THE BIBLE
The Bible is to be Our Only Creed !
It all begins with an idea.
One simple decision, firm and sincere can change the course of your entire life.
To make the Bible the sole authority over your beliefs, your choices, and your destiny may sound meek and noble… yet it is a decision that demands courage, conviction, and surrender. Do you believe the Bible?
Over 500 years ago, a cry thundered across Europe:
“Sola Scriptura!”
By Scripture alone.
This cry ignited a firestorm of persecution. Homes were plundered. Properties seized. Lives taken. Blood was shed. But from that furnace of affliction arose a movement of faithful and courageous men, men who chose the Word of God above every earthly power, religious institution and even above the traditions of their beloved Churches.
The Christian Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura, meaning “by Scripture alone”, began to take bold shape in the 16th century. It was in 1517 that a German monk named Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences. What began as a protest over corruption soon revealed a far deeper truth: the Bible, not councils, popes, or traditions, is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Luther declared that all human authority is subject to error, but God's Word stands forever. He rejected the belief that only the clergy could interpret Scripture. The Bible, he insisted, belongs to the people. It is to be read, understood, and obeyed by every man, woman, and child under heaven.
Don’t stop here. This story is not over.
You are part of the next chapter...
SOLA SCRIPTURA!
What does the Bible say in regards to the Word of God?
Let us go to the Apostle Paul as he spoke to his spiritual son:
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
Why did the Reformers disagree with the interpretation given by the Church?
Why did they rise up in protest against the traditions of the Church and reject the teachings of that time?
Peter speaks clearly to us and declares:
2 Peter 1:20-21
“Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Unfortunately, due to traditions, creeds, and councils that were not being led by God, but by men who had not been sanctified in the truth, the Word of God, the Bible, was chained. It was kept hidden, out of reach from the common people. Not many had access, nor the knowledge to read Latin. It was prohibited and forbidden for anyone without the Church’s permission to read the Bible. Many men simply did not have access to the Word of God.
But the Reformation movement, together with the invention of the printing press, paved the way for the Bible to be translated and spread across Europe. Now, the people had a chance to read for themselves and understand what God had prepared for each one of them.
The prophet Isaiah gives us the standard by which every teaching must be tested:
Isaiah 8:20
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Now that the light of truth is accessible to everyone, the question remains: Have the people made the right decision to believe in the Word of God and be sanctified by it?
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Christ, in His prayer, made a solemn request to God His Father, that His people might be sanctified through the Word of God. This is clearly stated:
John 17:17
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
We can fully trust the Word of God, for Jesus Himself declared that He is the Word. The Reformers believed this with all their heart. And three to four centuries later, the Millerite Movement rose with a blazing cry, announcing the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
The Reformers had studied prophecy and understood that Christ’s return was near. They believed that the Bible revealed truths that are indeed solid, unchanging, eternal. Jesus affirmed this when He said:
Matthew 5:18
“For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
The Millerite Movement continued the work the Reformers began. Though their initial interpretation of the 2300-day prophecy in the book of Daniel was incorrect in detail, it was correct in spirit, they were searching, watching, and proclaiming.
In 1844, following the Great Disappointment, a small group did not give up. Instead, they renewed the cry that had first shaken Europe over 300 years earlier:
This was “Sola Scriptura!”
From that remnant arose what would become the Seventh day Adventist Movement. It was not born of creed or council, but of conviction and Scripture. They were called the Pioneers, men and women of faith, study, and sacrifice. They carried the burden of truth with reverence.
They believed the Word of God.
And they held to one creed, and one creed alone:
The Bible.
The voice of divine inspiration through Sister White
echoed the same foundation:
“The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed, the sole bond of union; all who bow to this Holy Word will be in harmony. Our own views and ideas must not control our efforts. Man is fallible, but God's Word is infallible. Instead of wrangling with one another, let men exalt the Lord. Let us meet all opposition as did our Master, saying, ‘It is written.’ Let us lift up the banner on which is inscribed, The Bible our rule of faith and discipline.”
—Ellen G. White, Review & Herald, December 15, 1885
And she reminded us solemnly:
“We are not saved as a sect; no denominational name has any virtue to bring us into favor with God. We are saved individually as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
—Ellen G. White, Review & Herald, February 10, 1891
There is no power in church traditions, nor in councils of men. Only the Word of God holds life, power, and authority. Jesus declared plainly:
John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
God has a divine purpose for each and every one of us. In this dark and confused age, the cry of Sola Scriptura must rise again! The Word of God must stand above every opinion, every tradition, every hierarchy of man.
As Martin Luther declared: “Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”
Let us finish with this eternal promise:
Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The Bible Is to Be Our Only Creed!
From their beginnings in the 1840s, Adventists opposed the adoption of any man made statement of beliefs, firmly holding that the Bible was their only creed.
James White who is recognized as a man of God, made it unmistakably clear:
“Now I take the ground that creeds stand in direct opposition to the gifts. Let us suppose a case: We get up a creed, stating just what we shall believe on this point and the other, and just what we shall do in reference to this thing and that, and say that we will believe the gifts too. But suppose the Lord, through the gifts, should give us some new light that did not harmonize with our creed; then, if we remain true to the gifts, it knocks our creed all over at once. Making a creed is setting the stakes, and barring up the way to all future advancement. God put the gifts into the church for a good and great object; but men who have got up their churches, have shut up the way or have marked out a course for the Almighty. They say virtually that the Lord must not do anything further than what has been marked out in the creed. A creed and the gifts thus stand in direct opposition to each other. Now what is our position as a people? The Bible is our creed. We reject everything in the form of a human creed. We take the Bible and the gifts of the Spirit; embracing the faith that thus the Lord will teach us from time to time. And in this we take a position against the formation of a creed. We are not taking one step, in what we are doing, toward becoming Babylon.”
—James White, Review & Herald, October 8, 1861
Other pioneers stood just as firmly. Elder John N. Loughborough warned:
“The first step of apostasy is to set up a creed, telling us what we shall believe. The second is, to make that creed a test of fellowship. The third is to try members by that creed. The fourth to denounce as heretics those who do not believe that creed. And, fifth, to commence persecution against such. I plead that we are not patterning after the churches in any unwarrantable sense, in the step proposed.”
—John N. Loughborough, Review & Herald, October 8, 1861
“it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
THE BIBLE IS OUR ONLY CREED
