Should Believers Rely on Scripture Alone or Also on Tradition?
1) Direct answer
Believers must rely on the Bible alone as the final authority. Any “tradition” that adds to, takes from, or stands beside the Word as equal authority is to be rejected. Customs may exist, but they carry no binding power unless they are plainly taught in Scripture.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says all Scripture is God-breathed and sufficient to thoroughly furnish the man of God (2 Timothy 3:16–17). If it furnishes us completely, nothing else can be required.
- Jesus rebuked those who made “the word of God of none effect” through their tradition (Mark 7:7–9,13).
- We are warned not to add to or take away from God’s Word (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:5–6; Revelation 22:18–19).
- Even if an angel preached something different, we must not receive it (Galatians 1:8–9).
- “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).
- The Spirit guides into all truth (John 16:13), but Jesus defined truth: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). The Holy Spirit will only quicken what is written.
- Some point to “traditions” in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 and 1 Corinthians 11:2. Those were the apostles’ own teachings given to the church and now preserved in Scripture. The only traditions we “hold” are the apostolic instructions recorded in the Bible.
3) Simple clarifying logic
Now notice: if Scripture is complete and God-breathed, then putting tradition beside it creates a second authority—and two authorities will soon contradict. That’s how the commandments of men nullify the commandments of God. You see, the Word judges tradition; tradition never judges the Word. If a practice agrees with Scripture, we receive it because it is Scripture. If it is not in the Word, it cannot be binding on the believer.
4) Reinforcing statement
Man lives “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Stay with the Word. The Bible is the absolute.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Believest thou this?
51-1003 §21
Now, you in here born again believers, you have the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit thrives on one thing: that's the Word. That's what it lives on. It eats and lives... Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out the mouth of God. [Gap in the audio.] So it's the Word. Now, in our little Scripture lesson tonight, if we'd take a text, we'd take--say "Believest Thou This?" And we have these Scriptures under consideration just for a few moments.
Three kinds of believers
63-1124E §26
Daniel didn't take the place with the modern church; neither did Noah take the place with the modern church. Not at all. They was believers in what God said to be the truth. No matter what the modern world said, they believed what God said was the truth. That's genuine believers. Just the same as Peter did and the apostles--they believed that He had the Word of life and was the Word of life. I believe the same thing today. And every other thing against it is contrary. It's not ... it's death. This alone is the Word...
It is the Rising of the Sun
65-0418M §102
And remember, we are flesh of his flesh---Jesus Christ. We are flesh of his flesh, and bones of his bones. Oh, there's no way out of it, we're going to rise, that's all. You're going to rise, that's all. Easter means more than just a tradition. It is also now, for our bodies are quickened with Him and we're sitting in heavenly places. And this body may rot in the sea, it may rot in the ground, there may not even be a spoonful of ashes, but she is coming forth, for the Spirit that raised up my Lord from the dead has...
The Token
64-0308 §57
Notice, in Hebrews 9:11 also, Paul said, "Serving the living God," the living article. Not saying... It's like I go up, like a Hebrew used to. Take his sacrifice, and come down the road with a big, fat bullock; and lay his hands upon it and identify himself, and shed the blood; go back justified. Jehovah required it; he did it. Then the next generation maybe they got a little colder, somebody else got a little colder, the first thing you know it become a family tradition. That's what Pentecost has become to us---a...
God's Word calls for a total separation from unbelief
64-0121 §18
Sin is unbelief. There was no unbelief found in Him nowhere. When He was here on earth, He said, "Who can condemn me of sin?" Sin is unbelief. "If I haven't done just what was prophesied for this age, if I haven't met the requirements of what Messiah is supposed to do, then don't believe me." Said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me (tell you who He is)." Because it had been prophesied since Eden that there would come a Saviour. The prophet said...