“Because many have understood the magisterial Reformation’s phrase, sola Scriptura, in terms of the Anabaptist solo Scriptura, it is easy for modern Christians to think that a return to the original understanding of sola Scriptura is an abandonment of it. This is simply the result of historical and theological ignorance. It would be very esay …
Those Who Love Must Fight
“To show love to wolves is just another way of hating sheep. To love sheep, as all good shepherds must, is to hate wolves” (“Sola Scriptura, Creeds, and Ecclesiastical Authority” in When Shall These Things Be?, p. 273).
Which It Does
“The boundaries of Scripture are an infallible truth confessed by a fallible church. The triune nature of God is an infallible truth confessed by a fallible church, and so on. At this point, the advocate of Rome might want to chime in and say that we can have no confidence in the infallibility of the …
The Truth is Right, As It Turns Out
“The church is always fallible. The truth she confesses is always infallible. The error she stumbles over is always false” (“Sola Scriptura, Creeds, and Ecclesiastical Authority,” in When Shall These Things Be? p. 269).
Getting the Foundational Creed Right
“The table of contents in every Bible is a creedal statement. When I turn to the first pages of my Bible, I see the implied word of the ancient Jewish church in rejecting Bel and the Dragon. I see the word of my Protestant forefathers in their agreement with our Jewish fathers on this point. …
Fallible Points to Infallible
“A fallible authority like the church goes not have to get everything wrong. Fallibility means that the capacity for error is there, not that error is necessarily there. Put another way, a fallible authority can point to an infallible truth. When a fallible authority says something true, that truth by definition cannot be falsifiable. And …
The Canon is a Creed
“Restorationists of all stripes have no foundation for their appeal, and hence their appeals are consistently parasitic. They get their Bible from the historic church, and then use it to attack the historic church. Another name for this is sawing off the limb you are sitting on. And so before we let them appeal to …
Which Explains a Lot, Actually
“In short, those who oppose sola Scriptura to the ancient creeds have not yet recognized that sola Scriptura is itself an ancient creed. Take away creedal authority, and you may for a time have just ‘me and my Bible.’ But the definition of Scripture is itself a creedal issue, and if one is consistent in …
Kenneth or Hobart
“In American Christianity, it is commonplace to think that ‘pure’ Christianity disappeared from the globe with the death of the last apostle, not to reappear again until a revelation of some kind came to Hobart Jonhe in a cornfield in southeastern Nebraska. There are many versions of this faith, but the broad outlines are the …
The Actual Point
“If someone were to maintain that God did not know the location of a particular town in South Dakota, and we were to debate with him, the resultant debate would not be over geography” (“Sola Scriptura, Creeds, and Ecclesiastical Authority” in When Shall These Things Be? p. 256).