When can a doctrine be considered truly biblical?

The fact is that many fundamental doctrines are not summarised in Scripture by a single defining statement. To find the scriptural authority for a doctrine it may be necessary to glean information from many places. The clear inferences from all these texts are then put together and the doctrine is found proven, so that it can be defined in a plain statement. This statement is not in the plain words of Scripture, but, in spite of that, the doctrine so stated has all the authority of the Word of God behind it. If a person says he will not affirm the doctrine because he will only repeat the exact Biblical wording, let him say whether he is prepared to limit all his expressions of doctrine to conform to this principle? Of course he will not, thus showing that there is something wrong with such a principle. What is the motive behind this objection? It may be only due to ignorance; but it also may be because the object is to conceal a heretical opinion.

The only answer we need give to this is, Does SCRIPTURE teach it or not? If it does it is true: if it does not, it is false. This is the only sure test. It matters nothing in our present enquiry what Edward Irving taught or did not teach, but “What saith the Scripture?” He died in 1834. We go much further back. What does the New Testament teach?

Of course, the ultimate test of the truth of any doctrine is whether it is in accord with biblical revelation. The fact that the church taught something in the first century does not make it true, and, likewise, if the church did not teach something until the twentieth century, it is not necessarily false. Tertullian, Anseim, Luther, Calvin, Darby, Scofield, and the Westminster divines were all instruments in the hands of God to minister truth to His church, but none of them was perfect in all his thinking. People do not make a doctrine right or wrong. Defective life never enhances doctrine, but neither does it necessarily falsify it. Earning a doctors degree may make one an expert in a particular field of study, but it does not make one infallible or without need of further light on a given subject. An understanding of the truth of the Bible can be communicated by the Holy Spirit in and through the formal education situation and procedures, and it can be communicated apart from them.

The writer by no means forgets, that many strong and deeply-rooted prepossessions of many of his readers, are likely to be enlisted against the doctrine which he seeks to establish from the word of God. The idea is so generally entertained that Christianity as it now exists is to spread universally, and that the world is to be converted by the blessing of God on means now in operation — that one cannot be ignorant of the strong resistance which a contrary doctrine is sure to encounter in many minds. Then, besides, there is not only our natural fondness for opinions generally entertained by others, and long held by ourselves, but there is, in this case, to be encountered, all the force of our natural unwillingness to plead guilty to a solemn charge, and to acquiesce in the justice of a sentence, which sets us aside and replaces us by others. But let me entreat my Christian readers to consider, that a doctrine cannot be proved true by the number of its adherents, or by the length of time during which it has been generally received. Much less is a doctrine true because it is soothing to ourselves, or palatable to men in general. The one, only, infallible test of the truth of any doctrine is, What says the word of God? It may be a view long held and fondly cherished by us; or it may be a doctrine newly presented for our consideration; the great, the all-important question in either case, and in every case, is, What says the Scripture? "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." It is to this word, and to this alone, that our present appeal is made. The Lord grant to us, that we may have grace to abide by its divine and unfailing decisions.

No babe in Christ need ever go wrong about the working of the Holy Spirit. What is not in accord with the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ may with safety and certainty be rejected. It is not of the Holy Spirit, and it cannot help you. But if a person is doing all he can to make you think better of the Lord Jesus Christ, you say, "He is right. I want a little more of this. It is the apostles' teaching, and will suit me very well." The doctrine of Christ is the test given us in scripture to decide what doctrine is of God, and what is of man.

With this we are in full accord. A theory that depends on wresting Scripture from its plain-meaning and out of its obvious context, as well as withholding Scripture, which would militate against and destroy its teaching, is manifestly not of God.

Once more, if anyone comes to you with doctrines, to support which he has to twist Scripture either by giving strained meanings to words in our English version, or by continually referring to the Greek or Hebrew original and translating to fit with his ideas, or if he tears texts away from their contexts or surroundings, which always decide their meaning, you have every reason for considering his doctrines with the gravest suspicion. "No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20). Remember, also, that the Bible is one whole; thus one part dovetails into the rest, not only agreeing but explaining.

We have gone thus into some detail to show how a doctrine can be traced throughout the entire word of God, and how, while gathering added truth, it shows the doctrine in germ in the earlier books of the Bible, but shining out more and more brightly until the full display is seen in the person and work of our Lord, and in the doctrine as enunciated in the Epistles. But we must go further here in our doctrinal outlines. Sufficient has been given to show how, with proper care, an endless field of profitable study is opened up.

It is with the eternal Sonship of Christ as with the Trinity, the Deity of Jesus, the Personality of the Holy Spirit, etc. It does not so much rest on isolated texts as on the general drift of God’s inspired Word—what the apostle calls “the proportion or analogy of faith” (Romans 12:6). And it is an infinite mercy for the church of God that the Holy Spirit has so ordered it; for single texts, however clear, may be disputed, but the grand current of truth, like a mighty river, not only bears down all opposition, but flows on in a pure, perennial stream, to slake the thirst of the saints of the Most High.

But all the Scriptures before us are equally the word of God; are entitled to full and equal weight in the determining of truth; and can never be pressed on any one side, to the weakening of the other, without error as the result. Whatever be the truth taught in these Scriptures, it is one truth; harmonious, consistent, and embracing all that is affirmed, without straining or distorting, without weakening or exaggerating one or other part.