Comments on: Is Sola Scriptura Scriptural? Part IV: Why do Protestants Embrace it?

By: Ken Hensley

Ken Hensley — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 14:31:00 +0000

Yes, I agree! One would think.

My experience was that Protestantism’s Bible orientation leads Protestants to be fairly unconcerned with Church history. For most Evangelicals it’s Jesus and the Bible. For others who wish to go “deep in history” it’s looking at John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards and maybe back to Luther and Calvin and in extreme cases back to Augustine. There is a basic “understanding” that the early Church was like them and then slowing “became” Catholicism and all that was a departure from the simplicity of the early Church and so it felt natural to go from the NT directly to Luther.

By: Ed Hausner

Ed Hausner — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 05:44:00 +0000

In your article you made the comment “Protestants believe this authoritative Church died with the Apostles, and that from then on the “Church” is something very different…..into practise” and also “they rejected the idea that there existed any longer on earth the kind of authoritative Church we see in the New Testament”. I find this very interesting, since I have not heard this before, but surprising. Even if one hasn’t heard of the early church fathers, one would think a natural part of our faith progression would be a curiosity about the beliefs and practises of the earliest churches; Catholic, Orthodox or otherwise. That search, at the very least, tells you the earliest Christian understanding of church is strangely similar to what we see in the modern day Catholic Church and nothing like most Protestant churches. While I could say more, suffice it to say that this discovery should lead to a whole host of other questions. After all, we are seeking the Truth aren’t we?

By: Oliver CSM

Oliver CSM — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 09:45:00 +0000

Thank you, Ken, for this insightful article.

A friend once asked a Southern Baptist pastor why he held the bible as he did, and the man said, “otherwise, I would not know where I stood.”

The bible is self-contained an immutable, the words there for all to see. To trust in the magisterium you must trust in people other than yourself as a matter of faith. I think it may be lack of trust in other people that lies behind sola scriptura.
Does belief that the apostolic church no longer exists, and the Sola Scriptura heresy itself, perhaps have a primarily emotional rather than rational basis?
🙂

By: John Ziebart

John Ziebart — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 23:09:00 +0000

In reply to Ken Hensley.

For the first 300 years of Christianity, there was no Bible

In 382 A.D The Bible was canonized (Books that make up the Old and New Testaments)
with The Decree of Pope St. Damasus I, Council of Rome.

The Catholic Church was founded at the end of Christ’s ministry on earth, or about
29-30 A.D..

The first book of the New Testament was not written until about 20 years later.
The Bible came from the Catholic Church. By the time Revelation, the last book
of the Bible, was written around 100 A.D., the Catholic Church was already on
its fifth Pope,St. Evaristus.

The only way Protestants can know which are the inspired books of the Bible is for
them to accept the teaching of the Catholic Church. In doing so, they have to
admit that the Catholic Church, by infallible decision, determined the canon of
the New Testament.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 22:23:00 +0000

Awesome article, Brother!

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 09:45:00 +0000

In reply to James Rinkevich. James Rinkevich, great addition. That's why the Bible could say that the church is the "pillar and bulwark of the truth," (1 Tim 3:15).

By: James Rinkevich

James Rinkevich — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 08:46:00 +0000

In reply to Alfredo. Alfredo in addition Paul says they are ministers of the Spirit not the writing, even showing the Spirit gives life while the writing puts to death cf 2Cor 3:6

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 06:40:00 +0000

In reply to James Rinkevich. James Rinkevich, thank you for your valuable inputs. "So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter" 2 Thess 2:15 . It seems the Bible does not teach to hold to Scripture alone.

By: James Rinkevich

James Rinkevich — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 02:56:00 +0000

In reply to Alfredo. Wrong the scriptures keep all imprisoned under sin so that the promise from out of Jesus Christ’s faithfulness might be given to the ones being faithful Gal 3:22 And the promise is given to the church at Mt 16:18 ensuring its eternal life.

By: Robert Salmon

Robert Salmon — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:34:00 +0000

“People hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is they
love more than the truth. They love truth when it shines
warmly on them, and hate it when it rebukes them.”
—-St. Augustine