The Guardrail of the Creeds with John Samson

Welcome to The Dividing Line. It's a beautiful day in Phoenix, which is not unusual, and we are excited to be here on the broadcast. I am excited, and I say the royal we because my wife is with me, Linda, and we're here with Rich.

And Rich, we have some announcements regarding James White's itinerary and what he's been up to and what he's doing.

Well, he's been very busy, and the dialogue that he had with Imam Musri on Saturday, I understand, went very well. And the debate that he had with Greg Strawbridge last night on baptism, as I understand, also went very well.

And, of course, as we always have after these things happen, people start clamoring for when will we have the audio, when will the video be available? That's already started. Was it live streamed? No, it wasn't.

And we'll announce at the end of the program when that's no, no, no, the we have some obligations to both Imam Musri as well as Dr. Strawbridge that we when we do these things, we have a contract. And part of how we do it, we believe it's the right thing and the right way to do it.

And that is that we promise our opponent that we will provide them with master quality footage, in other words, identical copies of all of the media that we take from the event. And we will not release the the media.

I mean, I don't know if some pictures and stuff have been, you know, some stills and stuff have gone up. But as far as the actual audio and the video itself, that we will not release until we have provided that to our opponent.

It is simply a matter of our obligation and keeping our good word. And that's one of the things in ways in which we do that. So for those who are clamoring for the media, we have first obligations to take care of to to those we have made promises to.

And then once that has happened, we will then begin processing all of that media and putting it out. The debates, the videos might take about, I don't know, a couple of weeks to a month to process. But as soon as we have audio, we will put that in the shopping cart from both events and folks will be able to get that from there.

And then if they if you know, if they're willing to wait, once the video is up, we will publish that on YouTube. That will be what we do with it. And the other side is certainly welcome to do whatever they want to do with it.

But the key thing is, folks, remember, this is part of our keeping our word and we stand by that.

Strongly. Very good. OK, anything else? That was it. Wow. So James is going to be.

Speaking in Jacksonville tomorrow morning. He's speaking in Edgewater, Florida tonight. And that's all up on the blog. Or if you go down the very bottom of the main page there, the calendar just simply hover on the 24th, 25th, 26th, and you'll see where he's at.

And then after tomorrow morning, he flies to Pensacola where he'll. He will be speaking at the Jeremiah Cry conference starting Thursday. That will go through the.

Weekend and then he comes back next week. So they can just check the blog and all they.

Have to do is look at that calendar and hover over the particular date. And it tells him exactly, you know, where he's going to be. And whatever information, contact information.

Is all right there. Just the inside scoop is I know the next 24 hours is very, very, very, very busy. So please be praying for him and his health. The intensity of his trip.

Just skipped up a great bit. And he's going to be doing a lot of traveling in the next.

24 hours. OK. And speaking in between all that traveling. Yes. Yes. Excellent. Well, again, we're here on the show and we're excited about bringing something that hopefully will be a blessing to the viewers and listeners.

Who am I? I'm John Sampson. I pastor King's Church in Phoenix, which is a new fledging reformed Baptist church on the west side of the valley in the Arrowhead area. I'm just going to put this up. I don't know if anyone can see this.

Perhaps they can. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is where we're meeting. As from last Sunday, the Lord's really blessed us with a wonderful location where we're just meeting on a Sunday and on a Wednesday night.

And what's the address of that? The address of that? It's all on the church website, which is KingsChurchAZ .com. My own personal blog site is effectualgrace .com. But the address is in the Arrowhead area, Peoria, Arizona.

It's the Palos Verdes Senior Living Facility. So we're there and there's elderly people who are going to hear the gospel, which is wonderful. 18441 North 87th Avenue. And that's in Peoria, Arizona. 18441 North 87th Avenue.

And that's just off the 101 freeway at Union Hills. So if you're in the area and don't have a church, then obviously we'd invite you there. There are other churches that are good here in the valley. And we're all about the King's business.

Now, what are your meeting times? 11 a .m. on Sunday and then Wednesday at 7 p .m. So you meet in the same facility on Wednesday nights as well. In the morning we meet in the large hall on the second floor.

There's an elevator for anyone who needs it as well as stairs. And then Wednesday night in the downstairs boardroom areas. Very professional looking facility and a nice room. So we're looking forward to that.

Excellent. Excellent. I wonder if you've ever been scared. I remember when I was probably the most scared I've ever been in my life. And it was on a road trip from England to Switzerland. And England is this island you've probably heard of.

And you can't drive more than five or six hours without falling off it. It's not a large place. And France is 26 miles away from Dover in England to Calais in France. That's the shortest distance. And you can either go by car by ferry over the water or now there's an underground train system.

But it's 26 miles and then you get out the other side. Can you imagine going 26 miles in America and then everyone you meet doesn't understand you has a different currency speaks a different language.

That's what happens when English people go to France and then you travel through France to Germany and then through Germany to Austria and then to Switzerland. And again when people tell me that they're driving from Arizona to Texas for instance I think in my mind that's the equivalent of England to Italy.

And you've probably gone through seven countries in that time and maybe eight or nine languages. America is just so huge and vast in comparison to countries in Europe. But I remember I had just got my driver's license in England and my mother wanted to go to Switzerland.

She just loves the place. And I do now that I've been there a couple of times. And as maybe a teenager 18 19 years old I went with my mother which was the first and last time we ever did such a thing.

I went to Switzerland. And one of the things we wanted to do was see some of the scenery. And there's a lot of scenery in Switzerland's most beautiful place I think I've ever been to. There's certain places in America that are close to it.

But I think Switzerland just is majestic. And there was this one mountain where at the bottom of this mountain there's a number of signs that say drive on at your own risk in several different languages.

And it's very clear that you are taking a risk when you drive this mountain road. It's a road around the mountain that will save you hours rather than going around it in various circuitous routes. And so we wanted to get to the other side.

There were certain things we were thinking of seeing. And so we started on this track. We had a fairly small car thought it'd be OK. But this this road was absolutely treacherous. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

There were warning signs drive at your own risk. Tiny one lane road with a rickety wooden fence on the edge. It was actually powerless to stop a car if you can imagine this little piece of wood on two other pieces of wood.

And then on and on and on we go. It's just it's going to be useless should you ever bump into that little thing. It cannot stop you. It should be made of steel and concrete. But it was this little wooden fence.

And we were about halfway around the mountain and still just in awe of the view even from here but also very scared because this was a very narrow road. And what should be happening was a bus was coming the other way.

And I mean a bus a big bus. I had no idea how a bus driver would even attempt to do such a thing. That road was ridiculously narrow and it was all I could do even in a small car to avoid the drop and how a bus could think of doing this I couldn't imagine.

So it was hard enough going forward on this road. Now I had to go backwards about half or three quarters of a mile to find a small widening a very small widening in the road where I could stop while the bus drove around me.

There's no way I could go forward. He wasn't going to move. Scary is not the word. It doesn't cover it. I was going in reverse looking at that guardrail knowing that an inch over just that that that guardrail is not going to stop me from going over that that guardrail became a life preserver to know exactly where the little narrow road ended.

The guardrail actually served a number of purposes. It showed where the mountain stopped and thin air rested. And I did have a look over at one time and I saw at least three cars down below. I don't know if the people had died as a result of falling off but this was a treacherous road.

But the guardrail although rickety and although imperfect and not very very strong at all served a purpose it said this far and no further. What am I saying all this about? What's the reason for it? I want to talk about the guardrail of the creeds the creeds of the Christian faith.

Many people when they hear that word they say I don't I don't need a creed I don't have a creed we've we've got the Bible. Except there's a number of flaws with that view. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4 for a moment where the apostle Paul writing to the church at Ephesus writes in verse 4.

There is one body and one spirit just as you are called to the one hope that belongs to your call one Lord one faith one baptism. Here the word faith is referring to not our personal faith in God but the faith the Christian faith.

There's only one there's not two or three or two and a half or anything like that there's one one Lord one faith one baptism one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift therefore it says when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

In saying he ascended what does it mean but that also descended into the lower regions of the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things and he gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness in deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head even Christ into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

We could camp out in this passage as you can imagine for a lengthy period of time but certain things I just want to bring out of it is the fact that there's one faith and when Jesus ascended he gave gifts to men.

Those gifts were people apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers who were gifted by God to equip the saints for the work of ministries. Not that these people did all the ministry but their their function was to equip the saints so that the ministry is done through the ministry of the saints.

He equips the saints for the work of ministry building up the body of Christ. What I want to say about that is some of these gifts these men of God these gifts he gave to men are here in the present time but they're also people that have passed on from this world but God has especially gifted them and we're foolish if we don't listen to them and receive them as gifts to us.

They are Christ's gifts to his body. And so seeing that and seeing these men in that light means that we're not just on our own with bibles in hand having to reinvent the wheel so to speak. No these men of God have poured their lives over the same scriptures we have.

And we're foolish if we do not at least start off from where they ended up in their studies. Not that they're infallible but to see them as less than useful is actually very immature and prideful. For instance you're reading the bible and you think you've got a new insight about the trinity.

I have a problem with that. Why. Because that would infer that Jesus was waiting for you to come along before he could reveal the truth of who God is to the church. Yep he was waiting for Brian Patterson of 17th Avenue on this in a certain city he was waiting for him to come along so that the church could be edified.

No Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And when he talked about the church I believe he was thinking of more than 38 people who were his elect people. Now they're such a number that no man can number them out of every tribe tongue people and nation.

And God the Holy Spirit has gifted man to search the scriptures. And there is a communal aspect to our what with God. I'm not into. I'm not after trying to come up with a new concept of the trinity. I want to know what is it that the church has believed.

And why do they believe it. The starting point is the bible. It could be that God was waiting for you to come up with a new revelation of the trinity. But more than likely I think you're in trouble. If you think God was waiting for you and you've got more insight than other generations.

Why would the Holy Spirit not reveal the truth in the first century the third century the 17th century. And so it goes on even in the bible we have certain creeds. The Jewish faith is based on the what we call the old testament the old covenant.

They wouldn't call it that because they have not embraced the new one but their own scripture. In Deuteronomy chapter six is something called the shema a hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one. That is a phrase known by every Jew that is God is one.

He's not. He's not a plurality of gods. There is only one God in Hebrew shema or shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. It's a phrase that means exactly what we see in our translations of the bible hero Israel the Lord our God.

The Lord is one. You'll never convince normally a Jewish person that there is something called polytheism. It's born into them as a culture. There's only one God. Similarly in the new testament Romans chapter 10 verse 9 tells us something about Jesus.

A lot of people say I believe in Jesus. Well that's interesting. But what do you believe about Jesus. The early church affirmed that Jesus is Lord. He's more than a good teacher. He's more than a prophet.

He is Lord. Curios Curios Jesus was the cry of the early church in Greek in that culture as a counter claim to the emperor who said and mandated that every Roman city citizen said Kaiser Curios Caesar is Lord that was required to be part of the empire of Rome.

You had to affirm Caesar as Lord. And in opposition to that and in contrast to that Christian said no we will not say that we want to be good citizens. We will respect those in authority but we cannot call him Lord.

Only Jesus is worthy of that kind of a title. But that phrase Kaiser Curios was a demonstration of allegiance both to the empire and to the emperor. And many many thousands in church history have suffered death martyrdom because they would not affirm one creed but would affirm another.

It's interesting when you look at other scriptures and first Corinthians chapter 13 talks of the lordship of Christ. Chapter 12 I'm thinking of I think here where it says no man can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

I believe it's first Corinthians 12 verse 3. Similarly in Philippians chapter 2 we have the record of Paul what many scholars believe to be the case is that he's quoting an early hymn of the church the common Christi where he said although Jesus although Christ from all eternity had fellowship with God and existed with God yet he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped but made himself of no reputation becoming a man becoming a servant a man then even going to that cruel rugged cross.

And therefore God has raised him to the highest place. And the end of that passage Philippians 2 11 it says that every tongue will confess what Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the father. So again there's an affirmation of Jesus being Lord as a creedal statement of the early church.

And that's the case. You're not into you're not allowed entrance into the kingdom of God unless you are building on the Jesus of the old and new testament the one who was spoken of as the promised one in the old now revealed in the new the eternal word.

That's so important we understand that we recognize even when Jesus turned to his disciples and said who do you say that I am. Peter spoke up as he often did for all of them saying you are the Christ the son of the living God.

And Jesus said on this rock I will build my church. Who what what is he building on. Not Peter but the revelation he gave to Peter which was Jesus is that rock. Jesus is a certain person divine person he's the son of God not merely a teacher and he is the Christ he is the Messiah.

On that rock of revelation of who I am I'm building my church I will build my church. And no hellish strategy will be sufficient to stand against the onslaught of the church militant. As we look at that word curious.

I've mentioned the word lord in in Greek it meant ruler it meant lord master. At other times it meant owner. But in context especially with the Kaiser. Curios statement that was affirmed by all of the Roman citizens to say uh Jesus is lord meant something very very powerful.

Second Timothy 1 verse 13 Paul writes to Timothy says. Follow the pattern of the sound words. The sound the healthy words that you've heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Follow the pattern of sound words. There are things that have to be affirmed. There are things that are healthy to believe. Follow after that instruct that instruct that in the people teach the people this and in that way one of the ways you can guard the good deposit it is is in that very instruction.

Then we look at passages like Romans 6 where we find phrases that are very influential in our understanding of what happened in the early church because Paul writes in verse 17 of Romans 6. But thanks be to God that you were who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart.

Now notice this next phrase to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness. There's an assumption Paul makes as he's writing this letter to the church at Rome.

He's never been there. But this is what he knows. If people are in the church at Rome they couldn't have been there any real length of time without being exposed to a standard of teaching. People say what's the biblical basis for a new believers class.

I think Romans 6 17 is exactly that. It's got implications of that if not an explicit statement an implication. Paul assumed anyone at the church of Rome was subjected to a standard of teaching. And he says you were committed to it.

You've embraced it. The word the entry point into the kingdom of God is not some theological test that is so radical that only a few can make it. No it's the Jesus is Lord. It's Jesus is the son of God.

And you affirm that all right. You're in now we'll teach you we'll subject you now we'll expose you now to a standard of teaching. And so that is very very instruct insightful for us and instructs us.

I love looking at some of the creeds of the church historically I didn't used to I was raised in a church that did not speak of creeds or confessions at all and it seemed that people were trying to find a new definition of the trinity and that was scary to me.

I went off to Bible college and Bible seminary and I was aghast at some of the things that I was told because what I had been hearing it from certain people made me really think that some of my good friends were heretics.

They spoke as if they had authority and they thought they could reinvent the wheel regarding who Jesus is and people say but I I don't need a creed. I've got Jesus. Okay. Okay I understand. But who is Jesus.

And before you start answering that question knowing that you're going to say some words who Jesus is you're not going to say well I've got a gardener called Jesus. His name is the same in Spanish as it is regarding the name Jesus and but that's not the Jesus of the Bible.

You'd agree the Jesus of the cults is not the same Jesus as the Bible. And that's why they can't save. Because they don't actually exist. There isn't a Mormon Jesus. There isn't a Jehovah's Witness Jesus.

There's only the Jesus of the Bible and only he can save. So before you answer the question who's Jesus know that you're going to get into theology and you're going to make a creedal statement. Oh no.

No no. I don't believe in such things. Yeah yes you do. You're going to say something about Jesus and that is something that you believe about Jesus. And the word creed comes from the Latin word credo which means I believe and you and I believe something about Jesus.

We've all got a creed. Hear this whether it's written down or not. And so if you don't write it down it's never exposed to the light of scripture by people who can get a bible out very very clear. What we do with creeds is to say although only scripture is the word of God we need to ask the question what is it that scripture teaches.

Again some people say I've no creed but the bible. Okay I understand where you're coming from. It's actually a good thing that you hold the bible up to be the very word of God. The reformers would agree.

I would agree absolutely. Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms 1521 sparked the protestant reformation where in his speech he said unless I'm convinced by sacred scripture or by evident reason I will not.

I cannot recant for my conscience is held captive by the word of God. To act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other God help me. I just an aside I remember talking with James White as I was coming to understand the doctrines of grace and I try to impress him which just just take it from me.

It's not going to work. The guy just knows way too much. And I've memorized this Luther speech and here I was with my little reformed diapers on saying unless I'm convinced and went through the whole thing and he just shook his head as James can and he says can you quote it in the original German like Luther did.

I said no. But I went back home and next week I said here stay. I can mix. Anders got help from here and I was in. I was in I was in praise the Lord. I'm in now with the in crowd. I can do it in German the original way that Luther would have said it.

Oh how silly we are. But that's an aside. Only scripture is Theot Neustadt. Only scripture is God breathe. And so the man the woman who says I have no creed but the Bible I know where they're coming from.

Except we need to then ask what do you believe that the Bible teaches. And when you answer by something other than just quoting the whole Bible and taking many days to do so we need to summarize what we believe scripture teaches about who God is who Jesus is the person and work of Christ how salvation comes to us.

All of these things are vital for us to embrace. Otherwise we're believing something other than what the Bible says. You see there are people in cults who say they believe the Bible. And yet when you ask them what do you believe the Bible teaches we end up in very different places.

And there are things called heresies. And usually everyone has one or two or three or 18 of them minor things. But there are what we call damnable heresies things that put us outside the camp of being orthodox as Christians.

And those things need to be addressed. And we need to believe true doctrine. All I need is Jesus. Okay. So who's Jesus. All I need is the Bible. Okay. So what does the Bible teach. Everyone has a creed not always written down.

But when you write it down you can then allow yourself and others to look at it and say is that exactly what scripture teaches. Which Jesus do you believe in. Let me go to another short a couple of verses in 2nd Corinthians 11 where the apostle Paul makes the distinction that I've just already made in a few in a few minutes ago regarding Jesus that there are other Jesus's we must believe in the true one.

In 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 3 he says. He writes this. But I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning your your pure excuse me. As the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted you put up with it readily enough.

This was a word of scolding. He's saying look I can come and bring the true message of the true Jesus. And I can bring the true gospel. But what is happening with you in Corinth is someone else can come along preach a different Jesus and a different gospel and you accept it.

Hey that's great. Amen. And he's being very very reprimanding saying that's not right. You should not put up with false teaching because you get it wrong about Jesus. There'll be a different spirit other than the holy spirit present who will deceive who will cause more and more deception.

There'll be a different Jesus a different spirit and a different gospel. Here's what I know about the cults. When you get it wrong about who Jesus is you end up with a different gospel. It's amazingly uncanny that you can disregard what Christians through the centuries have embraced about Christ.

And it leads to a false gospel as well. It's not you get it right on the gospel. You just got it wrong about Jesus. No there's the spirit that gets involved is not the holy spirit. And he leads people into and drives people into more and more deception.

Let's scrutinize what we believe. Let's compare it with scripture. Only scripture has the authority to bind the conscience. That's really what came out of that diet of warmth for Luther as he made those remarks in that hall there the diet of warmth where he he said unless I'm convinced by sacred scripture only scripture can bind the conscience.

Creeds are lesser. They're like the guardrails. There's no real strength in them except they tell us what the church through the centuries have believed scripture to be saying. And we're foolish if we disregard the guardrails and just drive up over where we think there will be terra firma beneath us and then plunge to our death.

In a spiritual sense it is deadly to believe false doctrine about who God is and who Jesus is and how salvation comes to us. There's there's been more than 38 Christians down through the centuries. There's been hundreds and thousands of millions of the real McCoy the real genuine Christian because Jesus said I will build my church and he's always had his elect people.

Those who embrace him because the holy spirit comes alongside the people of God to lead them into the truth of God. And to say I'm the one with the new revelation about who God is means that we disregard what the holy spirit has been doing all through the centuries.

Do you see that. And so creeds are not hostile to the Christian walk. They're actually like guardrails. They have they help us. I can say after much struggling and striving and coming as some of you already know from one of the shows I did last year I was a pastor in the word of faith movement.

And I now I'm just so grateful to God for bringing me out of what I now consider to be gross deception. I believed in the true Jesus as far as I know hadn't changed my mind regarding him. He is the second person of the trinity.

He is one person with two natures. He's fully God fully man. And I have always believed that as a Christian. Yet leave some strange things. Now I embrace the London Baptist confession of faith 1689 and Dr. James White is on the same page with me.

I'm on the same page with him and I guess that's why he lets me loose here on the broadcast. Because God has been very gracious to me to lead me over a period of time into what I now believe is the the truth of God according to the scriptures.

This is not infallible and yet it's not negligible either. Why would those of the Christian faith embrace such a creed at the Westminster confession of faith is similar for Presbyterian brothers and sisters.

But why would we regard this as just useless when again people have poured themselves over the scriptures for many centuries these gifts of God to the church by Christ and then say we don't need them.

No I think that's actually pride. Some people say I don't. I don't want theology. I just want Jesus. Theology just means the study of God or the word about God. Theos and logos. Two words sandwiched together.

Logos meaning word or the study of and theos meaning God. We all have a theology. Even atheists have a theology. Their theology about God is that they say there is no God. That's their theology. And so you can't avoid theology.

It's like going to a restaurant and saying to the waiter you know I'd like some water but can you hold the wet. I really don't like wet. No no. I can't do that sir because wet comes with the water. If you're going to love Jesus you're going to need to love the Jesus of the Bible and get it right.

Regarding who he is or you don't have a relationship with Jesus. You may say you have but only the Jesus of the Bible is the real Jesus. And the Jesus of the Bible is fully God and fully man. Before you move a fence someone said make sure you ask why it was put there in the first place.

Why would those through the centuries write creeds. Because they said this is a line this is a fence. We dare not cross because there's a precipice over the other side of this fence that will lead to damnation.

Rc sprawl wrote this one time. No christian can avoid theology. Every christian has a theology. The issue then is not do we want to have a theology that's a given. The real issue is do we have a sound theology.

Do embrace. Do we embrace true or false doctrine. He also said this although tradition does not rule our interpretation it does guide it. If upon reading a particular passage you've come up with an interpretation that has escaped the notice of every other christian for 2 000 years or has been championed by universally recognized heretics chances are pretty good that you had better abandon your interpretation.

That's sound and that's healthy. And some will hear that and say i don't care. I've got my what with jesus. And all that is is pride. All that is is arrogance. We need to understand. The holy spirit has been present with the church since the day of pentecost.

He's been leading his people into his truth the truth of god. And the same holy spirit that has who has inspired the text is leading the people of god into understanding and interpreting the text as well.

The big standard for us is the bible not the creeds. Scripture alone is the word of god but never never negate the value of the guardrails. To go beyond them is to go beyond what the bible teaches. That's because the creeds are short and precise summaries of what the bible teaches.

Let me give you a two or three quotes that i think would be helpful at this point. First is from ch spurgeon. I've learned in life. If you find a spurgeon quote on a particular subject you've basically found the pearl and anything else is downhill from there.

Hear this. It seems odd as spurgeon said that certain men who talk so much of what the holy spirit reveals to themselves should think so little of what he has revealed to others. Short precise stinging but absolutely true.

J .i packer in a book upholding the unity of scripture today writes. This tradition is the fruit of the spirit's teaching activity from the ages. As god's people have sought understanding of scripture it is not infallible but neither is it negligible.

And we impoverish ourselves if we disregard it. I believe that's a faithful summary of what i've been trying to say as well. Michael horton in what still keeps apart wrote this. The best way to guard a true interpretation of scripture the reformers insisted was neither to naively embrace the infallibility of tradition or the infallibility of the individual but to recognize the communal interpretation of scripture.