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Jerusalem Council vs. Sola Scriptura

Jerusalem Council vs. Sola Scriptura

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 1:09 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Jerusalem Council vs. Sola Scriptura 2026-06-13T13:09:32-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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This is the transcript for the initial presentation of the video, “Sola Scriptura Annihilated by… The Bible?! YES!” (Catholic Bible Highlights with Kenny Burchard, 12-10-25).

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The Protestant rule of faith or standard of authority is called Sola Scriptura or “Bible Alone.” That doesn’t mean only going by the Bible and disregarding any and all human authority like pastors or Bible scholars. Rather, it’s the belief that the Bible is the only infallible and final authority in matters of the faith.

This being the case, if we observe an ongoing infallible authority in the inspired Bible other than the Bible itself, then sola Scriptura collapses in a heap, or would at the very least have to be drastically modified. We submit that the Church is also an infallible authority. The biblical viewpoint in this regard begins with Peter having a direct encounter with God:

Acts 10:10-13, 15, 22 (RSV) . . . he fell into a trance [11] and saw the heaven opened, and something descending, like a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. [12] In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. [13] And there came a voice to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” . . . [15] And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” . . . [22] And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to hear what you have to say.”

Acts 10:28 and he [Peter] said to them, “. . . God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”

Acts 10:34-35 And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, [35] but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

Acts 11:12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. . . .

Acts 11:17 “If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

In sum, God spoke directly to Peter, saying that all foods were clean and that Gentiles were as acceptable to Him as Jews. Meanwhile, an angel told Cornelius to seek out Peter, so he could be saved. Peter shared with him what God had just told him. Then the Holy Spirit told Peter to associate with Gentiles, and “the Holy Spirit fell on” them (10:44), and Peter “commanded them to be baptized” (10:48). This is all based on inspired utterance, by the way, as reported by the inspired text of the Bible: from God and an angel, just as God spoke to prophets.

Meanwhile, a controversy was starting to brew among believers, with some saying that a man had to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses in order to be saved (Acts 15:1, 5). And so “The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter” (15:6). This is the Jerusalem council: the biblical model for all later councils, like Nicaea and Trent. It’s magisterial authority in action: probably why it’s rarely brought up in Protestant sermons. Peter proclaimed to the council what God had told him:

Acts 15:7-9, 12 And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, . . .[8] . . . “God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; [9] and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.” . . . [12] And all the assembly kept silence; . . .

The local bishop James agreed, saying, “with this the words of the prophets agree” (15:15), and the council decided to follow Peter, since he was their leader – which is in turn confirmed by the Holy Spirit Himself:

Acts 15:28-29 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: [29] that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity. . . .

The apostle Paul then traveled all over Asia Minor (i.e., present-day Turkey) and “delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4). The Church, at that time centered in Jerusalem – before the city was destroyed about twenty years later by the Romans — had binding authority far and wide. This is no “congregational” Protestantism!

There are many fascinating things to be noted about this council. Luke, the author of Acts, noted five times that “apostles” and “elders” worked together in the council to make a decree (15:2, 4, 6, 22-23, 16:4). “Elders” is the Greek presbuteros, meaning a leader of a local congregation, so that Protestants think of it primarily as a “pastor”, whereas Catholics, Orthodox, and some Anglicans regard it as the equivalent of “priest.” What’s striking is that the two offices in the Jerusalem council are presented as if there is little or no distinction between them, in terms of their practical authority.

The elders seem to have possessed the power of “one man one vote.” If such a momentous, binding decision for all Christians henceforth was arrived at by apostles and elders working “together” (15:6), it appears that elders and also bishops are the successors of the apostles (i.e., apostolic succession), and would be the leaders of future councils, once the apostles died off. One might note three more related arguments:

The council, by joint authority of apostles and elders, sent off Judas and Silas as its messengers, even though they “were themselves prophets” (15:32). Prophets were the highest authorities in the old covenant (with direct messages from God), and here mere “elders” are commissioning them.

St. Paul himself is duty-bound to proclaim the council’s decree (16:4), which was partly decided by mere elders. So this implies apostolic succession (and conciliarism), if elders can participate in such high authority that even apostles must obey it. Paul is no “lone ranger.” He was under authority.

Paul previously “had no small dissension and debate” with the circumcision party (15:1-2), but was unable to resolve the conflict by his own profound apostolic authority. Instead, apostles and elders in council decided the question. All he is recorded as doing there is reporting about “signs and wonders” in his ministry (15:12): giving testimony, in other words. He’s not the leader and seemingly not even a key figure.

The other notable thing here is that the Holy Spirit confirmed the decree (Acts 15:28). Therefore, what they decided was necessarily infallible and indeed also inspired, since the Holy Spirit is God and utters divine words and messages. And the council’s decree was that even before it wound up being recorded in the book of Acts. If an infallible decree was made (and it was), this state of affairs utterly contradicts sola Scriptura, since it claims that there is not and can never be an infallible Church or a council called by it, or any infallible authority besides the Bible.

The process was directly guided by and confirmed by God all the way through, starting with the message of God to Peter about the Gentiles being included in the new kingdom. What we have is profound magisterial, conciliar, and even papal authority: strikingly foreign to the Protestant outlook.

Therefore, this council alone, and how the biblical text regards it, in and of itself, annihilates the false and unbiblical doctrine of sola Scriptura, and I believe it to be the single best opposing argument in the Bible: compelling and, I submit, unanswerable.

Related Book

Biblical Proofs for an Infallible Church and Papacy (March 2012, 150 pages)

Related Web Page

The [Catholic] Church and Ecclesiology [section XIII: The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15)]

Related Articles

St. Peter the First Pope: 120 Bible Proofs [10-22-25]

St. Peter & the Papal Office: 130 One-Sentence Proofs [10-31-25]

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Summary: Acts 10, Acts 11, and the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 prove that God willed a Spirit-guided, hierarchical, episcopal, papal, and infallible Church, as opposed to sola Scriptura.

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