Body: | Anti-Sola Scriptura Arguments Refuted:
Click to View "Sola Scriptura advocates hypocritically deny the authority
of the Catholic and Orthodox church organizations, then claim their own
church's organization has authority."
False arguments that Catholics and Orthodox use to trash Sola Scriptura are
refuted.
Sola Scriptura proven from the Bible!
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Click to View More Anti-Sola Scriptura arguments refuted!
Click to View A list of Sola Scriptura proof texts.
Click to View Sola Scriptura home page
Click to View "Sola Scriptura advocates hypocritically deny the authority
of the Catholic and Orthodox church organizations, then claim their own
church's organization has authority."
"Given their commitment to sola scriptura, it is interesting to see how far
Protestants will bend over backwards, at times, to affirm their commitment
to ecclesiastical authority. At times, their statements, if taken in
isolation, can sound almost Catholic." (Philip Blosser, Philosophical and
Practical Problems with Sola Scriptura, 1998)
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Refutation of the false Roman Catholic and Orthodox argument:
"Sola Scriptura advocates hypocritically deny the authority of the Catholic and Orthodox church organizations, then claim their own church's organization has authority."
The local church is the largest unit of organization in scripture.
While this may apply to Reform Protestants etc, this certainly does
not apply to us.
The Bible's teaching on church authority is something so foreign to
Roman Catholics and Orthodox, they may have to literally sit down and think
about it for a moment to even begin to grasp it. Not because it is new or
difficult, but because it is so simple.
In the Bible, the church had no organization larger than the local
church which consisted of a plurality of elders, (who were also called
bishops and pastors) ruling over the local church.
The congregation is to chose their own elders based upon a list of
qualifications in 1 Tim 3 and Tit 1.
In addition to these elders a congregation may (or may not) have one
or more paid pulpit preachers who are called "ministers, evangelists,
preachers". These men have no oversight in the congregation but because of
their role as preachers of the gospel from the Lord's day pulpit, they do
have significant influence.
Although Christians in the local church are told to submit to these
elders/overseers, that does not mean that they are free to practice things
not found in the Bible. Should they do such, the congregation who appointed
them, can remove them from their office.
So the congregation will submit to the elders on the basis that the
elders are faithfully teaching the Bible.
In the Bible, overseers therefore, are not a power unto themselves
over the congregation as we see in most denominations.
The congregation as a whole under the guidance of the elders and the
spiritual insights of the pulpit preacher (who is also called preacher and
minister) form a collective unit with a functioning common treasury from
weekly freewill contributions.
Should any member, including the elder/overseers begin to live in an
immoral way or teach heresy, the pattern of Matthew 18 must be followed to
"mark them".
So this is the simple new testament pattern of church origination in
the Bible.
The local church is the pillar and support of the truth, however we
must be careful to separate her function of supporting truth, from the
truth itself she upholds. The church is not the source of truth as the
Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches teach, but the proclaimer of scripture
to the world.
Click to View More Anti-Sola Scriptura arguments refuted!
Click to View More Pro-Oral Church tradition arguments refuted!
by Steve Rudd
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