Is the Bible trustworthy on salvation and how to live the Christian life?
Jan 26
In this post, I am going to approach this from the argument of reason only (not doctrines of innerancy of Scripture, or beliefs in the inspiration of Scriptures, etc.). Not that I reject those doctrines, but I think it would be fun to look at it from this viewpoint.
What does a Christian have at his/her disposal to trust and follow?
1. Scripture
2. Oral tradition from the Catholic Church, which they claim came from the Apostles
3. Opinions of Christians down the centuries
4. Opinions of present-day Christians (i.e. pastors, scholars, etc.)
5. One’s own opinions
I would much rather trust and follow what the Apostles/Scripture writers taught in their writings than any of the others on this list when they seem to disagree with Scripture. Why?
Simply, the Scripture-writers were there at the beginning of the faith and warned us against others who would come after them and would deviate from their teachings. If you doubt the writers, how much more should you doubt any who follow if their teaching seems to disagree?
I believe this is one of the reasons why the Jews had so much difficulty accepting Jesus. His coming and preaching made many of the commands in the Law seem trivial. The Jews refused to deviate from their Scriptures, simply because some man who came thousands of years later showed up. The only way they could entertain the idea of adjusting their view of Scripture is if that person had more authority than Scripture itself. That person would have to be greater than the prophets who wrote Scripture. If Jesus was not truly the Son of God, the right thing to do was to continue following Scripture as it had been passed down to them.
If you would trust and follow something else on this list in spite of what Scripture says, I would like to know why. Do they claim to be the Son of God? Do you think they, like Jesus, deserve to have more authority and credibility than Scripture?
In short, if Scripture is wrong or misleading, Jesus himself will need to clarify–not someone else on that list.
I would like to add one more point to consider: The ironic thing is that the Jewish teachers (Rabbis) had been deviating from Scripture by their added traditions for quite some time by the time Jesus came–but they didn’t see themselves as doing so. They thought they were clarifying Scripture. Instead, they were discounting Scripture, according to Jesus. Jesus criticized them for trying to clarify it (which really meant adding or taking away from it). The difference between Jesus and the other Rabbis was that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and that this gave Him alone the authority to do what they had been attempting to do for centuries.