I have always been sola scriptura but now that I am delving into church history I find that the early church did not have the New testament as we know it .. for nearly 400 years therefore they did go by oral tradition which is mentioned in the NT. We have trusted that the church at that time was guided by the Holy Spirit to put together the Bible.
I am reading the Apostolic Fathers writings now and have not found where it said scripture replaced oral tradition and how could it between 30-100AD since not all was written and all was not certainly canonized until over 300 years later. Also most back then could not read.
Good ideas all Mary. I would however like to remind you of the fact that Sola Scriptura is the teaching that the Bible is the final authority in all things it addresses, but this does not mean that we should ignore councils, various traditions, or church history. That is a miss understanding by those who will tell you that Sola Scriptura does not apply.
It means that in everything the Bible addresses, Scripture is the final authority. So when we are asked how the early church practiced Sola Scriptura before the Bible was completed, we say that they judged spiritual truths the same way we Protestants do today--by Scripture.
In the case of those years before the completion of the New Testament, they used the Old Testament Scriptures. This practice is exactly what we find in the book of Acts.
Every single time when you do your studies and you see the words of Jesus who says......"It is written" He of course is referring to the Old Test. Scriptures.
Please take the time to read thoroughly Acts 17:1-11.
The context is that Paul and Silas had gone to a synagogue in Thessalonica, and he was reasoning
"from the Scriptures" in verse # 2--not from tradition--in order to establish who Christ was. Now,
just as YOU said, this is important since the New Testament had not yet been completed.
Paul the apostle was using the Old Testament Scriptures to speak of Christ. In fact, he was so effective that "a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of leading women" were persuaded (v. 4). So, this means that the Scriptures were used in the defense of the Christian faith to both Jews and Gentiles.
There was no appeal to tradition of any sort.
We clearly see that the concept of Sola Scriptura is affirmed in Scripture regardless of what YOU have been told by any Catholic blog site. The Jews used Scripture--not tradition--to validate what Paul the apostle was teaching--and in
Acts 17:11 they are called noble-minded for doing so. This means that the idea of going to the word of God to judge spiritual truth was affirmed by the apostle Luke who wrote the book of Acts. Therefore, it makes sense to say that the early church did the same thing. They looked to the existing Scriptures to verify what was spiritually true since they would have followed the apostles' teachings.
1 Corth. 4:6 says.............
"Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes
, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other."