Scripture & Authority

Scripture and Tradition

God's Word comes to us through both the written Scriptures and the living apostolic Tradition, guarded by the Church. ‘Bible alone’ (sola scriptura) is nowhere taught in the Bible — and it can't even tell us which books belong in the Bible.

The short answer. The Bible itself tells us to hold fast to traditions taught ‘by word’ as well as by letter. And the table of contents isn't in the Bible — you're already trusting the Church that discerned the canon.

Scripture endorses apostolic Tradition

Paul commands the Thessalonians to hold fast to the traditions he handed on ‘whether by word or by letter,’ and tells Timothy to entrust that deposit to reliable men who will teach others. The faith is a living handing-on, not only a text.

2 Thessalonians 2:15So then, brothers, stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word or by letter.

2 Timothy 2:2The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

The Church is the pillar of truth

Paul calls the Church — not the Bible — ‘the pillar and support of the truth.’ Christ founded a teaching Church with authority to bind and loose, and promised the Spirit would guide it into all truth.

1 Timothy 3:15but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

John 16:13However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.

Scripture needs authoritative interpretation

Peter warns that Scripture is not a matter of one's own private interpretation and that the unstable twist Paul's hard passages to their own destruction. The Ethiopian needed someone to guide him. A text can be misread; that's why Christ left a Church.

2 Peter 1:20knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.

2 Peter 3:16as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Acts 8:30–31Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.

Common objections

“2 Timothy 3:16–17 — Scripture makes the man of God ‘complete,’ so it's sufficient.”

It says Scripture is ‘profitable’ and equips — not that it is the ONLY rule. By the same logic the passage proves too much: the ‘Scripture’ Timothy knew ‘from childhood’ was the Old Testament, which would exclude the New. Being profitable isn't the same as being sufficient-by-itself, and the verse never says ‘alone.’

2 Timothy 3:16–17Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

“Tradition is condemned — Jesus rebuked the ‘traditions of men’ (Mark 7).”

He condemned human traditions that NULLIFY God's word — not apostolic Tradition, which Paul commands us to keep. Scripture distinguishes the two: the traditions of men (Mark 7:8) versus the traditions handed on by the apostles (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

Mark 7:8“For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”

Scripture quoted verbatim from the World English Bible (public domain).

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