Do You Believe We Need Any Book or Law in Addition to the New Testament to Guide the Church?
Do you believe we need any book or law in addition to the New Testament to guide the church? This is a valid question that demands an answer. For references to the New Testament aspect, we refer you to last week's article, Do You Believe the New Testament is God’s Law for His People Today?
The One Book is Sufficient
The church of Christ holds to the Bible as the one book because of the sufficiency of the Scriptures. We would remind you that man cannot live on mere physical sustenance but on every Word that comes from God's mouth. Do you want to truly live? If you do, you must be content with the sufficient Word of God. The Word of God is described as giving us all we need.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
(2 Pet 1:2-4)
If God said that through His power, he gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him, can we be confident that the Bible alone is sufficient in these matters? If God's Word is sufficient, then why would man need creedal statements, one church's tradition, or an alleged additional testament of Jesus Christ? The church of Christ must hold to the Word that God delivered to her–the Bible.
The One Book is the Source of Unity
As we have stated before, unity was of the utmost importance to the Lord. The only way to find true unity is to have the Bible as the authority in the church. Moreover, we must also interpret the Bible correctly. When we do this, it allows God's people to be on the same page indeed. What would happen if every player on the football team had a different playbook? What if every player were allowed to interpret the playbook how they felt that day, month, or season in life? It would be catastrophic when they lined up to play. On offense, for instance, a running back might run left, when the quarterback turns to the right, a tackle would miss his assigned man, and a linebacker would fill the gap. The quarterback would not be standing very long in most circumstances. On a pass play, receivers' routes would likely end in collisions.
In like manner, if members of the church start chasing extra-biblical books as the source of authority, we would expect collisions between brethren, losses in congregations, and we would fumble the most important thing, God's call to love Him. However, some have not even looked to other books for authority. In recent years, brethren have become content to practice things without authority and not bat an eye. Others have denied the necessary Biblical authorization and thus rely on no authority of any backing. Finally, perhaps the most disturbing is that even brethren are twisting the Scriptures to make suppositions and bind unauthorized religious holidays and practices on the church. When we all seek our playbook, disunion will occur and the church turns from Christ and unto chaos.
The Bible teaches directly to love God is to keep His commandments (cf. John 14:15;15:14), and God commands His people to speak the same thing (cf. 1 Cor 1:10). A botched play is frustrating to any coach, player, or fan. Can you imagine how much more frustrating it is for the God of Heaven? Let's remember that the bond of peace is contingent on keeping the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit delivered the doctrine of the church; we must endeavor to keep our unity as one.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
(Eph 4:1-6)
Unity is work; it requires men to lay aside their preferences for the commands of the Eternal Godhead. Unity requires the attitude expressed in Romans 3:4, " let God be true but every man a liar.”
The Merit of the One Book Disqualifies All Others
If there was one book that was more dependable, complete, or bona fide than the Bible, it would be worth considering. However, no book is in the same ballpark, even remotely. The sheer number of manuscripts of the New Testament is enormous. Eric Lyons explains,
Michael Welte of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Munster, Germany, indicated that the number of Greek manuscripts stood at 5,748 (2005). This number represents a far greater body of manuscripts than is known to exist for any other ancient volume (cf. Westcott and Hort, 1964, p. 565; Ewert, 1983, p. 139; Kenyon, 1951, p. 5). For example, the Histories of Herodotus, Caesar's Gallic Wars, and the Annals of Tacitus, three well-known and oft-quoted ancient historical works, are backed by a combined total of 38 manuscripts (Geisler and Nix, p. 408). The most documented book of antiquity next to the New Testament is Homer's Iliad. Some 643 manuscripts of the Iliad are in existence today (p. 475), which is still 5,000 less than the number of extant copies of the New Testament (Kyle Butt, “A Giant among Pygmies,” Apologetics Press, June 16, 2022, https://apologeticspress.org/a-giant-among-pygmies-893/.)
The Bible stands unparalleled in copies of manuscripts of ancient texts providentially transmitted and preserved to fulfill all that God’s Word said it would do.
So, how do you answer the importance of the writings of the "church fathers"? Respectfully, these were uninspired men making commentary on inspired text after it had been delivered in its completion (cf. Jude 3). Sometimes they made true statements, while other takes were wrong. At the end of the day, these men (and all others) are trying to make sense of the same book. Honest men will leave all their theological baggage at the door and approach the Bible with that Romans 3:4 attitude mentioned earlier. Why not become better students of the Word of God, rather than students of the rabbis or theologians? We listen to the Word of the Spirit of God, learn to use the sword of the Spirit rightly, and stay on the same page. The result will most certainly yield stronger Christians, families, elders, preachers, and congregations of the Lord's church. We must continue to return to the Bible, to God, and He will certainly bless His people. The Bible remains its best commentary, even to this day. Everyone who studies God's Word would do better to seek to compare what they hear concerning the Bible by mortals to the text inspired by the Eternal God. Unity requires learning to set aside the things "beyond that which is written" (cf. 1 Cor 4:6).
(This is an excerpt from the new book, So You Think You Know the church of Christ, by R.D. Beavers and Josh Kennedy. Ironworks Press, 2025)
