Is the term biblical, biblical?

There exists a phenomenon amongst Protestants that suggests the bible is the only source of authority and inspiration that God has bestowed upon us. Before we discuss this issue in more detail let us remember that the term 'biblical' is a relatively new term in Christendom.

What we must be able to comprehend as Orthodox Christians is that the fullness of the faith is not confined to the bible, Jesus did not come and preach a message that was supposed to be confined to any one book, God cannot be confined, God will work through His sacraments, His Saints and by any means that He sees fit.

There are many flaws associated with the doctrine of 'Sola Scriptura', first thing that should be of blatant obviousness to any learned Apostolic Christian is that there is no indication of this doctrine in the bible, quite the contrary we read in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15 "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us." St Paul clearly states here that there existed an oral tradition, which complemented the writings of the Church. These oral traditions were necessary considering the high illiteracy rate during the first century and also taking into account that to produce copies of scripture was enormously time consuming (remember there was no printing press).

The bible itself was not canonised amongst the western church until the council of Nicea and we must ask ourselves, why was there a need to canonise the bible? The answer is quite simple; it was to close the canon of scripture to ward off heretical writings and ideas, thus safe guarding the Orthodox Christian faith. The bible was canonised to protect the Orthodox faith, and now, the very same bible that our forefathers were martyred for is being used against the Orthodox faith with claims that we are not a biblical church, confused? You need not be. The liturgy that is used within our Church is a synergy of Psalms, Gospel readings and Epistles taken from the Bible, our Church Fathers' commentaries and sermons are based on events in the bible, our scribes so revered the bible that it would take between five to ten years to complete one copy due to constant revising, thus ensuring errors would not creep in (Peshitta version). So I find it quite odd when I am confronted by people who claim "your church doesn't go by the scriptures", when faced with this accusation I cannot help but smile.

Another problem that is blatantly obvious with 'sola scriptura' is the apparent mess we now see with 30,000 + denominations all ascribing to this doctrine and yet all claiming to have the truth "revealed" to them by the Holy Spirit. However, in reality, this mess exists simply because of erroneous interpretation of scripture! We read in 2nd Timothy 4:3 ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. St Paul stipulates that people will heap up teachers for themselves and this prophecy is fulfilled, so many teachers peddling demonic doctrines and leading people astray. Christ also said "A house divided against itself will not stand" and knowing this will the Holy Spirit of God (who is blasphemed amongst many protestant denominations) divide the Christian faith into thousands upon thousands of denominations, each with their own interpretation of scripture? I believe an answer is not necessary as it is evident.

One evangelical preacher stated “there are Churches out there built on tradition and not the bible” well I would say to this evangelical that our traditions, unlike sola scriptura, are not man made and even so, they do not interfere with God’s word in any sense of the term. What was the western church doing for three hundred years without a definitive set of text? They didn’t have a book called the bible, they had scripture and this scripture was not restricted to the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles. Writing by the Saints, i.e. the epistles of Clement and Polycarp, in the first and second centuries were also deemed to be inspired and the only reason for their exclusion as part of the bible canon was because they failed to meet a specified set of criteria. However, it did not exclude other such writings from the bible due to them not being deemed authoritative, inspired or orthodox in nature. The bible, as previously noted, was canonised to ensure that heretical teachings did not enter into the Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox faith represents the fullness of Christianity not only found through the bible but also through the sacraments, the church hierarchy (Deacons, Priests and Bishops), the Saints and most importantly, Christ, who is the head of the Apostolic Orthodox Churches. Christ established the Apostolic Orthodox Churches and we have maintained the teachings passed on by the Apostles for almost 2000 years.