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Saturday, January 14, 2017

I might be wrong - :-) The Bible and Church Tradition are not

Since the Bible is infallible, there must be an infallible source that is enabled by the Holy Spirit to identify and interpret it infallibly.
The Catholic Church claims that the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture and therefore it is infallible. The Church also claims that the Holy Spirit has enabled the Church to not only identify but also interpret God’s Word infallibly. The Traditions of the Church - capital “T” - came first, then the Bible. First the Church was established, then the sacred Scripture was written, identified and codified. That is just a matter of history. You don’t have to know much of Church history to know that Tradition and Sacred Scripture have always worked hand in hand. Think about the New Testament. Again, the Church was established by Jesus first, then came the writing of the New Testament. 

The Holy Spirit accurately communicates truth to the Church, leading her into all truth just as Jesus promised. Jesus was talking to His disciples in John 16. I quoted part of that passage below. That is significant. The “you” is “all ya’ all”. He is talking to them as a group, not as individuals only. He is showing them how their apostolate will work - through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He is not telling them, " I will give you the Bible and each one of you needs to follow his own conscience in order to find the truth. “ You will not find that kind of “Protestant” thinking anywhere in the Bible. 
John 16 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
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Sola scriptura is a self-contradictory doctrine since it is not found in the Bible. Besides, no one holds to only the Bible, which is what many seem to advocate. For example. Reformed Baptist, Dr. White is a Calvinist. He defends sola scriptura. Get the picture? His doctrine is formed by the teachings of a man named John Calvin. He specifically follows what are called the Doctrines of Grace, also known as TULIP. He is also an advocate of Covenant Theology from a Baptistic perspective. He is NOT a “Bible only” kind of a guy. He is a Bible plus other standards like Covenant Theology and Calvinism - the Doctrines of Grace - kind of a guy. Another aspect of sola scriptura is that of the sufficiency of Scripture. So, if it is sufficient, why does a man like Dr. White need Calvinism? Why does he need Covenant theology or the Doctrines of Grace? He has to have his Calvinistic traditions in order to support his teachings. Also, sola scriptura involves a little thing called the perspicuity of Scripture. That is, the Bible is clear in its message. If the Bible is so clear in its message, why is there so much division, discussion, and disagreement just among the Calvinists? How many Presbyterian groups are there? How many Calvinistic Baptist groups are there? There is even a wing of Anglicanism that is Calvinistic. There are Calvinistic Methodists who follow guys like George Whitefield and Martin Lloyd-Jones. Then there are the Calvinistic Congregationalists, which are not especially liked by the Reformed Presbyterians. 


The underlying problem in even the best of Protestant groups has to do with the infallible Scripture-fallible standards principle. That is, Scripture is infallible, but there is no infallible way to know what it means. There are fallible ways to interpret Scripture, but not infallible ways.

Therefore each group can freely claim that they have the best way to interpret Scripture.

In fact, in Protestantism there really is no infallible way to know what Scripture is in the first place.

That’s a problem.

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