From the Mr. Staples’ column:
Sola Scriptura was the central doctrine and foundation for all I believed when I was Protestant. On a popular level, it simply meant, “If a teaching isn’t explicit in the Bible, then we don’t accept it as doctrine!” And it seemed so simple. Unassailable. And yet, I do not recall ever hearing a detailed teaching explicating it. It was always a given. Unchallenged. Diving deeper into its meaning, especially when I was challenged to defend my Protestant faith against Catholicism, I found there to be no book specifically on the topic and no uniform understanding of this teaching among Protestant pastors.
Mr. Staple is wrong, that there is no explication of the practice of sola scriptura, as I’ve posted it here often. From the Epitome of the Formula of Concord:
- We believe, teach, and confess that the sole rule and standard according to which all dogmas together with [all] teachers should be estimated and judged are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and of the New Testament alone, as it is written Ps. 119:105: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And St. Paul: Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed, Gal. 1:8.
2] Other writings, however, of ancient or modern teachers, whatever name they bear, must not be regarded as equal to the Holy Scriptures, but all of them together be subjected to them, and should not be received otherwise or further than as witnesses, [which are to show] in what manner after the time of the apostles, and at what places, this [pure] doctrine of the prophets and apostles was preserved.
3] 2. And because directly after the times of the apostles, and even while they were still living, false teachers and heretics arose, and symbols, i. e., brief, succinct [categorical] confessions, were composed against them in the early Church, which were regarded as the unanimous, universal Christian faith and confession of the orthodox and true Church, namely, the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, we pledge ourselves to them, and hereby reject all heresies and dogmas which, contrary to them, have been introduced into the Church of God.
Interestingly, it sounds nothing like what Mr. Staples renders as his experience as a “protestant”. So, for one to completely understand his experience, one needs to know what
communion he was a member of. I’m sure he’s revealed that, but I simply do not know what it as.
Among Lutheran pastors, even from varying synods, there is indeed a uniform understanding. So, when he says there is no uniform understanding among “protestant” pastors, one again needs to know from what specific communions they were.
Again, from the column:
Once I got past the superficial, I had to try to answer real questions like, what role does tradition play? How explicit does a doctrine have to be in Scripture before it can be called doctrine? How many times does it have to be mentioned in Scripture before it would be dogmatic? Where does Scripture tell us what is absolutely essential for us to believe as Christians? How do we know what the canon of Scripture is using the principle of sola scriptura? Who is authorized to write Scripture in the first place? When was the canon closed? Or, the best question of all: where is sola scriptura taught in the Bible? These questions and more were left virtually unanswered or left to the varying opinions of various Bible teachers.
For almost all, these are the wrong questions. From the Lutheran perspective, it is in fact the Church that uses and employs the practice of sola scriptura. As for where the practice is taught, no where explicitly, though it can be inferred, not in opposition to the teaching role of the Church, but as a method for the Church to use.
As for the canon, it has been historically practiced in the Church that different communions, different sees and patriarchs, have had and continue to have variances in canonical books.
If Mr. Staples received different answers to these questions, he probably was asking pastors from different communions. If so, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
There is much more, but I think the point is, from my perspective, Mr. Staples’ experience with sola scriptura was nothing like what is found in orthodox Lutheran teaching, and since Luther and the Lutheran reformers often get the blame/credit for SS, the default understanding of it probably ought to start there.
Jon
The apostles were all fallible men who taught infallibly via the infallible guidance of God. How do you know that what you just said about Jesus’ church, did not apply to the apostles? Maybe they did not fully cooperate with God infallible guidance?
