On the Issue of Authority: The Scriptures alone or the Scriptures together with Church Traditions?

The following text is a personal expression of conviction. While it is assertive, it does not turn a blind eye on the details that an awful lot of commentators and theologians are in dialogues still. For me, such have a different venue for discussion.

What it simply wants to establish is the big picture whence other possible issues hinge on: The Scriptures hold the absolute authority over the church traditions. But how? Why?

The Scriptures, before they are known as such, were rather taken as documents that bear the witness of the ministry—life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the implications therein within the century of Christ’s earthly sojourn.

Within 30-50 years of Christ’s ascension, these New Testament (NT) documents have been the basis of creeds and ecclesiastical confessions, since these documents have been multiply attested as authentic documents that point to the person and historicity of Jesus of Nazareth.

They have been the authority over the then-budding churches, which, by the way, were still under Roman rule and occasional persecutions. Thus, it would be quite a historical ignorance to say that the Scriptures only came to being during or after the Councils (Nicea in AD 325 and Chalcedon in AD 451).

No! The Scriptures, with the orthodox/historical doctrines therein, had already been set place and the Councils, which indicated the gradual formalization and bureaucratization of the church, were only composed in response to heretic teachings in the succeeding centuries.

The church (Councils) did not confer authority to the Scriptures, rather they confess the authority of the Scriptures and only served as gatekeepers against false doctrines that had/have been attempting to adulterate the teachings that were recorded as from Jesus Himself.

In the final analysis, I am (now) convinced that the Scriptures are the Scriptures, not because of hierarchical power play, but because they are authoritative themselves, which allowed the formalization of the existence of the church.

The Scriptures guided the church back then and the Scriptures still guide the church EVEN today and all the more that the “days are approaching”.

Jesus Christ, the ultimate revelation of God to humanity is revealed in the Scriptures, thus… Solus Christus sobre Sola Scriptura.