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Posted on 07/03/2012 9:31:36 AM PDT by Teófilo
Another nail in the coffin of the foundational Protestant dogma
Sola scriptura is dead, or at least is undead, a zombie still stalking the darkened hallways of Protestantism. Many well-meaning Protestant Christians don’t see the zombie-dogma for what it is; instead, they choose to see it as a being of light. My friend Dave Armstrong has returned to blow the old decrepit sola scriptura monsters one at a time in his latest work, 100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura.
Let’s recall the definition of the sola scriptura dogma – yes, it is a dogma – as understood by Norman Geisler, a recognized Protestant authority Dave quotes in his work:
By sola scriptura orthodox Protestants mean that Scripture alone is the primary and absolute source of authority, the final court of appeal, for all doctrine and practice (faith and morals)… (p.16)Geisler, and other authorities Dave quotes, further explain that other authorities exist, but that these are of secondary importance. Geisler also defends what he calls the perspicuity of Holy Writ, which means that anyone can understand the basic truths of Scripture: the plain things are the main things and the main things are the plain things, Geisler states. (p.17). As a true analyst, Dave separated the sola scriptura dogma into its constituents claims, found out its contents, examined its individual parts, and studied the structure of sola scriptura as whole. He found them defective and insufficient to expound and explain the full spectrum of Christian claims.
Dave kills the sola scriptura zombie by selecting 100 verses from Scripture contradicting this central Protestant claim. I guess he selected 100 verses because the number “100” gives the reader a sense of exhaustive answer and completion, not because there are only 100 verses that should make all sincere Protestant Christian at least uncomfortable with the teaching. In fact, Dave is the author of another related work, 501 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura: Is the Bible the Only Infallible Authority?, which is useful if you need another 401 arguments to kill the sola scriptura zombie dead.
100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura. is a distillation of the 501 Biblical Arguments… in a more manageable, less overwhelming fashion for the beginning reader. It’s 133 pages in length and divided into two parts. In Part 1 Dave discusses the binding authority of Tradition, as substantiated in Scripture, and in Part 2 he discusses the binding authority of the Church, again from Scripture. The result must be uncontestable to the sincere Protestant Christian as well as eye opening to the full range of deeds and wonders the Incarnation of the Word of God brought to history.Will the sola scriptura zombie really die after Dave’s work? This is a senseless question because the zombie is already dead. It’s kept ambulating by strings pulled from the most diehard of its followers. Those strings must be cut by the individual, sincere Protestant Christian himself. Dave Armstrong’s work, 100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura. not only blows the zombie of sola scriptura away, he also provides the truth-searcher with the scissors to cut off the strings.
Faith in the Trinity is a hunch?
As opposed to praying to a guilded statue and guided by a man?
yes, he left the congregation in jersusalem, with peter in charge....as he ordained earlier....
the first century is rife with important history, why this gets ignored is fairly obvious....read over Faith of the Fathers, who in their writings from that very era, show the utter catholicity and the kernels of the beginnings of the church, magesterium, and sacred tradition, that the the guiding hallmark of His church today.
lest someone think i am funning about the Roosevelt rosaries, try this: http://www.armycharming.com/wwii ~ same stuff brought up to date ~ i just haven’t seen any of them lately ~ that generation is passing quickly.
Do you contend any post-scriptural speakers are superior, or equal, to those who wrote Scripture?
If “yes”, then kindly detail one post-Scriptural teaching on par with Scripture, and why we should elevate & append it thereto. (Something which, presumably, does not contradict nor claims exemption to Scripture.)
Read in the Bible the temptation of Christ. Christ uses Scripture point by point to refute Satan’s assertions. I don’t have to read Armstrong’s book because we have Christ’s example of how to defeat evil, written for our use. The Bible says..”Resist the Devil and he will flee from you!” Now how did Christ do it? By the power of the word of HIS Father! This word that had been recorded by the prophets of old! The account of the temptation of Jesus Christ is the most powerful account of how Sola Scriptura is supposed to work! Armstrong can stuff it!
“As it is written, man does not live by Bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God!”
The pope is a wretched sinner and a deceiver of the nations. That’s who your pope is. I hold the historic Protestant view of the papacy. I believe the papacy is an anti-Christ.
Scripture that's self-interpreting, self-authenticating, and self-sufficient.
I have some bad news for you. You're an idolator. Your god is a book.
I know, that was a long time ago, but when the end of the world happened in 535 AD stuff got delayed. It was so bad Jain missionaries came to Europe to teach ahemsa ~
John 10:30 "I and the Father are one." John 14:7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; There are not three gods, G-d does not have a mother. I do not believe in a magic show whereby YHvH, Yah'shua NAME means : "YHvH is/be my Salvation" in Hebrew. I reject all of the Paganisms of the Roman "church".
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Mark 12:29 Yah'shua answered,
Father and son are metaphors for different presentations of YHvH.
"The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! YHvH OUR GOD IS ONE YHvH;
from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."
the creator of the universe can be turned into a stale Matzoh.
You then contend Scripture is incomplete, and subsequent revelations have been pronounced with equal gravitas.
Please enumerate some of these, and how we know they are not just the rantings of mere mortals.
And how, pray tell, is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” at odds with Scripture sans additives?
Burned into my brain.
But, I digress. We are all enjoined by the Apostles to study the scriptures together.
I am sure you and I could do a great job at that ~ others less so, but a multiplicity of minds engaged in a common quest is how we are supposed to do it.
Study and prayer should take place with a minion.
You can kiss the pope’s toe all you want, but I choose to believe the promises of Scripture. My complete and utter trust is in Christ!
That’s not the traditional Christian view. Other way around ~ the Antichrist (notice the “the” ~ Catholics think “an” ~ Protestants think “the’) will probably substitute for the Pope ~ Christianity of all kinds having been shunted aside.
I presume you are referring to the word Petros and the term for rock petra. The Greek word petra, a feminine noun, has simply been modifed to have a masculine ending, since one would not refer to a man (Peter) as feminine. The change in the gender is purely for stylistic reasons.
You neglect the fact that Jesus spoke Aramaic, and, as John 1:42 tells us, in everyday life he actually referred to Peter as Kepha or Cephas (depending on how it is transliterated). It is that term which is then translated into Greek as petros. Thus, what Jesus actually said to Peter in Aramaic was: "You are Kepha and on this very kepha I will build my Church."
The Church Fathers, those Christians closest to the apostles in time, culture, and theological background, clearly understood that Jesus promised to build the Church on Peter, as exemplified by the following passage.
According to Tatian the Syrian ...
"Simon Cephas answered and said, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah: flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee also, that you are Cephas, and on this rock will I build my Church; and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it"
(The Diatesseron 23 [A.D. 170]).
As you well know, Aramaic is a dead language, as are many other dialectical languages spoken in the Holy Land. Though Roman Catholic, I practice my faith in a Maronite (Eastern) Catholic Church that traces its heritage back to Antioch. In fact, the Maronites retain Aramaic for the Words of Institution. Many of our parishioners come from Lebanon and speak Lebanese, another dead language. It's fascinating to hear them talk amongst themselves in Lebanese. Living languages develop terms for new concepts like computer, for example. There is no word for computer in the Lebanese language so they interject the English word. Sometimes, they will substitute a French word or use Arabic to 'describe' the image they intend to project. The same was true when translating certain books of the Gospel from one language to another. Where no equivalent existed, words were adjusted to suit the model.
If one rejects the Tanach I have lots of resources on my FR homepage. Thank YHvH for the metaphors.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
one can not understand Yah'shua.
Mary was preserved free from sin by Grace before she sinned, unlike you and me.
Peace be with you
I'm willing to read the book but I refuse to send 9 something plus S&H to read what some crackpot thinks who doesn't believe the bible anyway...
The guy may make his fortune off of gullible Catholics but I doubt many non Catholics will buy the book...
I contend the dogma of sola scriptura is unbiblical, unhistorical and unworkable.
>>And how, pray tell, is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” at odds with Scripture sans additives?
The practice of sola scriptura is at odds with, does not result in, One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
It results in an anarchy of doctrine and dogma. As is demonstrated here, and has been since the father of sola scriptura argued against the likewise sola scriptura ‘fanatic’ Zwingli.
All authentic dogmas are rooted in the apostolic tradition: they are received from the mouths of the apostles who knew and were taught by our Lord in his earthly life. We have scriptural authority for the belief that the apostles received teachings not conveyed to the disciples at large. We search the writings of the Fathers to discern authentic apostolic tradition, as opposed to a theory or speculation.
I’m talking about the traditional Protestant view.
From the great Irish clergyman, Ian Paisley:
These faithful witnesses all held the doctrine that the Church of Rome is the Babylon of Revelation chapter seventeen and the Pope is the Antichrist prophesied in Scripture.
Reformation Worthies
Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Melancthon, Zwingli, Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Knox, Ferrar, Hooper, Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, Ussher, Firth, Barnes, Philpot, Becon, Turner, Cartwright, Barrow, Jewel, Coverdale, Lord Cobham, Hooker, Ainsworth, Dent, Foxe, Fulke, Bradford, Bullinger, Rogers, Hutchinson, Whitgift, Sir Francis Drake and a host of others.
Post-Reformation Worthies
Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Henry Vane, Brightman, Milton, Beard, Baxter, Bishop Newton, John Bunyan, Fleming, Wesley, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, Gill, Clarke, Trapp, Brown, Toplady, Pool, Clarkson, Swimmock, Brooks, Chamock, Sibbs, Goodwin, Owen, Hall, Cunningham, Manton, Smith, Adams, Perkins, Gilpin, Field, Durham, Willet, Rainolds, Cotton, Gauge, Burroughs, Carter, Ames, Bridge, Marshall, Potter, Thomas Fuller, Twisse, Keith, Hales, Chalmers, Spurgeon, Wylie, Elliott, Cumming, Goode, Ryle, Candlish, Albert Bames, Wordsworth, Birks, Hislop, A. J. Gordon often called the Father of Fundamentalism, Moody, Hudson Taylor, Guinness, Salmond, Dinsdale Young, Horn, Close, T. T. Shields, Kensit, Baron Porceli and a host of others.
It was always the theological Romanists and Liberals in Church History who started the attack on this universally held interpretation of the teaching of Holy Scripture concerning ‘The Great Whore’ and ‘The Antichrist.’
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