Essay criticisms

[Tanais]

I have been looking for someone to please review some of my work that I have written. I wrote this essay on Sola Scriptura several months ago and I was wondering if someone could please give me their thoughts on it, whether it is junk or not, ways to improve, etc. any help would be greatly appreciated. I tried attaching it but if that doesn’t work there is a copy on the net at: geocities.com/caugustus2/DeSolaScriptura.htm I think the attached version is better quality but i’ll let you pick. Thanks!

 

[karisue]

Great start!

A few brief thoughts:

1. The footnote links on the website point to files on a floppy.
2. I thought there were 5 Sola’s, according to Luther.
3. It needs some polish. Examples of things that need to be formalized somewhat include some of the abbreviations and word choices, like “Luther and co” and “…or what?” They diminish your authoritative impact.
4. (Or maybe 3a?) I personally detest contractions for the reasons listed above.
5. Even if the Bible stated it was the sole rule of faith, that would not make it so. An outside authroity would have to declare it so, and then it would be a contradiction. It is therefore logically impossible.
6. I like your framework and your clear audience. It was evident that you are writing to and for beginning apologists who want practical, concrete pointers for addressing sola scriptura with protestants.

Again, great start! I’d love to read more.

HTH!
~karisue

 

[funkyhorn]

Looks good. Just a few suggestions:

1. There was a fourth “sola,” namely, “sola Christos.” By Christ alone we are saved, not through Sacraments, Mary, the Saints, etc.
2. The council of Hippo in 393 AD did affirm the canon of Scripture, but the canon can actually be dated back to the council of Rome in 382 AD. The decree of Damasus that resulted from the council lists all of the books in the Catholic canon.
3. There is a grammatical error in the following sentence: “Now most Protestants don’t know truly know why they hold Scripture to be inspired by God”
4. Be ready to defend different kinds of sola Scriptura. You address the belief that the Bible is the ONLY rule of faith, period. There are protestants now who have adapted this and say that the Bible is the only INFALLABLE rule of faith, believing that history and tradition play a part in their faith, but are not infallable. This is a technicality, however…possible a future writing assignment.

 

[funkyhorn]

2. I thought there were 5 Sola’s, according to Luther.

Five solas? Hmmm…I’m only aware of four. Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Christos.

Maybe the fifth is…ummm…Sola Lutheros? Luther’s interpretation is the only infallable interpretation?

 

[karisue]

• Sola Scriptura
• Solus Christus
• Sola Gratia

**

• Sola Fide **
• Soli Deo Gloria

…that is, according to Luther.

 

[Tanais]

I realize there were several other solas, and i probably did screw up with attributing only three to luther. I however used the generally accepted number by most modern lutheran churches, especially the LC-MS, which lists only 3, Solus Christus falls under Sola Fide for them. anyways, this work was more of a general one, it does need to be modified when dealing with specific cases though. thanks for all your suggestions!

 

[Buckeyejoe]

I thought the essay was very well done.

Some Protestants (and who can keep up with all the different views) say that ALL churches rely upon the Early Church Fathers (Ist 4 centuries) for guidance in intrepreting scriptures, so they use this in addition to the claim of Sola Scriptura, (Which makes no sense) Anyhow, they say that the catholic church established these guidelines but they make it clear they are refering to small “c” catholic and NOT the Roman Catholic Church. (Again this makes no sense) but I heard this very reasoning on The Bible Answer Man program with Hank Hanagraf…(The Protestant making this claim had an advanced degree from Harvard, and is a history professor).

Again, it’s alot easier to be Catholic then to use the duct tape theology of patching together a Sola Scriptura doctrine)

Thanks