C
CatholicLover
Guest
I’ll try to explain in another way:If you’re not talking past each other, then perhaps we’re not understanding what you’re trying to say, because I really don’t see any pertinent reasons given by you. Can you elaborate? Because I’m starting to get confused.
Me again is attempting to use the same argument used by the Archbishp of Reggio at the Council of Trent against the adopting sola scriptura. The debate was at a standstill until the Archbishop stood up and presented this argument:
“The Protestants claim to stand upon the written word only; they profess to hold the Scriptures alone as the standard of faith. They justify their revolt by the plea that the Church has apostatized from the written word and follows tradition. Now the Protestant’s claim that they stand upon the written word alone is not true.
Their profession of holding the Scriptures alone as the standard of faith is false. Proof: The written word explicitly enjoins the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it. If they truly hold the Scriptures alone as the standard, they would be observing the seventh day as it is enjoined in the Scripture throughout. Yet they not only reject the observance of the Sabbath as enjoined in the written word, but they have adopted, and do practice, the observance of Sunday, for which they have only the tradition of the (Catholic) Church.
Consequently, the claim of Scripture alone as the standard fails and the doctrine of ‘Scripture and tradition as essential’ is fully established, the Protestants themselves being Judges.”
Sound familiar? And the Archbishop was exactly right! But me again’s application of this same argument fall short because Catholic tradition in this case is not inconsistent with the Bible. Since it is not inconsistent with the Bible, Protestants are free to hold the same belief and still be in agreement with sola scriptura.
Now, if the Bible told us that Jesus had a wife but the Catholic Church for some reason said that he didn’t have a wife and Adventists in turn professed to believe that Jesus didn’t have a wife, me again would be correct in saying we do not follow sola scriptura but the tradition of the Catholic Church. But that’s not the case. We have made an assumption based on our understanding of the Jesus and the Bible. There is nothing in the Bible that contradicts our assumption, therefore we are safe in our claim to follow sola scriptura.
As Martin Luther said, “Whatever is not against the Scripture is for it.”
