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For instance, when the professor signed on to teach at Wheaton, when the issue of inerrency came up, he agreed with it, but taught "that the Bible should be read in light of 'authoritative traditions,' an example of which would be church councils. " This is my own position too - that the Early Church Fathers, the Councils, and particularly the early creeds are the lens through which the New Testament is to be interpreted. I would have thought myself comfortable at Wheaton - at least until this article.

I think yours is a more Catholic idea. Catholics interpret Scripture through the lenses of the Fathers, the Councils, and the Creeds (Tradition). From my experience with Protestants, most do not hold to reading Scriptures through the lenses of Tradition, but their own private interpretation. I suppose the tension at Wheaton between the professor converting and the other Christians would have been too much on such issues.

Regards

From my experience with Protestants, most do not hold to reading Scriptures through the lenses of Tradition, but their own private interpretation. I suppose the tension at Wheaton between the professor converting and the other Christians would have been too much on such issues.

Interesting comment. It illustrates the fault lines within Evangelicalism and between Evangelical Protestantism and confessional Protestants (Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians). Private interpretation is characteristic of low-church/free-church Evangelicals but not of confessional Protestants--an endangered species today. Confessional Protestants read Scripture through the lens of the Augsburg Confession, the Westminster Confession, the Synod of Dort etc. There aren't too many real confessional Protestants left but it still colors their denominations when compared to Baptists (some Baptists are pretty confessional--Free Will Baptists, for instance, or the Northern Baptists used to be) and Bible Churchers and Pentecostals.

To be a Lutheran used to be to be committed to your synod's interpretation of the Augsburg Confession's interpretation of Scripture over against the 39 Articles' interpretation of Scripture or the Helvetic Confession's interpretation of Scripture. Among Lutherans there were disagreements over how to interpret the AC, so you got splinter groups but they all at least would have said they identifed with the AC and not the WC. Much of that's gone now, but still, the "higher-church" end of the spectrum, delivers some of Wheaton's students and faculty and backers, so they can't simply write a Bible Church private interpretation doctrinal statement that excludes the great Protestant Confessions as "human inventions falsely glossing Scripture" but neither can they specify one or several of the great Protestant Confessions because that would exclude the Plymouth Brethren and Independent Baptists. So the statement is silent.

But "private interpretation" is a sliding scale. Compared to the Catholic magisterium, the AC or WC is a form of "private interpretation" but compared to Pastor Billy Bob's Magisterium down at Bible Thumpers Glory Barn, the AC or WC is anything but private interpretation.