What do JWs, Mormons, and many cults who claim to rely on the Bible have in common? Pride! Pride that says, "All I need is the Bible regardless of what a long line of God's servants in the church, post the apostolic age, have and continue to teach." There is no doubt that the Bible should be our priority and the final rule and standard by which all spiritual teachings must be in accord with. Yet, the very process of coming to measure any spiritual teaching in light of God's Word necessitates a serious consideration of how a given spiritual teaching has been taught by the the church. Why? Because the chances of our own private interpretation or understanding of Scripture resulting in accuracy is much more slim than what the church has been teaching for nearly two millenniums. S. Lewis Johnson writes:
"To treat the church's historical understanding of Scripture lightly is to forget that it is the believing body that, through the centuries, carries on the theological enterprise with the Word in hand and accompanied by the enlightening Spirit. Thus, the largest part of any theologian's work comes from reverent consideration and response to the Christian theological tradition. The creeds of the church, the results of serious spiritual and theological strife, are more important than the views of individuals. We should begin our discussion with the assumption that the church is probably right, unless exegetical and theological study compel us otherwise. 'The proclamation of new discoveries,' Abraham Kuyper, the famed founder of the Free University of Amsterdam, wrote, 'is not always a proof of devotion to the truth, it is sometimes a tribute to self-esteem'" ("Role Distinctions in the Church Galtians 3:28" in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 164).
Forbid spiritual pride that imagines the Holy Spirit to be working solely in you but fails to realize that He has been in church history, and that rather diligently.
What do JWs, Mormons, and many cults who claim to rely on the Bible have in common? Pride! Pride that says, "All I need is the Bible regardless of what a long line of God's servants in the church, post the apostolic age, have and continue to teach." There is no doubt that the Bible should be our priority and the final rule and standard by which all spiritual teachings must be in accord with. Yet, the very process of coming to measure any spiritual teaching in light of God's Word necessitates a serious consideration of how a given spiritual teaching has been taught by the the church. Why? Because the chances of our own private interpretation or understanding of Scripture resulting in accuracy is much more slim than what the church has been teaching for nearly two millenniums. S. Lewis Johnson writes:
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