Physics Without Newton? (quick version)

The situation

What this is about

Many churches today call themselves non-denominational or independent. A common way of putting it goes something like this (the wording is ours, not a quotation): “We’re not Baptist or Methodist or Catholic. We don’t follow a man or a movement. We just follow Jesus and teach the Bible.” It is usually meant sincerely, as devotion.

This page asks what that sentence does once it has been said. There are really two views.

The historic view

Follow Jesus as the Church has received him — and say so in writingThe Bible is the final authority. But nobody reads it from nowhere. A church should say publicly how it reads the Bible on the big questions, so members can check what they’re taught, the next pastor is bound by it, and changes are visible. You can still disagree with the past — the Reformation did — but openly, with reasons.

The newer view

We don’t follow anyone but JesusDenominations divide Christians over human traditions. Creeds were written by fallible people. Every believer has the Holy Spirit. The early church had no denominations. A church that simply opens the Bible and obeys Jesus will find the truth without needing anyone else to tell it what the text says.

Three things should be said straight away, because they are true and the rest of the page assumes them.

Both views love Jesus and put the Bible first. This is not an argument about devotion.
Many independent churches teach well, and many pastors hold themselves to high standards voluntarily.
The question is narrow: not whether to follow Jesus, but who has the final say on what the Bible means — and whether anyone else can check it.

What this page is not doing

It is not deciding whether any church, or anyone in it, is Christian; that is outside this page, as it was in Dossier 10. It does not choose between the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant views of church authority. It names no living person and no local church. Everyday examples are written by this page as illustrations and labelled that way. It is not advice about joining or leaving a church. Two earlier dossiers cover related ground: Every Church Has a Theology and No Creed but the Bible?

One

The short answer

The physics comparison is fair — and where it breaks, it makes the point stronger. Physics expects to improve on its past. Christianity says it has received “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). So in Christianity the earliest witnesses matter more, not less.
Every tradition already says it follows Jesus alone. A Reformed catechism of 1563 begins: “I … am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.” In 1934, German church leaders resisting a movement that mixed the gospel with Nazi nationalism wrote that “Jesus Christ … is the one Word of God” — in a signed confession, against people who also claimed to follow Jesus. Saying “Jesus” didn’t tell the two sides apart. Writing down what they meant did.
The name of Jesus doesn’t settle the questions a church has to answer. Do we baptize babies? What happens at communion? Can a believer fall away? Who can remove the pastor? May women preach? Must Christians speak in tongues? Each has answers held by Bible-loving Christians who quote verses for them. A church that “just follows Jesus” still picks an answer to each — and in picking, joins a tradition.
The Reformers believed in “the Bible alone” — not “my reading alone”. Luther, in 1525, about the radicals: “There are as many sects and beliefs as there are heads.” Calvin said that if the argument were settled by the early Church Fathers, “the victory … would be on our side”. The Westminster Confession says church councils “may err”, and so should be used “as a help” — not ignored.
“No tradition” usually means a tradition that hasn’t noticed its own birthday. Adult-only baptism (1525), communion as a memorial only (1520s), the altar call (early 1800s), the pre-tribulation rapture (1830s), grape juice at communion (1869), tongues as proof of the Spirit (1901). Each may be defended. Each has a date and a name.
The apostles didn’t settle their first argument by each person following Jesus privately. In Acts 15, Paul — who had his gospel by direct revelation — took the dispute to Jerusalem. The apostles and elders argued it openly, tested experience against Scripture, decided together, wrote it down, and sent it to the churches “for to keep”.
Every church has a last word on what the Bible means. In the Catholic Church it is a teaching office bound by everything it has already defined. In the Reformation churches it is a written confession and wider courts. Where all of these are refused, the last word sits with whoever holds the pulpit — bound by nothing he did not write. Luther made the point in 1537: the pope and the radicals made the same mistake, locating authority in “the shrine of his heart”.
Ordinary members have to rely on someone. That’s normal. “How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:31). The question is whether the guide can be checked — whether there’s something written outside him you can open, and somewhere outside him you can take a disagreement.

Where this page standsMy own view, as opinion: “we don’t follow anyone but Jesus” is almost always meant as devotion, and almost always works as a claim about authority. As devotion, every confession on this page says the same thing. As a claim about authority it describes something impossible: a church that reads the Bible without anyone deciding what it means. The decision is always made. The only question is whether it is made in public, in writing, in line with the Christians who went before — or by one man, answerable to no one. I would ask such a church the physicist’s question: when you get something wrong, how will anyone know?

Two

The first exercise: standing on shoulders?

Newton said: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Six positions, some from physics and some from churches. The church ones are written by this page as examples. Decide how each relates to what went before it. Commit before you read the answer.

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Three

What the Reformers actually said

People often think the Reformation meant “every Christian with his own Bible, deciding for himself”. The Reformers said the opposite, in writing, while they were alive.

“Scripture alone” meant that the Bible is the only final authority — above popes, councils and famous teachers, who can all be wrong. It did not mean ignoring fifteen centuries of Christians who had read the same Bible. Some people put it as a pun: sola Scriptura (the Bible as the final rule), not solo Scriptura (me and my Bible alone).

There are as many sects and beliefs as there are heads. This fellow will have nothing to do with baptism; another denies the Sacrament …

Martin Luther, letter to the Christians at Antwerp, 1525 — about the radical preachers of his day.

In 1537 Luther went further. He described people who claim the Spirit apart from the Bible and then “explain and stretch it at their pleasure” — and said the pope made the same mistake, placing authority in “the shrine of his heart”. His objection was never to teachers. It was to any teacher whose final authority was his own inner certainty, rather than a Word outside him that others could read.

All synods or councils since the apostles’ times … may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help in both.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646.

Can err, so not the rule. A help, so not ignored. That is the balance every Reformation church struck — and then they wrote confessions and bound their ministers to them.

Four

The second exercise: would the Reformers sign this?

Six statements. Some the Reformers affirmed; some they rejected. Commit before you read the answer.

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Five

How the apostles settled an argument

The Bible records one doctrinal dispute in detail: whether non-Jewish converts had to be circumcised. Read Acts 15 and notice how it was settled.

It went to a wider body. Paul, who had his gospel by direct revelation, went “up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question” (15:2).
It was argued openly. “There had been much disputing” (15:7).
Experience was heard, then tested by Scripture. Peter and Paul told what God had done; James then said “to this agree the words of the prophets” (15:15).
It was decided together. “Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church” (15:22).
The self-appointed teachers were disowned. They were men “to whom we gave no such commandment” (15:24).
It was written down and passed on. Paul “delivered them the decrees for to keep” (16:4).

The apostles were unique, and no later council has their authority — Protestant confessions say so. But the point stands: the people with the best right to say “we just follow Jesus” chose not to settle things that way. And Paul himself had his gospel checked by others, “lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain” (Galatians 2:2).

Six

Who has the last word?

Every church has a final say on what the Bible means — someone decides what is preached next Sunday. The traditions disagree hugely about where that final say should sit, and this page doesn’t pick between them. But each has a written answer that binds its current leaders to something older than them.

Where a church has no written statement, or a short one that binds nobody, the final say sits with whoever holds the pulpit. He may teach very well. But he can change what the church teaches on baptism, communion, assurance, money or authority, and nobody can prove anything has changed — because “we just teach the Bible” describes the new teaching as well as it described the old.

A written statement doesn’t stop a church from changing. It stops a church from changing without knowing it.

Ordinary members have jobs and families and no time to study theology. That’s normal, and relying on a teacher is normal — we all rely on doctors. But you trust a doctor partly because he was trained to public standards, can be struck off, and can be checked by a second opinion. Take all that away and you’re trusting a confident man in a white coat. He may be excellent. You just have no way to know.

Seven

The third exercise: where does the last word sit?

Six churches. For each, decide where the final say on a disputed question actually sits. The independent examples are written by this page as illustrations.

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Eight

The fair objections, and what can be said to them

“Christianity is a relationship with a person, not a subject like physics.”

True, and the page agrees. But you can only follow a person you can identify. Paul warned of people preaching “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) — people who talked about Jesus constantly and meant someone different. The record of how the Church has understood Jesus is not a substitute for knowing him. It is how you know which Jesus you are following.

“Those questions are secondary. We keep to the essentials and hold the rest loosely.”

There is real wisdom in that. But deciding which questions are “secondary” is itself an interpretation that traditions disagree about. And holding a question loosely isn’t the same as not answering it: when a family asks you to baptize their baby, you either do or you don’t.

“The Reformers rejected the pope. We’re just finishing the job by rejecting all human authorities.”

The Reformers heard this argument in their own lifetime and rejected it. Their answer was that the Bible is the only final rule, but the reader who uses no help except his own mind hasn’t escaped human judgement — he has reduced it to one person’s. Luther’s result, by 1525, was “as many sects and beliefs as there are heads”.

“Every believer has the Holy Spirit and ‘need not that any man teach you’ (1 John 2:27).”

If that meant no one needs teaching, it would rule out pastors too — and John was teaching when he wrote it. John is reassuring believers against false teachers who claimed secret knowledge; the Spirit helps them recognise what they “have heard from the beginning” (2:24). That only works if what was heard from the beginning is still available to check against.

“The Bereans checked Paul against the Bible, on their own.”

They did, and were praised for it (Acts 17:11). But look at what they were doing: checking a teacher against a shared text both they and he accepted. That is exactly what a written church statement makes possible for members today — and exactly what an unwritten one, held in the pastor’s head, makes impossible.

Nine

Check it yourself

Six things, all short, all free.

1. Acts 15:1–16:5, with Galatians 2:1–10. Fifteen minutes. How the first doctrinal dispute was actually settled, told by Luke and by Paul.
2. Luther, Smalcald Articles, Part III, Article VIII. Five minutes, free online. The two paragraphs about people who “stretch” Scripture “at their pleasure” — and the pope.
3. The Westminster Confession, chapter 31 (“Of Synods and Councils”). Five minutes. Councils “may err” and are “a help”.
4. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory, chapter 2 (434). Five minutes. Why the Bible “seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters” — written by someone who thought the Bible was sufficient.
5. The Barmen Declaration (1934), Thesis 1. Two minutes. The strongest “Jesus only” statement of the twentieth century — and a written confession.
6. Your own church’s beliefs. Do this one. Twenty minutes. Find your church’s answer to the six questions in “The short answer”, point 3. For each: is it written down? Does the church say where it came from? Is anyone bound by it? If all three are yes, that is worth knowing, and worth saying.

Want the whole thing?

The full dossier lets you answer seven church questions “as Jesus would” and see which tradition you’ve joined, walks through Acts 15 step by step, dates the practices “Bible-only” churches often inherit, shows a church’s teaching drifting over thirty years, publishes the prompt that produced it, and ends with a seven-question checklist about how you read the Bible.

Read the full dossier → Simple English →