God has raised up so many incredible Christians whose writings are an inspiration and a help to millions. To cut ourselves off from all these riches is not an indication of great spirituality but quite the opposite: it is an indication of immaturity and spiritual pride. This idea that we need no one else, and that we can get along as lone wolf Christians (“Just me and my Bible”) is not a mark of godliness but of foolishness and arrogance.
Lots of people can and do say lots of really foolish and unhelpful things. Sadly that is often quite true of Christians as well. And it happens far too often. Indeed, many articles can be found on this website seeking to counter some of the more ridiculous and unhelpful things that various Christians have said.
And because we keep hearing some of these foolish statements over and over, I find the need to keep refuting them from time to time. I have written before about the topic my title refers to. But it keeps cropping up so I have to keep speaking to it. As I said in one such article:
“Jesus-Only Christianity” or “Bible-Only Christianity” sounds so spiritual, but the truth is none of us are lone wolf Christians and all of us depend upon and need others, even when it comes to understanding the Scriptures. The whole body of Christ, both past and present, is needed for our walk with God and following Christ according to his word. It is only pride and self-righteousness which says I can do all this alone and I don’t need or want the rest of Christ’s body, teaching and instruction.
Too often we just have Pharisee-ism and pride lurking behind these sorts of ‘Bible-only’ believers. As I said in another piece concerning one person pushing this silliness:
Yes but…! That is like saying you never go to church to hear a pastor teach the Bible, because you have the Holy Spirit and that is all you need. But we are NOT infallible and we can get things wrong, even when we think we are relying fully on the HS. And God himself gave us pastors and teachers to help expound and comment on the Bible. So to reject those means is to reject what God has designed for us.
The most recent case of this involved a post I had put up on the social media about some of the wonderful and very helpful commentary sets that Martyn Lloyd-Jones has penned. They started off as an expository sermon series and then were put into book form. I mentioned his 14 volumes on Romans, his 8 volumes on Ephesians, and his 2 volumes on the Sermon on the Mount. All terrific and edifying stuff. They will most definitely bless your mind and spirit.
Yet sure enough, I had a fellow come along saying, “Just read your Bible—it is all you need.” My response to him was this: “If that were the case, I would need not listen to you or any other Christian or any preacher or any sermon or any teaching—all of which runs completely contrary to the Word of God which clearly says God gave the body of Christ pastors and teachers. So I will heed the commands of Scripture here thanks.”
