The Bible Isnt Everything

 

A lot of people claim to be “Bible only” – if its not in the Bible, they wont accept it. And that may sound good, but the Bible never tells anyone to do that. In fact, it never says it is the one and only thing one has to deepen faith – that idea was concocted during the breech from The Church during reformation. It simply took off from there, as a rally cry.

So let me give you just one an example of a non-Bible writing that literally defines what YOU believe today. Let it be an example of how one can see outside the Bible, and deepen ones faith while keeping the Bible as well.

"Light from Light, True God from True God."

Have you heard this? Have you said it? Did you know this comes from the Nicene Creed (325 AD)? And whether you say it or not – it has formed what you believe.
When you hear those words, they sound like poetry. And in a sense, they are. The early Church wrote with beauty as well as precision.

But you must understand something about those phrases that most Christians have never been told, or which they reject simply because it comes from Catholic Christianity.

They are not intended to be merely poetic.

They are theological declarations — crafted with exquisite care to close every loophole that a certain heretic named Arius had exploited in his arguments during that period.

You see, Arius was a heretic – and he was sophisticated. He worked well in vague language. In that way, He could claim that Jesus was maybe, "divine," but He was not truly of Gods essence, as the The Apostolic Catholic Church taught.

General language gave him room to maneuver. You still see that alot today as people self-interpret Scripture.*
*Of course we also see the opposite - people taking Scripture of 2,000 years ago as literal in our time.

So to avoid confusion and self-generated error, the bishops at Niceae got specific. They said:

"Light from Light" — because light proceeding from light shares the same nature as its source. Not diminished. Not secondary as Arius tried to say. Rather, the same nature, expressed from the same nature.

"True God from True God" — because Arius fiddle with verbiage to call Jesus, "god" (lower case). He placed Him into a lesser category, as a created creature, kind of like a puppet. The word, "True," closed that door permanently.

These phrases communicate three things together:
The nature of the Son — He is fully and truly God, not a lesser intermediary
The origin of the Son - He comes from the Fathers essence, as light from light
The distinctiveness of the Son — He is a genuine, unique, only-begotten person, not merely an emanation.

These men loved the truth enough to fight for every syllable. They understood that precision in language is precision in belief — and that imprecision, even if well-intentioned (maybe), leaves souls without the solid ground they need.

That is the heritage you carry in your mouth every Sunday morning. It is THAT important. In fact, as a Christian, it may be the one piece of understanding that deepens your faith the most in this moment.
The Bible contains truth, but not all truth that can exist is in it.