Sola scriptura and the never ending battle

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Womanoffaith10

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My protestant friends are always questioning my beliefs based on the protestant idea of sola scriptura. I understand that the Catholic faith is based on both scripture and tradition, but the problem then becomes how biblically based is tradition? I need a better understanding so I can better explain our faith. I understand their confusion when I explain something that isn’t clearly illustrated in the bible…ie Marian devotion and our great emphasis on her. Can someone please explain this a little better to me?
 
Womanoffaith10 said:
My protestant friends are always questioning my beliefs based on the protestant idea of sola scriptura. I understand that the Catholic faith is based on both scripture and tradition, but the problem then becomes how biblically based is tradition? I need a better understanding so I can better explain our faith. I understand their confusion when I explain something that isn’t clearly illustrated in the bible…ie Marian devotion and our great emphasis on her. Can someone please explain this a little better to me?
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About Marian devotion? Or some other issue?

I would say, begin with JPII…a short sermon…ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm49.htm
 
Well not just Marian devotion, but also prayers to saints, priests not able to marry, etc etc. I understand the meaning behind John 19:26-27…but just as they refute the biblical necessity for baptism (John 3:5) they also claim this is not the true meaning behind the Blessed Mother becoming the Mother of the Church.
 
There are a ton of books and CD’s (see the above shop button–look under apologetics). This website has a wealth of information as well. They have a radio show(see above) where you can listen to old shows by topic or plan ahead to listen live. Enjoy learning your faith–you’re gonna love it!! There are other great apologists who have websites too.
 
thanks Chris138 i’ll dig in and see what else i can’t find
 
I believe it is more of a logic based issue. For example, when you see a really beautiful chair in a home, you know it is a great piece. You instinctively know that the chair is great but the craftsman, or craftswoman, that made the chair is much more. In short, the product is not what you should value as much as the maker.

So it goes with the Bible. This was carefully deliberated around the year 400 AD, I believe in two separate church councils. Specific books were declared “inspired” and added to the Canon of Scripture. This happened because the Church was guided by the Holy Spirit to know which books belonged. There were a lot of books that were rejected as well.

Therefore, it is the Church that is what should be followed. The bible is important, but the Church must be taken with the bible. The Church in fact is still the official interpreter of the bible. These two, church and bible, are matched with tradition to form the “three legged stool” that is solid and our official reference for the faith.

The bible alone is a “one legged stool” and not stable. Individual interpretations vary widely and cannot all be true when the subject is the Objective Truth.

Jesus established a Church and it is still with us today.
 
WomanofFaith,

As you will see if you read the thread I referenced, the ONE question that plagues Protestants who adhere to “sola scriptura” is:

“As the Bible is a collection of books that a group of MEN, under inspiration from the Holy Spirit, deemed to be canonical, and the Bible was NOT delivered to man along the lines of “The Ten Commandments”, how do you KNOW that the books in YOUR bible are, indeed, inspired?”

They never are able to answer this very basic question.

As I tell them - the Bible did not come with an inspired “table of contents” - it was culled from many different sources, and many books were accepted, and many were not.
 
thanks everyone for all this information. glad i posted this because i really wasn’t sure where to begin. i’ll look through everything all of you provided.
 
Womanoffaith10 said:
thanks everyone for all this information. glad i posted this because i really wasn’t sure where to begin. i’ll look through everything all of you provided.
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www.scripturecatholic.com

This website should provide you with the basic scriptural backing, and early church father writing about the faith.

I think you could start here for a basic reputation…then if they ask more questions…then you can go here…or you can direct them here.
 
Womanoffaith10 said:
My protestant friends are always questioning my beliefs based on the protestant idea of sola scriptura. I understand that the Catholic faith is based on both scripture and tradition, but the problem then becomes how biblically based is tradition? I need a better understanding so I can better explain our faith. I understand their confusion when I explain something that isn’t clearly illustrated in the bible…ie Marian devotion and our great emphasis on her. Can someone please explain this a little better to me?
There is a fundamental difference between Catholic and Protestant thinking about origins.
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"Catholics start with Church, from which scripture is derived. Protestants start with scripture and from scripture derive their doctrines and various churches. To Catholics that doesn’t make sense, since Jesus started a Church and members of the Church wrote Christian scripture. Church creates scripture, not scripture creating Church! Protestants have it backwards.

And, since scripture is all they have, they are free to interpret the bible into as many ways as each interpreter’s pecadillos demand!"

I completely agree. I don’t know why protestants, especially the Fundamentalists don’t realize that. The bible came after Jesus’ death and His institution of the church. He didn’t write the bible. The New Testament is writing completely by the apostle and their accounts of Jesus’ life and then their ministries around the world.
 
Womanoffaith10 said:
My protestant friends are always questioning my beliefs based on the protestant idea of sola scriptura. I understand that the Catholic faith is based on both scripture and tradition, but the problem then becomes how biblically based is tradition? I need a better understanding so I can better explain our faith. I understand their confusion when I explain something that isn’t clearly illustrated in the bible…ie Marian devotion and our great emphasis on her. Can someone please explain this a little better to me?
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The strongest argument against sola scriptura, in my opinion, is this:

[BIBLEDRB]1 tim 3:15[/BIBLEDRB]

If “scripture alone” means the Bible is the ONLY “infallible and sufficient rule for deciding issues of faith and practices that involve doctrines” then 1 Tim 3:15 cannot be true.
 
Tim Staples. Nuts & Bolts is a good easy read and addresses many Protestants concerns.
 
Womanoffaith10 said:
My protestant friends are always questioning my beliefs based on the protestant idea of sola scriptura. I understand that the Catholic faith is based on both scripture and tradition, but the problem then becomes how biblically based is tradition? I need a better understanding so I can better explain our faith. I understand their confusion when I explain something that isn’t clearly illustrated in the bible…ie Marian devotion and our great emphasis on her. Can someone please explain this a little better to me?
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Very easy to refute. First ask them:
  1. Please show me where Scripture teaches about explicitness?
  2. Show me where Scripture teaches everything about Christianity must be said and taught explicitly from the Bible?
 
Womanoffaith10 said:
My protestant friends are always questioning my beliefs based on the protestant idea of sola scriptura. I understand that the Catholic faith is based on both scripture and tradition, but the problem then becomes how biblically based is tradition? I need a better understanding so I can better explain our faith. I understand their confusion when I explain something that isn’t clearly illustrated in the bible…ie Marian devotion and our great emphasis on her. Can someone please explain this a little better to me?
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This is a handy reference for those of us who forget too easily. 🙂
Biblical references underlying over 100 Catholic doctrines and disciplines

If someone is interested in learning, it’s easy enough to walk them through this.

If they are intent on proving the Church wrong, try to keep them focused on one topic at a time.
 
Sola Scriptura is paradoxical. It is a not in the Bible (and I’ve seen all the various attempts to support it from Scripture and none of them actually do the job), and therefore Sola Scriptura is a non-biblical teaching telling people to reject non-biblical teachings. Therefore, Sola Scriptura is self-contradictory, and because truth cannot be contradictory this teaching is demonstrated as false.

As a side note, different people define Sola Scriptura in different ways. But I am presenting what Sola Scriptura means in practice to many of its adherents, regardless of how it is defined.

In fairness, I have come across some who use Sola Scriptura and admit that it is not clearly derived from the Bible. Nonetheless they consider it to be the best objective guide in discerning the validity of a proposed Christian doctrine. They tend to see it as a guide for the sake of their own spirituality and, therefore, usually do not use it to condemn certain Catholic doctrines. But I have met plenty of other people who do, indeed, criticize Catholic doctrines under the mantra of “That’s not in the Bible so you shouldn’t believe it!”
 
Salvatore123 said:
WomanofFaith,

As you will see if you read the thread I referenced, the ONE question that plagues Protestants who adhere to “sola scriptura” is:

“As the Bible is a collection of books that a group of MEN, under inspiration from the Holy Spirit, deemed to be canonical, and the Bible was NOT delivered to man along the lines of “The Ten Commandments”, how do you KNOW that the books in YOUR bible are, indeed, inspired?”

They never are able to answer this very basic question.

As I tell them - the Bible did not come with an inspired “table of contents” - it was culled from many different sources, and many books were accepted, and many were not.
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Well many believe because they can trust in the Holy Spirit to have made sure the Bible was put together correctly. It was not the wisdom of those men that decided which books were put into the Bible but the guidance of the Holy Spirit who decided it. But when the wisdom of those men, seems to go against what is found in the Bible they start to question.

It’s the same way that Catholics believe that the Catechism is truth. When our priests, bishops or even say the Pope start to teach contrary to what is in the Catechism then who should we trust? The priests interpretation of the Catechism or our own?
 
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