DO CHRISTIANS STAND ON AN AUTHORITY OUTSIDE THE BIBLE? We face challenges with cults and religions that get outside the Bible, even though many will still claim they believe it. In practice, however, Scripture is not what they follow. And let me step on more toes even closer to home; this same mistake is going on in the Christian Church today. We sit with our doctrinal statements confirming that the Bible is the final rule of faith and practice, (Sola Scriptura), but is that really what we practice? Often today, the answer is “no." What I have witnessed where ever I've pastored, especially these days, is that the Bible does not determine the lives of Christians. What does? It's the secular educational system and media, personal opinion, and peer pressure. Those are today's determining factors, even for Christians. To support those views, we go into the Bible looking for loopholes, twist verses, and take passages out of context because there is societal pressure, or we just want something be true so we attempt to squeeze it into the Scriptures. That's unfortunate and shows that Christians are in danger of doing the same thing these other faiths have done, going outside the Bible. As we saw in our study, "Charismatic Chaos," charismatic fringe groups are doing the same thing with their prophet and prophetess claims. Their so-called modern-day prophets supposedly have an ability to get a "new word" from God. How is that any different than what goes on with h Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Roman Catholicism’s popes and committees, and the rest? It's the same as Christians in the Church today, who also get outside the Scripture.