” You, rather, base your answer on reason, history, and guidance of the Holy Spirit in “us”. “
I’d like to say I base my answer on Scripture. I admit that reason, roughly defined, is part of every thought and communication. I use reason, in a sense of the word, to write this sentence. The Bible is reasonable. It uses language, syntax, grammar - arguments are built and defended, etc. So if that is reason, so be it.
And yes, Scripture is historical. It is the history of the creation of this world, and its redemption. It occurred in time.
And finally, how can I deny the work of the Holy Spirit? Again the Bible tells us that He indeed convicts us of the truth of Scripture.
” These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. “ (1st Cor 2 13-14)
It is obviously very much the work of the Holy Spirit as to whether you recognize the word of God or not.
So you might say I use reason and history and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and there would be truth in that, but I see these things as subservient to God’s revealed word in the Scripture.
For example, if I “reasoned” that it was ok to commit adultery, I’d have to reject that reasoning, as it is not in line with the Bible. Or if “history” taught me that might makes right, I’d have to reject that, as it is not in line with the Bible. As for the work of the Holy Spirit, that is personal to Him, so I won’t speculate or give examples about that. God being triune, the Father, the Word, the Holy Spirit, inextricably linked, I would not even try to parse out a separation.
No you don't. You obviously did not contradict the Holy Scripture, but neither had you based your answer solely on the scripture in any meaningful way. The only reference to the inspired nature of 1 Timothy in the Holy Scripture is indirect. The reference to the Deuterocanon in 2 Timothy 3:15-16 is, as it should be obvious to you, far more direct.
Form your next post: but it is a common misunderstanding of RC’s that Protestants are total lone rangers, subject to no authority or influence of other believers. Not usually so. I respect the authority and government of my church, submit to it in the Lord, and rely quite often on the scholarship of those who have gone before me! I just don’t elevate all that to the point of infallible, that’s all.
So you submit to the authority and the government of your particular Protestant community of faith that 1 Timothy is inspired and you do not submit to the authority and the government of much older Catholic Church that the Wisdom of Solomon, for example, is also inspired. That is what it boils down to: from scripture alone you cannot conclude so.