture of Christ in the Holy Spirit is prime ultimate authority always obeyed without question (test the spirits); all others are secondary supplemental derivative contingent authorities that must be subordinated to our Sole Master and Sole Father and Sole Teacher regardless of unscriptural or ungodly demands of those calling themselves master or father or teacher or even pastor/elder. Each Christian believer-Berean personally must discern for himself the true vs. counterfeit, Christly vs. antichrist, Scriptural vs. antiscriptural elements in the church (historic since apostles and present day) and answer to God for proper use of their God-born anointing as 1 John instructs average church members as check/balance against usurped or pseudo-authority of official leaders or guest prophetic voices.
Luke 10: “An expert in the law asked Jesus, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read (interpret/understand) it?'”
Personal individual accountability for knowing and interpreting Scripture for oneself. The sole source of revealed knowledge of eternal life endorsed by Christ himself.
Anything non-Law or unwritten is of zero consequence, extra-scriptural Jewish authority is an absolute non-factor. Sola Scriptura – which is Christ’s model for His Own Word from the Father in the Holy Spirit heaven-arranged for His apostles to produce as new Scripture fulfilling the old. Anything beyond or beside lacks the Lord’s personal sanction and is actually ‘streng verboten’ (strictly forbidden)!
Luke 11:28 “Blessed are those hearing God’s Word and tending to/seeing to/taking care to do it.” (As you wouldn’t break vows, Sabbath, kosher, covenant, faith – so keep.)
Rev. 1:3 “Blessed is the one reading (speaker) and those hearing (audience) the messages/words of this prophecy also observing/keeping/custodying what is written in this (revealed testimony) prophecy (as I was ten times commanded by Jesus as Angel of the Lord to write).” See Matt. 28 & Luke 10 above. Sola Scriptura, only what is written as God’s Word is officially to be spoken, heard and attended to (all exegeted=drawn out preaching/teaching must coincide in spirit and truth as solely and totally Biblical!), nothing more nothing less. All other (nonbiblical, eisegeted=drawn into) is unofficial as outside of that careful custody of keeping observance.
Scripture of itself by itself complete in itself is Christ’s Communique’, all else is merely Commentary to be Bereanly vetted and assayed to meet genuine God/Gold Standard.
Luke 16 Parable of Rich Man and Lazarus: Jesus said, “They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them (Scripture)…If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced/persuaded (to repentingly believe) even if someone (miraculously) rises from the dead (as dramatic evidence).” Sola Scriptura.
Luke 24: “Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures – ‘This is what is written (about me, now fulfilled in your sight).'”
Read everything the Lord himself publicly taught about God’s Word, His Own Words, Scripture and see if any other so-called authoritative canon comes close to its permanence, perfection, power, and prominence from heaven itself organically supernatural and unfiltered/unprocessed. The Lord gave Cleopas, Thomas, Matthew, Peter, John, all the New Testament Church and each of its saints then and thereafter one and only one Holy Spirit-certified perpetually reliable go-to reference source for all he said and did: that SCRIPTURE – standalone by itself, not tradition or paene- scripture (almost, just missed the cut), absolutely absent any outside equal or superior prophetic God-revealed-inspired words – MUST BE and HAS BEEN FULFILLED. Tradition or paenescripture need not be fulfilled, believed, obeyed as God-spoken.
John 5:39: “You search out the Scriptures because you presume that by them you have eternal life (when in fact) they witness to Me (The Embodiment of eternal life.)”
The Lord points to Scriptures alone (no other sourcing) as the object of proper searching out crucial religious essentials of life or death before God. Nothing is more core crux from God than gaining eternal life. He then points to himself alone as the true content and purpose and meaning of these Scriptures as unequaled source of eternal life. Just as they are unrivaled as sole source of eternal living truth, so he parallels them to himself as fulfillment to which they foretell/bear testimony.
A circular argument to be sure, but a perfect heavenly circle created by the Son of God (like the hydrologic cycle or biologic or Kingdom of God cycle he also fashioned).
It’s the Old Testament (Moses to Malachi) that is supreme, absolute, sufficient and exclusive. Not supplemented by rabbi’s, commentators, scholars, patriarchal oral traditions or any such thing (or he would have said so here and elsewhere in the Gospels). Further, by setting “Scriptures” as perfect precedent and sufficient standard, Christ also establishes an ongoing principle for true believers: Scriptures of any sort – future as well as past – witness to Him. Prophets looked forward, Apostles looked backward to Christ. Sola Scriptura by precedent, in practice and as perennial principle for all who would believe on Him through the apostles’ message of eternal life.
You cannot have a Bible-less Jesus any more than a Jesus-less Bible is His warning to unbelieving religion. Only the Bible-Jesus in the Jesus-Bible will suffice to save.
Nothing more needed; nothing less or lesser is to be settled for in God’s Kingdom. Scripture’s ‘therefore’ requires absolutely no ‘furthermore’. Forevermore!
Jesus here and everywhere establishes and witnesses to Scripture’s enoughness. Including what He would have His Apostles newly write charged by the Holy Spirit.
John 10:35 “Scripture CANNOT be broken.” Tradition, ancient Jewish literature, intertestamental texts, post-apostolic memory of apostolic sayings, any other oral or written transmission of spiritual content by or for the church at any time after Paul and Peter and John died CAN be broken. Sola Scriptura. Only the all-done Holy Bible with absolute zero ‘postscriptura’ is unbreakable, inviolable, cannot be annulled, cannot be unkept or unfulfilled or gapped needing filling in, cannot be found wanting or lacking or denied as perfectly suitable complete enoughly sufficient settled fixed. We must be only contented with its contents only seeking no further content of material to be published posthumously on a par with Gospels and Epistles. Anything else breaks faith with the Lord and his Word, breaks his law-gospel covenant, breaches trust, violates God’s express will, cracks the entire lens of heaven’s clear scope of revealing, compromises Truth itself, undermines the very foundation of the inspired Word, departs from and betrays Christ who himself is the Word of God. Holy Scripture and all its implications must be fully faced up to as unimpeachable, invincible, undefeated, insurmountable, unavoidable, inescapable, permanently in full force maintaining omnipotency, omniscience, omnipresence attributed to its Supreme Author.
John 17: “Sanctify them by your Word which is Truth.” In context, this refers to Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus’ spoken Word of the Kingdom Gospel he has labored to share with his disciples from his Father. There is direct correlation and parallel between inspired (theopneustos) previous written Scripture (Prophecy) and inspired (theopneustos) recent and real-time oral revealed Word of Truth (Fulfillment). How can anyone after the disciples presume to know just what this fulfillment Word is?
It has to be reduced to writing in God’s official documented record of His Son’s words and works. Thus Gospels, Acts, Epistles (New Testament). Nothing more, nothing less.
Pure speculation to imagine or presuppose one can recreate or recapture God’s sanctifying oral Word as Truth from uninspired non-theopneustos sources alleged to have been privy to apostolic oral teaching that missed the New Testament cutoff for inscripturation. Theopneustos = God-Spirited = Heaven Certified/Ratified/Guaranteed.
Pre-verified/Pre-qualified as automatically trustable from God. Any and every other claimed authoritative source is unofficial, off the record, subsidiary, subordinate, missed-the-canonical-cut, fallible, subject to ‘trust but verify’.
Acts 17: “The Bereans were of more noble character/well-born attitude, for they received Paul’s (gospel) message with great eagerness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out if what Paul claimed was in fact really true.” They searched no other definitive conclusive authority source as they vetted Apostle Paul’s message.
Paul told them, “I’m quoting the Lord Himself. I’m telling you God’s Own Word.” With zero church authority or leadership or hallowed teaching body, what was their only recourse as supreme court to render a righteously right ruling about this Apostle quoting the Lord? The Lord’s original Quote Book. They found a Holy-Spirited perfect match-up between the Old Quote Book and the New Apostle also citing the Old Quote Book and Jesus’ Newly-Revealed-Mystery Quotations. One-to-One correlation.
Like compared with like. God-as-Quoted lined up with God-as-Quoted-by-Christ-via-Apostle. Supreme Truth Claim cross-checked with Supreme Truth Source. Heavenly tested by Heavenly. The wise noble discerning God-blessed Bereans tried Apostle Paul’s light shine against the Sun itself, not a mere candle or even the moon.
Zero oral or written tradition. Zero rabbinic texts. Zero ancient or contemporary materials, letters, books. Zero wisdom passed down through the ages or recent word of mouth from respected fathers, scholars, priests, teachers or prophets. Zero Hebrew, Greek, proto-Christian authors or thinkers. Absolute zero beyond absolute Scripture.
Acts 20, 26, 28: “I commend you to God and the Word of His grace (oral word of apostolic mouth sufficed ONLY until enscripturated); I am saying nothing beyond what the Scriptures say…do you believe the prophets? Would you persuade me to be a Christian only on the basis of Gospeling from the Prophets? Paul preached and taught the Roman Jews from Moses and the Prophets about the Kingdom of God fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ from the Scriptures.
Word. Word. Word. Moses. Moses. Moses. Prophets. Prophets. Prophets. Scripture. Scripture. Scripture. God’s Book. God’s Book. God’s Book. Only. Only. Only.
Quote, Period. Quote, Period. Quote, Period. “Thus, says the Lord!” Amen! “Thus, says the Lord!” Amen! “Thus, says the Lord!” Amen!
Trinitarian Gospel in Trinitarian Scripture as Trinitarian Truth Revelation. Absolutely nothing else makes the grade. Can’t add on to the Trinity. Can’t add on to the Cross of Christ. Can’t add on to the Holy Bible. Scripture has spoken and cannot be broken. Like a fixed permanent contract or metal sword or wineskin it cannot be jury-rigged or modified or extended or expanded to include anything additive to its original organic integrated supernatural essence, form, content. Like leviathan or behemoth, it will not be broken, tamed, domesticated to the dictates of men, even claimed as on God’s behalf without heaven’s express written consent signed off by the Holy Spirit Himself.