Spiritual Theology

Many Christians of certain denominations speak about the Bible as if it is sufficient and has the final word on everything. The result is conflicting interpretation over many passages of scripture, especially on the more controversial teachings, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the role of the Virgin Mary, the Theodokos, and roles of husband and wife, but also on the less controversial ones too, such as drinking alcohol, listening to secular music, and smoking. This all only demonstrates how fraught with problems scriptural interpretation becomes when the Bible is treated as the sole or ultimate authority, leading to not only much vexation over certain understandings of certain passages, but also the authority upon which any particular interpretation is grounded.

While the Bible is the inspired word of God, it is not alone sufficient, as it is only but one of the canons of Church teaching, and importantly, not the foundation of the Church. Instead of worshipping Christ, who is the Word, the Christians who idolise the Bible have created a cult based on the all-knowing Bible, leading to the creation of many heresies and their cults, ultimately damning many souls to Hell.

Furthermore, the Bible does not reveal everything about God; there is much about Him that the text does not reveal. The treatment of the Bible as the sole or ultimate authority is owing to ignorance of Church history and tradition, and how the Bible was compiled by the Church, especially in how the Church determined which books of the Bible are canonical, and which are not.

The Problem of Sola Scriptura

The doctrine of sola scriptura has led to many heated debates over what certain passages of scripture actually mean or do not mean. Well-meaning, genuine, sincere Bible-only Christians do not understand this because they have been so thoroughly inculcated with the doctrine that the Bible is sufficient, and that not only is anything that contradicts it to be rejected, but also anything not explicitly mentioned by it is to be treated as merely an opinion, or to be rejected altogether. This itself has perturbing implications as it leads too great a room for error on theological and moral doctrine, such at that appertaining to the nature of God, be it the doctrine of the Trinity, as well as the nature and the relationship between the Persons of the Trinity. While the Bible in its uncorrupted form is certainly inerrant, it is insufficient. It is only but one of many the canon of Church teaching, and can only be so.

It is often presumed by certain Christians that the Bible is the ultimate or sole authority of everything, from moral teaching to salvific doctrine. What these Bible-only Christians lack, however, is the fullness and richness of Christian theology that has been developed over the course of two millennia, from the first century AD to contemporary times. They are often filled with all kinds of damnable error, especially on moral doctrine, from divorce, contraception, in vitro fertilisation (IVF), and usury – all of which are sins per se but do not realise to be immoral. Owing to the apparent silence or lack of clarity of the scriptures about these sins, these Bible-only Christians lack a proper body of Church teaching to show them that these are immoral, and how they are immoral.

It is not enough that one affirms proper doctrine. One must also affirm and submit to the authority behind the doctrine, or otherwise one is not only lacking in credibility but in rebellion against the Church which Jesus instituted. The lack of authority underlying any purported understanding or interpretation of scripture renders any soundness of doctrine one has as completely unmeritorious unto Salvation. Soundness of doctrine must necessarily be affirmed in submission to proper authority, which is the institutional Church. This is because the true affirmation of doctrine by Faith lies in not only affirming it, but also affirming that it is from God, who instituted the Church to lay down authoritative doctrine.

Many unbelievers agree that some of what the Church teaches to be immoral, to be immoral, but lack all merit unto Salvation in doing so. This because they are not submitted to the Church, and ultimately God, and are therefore in rebellion against God. A lack of submission to authority is rebellion, which itself sin.

Sola scriptura divorces the affirmation of sound doctrine from its proper authority, which on this basis alone renders sola scriptura to be heresy. This lack of grounding in Church authority itself renders a person to be in rebellion against God. However sound a person’s doctrine may be, as long as a person is not submitted to Church authority and its teachings, he is in rebellion against God.

The institution of the Church by Christ Himself is for among other reasons, to ensure sound doctrine, whereby qualified theologians and duly appointed ministers deliberate on what the proper understanding, interpretation or stance on any issue or point should be, and the Council affirms authoritatively the correct stance or position. In other cases, a Papal Bull is declared by the Pope, the representative of Christ on earth, where urgency demands.

Contrast this to the endless, tiresome, fractious arguments between contemporary Bible-only Christians who are not only unqualified on any matter of theology, but lacking in all manner of intellect or even sound intelligence to understand the most basic logic – all while claiming to be guided by the Holy Spirit, but who are actually guided by their own emotions and feelings. Such professing Christians should frankly not be permitted to speak or express any views about anything to do with theology or morality, but sit down and keep their mouths shut.

The Bible itself, which they always speak about incessantly, states that ‘no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:20-21). What makes the scriptures authoritative is not the text itself or because the text is called the ‘bible’ or ‘scriptures’, but that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. By this logic, it follows that anything other text that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, though not officially declared as part of the canon of scriptures by the Church, or ‘scriptural’ is equally authoritative to the scriptures. Thus, 2 Peter 1:21 itself refutes sola scriptura. A text may be extrascriptural and equal in its authority to scripture, where it is likewise inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Where the controversy lies is how can one know whether something is actually inspired by the Holy Spirit. The declaration by the institutional Church, being the qualified theologians and duly appointed ministers as guided by the Holy Spirit is what determines authoritatively whether something is truly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The heresy of sola scriptura errs on the basis that one’s private interpretation of scripture is valid, leading to the logical conclusion that there is no right or wrong in the scriptures – everything is a matter of personal interpretation. This explains why sola scripturists who reject Church teaching and tradition can produce only their own interpretation of scripture. They reject the authority of Church teaching, which determines what is the proper understanding of the theological doctrine, after much deliberation, examination, and debate on controversial or contentious issues, positions, or stances under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

These controversies always arose from heretical sects, from the Arians, Manicheans, Cathars, Monophysites, Nestorians, to the Waldensians, who all claimed to be guided by the truth in their own private interpretation of scripture. Owing to the emergence such heresies, various ecumenical councils such as the Council of Nicea (325 AD) and the Council of Ephesus (431 AD), had to be convened to combat heresy and declare heretics to be anathema. This highlights the critical importance of Church history and tradition, as well as the necessary of Church authority to declare the authoritative, proper understanding of scripture, without which there can be no sound theological or moral foundation of one’s Faith.

Christ, not the Bible, is the Foundation of the Church

The true Faith is granted from God through the Church, founded on Saint Peter. Christ said to Saint Peter, ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). The Church of Christ is not founded on the Bible, a mere book that merely testifies of Christ. It is founded on Christ Himself, of whom Saint Peter was His representative on earth.

The scriptures is not the Word, but merely testify of the Word; the Word is Christ Himself, the ‘logos’, a Greek word meaning ‘word, thought, principle, or speech’. The Word is a Person, not the text printed on papyrus scrolls or on paper compiled in a mere physical inanimate object called a book. Jesus is the Word, for He is the one who is God incarnate, hence why the ‘Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).

A Christian is to worship Jesus, not the scriptures. We are to obey the commandments of Christ and love Christ, not idolise the Bible, by treating it as equivalent to Christ, and even elevating it above Christ. Christ is the Word, not the Bible which is only a record of historical events, prophecy, wisdom literature, and only certain teachings of Jesus. The scripture itself testifies that it does not record everything that Jesus did: ‘Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written’ (John 21:25). This is a frank admission by Saint John that his account of Jesus is incomplete, and clear evidence from the text of scripture itself that it is insufficient, in that it does not reveal everything. There are many things Jesus said and did that were not recorded in the scriptures. Therefore, it clear that scripture should be not treated as the sole source of truth.

That the scriptures are not the sole source of truth is evident with the example of the Trinity. The scriptures do not mention the term Trinity, or describe the nature or the relationship between the Persons of the Triune Godhead. Yet, the doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to the Faith, being that God is a Triune God, made up of God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, being three persons in One, and that God is One God, as opposed to three separate gods. This was clarified by the Athanasian Creed which was declared and laid down for the canon of Church teaching in response to heresies that attacked the doctrine of the Trinity. It was not declared on the basis of scripture, but on the basis of revelation from the Holy Spirit. It is a Creed, that like all other Creeds of the Church, is independent of scripture, and which lays down the foundation for a proper understanding of scripture.

Nor is the scriptures the ultimate source of truth. For scriptures only testifies of the Truth, who is Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. Not only did ‘grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17), but that Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6), He who defines all Truth itself, without whom the very concept of truth itself cannot exist.

Theological Controversies Resolved by the Church

Why is mere scripture not enough? It is because the scriptures alone are merely a text that though inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16) are not self-authenticating as sola scripturists treat it to be. One may argue that one seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but this begs the question, how can one know if one is following the Holy Spirit? You who claim to follow the Holy Spirit, how do you know you are, rather than interpreting the scriptures in accordance with what you want to believe? It is most probably that you are just following your own emotions and feelings without realising, as many do.

Anyone can claim that they are guided by the Holy Spirit when they are, in fact, not guided by the Spirit, but instead guided by their passions and the flesh. Those who make false proclamations about a person’s life or their future claim they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Those who profess to be a Christian while expressing support for certain sins claim they are submitted to the Holy Spirit. Those who declare their belief in trinitarian heresies claim they are guided by the Holy Spirit. Thus, anyone can claim to follow scripture as guided by the Spirit, when they are imposing their own private interpretation of scripture. Woe to such people!

Many Bible-only Christians assert that there is no one right or wrong interpretation of scripture. Indeed, this is because their interpretation may be wrong, as they rightly admit, but of course, they react emotionally whenever anyone expresses an interpretation that offends their subjective feelings, such as one claiming that divorce and remarriage is adultery, that contraception is sin per se, that violence is not necessarily immoral, or that Jesus is not only the Son of God but is God Himself. This is exactly why authoritative Church teaching is necessary, and neither the scriptures nor the Holy Spirit alone, or both together, are not enough to guide people unto Salvation.

The various ecumenical councils clarified certain controversies over various theological doctrines because these could not be resolved by scripture alone. Most of these controversies throughout Church history thus far have concerned the Trinity – controversies that were emotive, and fiercely debated, with opponents fighting tooth and nail with each other, sometimes, even violently. One major controversy concerned that of baptism, specifically whether infant baptism was valid, another controversial issue that stirred up much emotion among professing Christians on both sides.

That these ecumenical councils had to be convened shows the insufficiency of scripture. Clarification that was precise, detailed, accurate and sound was needed to resolve various disputes over various theological issues, lest souls suffer eternal damnation. In certain cases, a Papal Bull had to be issued, often to condemn a certain evil that cried out to the Heaven for vengeance that was happening in the world at the time of its issue. This served as an authoritative moral condemnation by the Church, as well as an official declaration to the world that the Church condemned the prevailing evil of the time.

Moral Heresies, a Bitter Fruit of Sola Scriptura

Owing to the doctrine of sola scriptura, many post-Reformation churches are ‘Bible churches’, as opposed to Apostolic churches. These Bible churches idolise and worship the text called the Bible, instead of worshipping Jesus, treating the scriptures as a god and elevating scriptures above Christ Himself. The irony is that in treating the scriptures as god, they are not respecting the scriptures, but worshiping the desires of their flesh. The entire foundation of these Bible churches rests on the principle of sola scriptura, which rejects the authority of the Church that determines what is the authoritative understanding of scripture, theological position, or moral position.

The starting point is these churches lies with scripture, rather than Jesus. As a result, their focus is narrowly focused on points of scriptural texts, rather than issues that the scriptures do not address directly or explicitly, such as mental health and bioethics.

These churches also have the perverse tendency to be permissive towards certain acts that are immoral, such as contraception, divorce, and IVF, by reason of the absence of any explicit prohibition in scriptures, while being restrictive on certain acts that are not immoral, such as alcohol consumption, the use of socially taboo words, public education, and listening to secular music. Instead, these churches abuse liberty to take their own stance on such issues as they wish, restricting people where undue and not condemning certain sins that they enjoy where warranted. This is exactly what is leading many souls to Hell, by teaching that certain sins are a matter of personal choice or liberty, when they are in fact, grave sins that one can know to be such through the natural law, the natural reasoning faculty that enables a person to make moral judgments.

The error resulting from sola scriptura is particularly evident in relation to the issue of divorce. Many Bible-only churches erroneously think that divorce is not a sin, when it is a sin condemned by the Church. Divorce is not permissible on any grounds. However, many Bible-only Christians argue that there are all kinds of grounds for divorce, be it adultery, neglect, abandonment, or abuse. They claim they are being guided by the Holy Spirit, when they are actually guided by their emotions and feelings and justify themselves on the basis of compassion towards people who find themselves in disappointing, difficult, or abusive marriages. Such compassion is a false compassion that violates the sacrament of matrimony itself, by arguing that there are grounds for divorce.

Another example of that of contraception. Contraception is a sin per se, and that it is practised between a validly married husband and wife does not make it more justified. In fact, contraception practised between a husband and wife increases the gravity of the offence because it is to violate the sacrament of matrimony, which itself is a grave sin. It is sin because it violates the primary purpose of matrimony which is procreation. Likewise, on the other side of the coin, IVF is a sin. It is utterly immoral because it perverts the natural conjugal function by bypassing it to procreate. Both contraception and IVF violate the natural conjugal function, with the former attempting to stop conception and the latter attempting to bring about conception by unnatural means.

The scriptures do not speak about contraception or IVF explicitly, but one can infer by natural law reasoning in the intellect that such actions are immoral. Scripture is not necessary to guide us on each and every single moral issue, or on any moral issue at all, because the law of God is written on the hearts of each person: ‘They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them’ (Romans 2:15).

This is evident from the observation that almost all pagan or otherwise unbelieving cultures and civilisations in the ancient world rightly treated murder, adultery, and lying as moral offences, sometimes meting out extremely harsh punishments in response to the commission of such. They knew these were immoral despite having absolutely no knowledge of the scriptures. The people of the ancient world lived during a time when the scriptures weren’t even written, let alone compiled. It demonstrates that the scriptures are not necessary to know right from wrong but are laid out to clarify the moral law as part of God’s grace to the world from the time the scriptures were compiled.

The Cult of the ‘Bible church’

Bible churches, so-called, pride themselves on knowing scriptures, but they possess the wrong understanding on many issues, all while thinking of themselves to be so holy and righteous. Many such churches, however, are full of people who are in all kinds of error and practising all kinds of immorality without realising it, such as divorce and remarriage, contraception, IVF, usury, and resisting governmental authorities. Many such people are overly focused on trivial issues or non-issues, such as listening to secular music and watching secular movies, and imposing arbitrary rules, such as that concerning who one socialise with or befriend whom in the church, all in blatant disregard of the real moral issues.

These people are also often caught up in the wind of worldly doctrine and ideologies, and interpret scripture through those doctrinal or ideological lens, clouding their ability to understand the truth. Some of these people are the ‘silly women’ whom Saint Paul speaks about, who are ‘burdened with sins and led astray by various passions’ (2 Timothy 3:6), twisting the scriptures in all kinds of outrageous ways.

They think they know a great deal about the Bible but they do not, and support all kinds of immoral acts, such as homosexuality on the basis that ‘God is love’ or divorce and remarriage where adultery or abuse occurs, on the basis that ‘God does not want people to be hurt or abused’. Some even justify abortion on the basis that ‘God gives people liberty to choose’.

Others are those who weaponise the Bible to serve their own political agenda, perverting it to justify oppressing certain groups, such as refugees, migrants, poor people, and people of certain ethnic groups. They argue that God separated the people at the Tower of Babel into nations (Genesis 11:1-9), as their justification for ethnonationalism, which was precisely one of the passages of scripture that was used to justify the Apartheid in South Africa. Similarly, some argue that the lack of explicit condemnation of racism in the scriptures means that racism is justified, even good and righteous.

Yet, others pervert the scriptures to justify greed, a cardinal sin, on the basis that ‘God gives us things to enjoy for our own pleasure’, and that ‘scripture speaks about enjoying the fruit of one’s own labour for our work’. 1 Timothy 5:8 is also often cited to misrepresent the condemnation of greed and pursuing mammon, as implying that one should not provide for one’s family, which is to be ‘worse than an unbeliever’. The perverse, twisted argument they make is that because one has worked hard, one’s wealth is rightly earn and for oneself to enjoy.

Eating the Bitter Fruits of Sola Scriptura

The bitter fruits of sola scriptura are ripe and aplenty. It is not only a heresy, but the mother of all heresies as it rejects all proper authority to understand scripture, whereby everyone becomes his own pope.

It is the sin of usurpation, by usurping the authority of the Church, which Christ instituted, and that of God Himself.

It is the sin of presumption, in thinking oneself capable of interpreting and understanding scripture, and that one’s own private interpretation is authoritative.

It is the sin of rebellion in treating one’s own private interpretation as truth by exercising illegitimate authority.

It is the sin of pride, in regarding oneself to be more capable than qualified theologians of the Church who laid down the doctrine, and that one need not submit to any higher authority.

The heresy of sola scriptura has led to the field of biblical criticism, an academic field of biblical studies where one interprets scriptures without appeal to the supernatural realm, making a mockery of the scriptures. By the same token, it has also led to all manner of unsound, foolish and delusional misinterpretations of scripture by the improper appeal to the supernatural realm.

Anti-intellectualism is also rife among sola scripturist Christians who reject anything that is not scripture, including church history, extrascriptural spiritual writings, and science. This anti-intellectualism is not only utter foolishness, but prideful, arrogant, and delusional. It leads to emotionalism in one’s understanding of any theological or spiritual matters. Their opinionated adherence to their own private interpretations is also born out of pride, arrogance, and rebellion. Even where there interpretation happens to be correct, they adhere to it in the wrong manner of spirit, because they walk not in spirit and in truth, but in accordance with their flesh.

The inevitable misinterpretations resulting from the application of sola scriptura have led to all kinds of theological and moral heresies under the sun, from denying the Trinity and the true nature of Christ, to endorsing divorce, contraception, IVF, and usury. As a result, many people throughout the centuries, particularly during the Reformation and Post-Reformation Eras, both professing believers and unbelievers alike, have suffered from its bitter fruits both at the hands of others, as well as from their own errors which they have inherited and been influenced by.

Creeds referred to in the above article:

Apostles’ Creed

https://www.ccel.org/creeds/apostles.creed.html

Nicene Creed

https://www.ccel.org/creeds/nicene.creed.html

Athanasian Creed

https://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html