Body: | Sola Scriptura: The Bible alone is enough!
Tradition is only valid, when it mirrors scripture, not adds to it or
changes it!
Anti-Sola Scriptura: Those who believe the Bible is not enough!
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The Apostolic Fathers saw scripture the final mode of revelation that
succeeded oral revelation
"For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, both by the
prophets, the Gospel, and the blessed apostles, "in divers manners and at
sundry times," [Heb 1:1] leading from the beginning of knowledge to the
end. He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord,
which by the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded]
faithful." ... "For those are slothful who, having it in their power to
provide themselves with proper proofs for the divine Scriptures from the
Scriptures themselves, select only what contributes to their own pleasures.
And those have a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a
diverse sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers,
which are wedded to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human
teachings , in order to establish the heresy"(Clement of Alexandria, book
7, ch 16, Scripture the Criterion by Which Truth and Heresy are
Distinguished)
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Clement shows the sequence of revelation starting with Jesus, moving
through the prophets, then finally ending its journey in the written
gospels. Notice that at the end of the process, the Christian, "of himself"
(using his own powers of interpretation) believes the scriptures. Notice
that Clement calls "slothful" those who do not put the work into
interpreting the Bible for themselves! These false teachers just carelessly
grab anything they can find to support their doctrines without doing a
proper and though study. Again this sounds real "Catholic" or "Orthodox"
because they are lazy and want the priest to simply tell them what the
Bible says, rather than doing the work and studying the scriptures for
themselves!
"From this, therefore, do we draw up our rule. Since the Lord Jesus
Christ sent the apostles to preach, (our rule is) that no others ought to
be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed; for "no man
knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him." Nor does the Son seem to have revealed Him to any other than the
apostles, whom He sent forth to preach-that, of course, which He revealed
to them. Now, what that was which they preached-in other words, what it was
which Christ revealed to them-can, as I must here likewise prescribe,
properly be proved in no other way than by those very churches which the
apostles rounded in person, by declaring the gospel to them directly
themselves, both viva voce [living voice], as the phrase is, and
subsequently by their epistles. If, then, these things are so, it is in the
same degree manifest that all doctrine which agrees with the apostolic
churches-those moulds and original sources of the faith must be reckoned
for truth, as undoubtedly containing that which the (said) churches
received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God.
Whereas all doctrine must be prejudged as false which savours of
contrariety to the truth of the churches and apostles of Christ and God. It
remains, then, that we demonstrate whether this doctrine of ours, of which
we have now given the rule, has its origin in the tradition of the
apostles, and whether all other doctrines do not ipso facto proceed from
falsehood. We hold communion with the apostolic churches because our
doctrine is in no respect different from theirs. This is our witness of
truth." (Tertullian, The prescription against the heretics, Ch 21)
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Tertullian clearly states that their doctrine and practice is identical to
what the apostles taught orally and with scripture. Tertullian uses the
expression "viva voce" (living voice) which is merely a reference to
inspired oral revelation. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have
changed the original meaning of "viva voce" from the words spoken by
inspired apostles, to whatever the current practice and dogma of the church
is today. Here is proof: "But the appeal to antiquity is both a treason and
a heresy. It is a treason because it rejects the Divine voice of the Church
at this hour, and a heresy because it denies that voice to be Divine. How
can we know what antiquity was except through the Church? ... I may say in
strict truth that the Church has no antiquity. It rests upon its own
supernatural and perpetual consciousness. ... The only Divine evidence to
us of what was primitive is the witness and voice of the Church at this
hour." (Henry Edward Manning, The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost: Or
Reason and Revelation, 1865, p 227-228) To anyone with an ounce of insight,
this statement is not only opposite to what Tertullian means it is utter
heresy because it ignores history (Fathers) and scripture. Anyone who has
talked to a Roman Catholic or Orthodox preacher, knows this is indeed
exactly how they think!
by Steve Rudd
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