What is Sola Scriptura?

[khmsct99]

I was thinking about how a “friend”, not really a friend, but more like acquaintances. said that he loved that Luther wrote Sola Scriptura. Then he said, if I were to become Catholic, he would try to prove me wrong and use Sola Scriptura to help him back him up with some, so called, “debate.”

Now, first, I don’t know what this Sola Scriptura is. However, he claims that he has read the Bible 3 times now, and that he has read Sola Scriptura… and also, he is a Baptist.

Second, he has already “attempted” to prove him point, but I told him what is believed, and he didn’t have anything else to say.

I really don’t want to get into debates, but he tries to start them. He is moving, so at least I won’t have to deal with these, so called, “debates”.

Anyways, can someone tell me what Sola Scriptura is?

I mean, he told me it was a lot of things that said what was wrong with everything. However, I want a description.

Thanks.
God Bless!

 

[Contarini]

I was thinking about how a “friend”, not really a friend, but more like acquaintances. said that he loved that Luther wrote Sola Scriptura. Then he said, if I were to become Catholic, he would try to prove me wrong and use Sola Scriptura to help him back him up with some, so called, “debate.”

Now, first, I don’t know what this Sola Scriptura is. However, he claims that he has read the Bible 3 times now, and that he has read Sola Scriptura… and also, he is a Baptist.

Second, he has already “attempted” to prove him point, but I told him what is believed, and he didn’t have anything else to say.

I really don’t want to get into debates, but he tries to start them. He is moving, so at least I won’t have to deal with these, so called, “debates”.

Anyways, can someone tell me what Sola Scriptura is?

I mean, he told me it was a lot of things that said what was wrong with everything. However, I want a description.

Thanks.
God Bless!

Sola Scriptura is the principle that the Bible is the only infallible authority in matters of faith and morals. Any other authority can, in principle, be questioned.

There are many varieties of sola scriptura, and some of the more traditional Protestants (like Lutherans and Reformed) think that the fundamentalist Baptist version isn’t really the same thing at all, because it’s so much more extreme, looking with suspicion on anything that isn’t Scripture. But the basic principle that Scripture is the only authority beyond question remains the same, even though different Protestants give different degrees of secondary authority to other things.

Edwin

 

[pablope]

I was thinking about how a “friend”, not really a friend, but more like acquaintances. said that he loved that Luther wrote Sola Scriptura. Then he said, if I were to become Catholic, he would try to prove me wrong and use Sola Scriptura to help him back him up with some, so called, “debate.”

Now, first, I don’t know what this Sola Scriptura is. However, he claims that he has read the Bible 3 times now, and that he has read Sola Scriptura… and also, he is a Baptist.

Second, he has already “attempted” to prove him point, but I told him what is believed, and he didn’t have anything else to say.

I really don’t want to get into debates, but he tries to start them. He is moving, so at least I won’t have to deal with these, so called, “debates”.

Anyways, can someone tell me what Sola Scriptura is?

I mean, he told me it was a lot of things that said what was wrong with everything. However, I want a description.

Thanks.
God Bless!

Ask him, firstly, to give you proof of SS from the Bible.

He will mostly cite this verse:

2Tim3:

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

But then, if you notice, the word “only” is not in the passage…and ask him what was Scripture in existence when this passage was written?

Then ask him to read the passage again, this time starting at V14, which reads:

2Tim3:

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So explore the passage together…what is the context now, with v14?

2 Tim–in context.

In 2 Tim 3:14 Paul tells Timothy to remain faithful to what he learned likely from his own mother and grandmother (1:5) and no doubt from Paul’s preaching, which earlier (2:2) he told Timothy to share orally with others who should in turn share it orally with yet others (also 1 Thess 1:8). After this in (3:15) he says “AND from infancy you have known the sacred scriptures” which could only refer to books of the OT. He follows (3:16) by telling Timothy that scripture is inspired and is suitable for teaching, etc. so that having both Paul’s teaching AND scripture (OT) he will be fully equipped (3:17). A few verses later (4:1-2) Paul charges Timothy to “proclaim the word . . . through teaching.”

Also, the phrase servant of God, or man of God in other versions, actually means a minister called to service, not an ordinary person.

Then invite him to come here and debate further with catholics.

 

[Butaperson]

Confusing.

 

[hereagain]

Hi!

You posted a good question there. Sola Scriptura is what non-Catholic Christians generally believe in which is the Bible ALONE. As Catholics, we also believe the Bible. It’s more a matter of interpretation of the Bible which is very various which is why there’s so many different Protestant denominations.

Personally, I look at it this way: we didn’t have the New Testament put together for over 300 years after Christ. 300 years. It’s 2014 so that would be like having no New Testament since the year 1714. That is a l-o-n-g time. So, what did they do then? Where was the “Bible only” (Sola Scriptura) from the time of Christ on earth until the putting together of the NT (by the Catholic Church!)? It was oral tradition and writings of the early Church fathers which essentially the latter is pretty much what the NT is.

Furthermore, even then, illiteracy was common and the NT wasn’t in the common language so ordinary people couldn’t read it anyway. Yet, the church survived and grew without “Sola Scriptura”.

In the middle ages when the hierarchy in the Catholic church became corrupt, well meaning Martin Luther basically decided the Bible was the only authority as others have stated here. While the idea was probably good at the time, it opened a whole new dimension of theological “worms”. So many “Bible only” churches disagree on many things-why is that? I wonder if he could answer that question.

Take all that with a grain of salt as I’m no expert here, but that is the way I see it and hopefully this helps.

Best,
HA

 

[arklawler]

The phrase “sola Sciptura”, “Scripture alone”, was the battle cry of much of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s. By that they meant get rid of the Pope, the Catholic Hierarchy of Bishops and Tradition, and use Holy Scripture as your guide. There are several problems with this reasoning, all which should have been obvious even at the time. 1) The canon of the New Testament was not even fully formulated until two Church Councils defined it in the 390’s. Thus for almost four centuries the Church was guided by its hierarchy of Bishops and during this time there were numerous councils of bishops that needed to take place, against heresies, to define and make clear what was really the deposit of faith handed down by the Apostles. 2) bishops, “overseers” mentioned in the Epistles, are clearly regarded as the authoritative successors of the Apostles by all the early writers of Church history known as “the Church Fathers.” A number of these men were ordained by one of the original Apostles themselves. In rejecting the authority of the Catholic Hierarchy of Bishops they were rejecting what was, since Apostolic times, the means Christian faith was to be safeguarded. 3) Who is to interpret Scripture ? It became obvious even to the very first Reformers, like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Henry VIII that things soon started to unravel in this regard. In the present day it is stated there are between 27,000 and 30,000 different Christian sects and denominations. This certainly is not a good fruit when Jesus prayed that 'they may all be one as we are one" at the Last Supper. What has resulted is a Babel of voices in regards to teachings of faith and morals.

 

[po18guy]

A definition of SS is possible only in a general sense: it is a rejection of that portion of God’s revealed truth as preserved in the Apostle’s Sacred Tradition and the authority of the Church, replaced by a preference for the self and self-interpretation of God’s word.

The concept, as we see from history, is very European, very 16th century, very politically motivated, very innovative and very divisive. IMO, it is truth driven by opinion: theological entropy.

 

[JasonLovesJesus]

I was thinking about how a “friend”, not really a friend, but more like acquaintances. said that he loved that Luther wrote Sola Scriptura. Then he said, if I were to become Catholic, he would try to prove me wrong and use Sola Scriptura to help him back him up with some, so called, “debate.”

Now, first, I don’t know what this Sola Scriptura is. However, he claims that he has read the Bible 3 times now, and that he has read Sola Scriptura… and also, he is a Baptist.

Second, he has already “attempted” to prove him point, but I told him what is believed, and he didn’t have anything else to say.

I really don’t want to get into debates, but he tries to start them. He is moving, so at least I won’t have to deal with these, so called, “debates”.

Anyways, can someone tell me what Sola Scriptura is?

I mean, he told me it was a lot of things that said what was wrong with everything. However, I want a description.

Thanks.
God Bless!

Sola Scriptura is a heresy from the devil himself which has divided God’s Holy Church into countless thousands of sects and led God only knows how many souls to perdition and has made Christendom look like a charade of disunity to the world.

Lord have mercy

 

[JRKH]

Sola Scriptura is the principle that the Bible is the only infallible authority in matters of faith and morals. Any other authority can, in principle, be questioned.

There are many varieties of sola scriptura, and some of the more traditional Protestants (like Lutherans and Reformed) think that the fundamentalist Baptist version isn’t really the same thing at all, because it’s so much more extreme, looking with suspicion on anything that isn’t Scripture. But the basic principle that Scripture is the only authority beyond question remains the same, even though different Protestants give different degrees of secondary authority to other things.

Edwin

This is probably the best “nutshell” description. SS is going to mean different things to different groups.

Baptists end to lean more toward what is sometimes called "Solo Scriptura in that they prefer everything to be directly referenced in Scripture and tend to reject any other “tradition”.
Lutherans (and Anglicans?) on the other hand tend more toward what is sometimes called “Prima Scriptura”. This view keeps Scripture at the center but also allows for wider Church authority and tradition.

As for your acquaintance…and debating…just don’t. If he brings things up, just reply, “That’s interesting” or some other non committal reply and let it go…

If he persists, then tell him you must go where the Spirit (and Scripture) lead…and that is to the Catholic Church…then invite him to follow you…

Peace
James