This is a warning to the unwary. Beware of those who base their teaching exclusively on the Bible! Whenever you hear voices raised distancing the Bible from the teaching of the ecumenical councils of the first five centuries, be on your guard! The Reformers were opposed to the teaching of the Church of their day because it deviated from Scripture and the councils. They held Scripture to be the highest, supreme court of appeal, but their interpretation of Scripture — and ours — must always be tested against the Confessions of the Church. ‘Submit to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21). This is because we are placed by Christ in the Church, not distributed randomly as freewheeling individuals. Today, non-confessional evangelicals have nothing to restrain them, other than themselves. Like Jehovah’s Witnesses they are free to study Scriptures and abandon the church’s confessions — all in the name of the Bible.

Since we are all influenced to some extent of other by the philosophical and cultural milieu in which we were taught and in which we live, if we leave behind historic Christian teaching we open ourselves to other influences as we come to read the Bible.

Dr. Robert Letham, Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia and Senior Minister, Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Chruch, Wilmington, Delaware, quoted from Is God Omniscient?, an article examining the claims of open theism in the May-June 2002 edition of Reformation Today magazine.