Regulative Principle

 The regulative principle of Scripture whether in worship or every day life is:

6Brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over another. - 1 Corinthians 4

Who were Paul and Apollos but servants of God, men not to be worshiped or trusted but in so far as they were called of God to preach and teach the gospel alone which the Bible alone has declared to us, we head their writings.

What is the Bible? It is the 66 books it contains. These books alone are the words of God. God by his power dictated the words to his Prophets and Apostles.

We are not to go beyond what is written. What has been revealed by special revelation is what we head.

What did the Apostle Paul believe about his writings?

Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God. - Galatians 6:16

He considered his writings as part of Canon. The term for rule is a term where we get the term Canon from.

That is right, the Apostle consider his writings as part of the Holy Bible, the Scriptures, that is what is written.

To deny Paul's writings is to deny the Bible alone is the word of God.

Noah A Scripturalist

 One of the things we can glean from Noah in Genesis 6:22 and 7:5 is that Noah was a Scripturalist. He wasn't like some today that say yeah the Bible is good but we may use our senses, or we may use whoredom in our worship, or offer up sacrifices to other gods.

The Bible tells us that Noah did according to all that God commanded him. Noah wasn't charismatic.

Job says, "Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." - 23:12

Scripture alone not Pope alone

"You should read and study your Bible daily. 'Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read' Isaiah 34:16. You are not to rely on some minister, elder, seminary, public school teacher, parent, wife, husband, confession, Hollywood movie, popular author (alive or dead), pope, priest, or any other sinful person/institution to tell you what the Bible teaches." - Monty L. Collier, A Unique Kind of Righteousness, pg. 100

Bart Ehrman's arguments are nothing

Bart Ehrman is known for his anti-biblical attacks against Christianity. There are many who 'respond' according to his level of expertise. However, only those who do not believe that the Bible alone is the word of God will attempt to discredit it as the sole infallible and authoritative word that it is. What is Bart Ehrman really saying? He isn't saying that we have no autograph copies of the ancient writings. No. He is saying that he does not believe the Bible and therefore does not believe God. If one believes that the Bible alone is the word of God then where is the argument against such notions? Only the skeptic and the evidentialist will run in circles trying to prove what they cannot adequately prove.

The only authority for the Christian is Christ alone

"The Christian is independent of human authority, because he acknowledges God's authority alone. His law, revealed by Christ, he recognizes in himself, and voluntarily obeys it." - Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You, pg. 127

Scripture alone reveals God's will

"Paul in this verse does not tell us how to do so, at least not explicitly. But it is clear that the epistle as a whole is the will of God. Scripture is the will of God, and nothing else, if will is taken in the sense of precept and not in the sense of decree. One popular evangelist told his audience the six, or was it the eight, steps for finding the will of God for one's life. The process was almost totally secular. True, one step was the perusal of Scripture, but the others were all something else. Now, I would not forbid a puzzled Christian from seeking wisdom from more mature Christian friends. But the wisdom must consist of a study of Scripture. All Scripture is profitable for instruction in righteousness, and by Scripture, and by Scripture alone, the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Nothing else is needed - except an intellect to understand what Scripture says." - Gordon H. Clark, Ephesians, Pg. 179

The Christian wars with the system of darkness

In the first chapter of the Gita, the main character, who is about to enter battle with his family and friends, is overcome with a sense of pity and wishes not to enter into battle any more. The reason is that these men are his kin. He knows them and it would therefore be a grievous evil to battle against them, though they wanting to kill him would do so within a heart beat. Here the main character presents to us several ideas 1) should we go to war? 2) ought we to remain passive? 3) how should we think of our beliefs as suppose to others?

For the Christian, however, ideas are different. A Christian is one who accepts the gospel of God's free grace revealed in the Cross work of Christ alone. They see they are sinners lacking a righteousness of their own and so see that the righteousness that they have is the only righteousness that God imputes to them by free and sovereign grace in Christ alone. The Christian therefore sees any other worldly system as bulstering up of man's pride and selfrighteousness. Their aim, therefore, as a result of them being born again by grace alone, and as a result seeing their sin, and their need of a saviour and believing in Him alone for righteousness, is to present the points of the Scripture to their friends and family and to all who do not know God as their Saviour. They rather than succumbing to the idea that any one human being is ok and so therefore everyone is ok make war with the satanic doctrine with the gospel doctrine. They overcome evil with good and not with evil. The Christian does not do this out of pride for they did not come to these things on their own. Instead it was God that changed their minds and gave them a new set of beliefs.

As Paul says we make war but not with the weapons of the world.

How to determine what good is?

What do you consider the greatest good or rather that which you aim at in life? No doubt there are probably many things that are noble to be achieved or won with; such as health and wealth, and other things (Aristotle writes on deliberation how to achieve the ends). However, for a Christian is there any such thing as deliberation? Ought we to choose or rather aim at x because of various reasons? As said before in many of my post several who claim to be Christians allow worldly things to cloud their thinking which causes them to do certian things on the whim of the emotions. I know when I was taking gout medication it caused me to pick up the phone and call certain people like my mom or whosoever came to my mind. And many still think that what we do causes us to be cleansed from sin or sanctified from it. However, a Christian does not do such things. What is to be done is what the law says. But we are sinful and we sin continuously after we are born again so that we cannot glory in ourselves but rather in Him who alone saved us by the blood of Christ Jesus having imputed our sins to Him and we receiving his righteousness by imputation and as a result believing in Him alone for our justification and sanctification; we do good works as a result of our position in Christ. Those who have accepted the promises of Christ for themselves by the Spirits work within do read and determine what the good is by what the Bible says. The Bible is made of two principles law and gospel by which are marked separately. The law tells us what we are to do to live and condemns all for lack of perfection and the gospel declares what God did on the behalf of His people people in Christ. What we ought to do is read and study the Bible to determine our actions not science, or actions of others.

We judge based on the word of God

No where in Aristotle's "The Art of Rhetoric" does he speak of believing the truth based on the word of God the Bible alone. As Christian we are to be pursuaded of an argument not because of the character of the speaker, the emotions the speech induces nor the speech itself. We are to be pursuaded on the grounds of the Bible alone.

What is wrong with man is the measure of all things?

In the attack against Heracleitus and Protagoras, Plato says that they ultimately make man the measure of all things. For what appears to me to be cold may appear to you to be warm. Or what appears to me to be big may appear small to you. No one person may or can have the same perception. Perhaps this is the fault with those who trust that we know thinga by our senses. But, if one percieves a different quality in an object than another one does should we say that truth is therefore subjective? Perhaps the fault lies in our senses. How do we know what is truth? Of course the Bible alone is the word of God. God has revealed the Bible to us. God is truth, logic, and eternal. Therefore, the Bible alone is truth. God alone reveals it.

How to know?

"CRITIAS: 'Here then, Socrates, is the plan we have made to entertain you. We thought that Timaeus, who knows more about astronomy than the rest of us and who has devoted himself particularly to studying the nature of the universe, should speak first, and starting with the origin of the cosmic system bring the story down to man.'" - Plato, Timaeus, pg. 40

Of course apart from Revealed truth no one knows God. Who can pry into the mind of God? No one. God alone reveals secrets. The history of worldly education is that it is done apart from God and His word. Instead man has endeavored to know the hidden things by what he sees on earth. The grave question to ask is how do you know? The epistemic question is important in knowing anything at all. How does one derive his or her knowledge of the universe, what Method is used to gain knowledge? The Christian knows truth by the word of God and by faith we know that God created the universe.

George Berkeley to be sure was an empiricist. If we are only limited to what our eyes are capable of seeing then we would not truly be able to understand or know anything at all. We couldn't make any judgment as to the truth of one religion or philosophy from another. How do we know truth? We know it based on Scripture alone anything else simply reduces itself to skepticism. The Bible alone is the word of God.

Scripture alone is the alone infallible rule of faith

It is a constitutional rule of the great Bible Societies that they are to circulate the Bible 'without note or comment.' This is a noteworthy and significant fact. It indicates that the Bible is a self-contained and a self-explanatory book, a book which does not have and cannot have an authoritative introduction; and untold thousands have found the Saviour and been built up in our most holy faith by simple reading and study of the Word, under the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit. It is true of the Bible, as of no other book, that 'the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself.' - Oswald T. Allis, The Old Testament Its Claims and Its Critics, pg. 1

The teacher does not teach new things to a pupil

A teacher does not teach anything. Of course they might say lies or false things but as it goes they cannot teach anyone anything. There is only one Teacher who has enlightened everyone. So what then what is the point of one person supposedly teaching another? Simply their job is to remind. That is what we are doing when we use propositions. Propositions are either false or true.


Someone responds, "Does a parent teach a child to walk? To talk? Do they 'remind' them to do so? Are we all 'enlightened'? Born with the ability of language and walking, just needing to be reminded?"

The question is what does it mean to walk; in other words, what is the definition of walking? By what way does a child become capable of walking?

The Bible says it is God who trains up a man for battle. I think David says God trains his hands for the bow.

Furthermore, God is said to make men blind, deaf, mute, and lame. So who teaches a man to walk? God alone.

Someone responds, "Does God teach you how to play the banjo? How to tie your shoes? What the capital of North Dakota is? No. Teachers teach those things. I have no idea what you mean. Perhaps you'll have to teach me."

 Well I didn't respond to your question because I think I've answered it. We only have one Father. He alone gives us knowledge. Since God is knowledge, logic, and truth. All knowledge comes from Him. No man knows unless God reveals. Have you read Exodus? I suppose you have not. What does it say about the men who made the tabernacle?
Since men, are created in the image of God, they are created with logic, knowledge, ability to speak in some cases.

We therefore say man is not tabula rasa.

Therefore, human teachers do not teach or discover new ideas. But ideas, propositions are understood prior. Therefore, teachers either speak lies or truth. But their job is to remind.

The diminishing Mind of Empiricism

Ayn "Rand maintained that the child - every child - knows nothing, his mind is 'unexposed,' and yet he has a conscious mind. The contradiction is inherent in the notion of a tabula rasa mind. A mind that is tabula rasa is simply not a mind. A consciousness conscious of nothing is simply not a consciousness. A mind that is empty is not a mind, any more than a geometrical figure that has no sides is a geometrical figure. This egregious contradiction lies at the foundation of Rand's epistemology - not only Rand's, but at the base of all empirical philosophies, including those of John Locke, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle." - John W. Robbins, Without A Prayer, Ayn Rand and The Close of Her System, pg. 30-31

Cannot believe that which is unknowable

If the Holy Scriptures were really so obscure a book that the meaning of all those passages which form the basis of articles of the Christian Creed could not be definitely ascertained, and if, as a result of this, we should have to acknowledge that without some other authority it would be impossible to decide which of two or several interpretations of Scripture-passages is the only correct one, - if these conditions, I say, we're true, the Scriptures could not be the Word of God. How could a book that leaves us groping in darkness and uncertainty regarding its essential contents serve as a revelation? - C.F.W. Walther, The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, pg. 59

"The Kingdom of God is not a Kingdom of ignorance, but of faith and, consequently, of knowledge; for it is beyond the ability of anyone to believe that which he is ignorant of." - Theodore Beza, Preface of Theodore Beza in The Christian Faith, pg. iv

Scripture alone that changes our attitudes

Some might consider the idea's Joy, Anger, Love, Fear, or anything else as emotions. I do not think these things are emotions. My question would be to begin with what are emotions? And if we are commanded to 'love God without entire being' and our emotions are often swept to and fro then how can we control these 'emotions'? I do not consider these things as 'emotions' but rather attitudes of the mind. How do we change the attitude if not by the power of the Spirit who uses means of Scripture alone to change the disposition of our minds. Of course, some things still cause my attitude to think and do certain things and I pray those things do not hinder the race. I do not believe that my volition are to be lead by anything other than Scripture alone.

Jude 4 on the reprobates

Jude 4 says that there were certain men who crept in unawares, who were ordained of old to the condemnation, these men we are told turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.
The question is what does this mean? Those who, like Catholics, labeling themselves reformed, teach that we are saved by grace alone but this grace is infused unto us so that we work. Of course, this means according to them that if you are not working you have serious reasons to doubt whether you're saved.

However, the verse in question doesn't so much hint that these men lacked evangelical works. Another said set of verses used to attack the truth of free and unconditional grace is Matthew 7 but with clear study of the passage hardly speaks against such. But as far as this verse in Jude goes these men turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. They take the unadulterated gospel of Christ and they do not believe it but rather they disbelieve it. These men therefore disbelieve the truth and so therefore they turn the grace into lasciviousness. Other verses that present this is found in Romans 2:4-5. The mistake by the many so-called Calvinist today is that God is patient with both the elect and reprobate and so therefore wants both to be saved. This is far from the facts as say Proverbs 16:4 says that the reprobates are made for destruction and that they are like natural brute beast as 2 Peter 2:12 says.
For God he is patient with the elect alone not wanting any to perish but that all to come to the knowledge of the truth. For the sake of the elect is God longsuffering towards the reprobate.

On the Bible alone gives us Knowledge

"This book [Without a Prayer] is a defense of Christianity against one secular philosophy. The author hopes the reader will not stop with these pages, but will proceed to check his premises and the premises of other thinkers. To aid the inquiring reader, this writer has edited and published dozens of books on philosophy and Christianity - books discussing science, historiography, language, logic, psychology, ethics, epistemology, education, and ancient, medieval, contemporary philosophies. The conclusion of those discussions is that the axiom of revelation - the proposition 'The Bible alone is the Word of God' - contains the only solution to man's epistemological problem, for it provides truth - metaphysical, epistemological, theological, ethical, and political truth - that cannot be deduced from any non-Christian axiom. Propositional revelation avoids the insuperable difficulties encountered in any form of empiricism, Revelation is not a shortcut to knowledge, as though there were other, longer routes; the history of philosophy shows that propositional revelation is the only way to knowledge. All other routes are dead ends." -John W. Robbins, Without a Prayer, Pg. 219

Scripture interprets Scripture

If you are a Congregationalist please note you are not alone:

"The Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture, or the Spirit of God therein; nor are the church or its pastors, nor councils and popes, the infallible interpreters thereof; there is a private interpretation of Scripture, which every Christian may make, according to his ability and light; and there is a public one, by the preacher of the word; but both are subject to, and to be determined by the Scripture itself, which is the only certain and infallible rule of faith and practice." - John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 22-23

Stay congregational my friends.