Is the
Bible authoritative?
The
answer to this question depends on the branch of Christianity.
The
original church that Christ established existed before the Bible, which meant
that the word of God was not a single closed book. This is not to say they did not value
scripture. Matthew’s gospel points out that
many Old Testament passages are fulfilled by Christ, and Paul discusses the
value of the law in his numerous epistles.
Scripture
was not the ultimate authoritative source of guidance for Christ’s original
church; the Apostles were. They had
authority to be witnesses of Christ and his gospel to all the world, and
through guidance they received in the form of visions and revelations, they
established new doctrines that directly contradicted established scriptural
practices such as the dietary law of Moses, circumcision, Sabbath day
observance, and so forth, while maintaining the spirit of the laws contained in
the scriptures.
The
leadership of the Apostles worked well until they were all caught and/or
killed. The remaining bishops in the
church tried to maintain Christianity, but over time they began to
disagree. Eventually, the Roman emperor
Constantine converted to Christianity and prohibited persecution of Christians
in 313. Later Theodosius made Christianity the state religion of the Roman
Empire on 27 February 380. The Bishop of
Rome became known as the Pope, and from that time, the Papacy has claimed an
unbroken line of authority that goes back to the Apostle Peter to whom Christ
said “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew
16:18)
The
majority of Christians seemed satisfied with the authority of the Pope, but
eventually, concerns were expressed when their actions seemed inconsistent with
Biblical teachings. Specifically, Martin
Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the Castle church in Wittenburg
protesting the sale of indulgences, which basically amounted to certificates of
forgiveness for sins. Eventually, the
dispute between Luther and Pope Leo X resulted in Luther being excommunicated
from the Catholic Church. Luther openly rejected
the authority of the Pope, and instead demanded that his actions be proven
wrong based on scripture.
For the
Protestant movement to have authority after breaking away from the formerly
accepted unbroken line of leadership in Catholicism, it was necessary that
something besides the Pope be the authoritative guide for Christianity. To this day, the Bible is that authoritative
source for defining faith for Protestants.
So, on
the one hand, Catholic authority derives from Papal claims, and the Bible does not need to be authoritative. On the other, Protestants must use it as the authoritative source
of Christianity. There is a third group
that differs from these two. They can be
called restorationists and they
believe in a literal restoration of Apostolic authority.
The
largest of these groups is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The story of their restoration begins with
Joseph Smith. Like Stephen in the New
Testament, he saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. Because the authority to lead the church had
been lost with the Apostles, it needed to be restored at the hands of
Apostles. In 1829, Joseph Smith received
this authority from Peter, James, and John.
The
line of authority continues today with Apostles that stand as in the days of
Jesus, guiding Christians with revealed truths.
Though restorationists teach that the Bible is the word of God, they follow the precedent in the Bible by proclaiming
that God’s word is not a fixed or completed work, but that he guides us as he
always has: through Apostles and Prophets.
