What exactly does sola scriptura mean? That seems to be malleable.
Sola scriptura is Latin for “by Scripture alone,” and it’s one of the key slogans of the Protestant Reformation.
I often explain it by saying that it’s the idea we need to produce Christian doctrine “by Scripture alone,” meaning—among other things—that every Christian doctrine must be explicitly or implicitly contained in the Bible.
This is how I understood it as an Evangelical, and this understanding seems confirmed by experience, as Catholics are regularly confronted by Protestant Christians with the question, “Where is that in the Bible?”—a demand to produce Scripture verses as proof of some particular Catholic belief or practice.
In recent decades, a common response by Catholic apologists is to turn this question around and say, “Where is
sola scriptura in the Bible?” The point is, if every doctrine must be provable from the Bible, then
sola scriptura also must be provable. If it isn’t, then it’s a self-refuting doctrine.
How can Protestants respond to this challenge? One approach is to point to verses that a Protestant thinks prove
sola scriptura, but this has not been successful. There are no verses that state the doctrine outright, and the arguments by implication are weak and unpersuasive.
Continued below.
Protestants have long held that every Christian doctrine must be contained in the Bible (sola scriptura), but exactly what that means seems to be malleable.
www.catholic.com
There are actually verses which directly refute Sola Scriptura as defined by, for example, Seventh Day Adventists, as involving a complete rejection of all tradition. You can specifically cite 1 Corinthians 11:2 , 2 Thessalonians 2:15 and Galatians 1:8-9 , and in my experience you will simply be ignored by whoever is attacking your faith, but these texts are definitive, whereas Mark 7:13 on the other hand clearly refers to the traditions of the Pharisees, that were written down by the Scribes to become the Mishnah, which is the basis for Rabbinical Judaism.
Actually most things that I see Protestants attacking Catholics for on the forum (a) do not originate from the more tradiitonal Protestants such as the Lutherans or Anglicans, but rather come from very low church Evangelical, Fundamentalist or Restorationist groups, and (b) are actually scripturally supported. For example, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is supported scripturally, in the Magnifcat, and again later in the Gospel according to Luke ch. 11 v. 27-28, which ironically are the same verses they will try to use to promote the Antidicomarian heresy (the refusal to venerate Our Lady). Likewise there is also scriptural support for referring to priests as Father, for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, for the baptism of infants, for the celebration of the primary liturgical service on Sunday, for the ordination of bishops, presbyters and deacons, and just about every other thing you might be accosted with on the basis of “Where is that in the Bible?”
Whereas conversely, scriptural support for their doctrines, such as Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, and so on, is lacking, and some, I would argue the Seventh Day Adventists contradict themselves - they wrongfully criticize the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of the writings of Ellen G White, whose work they regard as inspired and infallible prophecy, despite the fact that it is riddled with historical inaccuracies.
This is why I will always defend my beloved Roman Catholic friends on this forum like
@Michie and
@chevyontheriver who come unfairly under attack by people who accuse them of believing in things which are unscriptural - it is not right, and most of these attacks are not only contrary to Scripture themselves, but also attack the Orthodox churches as well, and even the more traditional Protestant churches, such as the high church Anglicans and Lutherans, by implication, due to the very substantial similarities in our belief systems.
Also I regard Our Lady of Guadalupe as a Holy Icon, and consider it miraculous, in terms of how through that icon our Lord was able to convert the people of what is now the Los Estados Unidos de Mexico from the Aztec and Meso-American human sacrifice religions, which were among the most horrific forms of paganism ever to be practiced, to a pious and vital Christianity. Furthermore it is an incredibly beautiful icon.
