There is a lot of American Protestant reverse-engineering of History around the original Reformers.
They claimed "Sola Scriptura"
for themselves.......not for the masses.
Luther & Calvin both assumed initially their personal interpretation would be incontestable.
They both approved of the death penalty for "heretic" like Anabaptists who read the Bible differently.
"Sola Scriptura" must be the weakest of all slogans
Never has a such patently & demonstrably false assertion been believed by so many
"Sola Scriptura" is 16th Century "invention of man"
(1)"Sola Scriptura" (Bible-alone) is NOWHERE in The Bible.
So it is a self-defeating assertion!
It fails its own test.....it ISN'T in the Bible.....SO; IT'S NOT TRUE!
(2) Explicitly contradicted in The Bible
If you did "stick to the bible" you will believe The Catholic Church (not the Bible) "
is this pillar & foundation of truth"
"(1 Timothy 3:15)
(3) "Bible-Alone" necessitates ANOTHER authority
Because "Bible-Alone" is not in The Bible you are relying on ANOTHER authority or tradition (Who/What?) to invent the phrase "Bible Alone".
(It was invented by Martin Luther 1500 years after Christ!)
So you then have; Bible-(NOT-alone)+Luther/Calvin/Zwingli/My-Pastor etc.
(4)An infallible Compilation requires an infallible Compiler.
Because the Bible is not a book, but a SELECTIVE COMPENDIUM of many books, "The Bible" can't even tell you itself which books should be in it!
You need ANOTHER authority to do this!
A river cannot flow higher than its source.
The Authority of The Church precedes the authority of scripture.
And the authority of scripture rests upon the authority of the Church that selected its contents & tells us what it is. They had to interpret infallibly to select infallibly.
The Bible came from The Catholic Church. The Church did not come from The Bible.
The Bible is a product & selection of Bishops of The Catholic Church.
If they were/are not infallible then you do not have an infallibly compiled Bible.
Some Protestant scholars (eg R. C. Sproule)agree that they have "
A fallible list of infallible books" ...Which means you've got NO CERTAIN WORD OF GOD AT ALL.....because you have no certainty whether you have all (or any) of the right books in or out!
Early Protestants knew this problem.
Calvin resorted to saying that scripture was "self-authenticating"
This is exactly what Mormons (or Muslims) say The Book of Mormon (or Koran) does.
This does not remove the fallible ego, & bias of the reader, from the judgement.
(5) Sola Scriptura is unworkable intellectually
As at 2013 there were 45000 Protestant "denominations" growing at 2+/day.
They all have The Bible.
They all claim The Holy Spirit's guidance.
They all disagree what the Bible says.
(6)Sola Scriptura is unworkable practically...requiring
(i) the existence of the printing press,
(ii) the universal distribution of Bibles,
(iii) universal literacy,
(iv) the universal possession of scholarly support materials,
(v) the universal possession of adequate time for study,
(vi) universal adequate health, education & nutrition for study.
(7)Sola Scriptura is an actually an ANTI-Scriptural use of scripture...........
(a)See (2Tim 3:16)
"All Scripture is God-breathed and IS USEFUL for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness"
Paul tells Timothy, "All scripture (He meant the OT) is USEFUL"! .......NOT definitive, NOT all-encompassing. NOT all-sufficient!
(b)NB Paul says "All" scripture NOT "Only" scripture. Many misread this.
"ALL statements" are categorically different than "ONLY statements"
(c)Paul was referring to the Old Testament. The New was not written nor collated.
(d)If you make him mean "only" (The OT), then there could never be a New
Testament.
(e)It takes a higher authority than Paul to take his letter here, & say it is inspired.
(f)All Paul says in the proof-text is "The Old Testament is useful" (for reproofs etc.)
To get from there to Sola Scriptura is unprincipled & logically preposterous. It is a blatant mis-use of scripture to find a principle that is not there.
(8)Sola Scriptura is actually CONTRADICTED in The NT many times
Christ never wrote a book.
He never said "Go & write...."
He never built The Printing Press with his tools, nor wait for its invention to be born. Instead He sent out His Apostles with authority, they ordained others & successors.
That is The Catholic Church.
This was an ORAL TRADITION. Later SOME was written down
To underline this, Paul tells us many times it is... "The (Apostolic) TRADITION" which is THE WHOLE .....scripture is THE PART
*
Hold fast to the
traditions, just as I handed them on to you (1 Cor 11:2)
"Hold fast to
traditions, whether oral or by letter" (2 Thess 2:15)
"Shun those acting not according to
tradition" (2 Thess 3:6)
"No prophecy is a matter of private" interpretation (2 Pet 1:20)
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be
written. Amen." (John 21:25) ie Oral
Tradition
"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” (Acts 20:35) Paul clearly refers to oral
tradition.....since these words of Jesus are not in The Gospels
"the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15)
(9)The Bible is manifestly NOT
(a) A Theology Textbook
(b) A Catechism
(c) A How-To(
Start-a-Church)-Book.
Yet this is how Sola Scriiptura forces many Protestants treat it
In fact The Bible is The-Family-History & Reference-Library of The Catholic Church (Which is Judaism-Fulfilled or Post-Messianic-Judaism.)
That's why it is a Compendium, or Library, of many diverse writings..... Books, Letters, Songs, Proverbs, Poems, Histories & other genres, .....written over a vast span of time, with many, varied human authors.....which The Catholic Church selected as also Divinely Inspired.
(10)Sola Scriptura is never actually practised.
If the Bible was self-interpreting, once we had literacy, the printing press & cheap bibles we would need no teaching.
But the Protestant rebellion was totally based around "new teachers" for itchy ears, each with their own new religion & interpretation, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, Smyth, Fox, Taize-Russell...& thousands more.
If the Bible was self-interpreting, they would have been out of a job, as would every Protestant Pastor.
Apparently it takes hours of sermons & studies each week to be able to interpret scripture for yourself!
The truth is Protestants are intensively taught to interpret according to new, man-made Protestant traditions. So it is "Bible +Teachers" not "Bible-Alone"
Timothy foresaw this......
(Tim 4:2-4) "For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths"
As did Peter....
"Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.” (2 Peter 3:15-17) Peter (The Rock) is "your secure position"
(11) Sola Scriptura can lead to Idolatrous Bibliolatry
The Bible itself says that "
The Word of God" & "
the fullness of revelation" is the person Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 1:1-3a; Colossians 1:15; John 14:9).
The Eternal Logos
Protestants routinely say "The Bible alone" is "
The Word of God" & "
the fullness of revelation"
Replacing God as the object of faith with a created thing (even a Divinely-created thing, like the Bible!) is the heart of idolatry.
THE "WORD-OF-GOD" is
(a)Jesus Christ.The Eternal LOGOS
(b)The Apostolic Traditions/Teachings (Acts
2:42; 1 Cor 11:2; 2 Thess
2:15 & 3:6)
(c) The Bible....compiled circa 400AD by Councils of Catholic Bishops with Papal ratifications.
(12) Sola Scriptura serves Narcisism & Individualism
Books don't talk or interpret. The reader does this.
With the blessing of Sola Scriptura, the individual interpreter can find whatever he/she wants therein. And the promise of my "Holy Spirit" guide divinises my ego.
It is the perfect religion for modern American, Democratic, Individualistic, Consumerist, Relativistic culture. And often it is distilled down.
It is a breeding-ground for joingoistic, nutshell-gospels
They must be.... instant, easy-to-sell, handipak, takeout, cross-free, instant-SALVATION.
You can have..."Jesus-without-the-Cross" & have "A-cross-without-Jesus"!
The "nutshell"-Gospels, of different denominations, are "single-issue-Gospels" (Eternal-Security, Justification, Born-Again, Gifts-of-the-spirit, Rapture...) They may do, what they do, very well; but they are truncated distortions.
They ignore most of The Bible to hang a whole new religion on one or two verses.
There is not a solitary argument for sola scriptura
It is a baseless 16th Century assertion. It is just plucked from thin air, and repeated as a Mantra until it is so ingrained it is never questioned.
And when challenged about the baseless authority of Sola scriptura, the usual response is equally unsupported negative arguments..."Well, it CAN'T be the Catholic Church or The Pope".
Another question-begging assumption is that....
"The Bible is a Theological Textbook intended to answer every question."
The Bible obviously isn't designed or intended for this purpose; there is no basis for it; and it just doesn't work ....and yet still this blind, knee-jerk, reflex-thinking carries on.
This is the assumption behind all Protestant theologising ....that is never demonstrated.
