Why sola scriptura

It is found in the originally oral Mishna. In 1 Corinthians , St. The Old Testament says nothing about such miraculous movement, in the related passages about Moses striking the rock to produce water Exodus ; Numbers But rabbinic tradition does. These two men cannot be found in the related Old Testament passage Exodus ff.

The Jerusalem Council Acts made an authoritative pronouncement citing the Holy Spirit which was binding on all Christians Acts Christianity was derived in many ways from the pharisaical tradition of Judaism which accepted oral tradition. Christian Pharisees are referred to Acts ; Phil , so neither the orthodox Old Testament Jews nor the early Church were guided by the principle of sola Scriptura. The Pharisees despite their corruptions and excesses were the mainstream Jewish tradition, and both Jesus and Paul who called himself a Pharisee three times: Acts ; ; Phil acknowledge this.

Ezra read the law of Moses to the people in Jerusalem Neh Ezra , 10, ; 2 Chr The New Testament concurs. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. In 2 Timothy alone in context , Paul makes reference to oral tradition three times , , Protestantism lacks this element because it appeals to a logically self-defeating principle and a book which must always be interpreted by human beings.

In the end, a person has no assurance or certainty in the Protestant system. Denominationalism and divisions are vigorously condemned in Scripture. If you knock out any leg, it collapses. Dave Armstrong Dave Armstrong is a full-time Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since He was received into the Catholic Church in Therefore, Scripture is the highest and supreme authority on any matter on which it speaks. But there are many important questions on which Scripture is silent.

Sola Scriptura makes no claim to the contrary. Nor does sola Scriptura claim that everything Jesus or the Apostles ever taught is preserved in Scripture. It only means that everything necessary, everything binding on our consciences, and everything God requires of us is given to us in Scripture 2 Peter Furthermore, we are forbidden to add to or take away from Scripture cf.

To add to it is to lay on people a burden that God Himself does not intend for them to bear cf. Scripture is therefore the perfect and only standard of spiritual truth, revealing infallibly all that we must believe in order to be saved and all that we must do in order to glorify God.

On the other side was Luther with a couple of associates, armed only with the Hebrew Old Testament, the Greek New Testament, and a translation of the Bible. He knows Greek and Hebrew sufficiently to judge of the interpretations. A perfect forest of words and ideas stands at his command. He rapidly moved toward the view that the only firm ground on which to stand was the authority of Scripture, since the church is prone to error. This view is what we know as the principle of sola Scriptura , the idea that the Scriptures alone are our ultimate rule for life and faith.

The Catholic Church, then and now, recognizes three sources of authority. Scripture is the first and primary source, but it is accompanied by two others. The second is the tradition of the church, which was allegedly handed down from Jesus and the apostles to the leaders of the early church, who memorized it and passed it down orally for two thousand years.

The third source is the magisterium, the teaching office of the church, which consists of all the bishops, archbishops, and cardinals, in unity with each other and with the pope. This does not mean that we refuse to value and learn from the collective mind of the church down through the ages. It does mean that everything we think we know must be evaluated in light of Scripture. We know this partly because the Bible itself tells us so, but also because any collection of books written by so many different authors over so long a period of time with so much consistency of theme and content cannot possibly be of merely human origin.

We know it because of the way Scripture has been so carefully preserved down through the centuries, with only minor variations in some manuscripts, none of which affect any major doctrines. And we know it because, as we read Scripture or hear it preached, the Holy Spirit works in us to illuminate our minds and hearts to bring us to a knowledge of the truth. I teach at a seminary that is part of a denomination that believes that the Bible is the Word of God.

We put no authority above that. One reason I love the Westminster Confession of Faith is that it takes a stand on the authority of Scripture right in chapter 1. The church over time has attested that we have these 66 books of the Bible, but the truth of those books does not come from the church saying they are true; their truth comes from God himself, who impresses upon us through his Spirit that this is his Word.

Therefore, they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice but to be used as a help in both.