Then the devil taketh
Him up into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith
unto Him, “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, ‘He
shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall
bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.’” Jesus said unto him, “It is written again,
‘thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God.’” (Matthew 4:5-7)
This is the
second of the devil’s temptations of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s gospel. I find this particular temptation very
interesting in the way that Jesus responds to Satan. The devil actually quotes Psalm
91:11-12 to Jesus in order to trick Him into doing something foolish. But think of the irony – the arch-enemy of
Jesus Christ is quoting the Word of God (Scripture) to the very Word of God,
Himself, in the flesh (Jesus Christ). I
think that it is safe to say that Jesus was familiar enough with the written
Word of God to answer the devil correctly.
Nevertheless,
I want to point out what is actually happening here in Matthew, from a doctrinal standpoint. Jesus is reinforcing a well established
concept – “Scripture interprets Scripture.”
That is, we can take the simpler and clearer passages that we all agree
on and we can use those to establish principles to help us understand the less
understood passages.
Notice that
Jesus overcame the devil all three times with the phrase “It is written,” that
is, with Scripture (Matthew 4:1-10). On
this particular occasion, He tells the devil, “It is written again…”!
He doesn’t try to invoke tradition, or
the authority of some kind of Jewish “magisterium” like the Sanhedrin, or some
past Hebrew council to thwart the enemy of our soul. No, He goes even farther into the Word of God, because Scripture interprets
Scripture.
When someone
misuses Scripture in a debate with you, you don’t have to divert to some other
source – you go deeper into Scripture
to clear the air. You tell them, “But it
is also written…” You counter with the whole counsel of God in Scripture, always using it in context.
This is the
concept of Sola Scriptura, which is basically defined in this way:
Scripture is
the ultimate rule of faith for the church today because it is the only
infallible one. Other tools and sources
can be used to help us in our Christian walk, but they are not infallible. No other source is on the same level as
Scripture. We would do well to trust the
church’s ultimate rule of faith.
For a deeper
understanding of the topic, the reader can type “Sola Scriptura” in the search
bar in the upper left-hand corner of this page to view many articles on this
topic.
A Much-Ignored Chapter
The apostle
Paul reinforced this same concept in 2 Timothy 3. This chapter is not in the Bible just to take
up space. It is an antidote to false
teaching. Second Timothy is the final
epistle of the apostle Paul’s writings and there is certainly a sense of
urgency in his message. He knows that he
will soon be martyred and he is leaving some very important “last words” for the
church. He warns that in the last days
perilous times will come, doctrinally and otherwise (v. 1). In the next few verses (v.2-9), he prophesies in
graphic detail the circumstances with which the church will have to deal. But many don’t realize that Paul was telling
us that the threat would come from within the church! We all know that
the unbelieving world behaves in the way Paul describes, but Paul is talking
about some who would be “having a form of godliness” (v. 5),
coming to the “knowledge of the truth” (v. 7), and “reprobate concerning the faith”
(v. 8). So again, he is
referring to some in the church whose doctrine and lives are perverted. This is an apostasy, a falling from the
faith, a spiritual cancer in the church and it must certainly be dealt
with. We can undeniably see much of this
happening even today.
Paul
continues and now switches his focus to the faithful:
“But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions…” (v. 10-12). Notice the first thing listed here is doctrine. He goes on:
“But
evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived”
(v. 13).
He is about
to give Timothy a remedy for the great deception that is coming.
“But
continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them”
(v. 14).
The apostle assures the faithful that
his doctrine is the truth and that he is trustworthy.
But Catholics will insist that “the
things thou hast learned” and “hast been assured of” refers to
“Sacred Tradition.” It is no doubt true
that the precise words of Scripture were not the only words that Paul shared
with them. Obviously, he had also shared
other things that were not specifically
written down in the Word. So, Catholics
will say that Paul had to be
referring to tradition. But the fact
that tradition is not specifically mentioned here (while Scripture will be), and what Paul goes on to tell
them, clarifies his point.
The Solution
Now, the apostle will mention the cure
for surviving these latter day trials and doctrinal problems:
“And
that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make
thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (v. 15).
Ok, so he specifically lists Scripture as the
answer to problems in doctrine and behavior.
Now, many Catholics will say that this passage only refers to the Old
Testament Scriptures, and therefore, this (supposedly) refutes the “Bible only”
doctrine, since it would actually mean “Old Testament only.” But this idea is refuted in the next verse:
“All
scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”
(v. 16).
This verse
(along with v. 17) is savagely attacked by many non-believers in Sola
Scriptura, especially Catholics, and I believe it is because these two verses
are so clear, and they don’t like what the text is saying. Like I said above, most of the attacks are
coming from those who claim to be Christians today, and the attack on this
passage is a case in point. But this
passage’s detractors don’t want it to
be true and will fight tooth and nail in attempting to destroy its clear and
simple meaning.
“Only” Scripture?
Many will
claim that the text doesn’t say “ONLY Scripture is given by inspiration of
God,” etc., etc., but all Scripture,
therefore Sola Scriptura cannot be right.
While the word “only” is not used, a simple assessment of the context
will show that the concept is indeed
there, as we will soon see. Just because
specific phrases or words are absent, does not negate the idea of a given
concept. Context will determine the
intended idea. So, let’s not be so quick
to rule out the concept of “only Scripture” as the ultimate rule of faith. Keep reading.
The term “by
inspiration of God” is rendered “God-breathed” in the Greek. This would of course denote infallibility in
that source. Note that there is no other
rule of faith mentioned in all of Scripture that is given the title “God-breathed.”
This fact
alone leans heavily toward the concept of Scripture alone. But there’s more…
“Merely” Profitable?
But many
Catholics try to say that Scripture is only
profitable, since it doesn’t use the term “sufficient.” But why do Catholics focus on the supposed
“weakness” of the word “profitable,” yet ignore the power
and sufficiency of terms like “inspired” and “thoroughly furnished” (fully
equipped) in the same context?
It seems as though there is a double standard here.
But the term
“inspired”
(or “God-breathed”)
in this same passage does not allow for such a low view of the term “profitable.” It’s like saying that God is “merely good” to
us and nothing more. But no one who is
serious about serving God would say this.
As I
mentioned above, they will say that all of Scripture was not yet written at the
time of Paul’s epistle, so it couldn’t be referring to the New Testament, could
it? But, using that same line of reasoning,
does anyone think that Paul really meant “All Scripture written up to this time, but not the rest of it” is profitable for doctrine, reproof,
correction and instruction in righteousness?
Absolutely not.
That would
be like a Catholic saying, “All infallible/ex-cathedra statements of the
Catholic Church are true.” And we could
then ask, “Does that mean that ONLY the ones proclaimed UP TO THIS POINT are
true and that future ones may be false?” No, he would argue that “all” means all. Remember, Paul was not just addressing the needs of the early church, but also those of
the future church (v.
1), as well. So, this argument
doesn’t hold.
When Paul
said “All Scripture,” he was looking ahead and including everything that God
ever intended to be Scripture.
Otherwise, you’d have to say that not all of the New Testament was
God-breathed!
The Complete and Sufficient “Toolbox”
And finally:
“That
the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (v.
17).
So we see here that Scripture is able
to make one perfect (i.e., mature and complete) and throughly [thoroughly]
furnished for “all good works.” Now, remember, starting from v. 10,
Paul is focusing heavily on doctrine, and Scripture is the remedy for this
great deception. So, doctrinally
speaking, if this book we call the Bible is 1) infallible, 2) able to keep us
from deception, and 3) able to equip us for every/all good works, then we need
no other infallible source.
To use an analogy, if you were an auto
mechanic and your boss gave you a toolbox that equipped you for every auto
mechanic’s job that you could possibly run into, wouldn’t that toolbox be
sufficient? Yes, it would. Do you need another toolbox for foreign cars
or pick-up trucks? No, not if the one he
gave you equips you for every mechanic’s
job. Again, this mechanic’s toolbox
would suffice.
In the same way, Scripture is our rule
of faith, our “toolbox” of doctrine which equips us for every good work. Since this
is true, there is no other source needed today TO FUNCTION AS AN INFALLIBLE
RULE OF FAITH. By definition, Scripture is all that is needed. So the Bible necessarily and effectively eclipses and replaces
any other source that claims to be an infallible rule of faith.
No tradition is on the same level as
Scripture, unless that tradition is both 1) already part of the Bible and 2) in
line with its principles. For example,
Jesus’ mention of the tradition of the Pharisees (Mark 15:1-13) is
certainly referred to in the Bible, but it is excluded as an authoritative
source because it doesn’t line up with the rest of Scripture. And any other tradition whose concepts are
not in line with the Bible’s are also rejected.
Not to mention the fact that the
Catholic Church has never been able to clearly and exactly say what the
contents of its tradition are in any meaningful way. They will give us extremely vague definitions
of tradition, or distract people by giving some examples of Sacred Tradition, but they can’t identify the whole of
Catholic Tradition with certainty, and the Catholic Church’s weak attempts at
doing so are an absolute joke. See these
articles:
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-lonely-pilgrim-and-sacred-tradition.html
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-about-tradition.html
Conclusion
There are
many who would want to add other “authorities” to the Bible, and even claim
they are equal to it. But it always happens that when something
other than Scripture is introduced as an “equal supplement” (like tradition,
councils or “magisteriums”), Scripture always gets put on the back burner, and
truth takes a serious hit.
We see here in
this article only a tiny portion of the writings of one of the greatest apostles
who ever lived – a man whom God infallibly used to write one third of the New
Testament. Under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, this man was used to reveal (and unpack the details of) a most
critical doctrine just before he was martyred by an evil and ungodly generation
of men. The apostle Paul gives us the
clearest understanding of the concept of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone as the
ultimate and only infallible rule of faith for the church today). Will the church in this modern day embrace
and take advantage of this teaching?
Regretfully, the truth is that many will not, thus hastening the
apostasy of which Paul spoke (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Today, more
than ever, we need to recognize the power of Scripture as our ultimate source
for doctrine and guidance, and to guard against the inevitable deception and
false teaching we’re seeing in the modern (and last days) church. That is the purpose of Sola Scriptura.
