Sufficiency of Scripture
Historic orthodoxy
Scripture contains everything we need to know for salvation, faith, and life, so nothing needs to be added to it.
Also called: sufficient Scripture, Scripture is sufficient
What it means
The sufficiency of Scripture means that the Bible gives us all that God requires us to believe and do. The whole counsel of God for his glory and our salvation is either stated in Scripture or follows from it by good and necessary reasoning. Nothing is to be added, "whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men."
Sufficiency does not mean the Bible is a textbook for every subject, or that common sense and ordinary wisdom have no place. Churches still decide meeting times and building repairs. It means that in what we must believe and how we must worship and live, the conscience is bound only by God's Word.
This doctrine shapes a church in practical ways. It keeps leaders from binding members with rules God has not given. It keeps worship tied to what God has commanded. It sends hurting people to the Word for counsel. And it guards against claims of new revelation that would sit beside or above the Bible.
In Scripture
Scripture makes the man of God complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
God's divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through knowing him.
The secret things belong to God, but what he has revealed belongs to us, that we may obey it.
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul and making the simple wise.
The faith was delivered to the saints once for all, not in installments still to come.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 1.6; LBCF 1689 1.1; LBCF 1689 1.6
On this site: Scripture
Related terms
Sola ScripturaHistoric orthodoxy
Scripture alone is the final and infallible authority over the church, by which every other authority is judged.
InerrancyHistoric orthodoxy
The Bible, as originally given, is without error in everything it affirms, because it is the Word of a God who cannot lie.
Scripture as one authority among severalSerious error
The view that the Bible is one source of authority alongside others, such as church tradition, official teaching, reason, or experience, with none of them finally over the rest.