Does Sola Scriptura Leave Room for Human Creativity?

John Frame, against the idea that sola Scriptura limits human creativity:

Certainly, sola Scriptura places some limits on human creativity. We are not permitted to do as we please; there is no autonomy over against God's word. Thus it might seem that the believer in sola Scriptura may never exercise his own judgment about anything.

But that also is certainly wrong. Indeed, every time we use the Bible, we use our own judgment. Reading the Bible is a rational activity, requiring human judgment. Choosing one text to study rather than another, for a particular purpose, is a rational activity. Interpreting the Bible is a rational activity, requiring a great deal of human judgment. And applying the Bible to people's needs is also an activity requiring human judgment.

The step of application is what we are most interested in now, because it is at that step that we seize opportunities. Let's say we wish to address a social question as Christians. It may be the question of abortion, or nuclear war, or government welfare, or genetic engineering. Well, the Bible doesn't directly address any of these issues. Finding out what the Bible requires of us in these areas requires quite a bit of human knowledge and wisdom.

We want to find biblical principles that apply to these situations; but to do that requires quite a bit of extra-biblical knowledge. If you want to know what the Bible teaches about abortion, you need to know some biblical texts; but you also have to know what abortion is, and the Bible alone will not tell you.

So when we say "Scripture alone," Scriptura sola, we don't mean that the Bible alone will give us all the facts, all the information, all the detailed knowledge we need to apply it to contemporary situations. Scripture is not sufficient to do that. For that purpose, Scripture needs to be supplemented-- by human logic, human knowledge, human wisdom-- so that we can make the best use of God's word.

What, then, is Scripture sufficient for? The answer is, it is a sufficient rule of faith and practice, as our confession puts it. Scripture is the only book in the world authored by the living God. Therefore it is ultimately authoritative, and it alone is ultimately authoritative. As ultimate authority it is sufficient. As our ultimate authority, it judges all of our wisdom, knowledge, and logic. We may need other information to apply the Scriptures; but we don't need any more words of God.

But within the bounds that Scripture provides, there is plenty of room for the play of faithful human creativity. Indeed, Scripture requires us to use all our God-given gifts to apply his word.

Surely God expects us, not only to read the Bible, but to use it, to apply it to the situations of our experience. The Fourth Commandment says "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Well, what about operating a factory on Sunday: is that sin? Well, Scripture doesn't say anything about factories. So are we simply to set that question aside? Certainly not. Scripture wants us to apply the principle of the Fourth commandment to all these issues.

To give another example: Some years ago I served on a committee in another denomination to study the question of abortion. Our committee gave to the general assembly a report which, one year before Roe v. Wade, was strongly opposed to abortion. I'm happy to say that the assembly did approve the report. But there were some in the assembly who opposed approving that report, arguing that the church should not speak about abortion at all. Why? Because the church is limited by sola Scriptura, and abortion is not mentioned in the Bible.

Well, it's true that abortion is not mentioned in the Bible. I believe there are passages which teach a very high view of unborn life, and of course there is the sixth commandment, which says, "Thou shalt not kill." But the Bible does not mention abortion as such. But put that fact in context. The Bible says "thou shalt not kill," but it doesn't mention the killing of Presbyterian ministers between 35 and 45 years of age. So somebody might argue that although we may preach against killing in general, we may not preach against the killing of ministers between 35-45, or any other particular kinds of killing. The bottom line to that argument is that you can preach only generalities, not specifics. Or perhaps the conclusion of this is even more radical: you cannot apply the Bible at all, you can only read it. For what these people were saying was that the church can say only those things which the Bible itself explicitly and specifically says. That would mean that we could not use the Bible at all. That would mean that we could not preach, only read the text.

But that certainly is not what sola Scriptura means. Scripture requires us not just to read it, but to use it, to apply it to all the issues that concern us today. "Preach the word," Paul says to Timothy.

In Matt. 22:23-33, the Sadducees asked Jesus a fairly stupid question: a widow was married to seven brothers; to whom will she be married in the Resurrection? They thought that this question made the whole idea of Resurrection look silly, and they hoped, by asking it, to make Jesus look silly too. The critics of our abortion report might have answered by saying: Scripture does not address that question, so we must not address it either. But Jesus does not do that at all. He assumes that the word of God is not silent, even about the Sadducees' stupid question. The Scripture has an answer to it. He says to them in verse 29, "You are in error, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." See what he is saying? The Sadducees, in asking their question, showed ignorance of the Bible. The Bible had an answer, but they didn't know it. They were ignorant. The answer was, first, that people don't marry in the Resurrection. Second, the Old Testament does teach Resurrection from the dead. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but of the living. Therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still live before him. Notice that Jesus's answer goes far beyond the explicit or literal words of Scripture. Jesus takes several broad biblical principles and puts them together, applying them to the Sadducees' stupid question. And he says that because the Sadducees did not do this, they were ignorant of the Bible. You see the implication? You don't even know the Bible unless you can apply the Bible to questions that arise outside the Bible. You don't know the Bible unless you can use it rightly.

Yesterday I mentioned the 24th chapter of Luke, where the risen Christ speaks to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. These men too were ignorant of Scripture. Jesus had to teach them, for they were foolish and slow to believe all that the prophets had spoken. What was it they didn't understand? The passage does not say that they had failed to read some passage or other. The problem of these disciples was that they had failed to see the connection between the Old Testament writings and their own experience. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had entered their experience. In their experience, he had suffered and died for sinners, but they hadn't understood, because they had failed to apply the Old Testament prophecies to the events of their own experience. So, says Jesus, they didn't understand the Scriptures. Again: you do not understand the Scriptures unless you can apply the Bible to extra-biblical experience.

There are many other examples of this principle. In John 5:39-40, Jesus upbraids the Jews because they searched the Scriptures, but did not believe the Scriptures' testimony to Christ. They didn't apply the Scriptures rightly, so they didn't understand the Scriptures. In Rom. 15:4, Paul says that the Scriptures, written long ago to be sure, were written for our learning. Remarkable statement, isn't it? Of what other book can it be said that though it was written to instruct people living hundreds of years after its composition? Surely that testimony speaks to the divine character of the Scriptures. It also implies that God gave us the Bible precisely so it could address contemporary issues.

Scripture, according to Paul, is "profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," 2 Tim. 3:16-17. That's the language of application. Scripture is given-- not just to be read, but to be used, to be applied, to address current issues. In 2 Timothy, Paul is looking toward the day when he will be in heaven with Christ, and the church on earth will have to carry on without him. After Paul is gone, the church will face many challenges; Paul says that false teaching will abound, and the church will need to make judgments. The key to such judgments is Scripture, but Scripture applied intelligently to the new situations that arise. Scripture applied to extra scriptural knowledge. Therefore, as Peter says, also looking toward the same situation, Scripture will be a "light shining in a dark place," 2 Pet. 1:19.

My conclusion is that God gave us the Bible for the purpose of application. To know the Bible rightly, you must not only have verses in your memory; you must also have the skill of applying the Bible to questions that come up outside the Bible, to questions that the Bible does not specifically and explicitly address, to states of affairs that are not mentioned specifically in the Bible.

This means of course that to understand the Bible we need to know some things from outside the Bible. To understand the Bible, of course, we need to know something of the biblical languages, of the history and geography of the biblical period. We also need to know our own time. We need to know what questions need to be addressed. We need to know some things about modern technology, modern culture, science, philosophy, art, music. We need to know our world in order properly to use the word of God. If we don't know our world, we cannot apply the word to it; and if we cannot apply the word to our own time, we don't really understand it.

So you see how sola Scriptura does not exclude the use of knowledge from outside the Bible. In fact, that knowledge is absolutely essential if we are to use the Bible to reform ourselves, our church, and our culture. sola Scriptura, in fact, is a divine mandate for human creativity. Relating Scripture teachings to contemporary problems requires considerable creativity. It engages all the gifts which God has given to us.