The modern spiritual landscape is a confusing maze of voices. Every church and tradition claims to possess the complete truth, leading the sincere believer into frustrating debates over practices like meat restrictions, days of worship, or methods of baptism. This spiritual discord is a danger to the unity of the faithful and obscures the clarity needed to prepare for The Lord’s Return.
But the answer is simple, powerful, and universally binding: Sola Scriptura—Scripture Alone. The authority does not rest in the council, the tradition, or the human leader, but in the divine decree.
The urgent call for all who love the truth is to set aside human loyalties and ask the ultimate, singular, and unifying question: WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURES?
The Divine Mandate to Test
God has not called His people to blind, unquestioning obedience to men, but to a diligent examination of His Word. The responsibility to know the truth lies with the individual believer, using the sacred text as the sole infallible plumb line.
The Noble Example of Scrutiny
The Apostle Luke commended a group of believers in the city of Berea for their supreme devotion to testing all teachings, even those delivered by the Apostles themselves. They were not praised for simply accepting a message but for their rigorous examination.
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” — Acts 17:11 (KJV)
The spirit of the noble Berean must be the foundation of our faith. No doctrine, no matter how ancient, no practice, no matter how widespread, should be exempt from the test of the Word.
The Command to Try the Spirits
The stakes are too high for complacency. False teaching is a pervasive threat, especially as the time of the Lord’s Return draws near. We are commanded not to trust every claim but to subject every voice to a trial by Scripture.
“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 (KJV)
This is the Christian’s great privilege and solemn duty: to use the Word as the sword of the Spirit, cutting through all human fabrication to find the pure path of truth.
🧭 How to Apply the Standard
When faced with doctrinal confusion the believer must move from argument to illumination by applying two key standards drawn directly from Scripture:
- Search the Entire Counsel of God: Do not rely on a single isolated verse. True doctrine is consistent with the whole tapestry of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. If a practice contradicts the clear teaching of the New Testament, or if it elevates a shadow over the substance found in Christ, it must be questioned.
- Test the Foundation: Does the doctrine add conditions to salvation beyond faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ? Does it undermine the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice or require obedience to traditions not commanded by the Lord or His Apostles?
The primary function of the Scriptures is to make the man of God “perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” If a doctrine does not proceed from the Word, it cannot perfect the believer.
🏛️ The Return Question: The Necessity of a Single Standard
The closer we approach The Lord’s Return, the more urgent it becomes to stand on solid ground. Division and confusion are tools of the adversary. Unity is found not in agreement on all minor points of interpretation, but in agreement on the sole authority of the Scripture.
This commitment to Sola Scriptura—the submission of all human authority to the divine authority of the Bible—is the ultimate Defence of the Truth. It guarantees that the faith we hold is not based on the shifting sands of tradition, but on the unshakeable, eternal Word of God.