Here is the foundation of Protestantism “Sola Scriptura”. If one could show that this foundation is false then their whole world view falls. While many might ask, isn’t denying such a proposition an insult to God and his holy word? I think it is the opposite actually. The reason? When I look to Scripture and history one does not see God setting things up like this as we’ll see. I actually think it is prideful to say that any lay person can pick up the bible and declare what the passages mean for certain unless they were given a special charism by God to do so. Can we read the scriptures and understand them? Can we know any truths contained in them? Sure but we are not protected from reading the scriptures and interpreting them in a way that might suit our own preference. So rather we read them in light of the churches understanding of them (Tradition). Scripture is not always clear. One only needs to attend different Protestant churches and see that each teaches something different even on matters such as salvation or the sacraments. So we must look to Scripture and history to see what is the normative way in which God transmits his truth to his people.
One must be careful because we as humans can often hide our pride behind “righteousness”. The human condition is prone to pride and tends to push back against authority. Satan was the first to reject authority. Satan comes as a light and so do his lies. America was founded on rebelling against Authority and to be suspicious against it. This does not mean that Authority is bad. As we will see , God as a father raises his family with structure and authority and does not leave his children to anarchy where each acts as a individual Moses. While this analogy is not perfect I hope it helps. Lets take the Constitution of the United States. It is a written document given to its people but it must be interpreted by some one and the Supreme Court takes this role. The Bible is no less prone to misinterpretation than the constitution. This is a document that must also be interpreted. Just because something is God breathed does not mean that it is clear to everyone who reads it. Every one comes to the bible with a lens in which they read and interpret it. Since everyone comes with a lens in which they read it , the question one should ask is which lens in the correct one?
Before we look at particular passages that are often used to defend the idea of sola scriptura let us take a quick journey to see if this idea of a bunch of believers running around interpreting the scriptures for themselves under the righteous disguise of “its Gods holy word and his word is our final authority”.
I think we should start in the Old Testament first and see if we can see how God fathers his family. We also need to briefly talk about covenants since throughout the whole bible the main theme is covenant making. A covenent is where two parties swear an oath and become a family. It is the forming of a family under divine witness. Within each covenant there is a covenant mediator, rules and blessing for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking or violating the rules. Their is also a sign of the covenant. To make this covenant both parties swear an oath to each other. Oath in Latin is “Sacramentum“and Greek “mysterion“. Why this is important is that family’s are governed by a type of hierarchy. Dad along with mom govern the children. The family sets rules, boundaries, chores or duties for their children. Children are often rewarded for obeying and punished for disobeying. But the children are not left to make it up as the go along. If the parents leave the eldest sibling is given authority to take care of the younger siblings.
As we will see throughout salvation history God establishes covenant’s with mankind making us his family but with that he gives certain humans authority to rule over his people. There are six main covenant’s made throughout the bible. 1) Made with creation with Adam as mediator 2) Noah 3) Abraham 4) Moses 5)David 6)Jesus. With each covenant the family of God take a new role. Form of Adam and Eve covenant and creation takes on form of marriage, Noah it takes on a family role, Abraham takes on form of a tribe, Moses takes the form of a Nation, David a kingdom and Jesus a world wide kingdom.
If you would like to see the covenant played out in the bible check our the covenant section for more detail but I think we should start off showing how God picked human leaders to govern the old testament people of God aka the “Church”.
Abraham:
Lets start actually with Abraham. We know that God spoke to him and in Gen 15:17 “God made a covenant with Abram”. God declares rules and the sign of the covenant in Gen 17. Abraham is responsible in making sure that his people know God and obey the covenant by being circumcised. Abraham was responsible in overseeing that his people do what the Lord said to him For in Gen 17:23-25 he took Ishmael and his slaves and circumcised them. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant and required to belong to the people of God for he who does not is “cut off from his people” Gen 17:14. Circumcision was a right of initiation into the covenant which was later replaced with baptism in the NT to enter into the new covenant. Circumcision was needed to worship Lev 12:, Celebrate the Passover Ex 12:43-49 and for marital relations 34:15. Abraham then was seen as a mediator when he interceded for Sodom in Gen 18-19. Abraham spoke on God’s behave to his people for Genesis 20: 7 says “He is a prophet”. God picks people like Abraham to govern his church.
Joseph:
In Genesis 37 Joseph is given a long robe with sleeves. In the patriarchal times Priesthood was based on the natural family. The father was the priest for his family and was usually past down to the first born son usually in the form of a blessing. Here we can see why Josephs brothers are so angry and jealous of Joseph. Joseph was given “Long robe with sleeves” priestly attire. His dream was of him ruling over his brothers. When Joseph was taken into Egypt after being sold for money (..Hey this story sounds familiar who else was sold for money and betrayed in the NT.. oh ya Jesus) Joseph gets a interesting position… Gen 39:4 says he became “Overseer of his house”. This position is important in the discussion especially with the Papacy or the role of peter and his successor’s. So in kingdoms there was the king then there was the office of the vizier. This person was the prime minister who held the kings authority in the place of the kings absence, Gen 39:4 “Put him in charge of all that he had”. See ben 41:37-46. Pharaoh says ” you shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command; only as regards to the throne will I be greater than you. Pharaoh then took his signet ring and put it on Josephs hand and arrayed him in fine linen and gold chain. Pharaoh said to Joseph ” without your consent no man shall lift up hand or foot in all Egypt”. Once again God chooses the small people and elevates them in the assembly of GOD. As we get to Moses this whole picture gets more clear on the structure of the family of God.
Moses:
In Exodus God picks the murderer Moses who just killed an Egyptian to go back into the land and be the spokesman for God’s word and deliver his people. He gives Moses authority over the people of God. God even tells Moses that he “will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak” Ex 4:12. He we see that God takes a sinner and sets him up in his church while giving him authority to speak with divine command. God promises to protect Moses from teaching error. Moses is given a special charism you could say. Moses is said to have spoken in Gods name Ex5:23. In Ex 12 Moses tells the people how to worship and celebrate the “feast” of passover. That kinda of sounds like St Paul when he calls Christ our paschal lamb therefore let us keep the “festival”. Sounds like the Eucharist is truly christ present.
Ok we know from scripture that Moses was head ruler over Israel. What happens when the people murmured against moses? Who were they really murmuring against? God. Ex 16:8 “Your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord”. This sounds similar to 1 Samuel 8:7 “and the Lord said to Samuel Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have REJECTED ME from being king over them”. Throughout the bible we see the Lord sets up rulers over his people and rejection of listening to their authority is really a rejection of God.
Moses is said to be the one to judge the people Ex18:13. When talking to his father in law Moses says “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when they have dispute , they come to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor and I make known to them the statutes of God and his decisions”. How can we christians be so prideful as to think that we do not need something similar in our day in age? How do we claim to only need the scriptures but not Jesus church which he founded. As well see time and time again God appoints people over his church his bride all the way down through the history. Dare the people tell Moses “we have the old testament scriptures and do not need your interpretation or guidance in the things of God for we are all holy”… wait that sounds familiar.. Well see they do say similar things later on.
We see Moses pick men and placed them as rulers over the people Ex18:20-21. He also picks seventy elders Ex24:1. Who in the NT goes up a mountain, declares the law of God (Beatitudes), elects rulers over his people (Apostles) and then elects seventy elders? Yes Jesus. Wow the bible seems to repeat it self. Shall we say that once the apostles died there was no need for such a structure?
In the Book of Numbers God tells moses to gather the seventy elders and that he will take some the Spirit which is upon Moses and put it upon them. When did the Spirit come to the Apostles? At pentecost but also when Jesus gave the Apostles another gift, the gift of forgiving sins in Jesus name. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says “As the Father sends me so I send you. He breathed on them and he said , receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any they are retained”. This is crazy on it’s strict literally level. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to the Apostles in a different way than the way we receive the Holy Spirit. They have the office of hearing sins and declaring them forgiven or not. Throughout the whole bible their is a heirarchy in the family of God.
In Ex 12 Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses and said “Has the Lord indeed spoken inly through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?”. This sure sounds like like Martin Luther in the 16th century and protestantism. What is Gods reply? Moses “IS ENTRUSTED WITH ALL MY HOUSE” EX 12:7. Haven’t we seen this terminology of being “over the house”? Yes in Joseph when he was ruler in Egypt. We see this when christ gives Peter a similar authority. In the New Testament Jesus tells his apostles “He who hears you hears me, he who rejects you rejects me and he who rejects me rejects the one that sent me” Lk 10:16. This does not sound like a protestant view of the people of God. God always ask for obedience to the people he has set over the church.
In Ex 14:1 the people “Murmured against Moses and Aaron”. Who were they really murmuring against? Ex 14:26 ” The lord said to Moses and Aaron, How long will this wicked generation murmur against me”? Attacking the church or its leaders who were appointed by God is an attack on God himself.
Numbers 27:16-23 here God appoints another leader over Israel. “let the Lord appoint a man of the congregation , so that the congregation may not be as sheep without a Shepard”. ” The Lord said take Joshua and lay your hand upon him. You shall invest him with your authority that all the congregation may obey”.
The people dare to tell Moses or Gods leaders that their interpretation of scripture is wrong and that the individual believer has that authority.
Lets take a look at how the Old testament people worshiped and heard scripture. Who taught them about God’s word. Did they assembly of God practice Sola Scriptura? No!
Nehemiah 8 states “All the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the “Book of the Law” before the assembly. He read it facing the square and all the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law. Ezra stood at the wooden pulpit which they made for this purpose. Ezra opened the book for he was above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood. Ezra blessed the Lord and all the people answered AMEN lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the lord with faces to the ground. The levites helped the people Understand the law while the people remained in their place. They read from the law of God and they gave sense, so that the people understood the reading”. If you have been to a Catholic Church you’ll quickly feel like you traveled back into time because its almost he exact same. That point aside who was the interpreters of scripture? Not the lay people. It was the Priest and appointed people over the assembly.
As the book of Malachi says in Mal 2: “The lips of the priest should guard knowledge and men should seek instruction from his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord”
Lets look at the New Testament church and see if we see Sola Scriptura functioning in the New Testament church?
1) First let’s start with some basic facts , Jesus personally picked 12 Apostles as the foundation of the church Eph 2:20 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone”.
Moses declares to Israel that a new Moses will arise one day in the future and that they shall obey him Dt 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen”.
The people recognized this was Jesus Jn 6:14 “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
Just like Moses who appointed rulers over the 12 tribes of Israel and also elected seventy elders, Jesus as the new Moses also picks seventy elders Lk 10:1 “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others”.
So what do we see throughout the new testament? We see apostles appointing Bishops and Priest and telling them to guard and interpret the faith. They give their successors power like Moses took some of the spirit and put it on the rulers who were to rule over Israel.
Lets look at 1Tim:3 “remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine“. Paul who commissioned Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus tells him stop other people teaching doctrine contrary to the faith he received. As with all these passages it amazes me that protestants think that some how we do not need such protection these days and that all we need is to individually read the scriptures and then we will know the truth. As peter will say later not all scripture is clear.
Paul then goes to say that there are people who 1Tim:7 “desiring to be teachers of the Law, without understanding either what they are saying or things about which they make assertions”.
Paul gives a prophecy in 1Tim4:1 ” Some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines“. Whats interesting is that the bible no where says the whole church or faith will go into apostasy but rather some. The mormons claim that the whole church went into apostasy and that Joseph Smith re established the true church. The bible no where say the church will be completely lost. Jesus even says after establishing Peter as the head of the church that the “gates of hell will not prevail“. Jesus says “I will build my church”. If Jesus is the builder then it cannot be destroyed. Now if any false doctrine came into the official teaching of the church or if the church was lost in the first few centuries then God lied and honestly he let everyone down. The Mormons and the protestants make similar claims essentially. They both say that the church was lost and corrupted at some point but with Joseph Smith or Martin Luther, John Calvin or some other brought back the original church.
The scriptures show that the apostles set up “Offices” to be succeeded in the church. The church was to continue until his coming. As in the old and seen in the new, the people of God are governed by a hierarchy that was established by God. If one was to live in the first century would one dare to walk up to the Apostles or their appointed Bishops like Timothy and said “The word of god is my final authority and I disagree with your interpretation of it. Timothy the bible is God breathed who do you think you are. I see that your words conflict with scripture as I see it”? I don’t think so and if one was to travel back in time and do such a dangerous thing I wouldn’t want to be around to see what happens. Why? They are Gods earthy ministers who were given the Holy Spirit in a way different than us.
What happened when Ananias lied to Peter? Death. But Peter is a mere human? He is a human who occupies a Divine office sine it was the Divine person Jesus who created and appointed Peter to it. Peter has a charism that we do not have. Acts 5:3-5 “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. Verse 11 states and great fear came upon the whole church”.
Who has the right to read scripture, preach and teach it officially? Those who hold the positions in the church. Paul says to Timothy ” Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to peaching, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Wow these people in the church who hold an office to teach were given a “Gift by the laying on of hands”.
Tell me where are the credentials of your pastors, who gave them a right to preach in Jesus name? Why have you let these people into the flock who have neither pedigree nor divine commission?
If one is tempted to say that this was only for the first century (which is blasphemous in and of itself) let us look to Paul’s words to Timothy again. 2Tim 2:2 “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”. This is a clear order to pass down the faith not to just any or all believers but to on who will succeed him in his office as Bishop over the church.
Can one handle the “Word of God” incorrectly? Maybe misinterpret it? Yes. lets see what Paul again says
2Tim2:15 “Present yourself to God as one approved, rightly handling the Word of Truth”.
Lets now look at the Book of Titus regarding the Church and how it functions.
Paul says that he left Titus in Crete to appoint “Elders in every town” Titus 1:5.
Then Paul describes a Bishops duties and characteristics and says ” He must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and to confute those who contradict it” Titus 1:9.
This sure looks like a church that is organized with positions of authority especially positions that have the say of what scripture means and the holding and passing on of the faith.
Let’s now look at the New Testament when a kind of sola scriptura was being practiced and if the apostles agreed with this type of christianity?
Throughout the whole new testament was tends to be the big argument whether in Romans or Galatians or Acts? Whether circumcision is necessary.
Acts 15:1 “But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved”.
Acts 15 shows that we see Jews telling people what they must do to be saved. Based on what? Well of course the Old Testament scriptures. They were essential running around saying that scriptures says that one must be circumcised to be in the covenant people of God.
How did the matter get settled? By the authority of God’s ministers who called a council and as Jesus told them earlier “He who hears you hears me”.
Acts 15:6 ” The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.”.
Then what happened? Peter stood up and declared the matter. And it says the “Assembly kept Silent” Acts 15:12.
What about the letter that was sent to the church , the apsotles claim a interesting relationship with the Holy Spirit that I don’t think the regular believer can claim. They said “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to US to lay upon you no greater burden than these things necessary” Acts 15:28.
Acts 16:4 says that “As they went through the cities they delivered to them for observances the decisions which had been reached by the Apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem”.
So where does sola scriptura show up as christian practice in the Holy Scriptures? No where.
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