A Debate and a Question of Authority

Dear Church Family,

On the final day of my Army Reserve duty at Fort Hood, TX last week, I had to complete some paperwork and administrative duties before I could depart. Once finished, I decided to make my rounds and check in on some of the other soldiers in my unit. Unwittingly, I entered a room of about ten soldiers, four of whom were in the midst of a heated debate. As soon the group saw me, one person said, “Uh oh, chaplain, your ears must have been burning!”

That, of course, piqued my curiosity so I pulled up a chair and just listened to try and find out what was going on in the conversation. Though I came in halfway through the conversation and debate, they filled me in. It all started when one woman said that her mother was pressuring her to have her children baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. This woman was raised Roman Catholic but had left the church of her youth and was now a professing believer in an evangelical church. Yet, she was struggling over the question of whether or not she should have her children baptized in the Roman Catholic Church.

One of the men present is a member of a Roman Catholic Church and, in fact, teaches Sunday school and catechism classes. He was trying to explain the Roman Catholic understanding of baptism. In his civilian occupation, he is also a lawyer, so he was pressing the issue with all the vehemence of a trial attorney.

Another man was a professing believer who attends a non-denominational church. He was arguing against the necessity of baptism altogether, claiming that faith was all that you need. In fact, he was downplaying the importance of the church and corporate worship altogether. “Church is wherever two or three Christians are gathered in Jesus’ name!” he said.

The fourth and final vocal participant in this discussion (the rest were just sort of listening, or not trying to listen as the case may be) was not a professing believer as far as I could tell. However, he would interject comments now and again like, “Well, if according to the Reformation all I need is the Bible, why do I need a pastor or to be in any church at all?” As he spoke, it sounded like the transcendentalism of Henry David Thoreau from his book Walden; or Life in the Woods which I was forced to read in high school.

At first, I just tried to get my bearings and see what was going on in this discussion. As I listened, I felt compassion for this poor mother who was struggling with the question regarding baptizing her children. And, I discovered that the other three interlocutors were just talking past each other. So, in an effort to bring clarity to the conversation, I began to explain the differing views of each person to the others. At the same time, I attempted to explain what the Bible teaches regarding justification by faith alone, as well as the meaning and importance of the sacrament of baptism. In a private, side conversation with the mother, I was even able to find out that she lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and I recommended that she check out a PCA church that was near her home.

A Question of Ultimate Authority

Eventually, though, I came to realize that the real issue at play in the heated debate was one of ultimate and subordinate authorities. For the Roman Catholic Church, there are three co-equal ultimate authorities: “It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part 1, Section 1, Chapter 2, Article 2, Paragraph 95).

In this statement, it would seem that the ultimate authority is the one Holy Spirit. However, because the Holy Spirit speaks through three co-equal ‘associations’ of Tradition, Scripture, and the Magisterium (the Pope and the bishops of the church), in essence what they have done is make these three things co-equal in authority. One of these cannot stand on their own.

For many non-confessional professing believers, in theory there is only one ultimate authority: the Holy Scriptures. However, those who claim to have “no creed but the Bible,” in practice, end up with a very privatized faith and they’re ultimate authority is purely subjective: “no creed but the Bible as I interpret it.” As Carl Trueman writes, “Despite claims to the contrary, the Christian world is not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who just have the Bible. It is actually divided between those who have creeds and confessions and write them down in a public form, open to public scrutiny and correction, and those who have them and do not write them down. The reason is simple: every church (and indeed every Christian) believes the Bible means something, and what it thinks the Bible means is its creed and confession, whether it chooses to write its beliefs down or not” (Trueman, “Why Christians Need Confessions”).

Ultimate Authority

In the Protestant and Reformed Faith, we believe that Scripture alone is the final and ultimate authority: “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men” (WCF 1.6).

And, we believe that “the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself” (WCF 1.9). These truths we receive in faith by the testimony of the Scriptures themselves (Acts 15:15-16; Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21; 1 John 5:9). Thus, with the Apostle Peter, we confess that “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Subordinate Authority

With regard to tradition and the magisterium, we believe that, “all synods or councils, since the Apostles' times, whether general or particular, may err; and many have erred” (WCF 31:4a). Again, Scripture itself testifies to this (Ephesians 2:20; Acts 17:11; 1 Corinthians 2:5). At the same time, however, we look to the historic teaching of the church, creeds, confessions, synods, and counsels as a subordinate authority that aid us in better understanding the Bible and living the Christian life. The second sentence in the paragraph from the Confession that I just quoted says this, “Therefore they [synods or councils since the Apostles times] are not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both” (WCF 31.4b).

Conclusion

So, yes, Scripture is our ultimate authority. At the same time, we do not stand in isolation as if the Bible just dropped into our lap from heaven. We stand on the shoulders of the many saints who have gone before us, and the biblically based formulations of creeds and confessions that help and guide us.

Here is the conclusion from Carl Trueman’s article, “Why Christians Need Confessions”, from which I previously quoted: “The cry ‘No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible!’ has a speciously pious and biblical ring to it, yet we should not be ashamed of being confessional Christians, for confessions enable us to maintain certain biblical priorities. We should give thanks for this, even as we try to show nonconfessional brothers and sisters a better way of preserving the things that are of value to all Christians.”

The Lord be with you!

- Pastor Peter M. Dietsch