Does the Bible teach the doctrine of Sola Scriptura?

 

Closing Statement

 

Benjamin Rosado

 

 

 

Moses,

 

For my closing statement I would like to attempt to do several things to summarize the reasons that I gave for not accepting sola scriptura as my sole authority as the total knowledge of salvation.

 

I also would like to present the reasons why I accept that the scriptures and the church are the best and really only way to know Christ (except of course in the unique situations of Paul, the Apostles and the people who came to know Christ before they had the scriptures.

 

So here are the reasons why I do not accept the total sufficiency of sola scriptura.  May God bless you and your readers, I pray for you all as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

 

So, with sola scriptura, there must be a fully mature member of the community to explain what the bible really means to the beginner.

 

Common knowledge tells me that although someone may truly claim that they have attained the full understanding of Christ, that claim itself does not make the person correct.  Some examples of this are the tens of thousands of protestant denominations each claiming to have the perfect understanding of the bible.  Since they all disagree on one thing or another, they cannot all have the perfect understanding.

 

This stands for reason, since, if the full understanding is contained in A church, it cannot exist fully also in B church, unless they both teach exactly the same thing, which no two protestant denominations do.

 

So, from the standpoint of someone hoping to choose which church to belong to, this effect of sola scriptura poses a problem.

 

How do I know which church has the correct and perfect understanding?  Which do I choose??

 

I once tried to figure this out in fact, years ago when I was trying to find a church.  I was and still am a great lover of the bible.  I read it often and for hours at a time.  I sincerely did my very best to understand everything contained in the scripture. 

 

I also went from denomination to denomination trying to find the true church.  It took me a while, but now I realize, looking back as what I was doing, where I went wrong in this approach.

 

I was trying to find the church that agreed with my understanding of the Bible.  I was looking for the same interpretation as one I would agree with.

 

But here is the problem with this protestant method of discovering truth.  I was really making my interpretation of my bible the final authority.  That is why I would continually leave churches.  I was looking for the church that agrees with my interpretation.

 

So in reality, If I had found a church that believed all that I believed, then would I have found the true church?

 

Of course not.  All I would have found would have been a group of people with the same limited interpretation of scripture as me.

 

All this came from the sincere practice of sola scriptura, which I believed and practiced.  But this was to no avail because it only led me from church to church.  I never found anyone with all the same interpretations of scripture as me.  I am kinda glad I didn't too.  If I did, I might still be there, thinking I was all knowing with regards to the true understanding of scripture.  Moses, would I have al the true understandings of scripture if that happened?

 

This would have happened because I didn't realize that the true message of Jesus requires the fulfillment of this verse:

 

    ...And how can they hear without someone to preach?

    And how can someone preach unless they are sent?...

                                                        Romans 10, 14-15

 

So if I went around preaching back then, would my message be the true message in it's fullness?

 

No, it wouldn't have.  Do you see why this kind of preaching would not have been the complete truth?

 

Well, the reason, as I now see it, is because sola scriptura requires one other thing to give the fullness of truth.  It requires that I have the perfect mind of Christ.  Then I could preach perfectly with complete understanding.  But no one has the perfect mind of Christ.  All the denominations are therefore teaching flawed versions of the message.  that is why I cannot accept anyone’s entire teaching as the full truth.  I cannot even accept my own.

 

So going back to the verse from Romans, I want to show how it is possible to receive the true message of Christ.  An unflawed message in fact.  If I can show this, then we can finally find the true faith in its fullest sense.

 

So here I go:

 

Remember how Jesus Christ taught the apostles?  Okay great.  Now they for certain had the full teaching given to them, since Jesus gave it Himself to them.  He explained everything to them in private. 

 

Before Jesus returned to Heaven, he did some things that allow the apostles to preach the sure truth.  He commissioned them to preach. 

 

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you...

                                                                                                            Matthew 28, 19-20

 

So only they had this mission and, most especially, were sent by the Lord Himself, with the true message. 

 

He continued, "and behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

 

So here it is, in a nutshell, the reason why I accept the scriptures and the church. 

 

The reason is because Jesus promised to be with them until the end of the age:  His message would be with them from that day forth.  He himself returned to Heaven, although He was present to them through His Spirit.  But note this important point:  He would be with them until the end of the age.  that means He would be with His community even after the apostles died.  The end of the age is the same as saying the end of time, the end of the world.  The new age Jesus had began by dying and being resurrected.  It was now a new creation, believers became children of God from that time on.  the new age had begun.  and of course this age has an end, the end of time when Jesus returns as the just judge.

 

Anyways back to the apostles.  They went forth and the Lord was with them.  They passed on the teaching and the holy Spirit was guiding the church.  Acts 15 is a prefect example of how the church, along with the Spirit, was able to make binding decisions upon all Christians.  Decisions that must be followed by all believers.  Acts records this purposely to show the authority of the church.

 

So this message was passed down by the apostles to men who would continue the mision given by Christ.  Two good examples are Timothy and Titus.  Read what Paul said to both of them with a mindset of trying to answer the question:  Was authority handed down?

 

this was passed down from generation to generation to all people until this very day.  It is called Apostolic succession.  This means that the same message is handed down so that we are believing the same thing taught by Christ and the Apostles.  Wonderfully, we can even read what next generation Christians like Irenaeus (who was taught by Peter and Paul) believed.  This is the best way to clear up scriptures that are interpreted in different ways by today’s Christians. 

 

But there is only one way to accept this line of reasoning.  For any of this to be true, you must accept some things:

 

That Christ would be with them (His True Spirit and hence, message) until the end of time.

 

That the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church. (the church could then, never be corrupted by Satan)

 

And also, that the Spirit would guide them into all truth.  John 16, 13

 

So if these three are taken together, I believe that we can trust that the church and the scriptures given to the church, are the trustworthy guide for all people.

 

To sum up, in short, Jesus told them:  Whoever listens to you, listens to me.

 

This is the Church that gave the bible to the world.  The only Church that God trusted with choosing the very books to belong to the new testament.