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Baptists Have a Classically Christian Sensibility Concerning the Scriptures
Baptists love the Bible. We are people of the Book, and our emphasis on congregationalism and a believer's church flows from our reading of Scripture. Through these distinctives, we see ourselves as having something unique to offer other Christians.
But our love of the Bible is not new or unique. We share this conviction with early Christians who contemplated Scripture and with Protestants who affirmed sola Scriptura. It is, in a sense, our common ground; we love the Bible as Christians always have.
Yet we sometimes overlook how common this appreciation for the Bible has been in church history. So in this article, I want to show that Christians across the centuries have shared a basic sensibility towards Holy Scripture: that God inspired it and that it holds the highest authority for life and godliness. To do so, I will pick a few representative examples from key theologians or confessions.
As I do so, I will not be arguing that figures like Augustine or Thomas Aquinas say what Baptists today say. Far from it. They do not, and the differences matter. But beneath the real disagreements, there is a shared conviction that Scripture is God's Word, that it is trustworthy, and that it guides the faith and practice of God's people.
That common ground is worth recovering and appreciating, especially for Baptists who sometimes imagine their view of Biblical authority and inspiration emerged in recent times.
Most Christians have seen Scripture as the inspired Word of God, with authority for life and godliness. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), for instance, began his life as a presbyter by asking for time off to study the Bible. And his pastoral career centred on biblical interpretation. If we asked Augustine why he spent so much time on the Bible, I imagine he would be shocked at the question.
What else could he do?
But we do not need to ask him, because he tells us throughout his writings why he dedicated his life to Scriptural interpretation. For example, while writing to a pastoral colleague named Jerome, Augustine affirms, "I will read the Holy Scripture with complete certainty and confidence in its truth, founded as it is on the highest summit of divine authority" (Letters 1–82, 393–94).
Of Holy Scripture, Augustine explains that it has "been received with the sanction of the highest canonical authority, and that it remains true in every part and not subject to doubt" (394). Augustine here tells us how Christians of his time viewed the Bible. It was the highest form of divine authority, and it remains true in all parts.
But that is not all that Augustine has to say. He points out to Jerome, "that it is from those books alone of the Scriptures, which are now called canonical, that I have learned to pay them such honor and respect as to believe most firmly that not one of their authors has erred in writing anything at all" (392). Augustine then concludes: "If I do find anything in those books which seems contrary to truth, I decide that either the text is corrupt, or the translator did not follow what was really said, or that I failed to understand it" (392). In short, the biblical writings remain the highest canonical authority, for Augustine, one in which “not one of their authors has erred in writing anything at all.”
We might wonder then how Augustine balances tradition with Scripture. And at least in this letter, we do not have to guess because he explains: "But, when I read other authors, however eminent they may be in sanctity and learning, I do not necessarily believe a thing is true because they think so, but because they have been able to convince me, either on the authority of the canonical writers or by a probable reason which is not inconsistent with truth" (392). Put simply, Augustine only listens to eminent thinkers when they can convince him by Scripture or sound reason.
Augustine shares these convictions with Jerome and so says: "I think that you, my brother, feel the same way; moreover, I say, I do not believe that you want your books to be read as if they were those of Prophets or Apostles, about whose writings, free of all error, it is unlawful to doubt" (392).
We might feel surprised at how much emphasis Augustine places on the authority, truthfulness, and lack of error in Scripture. We should not be. He says what virtually all Christians of his time would have said.
But if the Bible for Augustine played such a central role, did he really think people could understand it? In answer, he points to "the perfect clarity of scriptural expressions" against those who would accuse Scripture of falsehood (392). In modern theology, we call this the clarity or perspicuity of Scripture. In its main arguments, the Bible speaks clearly; where it does not, we compare obscure passages to clearer ones. Theologians sometimes call this the analogy of Scripture, and Augustine argues for this principle in his work On Christian Teaching.
Baptists should find themselves nodding along with Augustine's affirmations about Holy Scripture. Baptists also affirm that Scripture comes from God, giving it the highest authority in our lives. As the CBWC’s 2022 identity statement notes, we maintain "The divine inspiration of Holy Scripture and its entire trustworthiness and supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct."
Augustine's words here importantly shaped how Christians in the middle ages spoke of the Bible’s authority. One representative example, which shows Augustine’s influence, is Thomas Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas, known as one of the key scholastic theologians of the medieval age, says virtually the same thing as Augustine in his Summa Theologica and other writings. Thomas affirms that sacred doctrine "accepts its principles not from other sciences, but immediately from God, by revelation" (ST I.Q1.A5). What he means here is that we receive Christian doctrine from God alone, not from other sciences, by which he means disciplines like philosophy.
On this point, Thomas emphasizes, "It was necessary for man's salvation that there should be a teaching revealed by God beyond the philosophical disciplines, which are investigated by human reason" (ST I.Q1.A1). Why? Because, citing 2 Timothy 3:16, Thomas tells us that God inspired the Bible for our salvation. The articles of faith, explains Thomas, are revealed in Scripture (ST I.Q1.A8).
And so Thomas points out that "if our opponent believes nothing of divine revelation, there is no longer any means of proving the articles of faith by reasoning, but only of answering his objections, if he has any, against faith. Since faith rests upon infallible truth, and since the contrary of a truth can never be demonstrated, it is clear that the arguments brought against faith cannot be demonstrations, but are difficulties that can be answered" (ST I.Q1.A8).
For Thomas, then, Scripture is our infallible authority upon which faith stands. It is worth noting that Thomas here quotes Augustine's letter to Jerome (noted above) and affirms with Augustine: "Only those books of Scripture which are called canonical have I learned to hold in such honor as to believe their authors have not erred in any way in writing them. But other authors I so read as not to deem everything in their works to be true, merely on account of their having so thought and written, whatever may have been their holiness and learning" (ST I.Q1.A8).
Once again, we find ourselves in agreement on Thomas's basic approach to Scripture. Yes, we may disagree over other aspects with Thomas. But at least here, we can see a general approach to Scripture that Christians have maintained across the ages.
Protestant theologians wrote confessions during the 16th and 17th centuries to define their faith. For Lutherans, the Formula of Concord helped to define Lutheran identity. The French Confession of 1559, for example, did much the same for the Reformed Church of France. In due time, Baptists would also write confessions to explain their views, as in the First and Second London Baptist Confessions. And many others were produced. Most confessions included something to the effect that Scripture was a final authority for life and practice.
In a short article like this, it would be impossible to do justice to the rich diversity of these confessions. But it is worth highlighting two important confessions to illustrate the point. For example, the Church of England's 39 Articles provide a representative expression of Scripture's authority in Article 6:
"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church."
Indeed, their authority has always been affirmed in the church. The 39 Articles affirm something common to all Protestants: that Scripture contains things necessary for salvation, that it should be believed, and that it has authority in the Church.
I would like to point to a second confession published by General Baptists in 1679, which calls itself the "Protestant Confession of Faith." Protestant Baptists such as those who wrote this creed wanted to show their relationship to the larger Protestant movement. And in this creed's thirty-seventh article, we read:
"The Authority of the holy Scripture, dependeth not upon the Authority of any Man, but only upon the Authority of God, who hath delivered and revealed his mind therein unto us, and containeth all things necessary for Salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any Man, that it should be believed as an Article of the Christian Faith, or be thought requisite to Salvation."
In other words, Scripture once again has divine authority, and we must hold to it for our salvation. We can see a common trajectory on the authority of Scripture here, one that spans Christian teaching across time.
I cannot help but add one more name to this list, William Carey. Carey, after whom Carey Theological College is named, gave up a life of comfort to travel to India in order to evangelize the lost and translate the Bible. In his most famous writing, An Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen, Carey argued from the authority of Scripture that Christians ought to go to the nations to spread the Gospel.
And of course, his desire to translate the Bible, expressed in his writings and in Article 9 of his Serampore Form of Agreement, demonstrates the high importance of Holy Scripture in his life. Lastly, as a Particular Baptist, Carey would have known the London Baptist Confession of 1689, which stated, "The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience" (Article 1).
Like Augustine, this confession asserts the certainty and infallibility of Scripture. Its sufficiency is for matters of salvation, or life and godliness.
Christians across the ages have shared a basic sensibility towards the Bible. It came from God, it therefore has the highest authority, and believers ought to follow Scripture's instruction. At times, Christians have disagreed on various details.
During the Reformation, for example, Protestants and Roman Catholics debated whether or not Augustine saw the church as authorizing Scripture as canonical. At times, believers also disagreed on which books should be included in the canon. In an article like this, I do not intend to bypass or cover up the real differences.
I only wanted to point out that a Baptist approach to Scripture as a divinely given gift that is sufficient for life and godliness is not novel. Christians have shared this basic sensibility across the ages, albeit with various nuances.
Baptists share this general approach, and we advance biblical distinctives of congregationalism and a believer's church as one way we hope to renew Protestant churches. Here, Baptists place Scripture as the umpire of truth between the various traditions within Protestantism.
I am reminded of Gregory of Nyssa, one of the Cappadocian Fathers, who likewise sought to renew worship among fourth-century Christians. Some argued that custom was sufficient for doctrine. But in his thirty-third letter to Eustathius, Gregory points out:
"We do not consider it right to make the custom that prevails among them the law and rule of sound doctrine. For if custom is valid as a proof of soundness, surely we too may put forward in our defence the custom that prevails among us, and if they reject this, we surely do not have to follow theirs" ("Letter 33," §3b).
So what then could arbitrate the truth of doctrine? At this point, Gregory knows of only one option: "Let the God-inspired Scripture therefore decide between us, and the verdict of the truth will surely go to those whose teachings are found to be in harmony with the divine words" (§3b).
When we find ourselves with different customs, Scripture provides us a sure guide forward. And Baptists have in their efforts to renew the church and evangelize the nations found themselves returning always to the Word of God, whose authority and nurturing grace have built up our congregations.
In short, Baptists do not have to feel abashed about their view of Scripture. They fit comfortably alongside the church of ages that Christ has been building by his Holy Spirit.
