BERNARD: The Church Must Never Outsource Theology to Tradition

Faimon Roberts’ recent opinion column in The Baton Rouge Advocate is presented as a critique of Pastor Tony Spell’s conduct. Yet the article’s central focus is not the pending legal matter, but the doctrine he preaches. Once the discussion shifts from the facts of a legal case to whether the Oneness of God falls outside “historic Christianity,” the debate is no longer about criminal allegations. It is about theology, biblical authority, and who has the right to define Christian orthodoxy.

The legal matters belong in a courtroom and should be decided on evidence. They will be decided there. I will not re-litigate those facts here. The theological question belongs where it has always belonged: the inspired Word of God.

For those who profess Sola Scriptura, the question is not what a fourth or fifth century council declared, what later church historians concluded, or what creeds eventually defined.

The question is simple:

What did Jesus Christ and His apostles teach?

The apostles left the Church the inspired Scriptures. They did not leave us the terms “Trinity,” “three Persons,” “God the Son,” “eternal Son,” or “one essence.” Those are post apostolic theological formulations. If they are essential to the Christian faith, they should be plainly demonstrated from Moses, the Prophets, Christ, and the apostles themselves.

The Foundation Never Changed

One truth stands clearly established from Genesis to Revelation:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

That confession is not merely another verse.

It is the foundation upon which God revealed Himself.

Throughout the Old Testament, God relentlessly guarded Israel against pagan religion. He repeatedly warned His people against the gods of Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, Baal, Asherah, Molech, and every competing system of worship.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

“I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.” (Isaiah 43:11)

Israel’s greatest failure was never military weakness.

It was abandoning the one true God for the religions of the surrounding nations.

God spent centuries separating Israel from pagan polytheism, idolatry, and every competing conception of deity. That historical reality explains why Jewish theology has consistently guarded the absolute oneness of God so vigorously. While Judaism rejects Jesus as the Messiah, its doctrine of God remains rooted in the Shema. That same biblical confession is where the Oneness understanding begins.

The Incarnation Completes the Revelation

When the fullness of time came, that same God manifested Himself in the flesh.

John declares:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1, 14)

Paul writes:

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Timothy 3:16)

Again he declares:

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9)

Isaiah had already prophesied:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given… and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

The God of Abraham is the God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The Judge of Sinai is the Savior of Calvary.

The New Testament does not redefine God’s identity.

It reveals the incarnation of the one God who had already revealed Himself throughout the Old Testament.

Why This Matters

For most of my Christian life, I simply accepted the plain testimony of Scripture.

What forced me to examine this issue more carefully was watching professing Christians publicly condemn Pastor Tony Spell, not only over a legal controversy, but because he refuses to embrace the doctrine of the Trinity.

The legal controversy became the vehicle.

The doctrine became the target.

That raises a deeper question.

Which Jesus are we talking about?

If Jesus Christ is the very God revealed throughout the Old Testament, then He cannot be detached from the Lord who judged the earth in Noah’s day, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, delivered Israel from Egypt, and established the God given responsibilities of husbands and fathers to protect their households.

The Christ who showed mercy is the same Lord who executes justice.

There are not two portraits of God.

There is one.

The Methodological Contradiction

The greater irony is impossible to ignore.

Many of the same voices who passionately defend Sola Scriptura appeal to post apostolic creeds and philosophical terminology to declare Oneness believers heretics.

That presents a serious methodological inconsistency.

If Scripture alone is the final authority, why should doctrines defined by post apostolic terminology become the standard by which Christians judge one another?

Traditional Jewish scholarship has long regarded the formal doctrine of the Trinity as a post biblical development employing philosophical categories foreign to the Hebrew Scriptures. While Judaism rejects Jesus as the Messiah, its longstanding defense of God’s absolute oneness demonstrates that the debate over the nature of God did not begin with modern Oneness believers.

If the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to the Christian faith, then the burden of proof rests upon those who would define God with terminology unknown to Moses, the prophets, Christ, and His apostles.

A Lesson from History

History also warns us about allowing ecclesiastical authority to replace biblical authority.

In 1553, Michael Servetus challenged the traditional doctrine of the Trinity, arguing that its defining terminology could not be found in Scripture. Rather than simply answering his arguments from the biblical text, he was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake in Geneva.

Whether one agrees with Servetus’ theology is not the point.

His execution remains a sobering reminder of what can happen when church tradition becomes the final arbiter of doctrine rather than the inspired Word of God.

The Protestant Reformation challenged Rome by asking a single question:

Where is it written?

That same question should still govern the Church today.

Truth has never been established by majority vote, church councils, or centuries of repetition.

The issue is not whether a doctrine is ancient.

The issue is whether it is apostolic.

The apostles left us the Bible.

Let the Bible speak.

Let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Let no believer be branded a heretic unless the case can first be made from the inspired Word of God itself.