Really ??/
The Church Fathers believed in Sola Scriptura:
"They[heretics] gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures...We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith" - Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.1.1 - Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.1.1 Sola Scriptura ! "I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books [scripture], to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else." - Jerome (Letter 53:10)
Sola Scriptura !
"There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source. For just as a man, if he wishes to be skilled in the wisdom of this world, will find himself unable to get at it in any other way than by mastering the dogmas of philosophers, so all of us who wish to practice piety will be unable to learn its practice from any other quarter than the oracles of God. Whatever things, then, the Holy Scripture declare, at these let us look; and whatsoever things they teach, these let us learn; and as the Father wills our belief to be, let us believe; and as He wills the Son to be glorified, let us glorify Him; and as He wills the Holy Spirit to be bestowed, let us receive Him. Not according to our own will, nor according to our own mind, nor yet as using violently those things which are given by God, but even as He has chosen to teach them by the Holy Scriptures, so let us discern them."
- Hippolytus, Against Noetus, ch 9
Sola Scriptura !
"For how can we adopt those things which we do not find in the holy Scriptures?"
- Ambrose (On the Duties of the Clergy, 1:23:102)
Sola Scriptura !
"We use Scripture to answer heresy and preceive that it is power and truth."
- Basil the Great
Sola Scriptura !
“Let the inspired Scriptures then be our umpire, and the vote of truth will be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words.”
- Gregory of Nyssa (d.ca, 395) “On the Holy Trinity”, NPNF, p. 327
“We are not content simply because this is the tradition of the Fathers. What is important is that the Fathers followed the meaning of the Scripture."
- Basil the Great (ca.329–379) On the Holy Spirit, 7.16
Sola Scriptura !
“Neither dare one agree with catholic bishops if by chance they err in anything, but the result that their opinion is against the canonical Scriptures of God.”
- Augustine (354–430) De unitate ecclesiae, 10
Sola Scriptura !
“For our faith rests on the revelation made to the Prophets and Apostles who wrote the canonical books.”
- Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Summa Theologiae, Question 1, Art. 8
Sola Scriptura!
"For among the things that are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of life,--to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book. After this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages."
- Augustine (On Christian Doctrine, 2:9)
Sola Scriptura !
Only the scriptures contain the teaching of the apostles and they speak to us through , and that voice is louder and more perfect than any man made tradition !
The trouble with your proof texts is they are taken out of context with the body of the Church Fathers’ writings and cherry pick from them.
They clearly believed in the primacy of Scripture, as does the Catholic Church today, but they didn’t believe in Sola Scriptura.
The trouble with Protestant apologetics is it shoehorns texts into its preconceived notions rather than looks at them in context.
I can show you countless texts where they point to Holy Tradition against the heretics.
i am having another alena morrisette “isn’t it ironic”? moment!!
here we have Catholic Church Fathers quoted to somehow support “sola scriptura”, by someone who would call all these men “heretics”, just as Catholics today are accused of being heretics!
all of these men listed believed the following:
baptismal regeneration
infant baptism
the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
the sacrifice of the Mass
prayers for the dead
prayers to the saints
the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
the Bishop of Rome as the successor to St Peter
apostolic succession
confession to a priest
the Trinity
all of these men would consider the person citing them as a heretic.
just one example: these men all believed that we are regenerated by baptism, that our sins are forgiven and we receive the Holy Spirit.
does rnmomof7 believe this? she can answer that for herself, but i think we all know the answer.
so Catholics will continue to hold to the Faith once delivered to the saints ( and believed by the Church Fathers )
we invite the unbelievers to join us.