{"id":56168,"date":"2015-08-08T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=56168"},"modified":"2015-08-08T09:52:06","modified_gmt":"2015-08-08T16:52:06","slug":"the-baggage-of-sola-scriptura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2015\/08\/08\/the-baggage-of-sola-scriptura\/","title":{"rendered":"The Baggage of Sola Scriptura"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wpf087e6e3_06\"Today we have a guest post from Tom Massoth, the father-in-law of my friend John, who will\u00a0also soon be\u00a0a guest poster here at Restless Pilgrim.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tom and his wife of 39 years, Michele, reside in Yorba Linda, CA where they raised their two daughters Lisa and Jennifer. Now blessed with four\u00a0perfect grandchildren, this retired Boeing engineer dedicates his time to God, family and friends, and various time-gobbling hobbies such as cycling. He is also a\u00a0<\/span>a Certified Flight Instructor in both airplanes and gliders.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Tom has\u00a0a love of Scripture and is a student of Church history and the early development of Christian doctrines. His particular interest lies in presenting the fullness of the Catholic faith in simple and easy-to-understand terms to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. He prays for a more unified Christian faith in the world and sees open honest dialog as the key to spreading the Good News.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Here is what Tom has to say on the subject of Sola Scriptura…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Following apologetic debates on various internet blogs is usually interesting, sometimes entertaining and often very\u00a0frustrating. The exchanges start with the initial blog entry that posits a position favored by the author, which invariably\u00a0includes historical evidence, perhaps quotations from the writings of Church fathers and of course verses\u00a0from Holy Scripture that are offered as proof of point in question.<\/p>\n

The comment boxes then fill in reaction using the same general modus operandi: “Great Point!”<\/span><\/em> leads the pack. “Ridiculous Point!”<\/em><\/span> soon follows. Still another says “Ref. Romans X: Y-Z and you\u2019ll see the real truth and proof of your foolish\u00a0conclusions!”<\/em><\/span> Another commenter counters with “Hey, this is so easy, just read 1 Cor A: B, which of course refers to\u00a0Psalm ##, which was foreseen by Jeremiah L: MN-OP.”<\/em><\/span> the beat goes on, and the beat goes on.<\/p>\n

The most frustrating scenario, however, is a case when people holding opposing views on a particular topic offer the\u00a0exact same Bible verse as proof to support their position! We then have two differing viewpoints, both claiming the\u00a0inspired Word of God as proof of their positions. We know that the Bible cannot contradict itself; so where do we go from here?<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not a member of clergy, nor a trained theologian or Bible scholar, but it doesn\u2019t take an expert to see that\u00a0something is terribly wrong with the way we are attempting to discover and embrace God\u2019s revealed truth. Jumping\u00a0from proof text to proof text, trying to understand the position, arguments and supporting evidence, it soon becomes\u00a0apparent that the Bible per se is no longer at the core of the controversies. It was people themselves that had somehow\u00a0replaced the single truth of God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n

A battle cry of the Protestant Reformation was the idea of Sola Scriptura<\/em>, i.e. that the Bible and the Bible alone stands as\u00a0the sole revelation of God\u2019s truth to mankind. I fully accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God, so at a certain level I agree\u00a0with the spirit of Sola Scripture<\/em>. That said, for any premise like Sola Scriptura<\/em>, we must not only understand the basic concept,\u00a0we must also peel back the layers to see what other conclusions necessarily come along as an\u00a0implied attachment.<\/p>\n

To that end, I would like to discuss\u00a0a thought experiment that began with a definition\u00a0of Sola Scriptura<\/em>, which continued through some intermediate observations and ended with a most unexpected conclusion…<\/p>\n

\"Consequences\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Thought Experiment<\/h2>\n

The phrase\u00a0Sola Scriptura<\/em> is a shorthand which we use to mean the following:<\/p>\n

The Bible is the Only and Final Authority of Faith and Practice for a Christian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Without even getting into what the Bible is and where it came from, it is clear that, in physical form, the Bible\u00a0is a binding of\u00a0many books, written thousands of years ago, written by many authors in several\u00a0languages not in common use\u00a0today. These writings offer historical narrative, as well as sometimes practical and sometimes spiritual guidance for the reader.<\/p>\n

I think it is fair to say that the intended meaning of any particular book, chapter or verse is often complex and not necessarily self-evident due to the\u00a0diversity of factors mentioned above. It seems rather obvious that the written word needs to be interpreted.<\/p>\n

Now, some\u00a0may claim that, due to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, their interpretation is correct and represents God\u2019s intended message, but\u00a0since that claim is made by everyone (even those holding opposing interpretations) that claim is unconvincing.<\/p>\n

Clearly personal interpretation has a role to play here, so let’s update our definition of Sola Scriptura<\/em>:<\/p>\n

[My personal interpretation of] The Bible is the Only and Final Authority of Faith and Practice for a Christian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once we have recognized the necessary inclusion of our own personal perspective into the\u00a0search for God\u2019s truth, we have set the stage for a redefinition of all truth. If Divine truth is a matter of my own point of view then it follows that we can adjust our definition once more:<\/p>\n

[My personal understanding] is the Only and Final Authority [For Everything]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Once we have we have placed our own authority on par with Divine authority, it is only a matter of time and\u00a0convenience that the notion of Divine is eliminated altogether.\u00a0Perhaps it is unfair to paint Sola Scriptura<\/em> with too broad a brush, but it seems reasonable to conclude that the notion of Sola Scriptura<\/em>\u00a0directly contributes to incredible variations in Christian doctrinal positions, weakens Christianity, and invariably\u00a0culminates in widespread religious indifference and subjective secular individualism.\u00a0What started out as a sincere challenge to a perceived\u00a0aberration of Divine authority actually has led to a growing rejection of God altogether.<\/p>\n

Advocates of the Sola Scriptura position celebrate the intrinsic characteristics and merits of the idea, but must be willing\u00a0to honestly look deeper at the unintended consequences and be ready to take ownership of those secondary effects as a\u00a0legitimate challenge if not total rejection of the entire premise.<\/p>\n

I can hear the critics now complaining of my Catholic-centric bias and flaws in logic or cause and effect relationships, but\u00a0take a step back and look around. The evidence is clear in our global society today. The Churches in Europe are empty,\u00a0people are “spiritual but not religious”<\/em><\/span>, and atheism is on the rise. The mantra of the modern age is “I have my truth, you\u00a0have your truth”<\/em><\/span> which is so utterly preposterous. The modern, enlightened man has forgotten that Truth transcends opinion.<\/p>\n

People today are hungry for truth on which to build and live their lives. They desire God, but in the absence of a rock of\u00a0Divine and objective consistency on which to build, they instead turn inward and reside on the ever-shifting sands of subjective\u00a0comforts. It is time to\u00a0return to God\u2019s plan, to truth, to the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we have a guest post from Tom Massoth, the father-in-law of my friend John, who will\u00a0also soon be\u00a0a guest poster here at Restless Pilgrim. Tom and his wife of 39 years, Michele, reside in Yorba Linda, CA where they raised their two daughters Lisa and Jennifer. Now blessed with four\u00a0perfect grandchildren, this retired Boeing engineer dedicates his time to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[2969,539,3210,873],"class_list":["post-56168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","category-faith","tag-featured","tag-sola-scriptura","tag-tom-massoth","tag-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Luggage.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56168"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58578,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56168\/revisions\/58578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}