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.
Church Order
58-1007 §3
We believe in justification by faith, Romans 5:1. We believe that after a person being justified by faith, he has peace with the Lord Jesus Christ; but it's possible that this same person could have habits such as drinking, smoking, doing things that he should not do, filthy habits of the flesh. Then we believe that the blood of Jesus Christ sanctifies this person for the service of the Lord. And that ... we believe in sanctification according to Hebrews 13:12 and 13: "Where Jesus also, that He might sanctify the p...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-38
Now toward the end of the fourth age which would be the beginning of the fifth age also, the invasion of Constantinople by the Turks sent the learned scholars of the East with their Greek manuscripts to the West. The purity of the Word and the teachings of true believers were thus disseminated. And not only were these fine teachers of great importance but also the invention of what became the basis of our modern printing presses was discovered, facilitating the production of books. Thus we find the great hunger and...
My commission
51-0505 §35
Now, I want to read some Scripture right away so that if... My words will fail. I'm a man. But these Words won't fail. This is God's Word, It can't fail. Now, how many in here have faith in Jesus, let's see your hands? Oh, wonderful. All right. How many believes He's the same today as He was yesterday and every day? Oh, that's fine. I want... Now, that's your faith. Now, I want to show you what else I want you to have tonight. The 14th verse of the 2nd chapter of Saint James. And I will read even the 26th inclusive...
To see Jesus
54-0718E §24
And we see Satan, then, tell Him, said, "Now, if You be the Son of God, let's see You do a miracle for me now. I will give You something to do, and if You'll do it, I'll believe You're the Son of God"---in so many words. "Now, here You're hungry. Now, You can turn these stones into bread." Nothing bad about it. "You make them bread, and eat, sit down there and eat. And turn them stones to bread, and I'll believe You." Why, Jesus could have done that, I believe. But He said, "It is written, man shall not live by bre...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-50
4. His Voice Was as the Sound of Many Waters. Now what do the waters represent? Hear it in Revelation 17:15, "... the waters which thou sawest,... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." His voice was as the sound of multitudes speaking. What is it? It is the judgment. For these are the voices of the multitudes of witnesses, who by the Holy Spirit all through the ages have testified to Christ and preached His Gospel. It will be the voice of every man rising in judgment against the sinner who would n...