01 — CHRIST
Jesus is our highest authority.
The life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus are the foundation of Christian faith.
Jesus Christ is our highest authority.
The teachings of Jesus in the four canonical Gospels take precedence over later Christian interpretation.
Gospel Supremacy begins with a simple question: if Jesus Christ is the definitive revelation of God, shouldn't His teaching have the final word when Christians interpret everything that came afterward?
The life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus are the foundation of Christian faith.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are our primary witnesses to the teaching of Jesus and the starting point for Christian interpretation.
The apostles remain genuine witnesses and important interpreters of Christ, while remaining human and fallible.
We affirm the four canonical Gospels as the primary witnesses to the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We honor the apostles as genuine witnesses and important interpreters of Christ, while recognizing that they were human beings whose writings may contain interpretation, cultural assumptions, and error. We therefore do not regard every apostolic statement as automatically infallible.
When an apostolic teaching is consistent with Jesus, we receive it gratefully. When it expands upon matters Jesus did not address, we consider it seriously without treating it as an unquestionable divine command. When an interpretation appears to conflict with an explicit teaching of Jesus, we give precedence to Jesus.
Later Christian tradition is respected as the historical witness of the Church, but remains subordinate to Christ and subject to evaluation in light of His teaching.
Gospel Supremacy does not treat the New Testament as a flat collection in which every statement has identical authority.
This is not a rejection of Scripture. It is a rejection of treating every biblical voice as automatically equal in authority.
The Gospels are the primary norm through which apostolic interpretation and later Christian tradition are discerned.
Begin with the teachings of Jesus preserved in the four canonical Gospels. Explicit teaching, silence, and inference should not be confused with one another.
Treat apostolic writings as important historical witnesses and theological interpretations. Take them seriously without assuming that every statement is infallible.
Where an apostolic interpretation genuinely conflicts with an explicit teaching of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus takes precedence.
Paul can be a profound Christian thinker without being treated as an infallible second Christ.
Gospel Supremacy does not require us to regard Paul as a false apostle. Paul may have been a genuine apostle, may have genuinely encountered the risen Christ, and may have provided enormously valuable Christian teaching.
But apostolic authority does not necessarily mean personal infallibility in every assertion. Paul's writings can contain profound theological insight alongside interpretation, cultural assumptions, and human limitation.
Where Paul agrees with Jesus, his teaching can be received with confidence. Where he develops ideas Jesus did not address, his interpretation can be considered. Where his interpretation appears to conflict with an explicit teaching of Jesus, Jesus takes precedence.
Gospel Supremacy does not claim that only the four Gospels are Scripture.
The other writings remain useful, valuable, and potentially inspired — just not automatically infallible.
Gospel Supremacy is not designed merely to settle one disputed doctrine. It is a method for examining Christian belief as a whole.
What does Jesus actually say about a subject? We begin there rather than importing a later interpretation and assuming it came from Him.
Silence is allowed to remain silence. Apostolic interpretations may be valuable without automatically becoming unquestionable divine commands.
When later Christian teaching appears to conflict with Jesus, the first task is discernment: is there truly a contradiction, or are we misunderstanding one of the texts?
No. Paul is treated as an important apostolic witness and theological thinker. The distinctive claim is that apostolic authority does not require us to assume that every Pauline statement is infallible.
No. The other New Testament writings remain valuable and worthy of serious study. Gospel Supremacy rejects a flat hierarchy of authority, not the usefulness or value of those writings.
No. Apparent disagreements should first be examined carefully. The principle simply establishes what happens if a genuine conflict with an explicit teaching of Jesus remains after careful interpretation: Jesus takes precedence.
Not quite. Red-Letter Christianity generally gives special emphasis to Jesus' words while retaining the authority of the broader biblical canon. Gospel Supremacy makes a stronger claim about the hierarchy of authority itself.
No. Gospel Supremacy does not reject the Old Testament, reject Paul, or claim that the God revealed by Jesus is different from the God of Israel. The position is specifically about the priority of Jesus when interpreting later Christian writings.
No. Tradition is valuable historical testimony to how Christians understood and practiced the faith. It is respected, but it remains subordinate to Christ and subject to evaluation in light of His teaching.