Thread by @rhyneputman

Last year, @kswhitfield and I began work on the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture as it relates to other non-theological disciplines.

If Scripture is sufficient, why should we engage with philosophy, the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the like? /1

@kswhitfield We then drafted this statement:

We affirm the classical Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura. We recognize Scripture as the supreme source and only guiding norm of Christian theology, /2

@kswhitfield but we are also appreciative of the roles tradition, reason, and experience play in shaping the Christian worldview. /3

@kswhitfield Sola Scriptura invites a principled epistemic engagement with all of reality that we may know God and live rightly before him in his world. For people of faith, this doctrine shapes our robust “contact with reality” rather rendering it of no theological value. /4

@kswhitfield Scripture does not provide exhaustive knowledge of the world or all the decisions that need to be made in it.This is not a denial of the sufficiency of Scripture but rather an affirmation of it. /5

@kswhitfield Our examination of the church’s confessional heritage and the witness of the biblical texts demonstrate that while the written Word is privileged as an epistemic source, it does not reveal everything that is possible to be known about the world directly. /6

@kswhitfield We find revealed in the biblical witness an interdependent relationship between the book of Scripture and the book of nature. Their interdependence does not suggest equal authority, content, or purpose, but that both are needed to know God and live before him in his world. /7

@kswhitfield Further, right understanding of the biblical text is often mediated by experience, reason, pastoral authority, and confessional authority/tradition. To be biblical then entails being engaged in the robust process of knowing. /8

@kswhitfield We do not read Scripture independent of tradition, reason, or experience, nor do we glean all of our knowledge of reality from Scripture. /9

@kswhitfield Scripture is the primary means by which we know about God and the human condition, but it does not provide exhaustive knowledge of nature or history. /10

@kswhitfield In a comprehensive Christian theory of knowledge, we rightly discover the crucial nature of sola Scriptura/sufficiency of Scripture for “contact with reality” /11

@kswhitfield without confusing this doctrine with solo Scriptura or nuda Scriptura (which suggest any moral or theological knowledge from a source other than Scripture is compromised knowledge). /12

@kswhitfield Such an epistemological model accounts for the different Christian ways of knowing, affirming the appropriate epistemic tools for the differing strata of reality. All forms of Christian knowing operate differently relevant to the object of study. /13

@kswhitfield Sola Scriptura does not rebuke other sources of knowledge about God, his world, or how we live in it. /14

@kswhitfield It establishes the authoritative rule of God over all forms of knowledge by establishing Scripture’s final authority within the nexus of Christian knowing, which is “inspired” and “commissioned” by the very same God who inspired the Scriptures. /15

@kswhitfield We then offered affirmations and denials, shaped by interaction with documents like the WCF or LC1689 but which took in many of these considerations. /16

@kswhitfield 1. We affirm that Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

We deny that anything can be added to the final authority of Scripture, whether by a “new revelation of the Spirit” or the traditions of men. /17

@kswhitfield 2. We affirm that Scripture provides everything we need to know for bringing glory to God, our salvation, and the obedient Christian life.

We deny that the sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture gives us exhaustive knowledge of God or his will. /18

@kswhitfield 3. We affirm that creation, providence, and the human conscience manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as types of general revelation. /19

@kswhitfield We also affirm that this general revelation is sufficient to give every person knowledge of God’s existence and divine power so that he is without excuse. /20

@kswhitfield We deny that general revelation is sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary for salvation. /21

@kswhitfield 4. We affirm that the authority and sufficiency of Scripture is in no way dependent on the testimony of man or church and wholly dependent upon God.

We deny any attempt to elevate church teaching to the status of divine revelation. /22

@kswhitfield 5. We affirm that Scripture is the supreme source and only guiding norm of Christian thought and practice.
We deny that other resources such as tradition, reason, or culture have no place in Christian thought or practice. /23

@kswhitfield We acknowledge that these resources have a proper place in supporting or clarifying the claims of Scripture but are always measured by their consistency with its truth. /24

@kswhitfield 6. We affirm that all truth belongs to God as God himself is the source of all truth. We further affirm that all true statements learned in extra-biblical resources will ultimately be found to cohere with the supreme truth of Scripture.

@kswhitfield We deny the claim that sola Scriptura is a rejection of tradition, reason, the natural sciences, or cultural insights. We further deny any attempt to elevate these resources to a place of greater authority than Scripture.

@kswhitfield 7. We affirm the general clarity of Scripture in those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation. /27

@kswhitfield The Scriptures are clear enough in these matters that the educated and uneducated alike can attain a sufficient understanding of them through the ordinary means of interpretation. /28

@kswhitfield We deny that Scripture can be understood rightly without proper interpretation of the meaning of the text. Furthermore, the general clarity of Scripture does not mean that all texts are easy to understand or that the meanings of biblical texts are automatically intuited. /END