DO CHRISTIANS STAND ON ANY 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 follow? Often today, the answer is “no." What I have witnessed wherever I've pastored is that the Bible does not determine the lives of Christians; especially these days. What does? It's the secular educational system, media, personal opinion, and peer pressure. Those are today's determining factors, even for Christians. To support those views, we search the Bible for loopholes, twist verses, and take passages out of context because there is societal pressure; or we just want something to be true so we attempt to squeeze it into the Scriptures. That's unfortunate and shows how Christians today are in danger of doing the same thing these other faiths have done—going outside the Bible. And as we learned from our "Charismatic Chaos" study, the charismatic fringe groups are doing the same with their prophet and prophetess claims. Their so-called prophets supposedly have an ability to get a "new word" from God. How is that any different than what goes on with Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Roman Catholicism’s popes or committees, and all the rest run by man’s ideas? It's the same as Christians in the Church today, who also get outside Scripture.