The concept of the Word of God being the sole authority over what the Christian confesses as the truth is given to us by Christ Himself, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth" (John 17:17-19). Yes, God's word is truth and Christ commissioned his disciples to go out into the world to teach His word, the truth (Matthew 28:19).
The Apostle Paul is clear regarding the teaching of sola scriputra when he writes, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:12-13). Take notice that Paul is speaking about the words and teaching of God. It is in the words "taught by the Spirit" that we are to stand firm, as the great Apostle himself writes, "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter" (2 Thessalonians 2:15). The words of Jesus, handed down to us by the Apostles, are the truth. To those words (teachings, or doctrines) we are to remain faithful and upon which we can stand firm.
However, there is powerful current of deception in the Church, it is the view that love trumps truth. Perhaps you have heard something like the following before? "Ah, man, we don't need doctrine! Just love one another." Often I hear such an appeal which is really an appeal to relativism. In other words, love is the great equalizer, it is the only thing that is relevant for all of us in the world, or so it is claimed by those who have abandoned the view that we can have pure doctrine in the Church today.
The opponents to pure doctrine shout, "There is no such thing as pure doctrine!" For these opponents to pure doctrine there is no such thing as any knowledge of pure doctrine; instead, there are bound-conscience beliefs. Such a belief is supported by the presupposition that one cannot—must not!—assert one interpretation of Scripture over another as being "the Truth" or "pure doctrine." Rather, we must equally respect and tolerate varying interpretations of the Scriptures and not impose our beliefs about what constitutes true teaching over what another may believe is truth for them. Here one must be persuaded by the deafening claim that there is no such thing as truth with a capital "T," which is after all the hellish claim that there is no such thing as "pure" doctrine.
If shouting from church roof tops that there is no such thing as pure doctrine isn't persuasive, then the opponents of the Truth will soften their tone and appeal to what seems to be the ultimate truth above all others, love. Rather than shouting, you hear these opponents gently whispering "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). And, there is nothing greater than love, since God is love (1 John 4:8). Just let us in amongst you and we can have unity in love." This is the modern day call against sola scriptura. The arbitrator in a dispute over what is true doctrine versus false doctrine isn't the Holy Scriptures anymore; instead it is a strong predilection to harmony without troublesome divisions caused by doctrines. The opponent of truth asks for loving tolerance of his point of view, bound by his interpretation of Scripture. The whispered appeal continues, "If I am in 'error,' then isn't it true that love covers a multitude of sins? Just allow me my interpretation and we can work on this together." This is the beginning of the ascendancy of errors in the Church. Those in error always seek tolerance of their false views. Love is instrumental in this case for joining together truth and falsehood into a relative view point. Take notice, too, that love is pitted against truth, as if God isn't both love and truth. Never mind that Jesus unequivocally states that He is the Truth (John 14:6), since those who want to reject the teaching that we can have pure doctrine do not want to talk about knowing the Truth, but instead want to focus upon the beliefs of individuals.
Once errors are tolerated by a church body, then it is only a matter of time for the leaven to thoroughly work through the lump. The proponents who gently spoke of unity in the body of Christ based upon love alone have won. Sola scriptura is abandoned and any attempt by those wanting to return to the church of their grandfathers in embracing this sola is met with hostility by those who once demanded tolerance. Indeed, the opponents of truth can now be heard publicly demanding that those calling upon a return to the doctrine and practices of their father's church leave their church body. Where conversation was once upheld as a good, now it is frowned upon unless it is grounded in the presuppositions of what it means to be loving and tolerant of another's point of view. The opponent of Truth will have nothing to do with a subscription to pure doctrine holding predominance over their realtivistic "love child," the
bound-conscience belief. Instead, deference is given to bound-conscience beliefs and not just any
bound-conscience belief will be tolerated; only the set of those
bound-conscience beliefs following in lock step with the errors infecting the church body will be permitted. Those wishing to return to grandpa's church can take their un-approved "
bound-conscience beliefs" and hit the road with them. So much for "love" and "tolerance."
The Apostle Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy,
"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:12-17).
What I have written is nothing novel which is obvious from the words written to Timothy. The Apostle is dealing with the opponents to truth in his day. His instructions to Timothy, as well as the Church today, is to "continue in what you have learned." Paul doesn't instruct Timothy to stand firm with some sort of bound-conscience belief and to love and tolerate those evil people and impostors who deceive others into believing false doctrine. Timothy has likely been taught by the Apostle Paul to "mark and avoid" false teachers and their doctrines as he instructed the church in Rome (Romans 16:17).
When the pitchmen come around asking you to believe that we can't know or have pure doctrine, and they beg you to tolerate such a view in your church body, the right course of action is to lovingly put down such false teaching as quickly as possible. Being faithful to God's Word is to stand firm in the teachings of Jesus as handed down to us by the Apostles. The sole authority over doctrine is not a bound-conscience belief rooted in love and tolerance of the view points of others. No, instead, the sole authority over doctrine, pure doctrine which we can have, is the Holy Scriptures and nothing more.
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