Let me clarify something important about sola Scriptura, because it is often misunderstood. Sola Scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible alone is the Word of God, and therefore the only infallible authority for faith and practice. It does not mean “just me, my Bible, and no one else,” as if faithful interpretation requires isolation from the church and her history.

Here’s why this distinction is so vital to understand. None of us comes to the Bible as a blank slate. We arrive with assumptions already in place, shaped by our language, our cultural categories, and the influence of pastors, teachers, and the wider church, and we are not always self-aware of them. So when someone insists that every doctrine must be rebuilt from scratch based on their current personal exegesis, there is often an unspoken assumption at work: that their reading is more precise, safer, and more reliable than the cumulative exegesis of the church across the centuries.

And when the great ecumenical councils, creeds, and historic confessions are treated as if they are merely optional, always subject to being reopened or overturned, the point is missed. Those councils and confessions were not invented to compete with Scripture or to replace it. They were the church’s prayerful, hard-fought efforts to confess what the Bible teaches, especially when serious errors threatened the truth of the gospel.

True sola Scriptura means reading Scripture with the church, not apart from her. The ascended Christ has been giving pastors and teachers to His people throughout the whole church age, not merely in our own day (Ephesians 4:11–12). No teacher is infallible, and neither are all of them together. Scripture alone has that unique authority. Yet we impoverish ourselves when we neglect or ignore what Christ has given through them, because their insights, cautions, and hard-won clarity are often among the ordinary means Christ uses to build up His church and steady her in the truth. We honor Scripture most, not by pretending we are the first to read it, but by testing our conclusions by the Word while also listening carefully to the saints who have gone before us, letting their creeds, confessions, and warnings sharpen our understanding.

And we should be honest about what is often going on underneath the surface. This independent posture is not always driven by a pure love of truth. It can be a subtle form of pride, a quiet confidence in our own abilities rather than a humble reliance on the Holy Spirit as He has taught and guarded Christ’s people through time. The question, then, is not merely, “Can I quote a verse for my view?” but also, “Am I reading with humility, and am I willing to be corrected, not only by Scripture, but by the sober witness of the church that has labored over these texts long before I came into the world?”

FOUR QUOTES IN THIS REGARD:

“It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.” – C. H. Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1876), 1.

“Tradition is the fruit of the Spirit’s teaching activity from the ages as God’s people have sought understanding of Scripture. It is not infallible, but neither is it negligible, and we impoverish ourselves if we disregard it.” – J. I. Packer, “Upholding the Unity of Scripture Today,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 25 (1982): 414.

“Although tradition does not rule our interpretation, it does guide it. If upon reading a particular passage you have come up with an interpretation that has escaped the notice of every other Christian for 2,000 years, or has been championed by universally recognized heretics, chances are pretty good that you had better abandon your interpretation.” – R. C. Sproul, The Agony of Deceit (pages 34–35).

“The best way to guard a true interpretation of Scripture, the Reformers insisted, was neither to naively embrace the infallibility of tradition, or the infallibility of the individual, but to recognize the communal interpretation of Scripture. The best way to ensure faithfulness to the text is to read it together, not only with the churches of our own time and place, but with the wider ‘communion of saints’ down through the age.” – Michael Horton, “What Still Keeps Us Apart?” in John H. Armstrong (ed.), Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Analyze What Divides and Unites Us (Chicago: Moody, 1994), 253.