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“Bible Alone” Sounds Good, But Is It?
By Deacon Thomas Zell
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“Bible Alone” Sounds Good, But Is It?
By Deacon Thomas Zell
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One group comes to my door and says the Bible says this; another group says the opposite. I visit from church to church, and they all claim to believe the Bible, but teach contradictory beliefs. Is it supposed to be this confusing and divided? Holy Tradition offers the solution! The Bible says once someone accepts Christ, he can never lose his salvation. All true Christians have eternal security. The Bible says it is possible to fall away from grace. Even believers can turn away from God and be forever lost in their sins. The Bible says homosexuality is a perversion of God’s moral law and a deviation from natural human behavior. The Bible says homosexuality is morally acceptable, it is a lifestyle as viable as any “traditional” concept of marriage or family. The Bible says long ago God predestined some men and women to everlasting life, and some to everlasting judgment. We are not free to accept or reject His salvation. The Bible says God Himself does not know who will choose Him. Salvation is a matter of free will. The decision is entirely up to us. The Bible says Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God the Father, sharing fully in His divinity, and indivisibly united with the Holy Trinity. The Bible says Jesus Christ is a created being. He is superior to the angels, but not eternal and not of the same nature as the Father. The Bible says we should no longer use the terms “Father” and “Son” in relation to God. They are merely symbolic and were meant to be replaced with less sexist terminology. The Bible says . . . Wait a minute! How can so many contradictory statements be based on the teachings of one book? How can intelligent and sensible people read basically the same Old and New Testament text, yet arrive at opposite conclusions? Is there any other book, ancient or modern, which has prompted such a vast and often incompatible array of interpretations and dogmas? Why can’t anyone agree on what the Bible really teaches? I believe the time has come for those who love the Holy Scriptures, no matter what their backgrounds may be, to address such questions earnestly and sincerely in the name of Christ. No one who takes seriously Christ’s High Priestly Prayer for unity among His followers can look with indifference upon the divisions, factions, and schisms which have become synonymous with contemporary Christianity. John 17:20, 21: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” Nor can we ignore the crisis of biblical interpretation which is bringing so much of that division upon us. Never before in the history of the Christian faith has there been such widespread confusion concerning foundational biblical doctrines such as the nature of the Church, the Holy Trinity, or the essence of the Christian life. Having lost a consistent approach to biblical interpretation, modern Christianity has been cut adrift from its moorings, and now appears to be drifting rapidly out to a tempestuous sea of subjectivity, shallowness, and heretical novelty. Like the disciples of Jesus’ day who could not cast out the demons, modern Christianity seemingly has been outwitted and overpowered by the enemy. Divided and confused, it is rapidly losing its momentum, while the watching world either mocks openly, or begins to look elsewhere for answers. WHAT HAPPENED? If, for the most part, Christians are sincerely looking to the Scriptures for answers, yet are coming up with a discordant array of interpretations, there must be some explanation. I believe there is one‑and only one‑but before discussing it, I would like to mention two commonly held views, which though understandable in light of the current chaotic scene, I believe must be rejected at the outset. 1) Unhealthy Skepticism. Some would say Christians disagree over the proper interpretation of Scripture because there is no proper interpretation. These people would claim, “The Bible is not divinely inspired and has no unified message.” Frankly, who can blame people for being skeptical? With over 22,000 different Christian denominations and sects in existence today, and with an average of five new groups appearing each week, almost all claiming to base their beliefs on the teachings of the Bible, how could it not appear to those outside the Christian faith that the Scriptures have no unity, no underlying theme, and no divinely inspired message? To the skeptic, the spectacle of modern Christianity proves that the Bible is simply another book of history, a random collection of religious writings reflecting the sociological development of a portion of Middle Eastern culture. I obviously don’t agree with that position, but in deference must admit that if I were on the outside looking in at all this chaos, I might be tempted to believe it. If you are reading this as a skeptic, but one who would like to believe there is more to the message of the Bible than what you might have experienced so far, I wish to encourage you not to give up. There is more to the story—much more. Please, keep reading! 2) Unhealthy Optimism. Others would tell us that although Christians disagree over the meaning of Scripture, in the final analysis, doctrine is not really important anyway. They would look upon the current disharmony among Christians as not a weakness, but a strength—God’s way of teaching us that what a person believes, or how someone interprets the Bible, is only a matter of personal, private opinion, and ultimately has little importance or bearing on one’s relationship with God or fellow man. This view says, “Our responsibility is to make the best of whatever we have, to respect everyone else’s opinion, and not to prefer our views, or anyone else’s views, over our neighbor’s. It doesn’t really matter whether someone is Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Christian Scientist, fundamentalist, or Unitarian. We should simply live our lives, and stop trying to find out who is ‘right’.” This view is incompatible with a sincere search for truth. LOOKING FOR ANSWERS All right, perhaps we are in agreement, at least in principle, that there is a serious crisis here. There can be no denying that the spectacle we modern Christians are presenting to the outside world bears very little resemblance to the picture of unity and oneness envisioned by Christ in John 17. The most sincere efforts of Christian biblical interpreters, no matter how intelligent, how charismatic, how gifted in biblical languages, how well—loved, or how eloquent, have not been sufficient to quell the confusion that now exists. In fact, most of them have only added to this confusion in their own way. Sectarianism, liberalism, and moral decay are running rampant, and at the present rate of decline, there will likely be no resemblance whatsoever between the Christianity we now hold, and Christianity one hundred years from now. (If you have been a Christian for many years, think back to the changes which have occurred in your own church since you were a child in Sunday School!) Okay, so where do we go from here? What I am about to say, I say with more conviction and firmness of belief than I have ever possessed in the forty years of my existence. I wish to give a two-word answer to that question which represents what I unequivocally believe to be the one and only prospect for Christians who wish to return to the true message of Scripture and to understand its divine meaning. Apart from this priceless key to interpretation, the fragmentation we see around us will continue unabated until finally there is nothing left of the original Christian proclamation. What is it that offers us such clear and correct direction and understanding? It’s called Holy Tradition.
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