Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Does the Bible teach Sola Scriptura? Part 2: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 and 1 John 4:1

Prove all things; hold fast to which is good. (1 Thess 5:21)

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

These verses are sometimes cited to “prove” that the Bible is the final source of authority and guidance for a Christian. The irony is that these verses cannot possibly mean such, even if Sola Scriptura is true. After all, contemporary with Paul, Timothy, and John, the books of the biblical canon were still being inscripturated. Furthermore, the apostle John twice acknowledges that his written record of Jesus does not deny other extra-biblical records or traditions (John 20:30; 21:35), so long as these traditions do not oppose his teaching and that of the other apostles (cf. 1 John 2:18-19; 4:1-3; 2 John 7-9). For John, the test for authentic Christian teaching is not “Is this written?” (or “Is it part of the Biblical canon?”) Paul echoes this in 1 Tim 4:1, yet it was the same Paul who told Timothy to “. . . stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or by our epistle” (2 Thess 2:15 [see my post on this verse and how the NIV distorts the underlying Greek]) and “hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 1:13).

Furthermore, the warning in 1 John 4:1 is not against those claiming to have additional revelation from God, but those who deny the humanity of Jesus Christ. This is explained in 1 John 4:2-3:

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whetherof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already it is in the world.

The phrase, “is come in the flesh” is ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα and literally means “has come in the flesh.” John’s comments are aimed against those that would argue in favour of a Docetic Christology, that is, one that denied that Christ was truly human (he only appeared human, to have suffered, to have died, and so forth, but in reality, he did not). LDS Christology, and the Christology of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price are antithetical to such a Christology. Note, for instance, Christ’s own words, revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, in D&C 19:18-19 which stresses the true humanity of Jesus:


Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparation unto the children of men.