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Sure if someone wants to speak- infallibly?- for the church on what Scripture is actually saying. We hardly come even close to that right here on this thread- even between those who use the bible as their sole rule of faith.
There are many good scholars that produce profitable works that can benefit us in our understanding of the faith in one manner or another-or in supporting one position or another. They can also vehemently disagree with each other on relevant matters. And this helps highlight the point. Our faith is not and must not be derived merely from the opinions of this highly educated bible scholar or that one, as if best exegesis is all it's about. Our faith is about an experience with God, primarily God the Son, and that experience and the knowledge given didn't result from a group of scholars poring over ancient or modern texts or archeological data et al. The apostles and disciples received this revelation and passed it down to others who would follow them.
That's good of course-and it's also good to know, on a unified and universal level, what, exactly He expects of us.
Again, the New Testament was written decades after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus-and His gospel was held and proclaimed before those writings existed nonetheless.
Heated debates have taken place and continue to this day. Sometimes important dogma has been hammered out at council due to controversies. Just as an example, due to the Pelagian controversy the church produced a declaration at council on the incontrovertible and absolute need for grace in order for man to be found, justified and saved. In any case theologians and ECFs as individuals are presumably never 100% correct in everything they hold and teach. But it's never been up to them-it's been up to the church to decide and speak on these matters, as the place where the buck stops. There is no such place in Protestantism. They point to the bible as authoritative-and then often disagree on what it means to say-since it can't necessarily speak up for itself and resolve questions when they arise. So it then really comes down to the reader answering his own questions, serving as pope or the authority in any case, for all practical purposes.
On all the basics of the faith regarding salvation there's been a consistent unified teaching-even between the eastern and western churches after centuries of isolation. These are remarkably the same especially when compared to often widely divergent views to be found within Protestantism, based on Scripture alone.
Ok, if you'd prefer to believe that the gospel wasn't received, held, and preached before and apart from any NT writings, that's up to you I guess. I'm not sure why anyone should bother contesting it.
Yes, there are some individuals and denominations that are closer, some further. Some of those hold onto some of the traditional teachings, along with the conciliar, etc. The main point is that with Scripture alone it's a bit of a free-for-all, with many differing plausible positions often possible.
You don't understand how it works. The church has always used Scripture, as well as Tradition, in supporting her positions or teachings. But in a forum such as this Tradition is generally not accepted-though it is by some, usually in a qualified sense however. In any case we use Scripture much more often in a non-Catholic setting-because everyone at least agrees on it as an authoritative source of divine revelation.
