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Sola Scripture, "if the eternal Son could become fully human without…

- - - - The Bible is God's direct revelation to man (2 Tim. 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21). Therefore, it has divine authority. What the Bible says, God says.
        
        If it equips us for every good work, then nothing else is needed to stand above it.
        
        more on this
        
        The NT is considered Scripture as well 2 Peter 3:15-16
      - Galatians 1:11-12,1 Corinthians 2:11-13
        
        Galatians: teachings of an apostle are still not on the same level of revelation. Neither are the words of an angel (Geisler 187)
    - - compentent, thoroughly, ability to save (v15), and sanctify (16-17)
        
        The importance of Scripture:1:13, 2:15, 4:2 (Geisler 184)
        
        Notice, his last book as he knows his life is drawing to a close, you think in the midst of all the talk to holding fast to Scripture, he would have mentioned something else, if there was something on par with Scripture.
        
        These verses oppose Roman Catholic thought that Scripture is not sufficient.
        
        Jesus applied to his ministry this principle. Scripture was his sufficient authority for defeating Satan, and roughly 90 times in the NT the phrase "it is written" is mentioned as a way of stating the finality of the matter (Geisler 185)
        
        Jesus went after the Pharisees who exalted religious authoritative tradition over Scripture (Matt 15:3,6) (Geisler 185)
        
        warned to not go past what is written (1 Cor. 4:6, Deut. 4:2, Proverbs 30:5-6, Rev. 22:18-19) (186)
        
        Again, this does not mean that the traditions of men cannot prove beneficial, they simply cannot negative and stand above Scripture.
  - - - To claim that we need the traditions of the church is to say that it is more clear and helpful than the inspired Word (Geisler 190)
- - - - Continuation of the gifts
        
        Ferguson gives the argument for it on pg 223
      - By the mid 90's it was estimated that there was around 350 million people who would identify themselves in a Pentecostal/charismatic grouping. (Ferguson 222)
        
        they have extended the extraordinary office of Apostle into the postapostolic era. (Horton 69)
    - - Barth (Biblioatry)
        
        Had a profound impact on the theology of the 21st century
        
        He developed neo-orthodoxy
        
        "on the one hand, neo-orthodoxy has tended to coalesce and even confuse revelation and illumination. On the other hand, the charismatic danger is to confuse illumination with revelation..." (Ferguson 233)
    - - History
        
        anabaptist
        
        may stress either the divinity of the heart or the mind. (290 Beeke)
        
        Schleiermacher "the authority of Holy Scripture cannot be the foundation of faith in Christ." (290 Beeke)
        
        The critique is that spiritual experience is empty because it is not rooted in truth. (Beeke 294)
        
        Ferguson says there is a categorical distinction between lasting authority which accompanies apostolic revelation, and subjective illumination which come to all of God's people through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. (230)
        
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        Feelings, the subjective, is stressed over the mind (290 Beeke)
        
        religion is experience, and the Bible is secondary in it's role. (290 Beeke)
        
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        Adolf von Harnack, is a prime example of one who championed rationalism, or human reason in liberalism.
        
        His rejection of the Scripture as the ultimate authority allowed him to venture down a path the reduced the message of Christianity to moralism. (291 Beeke)
        
        No longer is Christ central to the Gospel, nor was the focus upon his status as the second member of the Trinity. (Beeke 291)
        
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        They wanted to do away with the authority of tradition, and lean solely on God's Word. This led to a type of subjective individualism which married with the Enlightenment to produce the Quakers on one hand, and rationalism on the other hand. (Jones 239)
      - Critique
        
        Jesus Seminar: liberal theology that traces its negation of Sola Scriptura to the Enlightenment. Scripture must be subjected to reason, and if it does not pass the test, it is removed. (364 Kelly)
        
        Sinclair Ferguson points out that the purpose of Spiritual gifts is for to bolster the ministry of the Word. (Ferguson 208)
    - - Defined: Instead of being the sole infallible authority, the Bible is said to be the "sole basis of authority." (238 Jones)
        
        This in essence throws creeds and tradition out the window, stripping the church of her ministerial authority, and elevating the individual.
        
        The problem is that whereas Roman Catholicism left autonomy in the hands of men through the government of the church, this evangelical position results in the autonomy of the individual. (Jones 239)
        
        Additionally, one is weighing the scriptural interpretations of other fallible Christians against Scripture to determine what is correct. However, advocates of this argument fail to take into consideration the uninspired and fallible nature of the one doing the judging. (Jones 242)
        
        The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 is a perfect picture of how the early church did not hold such a view.
        
        "Is it possible to resolve the problem of differing interpretations of Scripture by an appeal to another interpretation of Scripture? The problem that adherents of solo scriptura haven't noticed is that any appeal to Scripture is an appeal to an interpretation of Scripture. The only question is: whose interpretation?" (Jones 246)
        
        "If the adherents of solo scriptura are correct, then there are no real objective doctrinal boundaries within Christianity. (Jones 249)
        (Trinity, deity of Christ, etc.
        
        The marrying of the Anabaptist thought with the Enlightenment paved the way for Sola Scriptura to be redefined by modern Evangelicalism through the parameters of rationalism and rugged democratic individualism. (Jones 239)
        
        "Despite its claims to uniquely preserve the authority of the Word of God, it destroys that authority by making the meaning of Scripture dependent upon the judgment of each individual." (Jones 246-247)
        
        a danger is that everyone begins to create their own creeds from scratch, and things such as orthodoxy and heresy become obsolete. (Jones 250)
        
        Paul makes it clear that there is a teaching ministry that will continue after his death, but Solo Scriptura essentially destroys the real authority that belongs to ministers and the church. (Jones 245)
        
        Additionally, the early church preached for at least 15-20 years before having the first books of the NT, and even then they did not have the full canon of the New Testament. (Jones 245)
        
        How then do advocates of this position account for the authoritative role that the church had in shaping the life of early Christians (2 Thess. 3:6). (Jones 245)
        
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  - - - Self defeating argument. If the Bible alone is man's sole authority, then Sola Scriptura would have to be expressly taught in the Bible to be valid. If it is not, and the phrase is not found in Scripture, then one cannot appeal to it's authority since it is coming from outside the Bible.
        
        Express teaching found in Scripture is not the only valid form of Biblical teaching. What Scripture infers, God teaches.
        
        Trinity
        
        In short, Sola Scriptura is a violation of Sola Scriptura; a self refuting argument.
      - Protestants would have to deny truth outside of the Bible, including general revelation (Geisler 178)
        
        General revelation, church traditions, church authority, reason
        
        Luther - "Convinced by the testimonies of Scripture or evident reason." (Geisler 178)
        
        Protestants hold to general revelation and reason as helpful tools to understand God, but not to be exalted above Scripture. General revelation does not pertain to matters of salvation, and since the noetic fall, trusting in reason alone is a grave danger. However, these two things used in submission to God's written revelation can prove to be very helpful.
        
        Early church creeds and traditions are helpful, just not absolute.
        
        "Sola Scriptura meant the primacy of Scripture as a theological norm over all tradition rather than the total rejection of tradition." (John J. Davis 227)
        
        The key is final authority. Things other than the Bible can teach us, but they have to be overruled by Scripture if they are found to be teaching something contrary to Scripture because they are not an absolute authority.
        
        "this truth and instruction are contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions, which have been received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ himself, or from the Apostles themselves, at the dictation of the Holy Spirit, have come down to us." Council of Trent (Geisler 180)
        
        Trent "receives and holds in veneration with an equal affection of piety and reverence all the books of the Old and of the New Testament, since one God is the author of both, and also the traditions themselves."
        
        Church authority is a form of authority, but only as it is in submission to the Word of God.
        
        Calvin stated the church "tests all obedience by the Word of God...whose supreme care it is humbly and religiously to venerate the Word of God,and submit to its authority." (Geisler 179)
      - There can't be an infallible understanding of Scripture, unless it is properly interpreted. Therefore, you cannot have Sola Scriptura. 182
      - 2 Thess. 2:15
        
        We are to stand firm in traditions taught by the oral and written word of the Apostles.
        
        Both Catholics and Protestants agree that there has been no new revelation since the first century (Geisler 187)
        
        Nowhere is it certain that these traditions were inspired or infalliable (Geisler 188)
        
        The apostles themselves were living authorities, but not infallible.
      - Other arguments (Geisler 183)
        
        Scripture and tradition are inseparable
        
        Excluding tradition violates the principle of causality
        
        Rejecting tradition leads to denominationalism
        
        Rejection traditions is unhistorical
- - - - Roman Catholicism and liberal modernism "dram from the same poisoned well: the exaltation of man over the Word of God. (Beeke 295)
      - Isaiah 40:8