Is Protestantism Heresy? Pt. 4 - Sola Scriptura | Collision w/ Jeff Durbin

Sola Scriptura as the Sole Infallible Rule of Faith

My experience most commonly with Roman Catholics is they don't understand what Christians mean or Protestants mean when we say Sola Scriptura. That scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice, that it is the reference point because it is divinely inspired.

We don't have any problem with healthy and good and spiritually consistent traditions and practices so long as they're consistent with the Word of God. For example, our church is a 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Church.

Some of my best friends hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith. That's a tradition. That's not scripture, but it's a tradition that is defining faith and practice from a biblical perspective and that tradition itself is not running alongside the Bible as a standard like the Bible.

It is essentially expressing what the Bible teaches about these things, but it's subordinate to scripture and to be ultimately held to account by the Word of God. 2 Thessalonians 2 15 and that text says, he's talking about, I'll start in verse 13,.

But we ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. We're talking about the gospel here.

To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that were taught by us either by spoken word or by letter.

The Canon, Apostolic Teaching, and the Gospel Tradition

Now, this is written at a time where the canon is not closed. The Apostles are still preaching. The Apostles are still teaching. We're getting inspired scripture as we are right here, but the Apostles aren't dead yet.

The canon isn't closed yet. These inspired Apostles are still living among them and giving inspired literature. And yes, the Christian faith was handed down via creed and confession and teaching by the mouth and by inspired revelation from the Apostles.

Yes, and amen to that. But this does not teach that the church has the ability to take any tradition that rises up and to hold somebody to it as though it were inspired tradition. How do you and I know today with the closing of the Christian canon and the death of the inspired writers, how do we know today what the Word of God is?

And the answer is only by scripture. Only what has been handed down via scripture, the written revelation of God. It is the standard, by the way, that even the early Jews were to hold to in terms of these are the inspired writings.

Yes, they had their traditions. And yeah, I'm gonna go to this in a minute. They actually held to those traditions in a very erroneous way and sinful way ultimately defying the words of God, but they knew what their scriptures were.

These are the writings of the prophets and these are our traditions, right? They had that problem as well, but they knew what their scriptures were. They were entrusted with the oracles of God, Paul says in Romans chapter 3.

They knew what their Bible was. They knew what the inspired revelation was over against what their traditions were. They knew what that was. It was laid up in the second temple. There's no confusion there.

And in this case, yes, the Apostles were teaching orally and they were giving things in writing and Paul tells them to hold to these traditions. But what is he talking about? He's talking about the gospel.

He's talking about the gospel here. There's nothing here about issues of traditions like Mary and the other dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. He's talking about the gospel and they're to hold to these traditions either by spoken word or by letter.

Tradition Versus Scripture in Roman Catholicism

Nothing in here saying that tradition is to be elevated to the status of scripture inspired writings because here's the thing, you're gonna have a real problem as a Roman Catholic if you believe that.

A, there are Roman Catholic traditions today that are being forced upon Roman Catholic hearts and minds that you must do this to be faithful that you do not even find in the early church. You will not find it in the church to which Roman Catholic apologists today will even admit.

Yeah, it was always there. It just wasn't revealed yet. Like it's only been revealed now. It sort of pops up now today or near us in time and you can't find it in church history. It's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

And so that's the that's the first issue. You'll have that problem, but you also have the problem of the fact that Roman Catholic traditions so clearly violate and contradict what the inspired Apostles said themselves and here's what I mean by that and I'll just try to go quickly on this point because we have lots of teaching online about this.

Jesus Confronts Human Tradition in Matthew 15

If you look at Matthew chapter 15 you see a phenomenal example of how the Lord Jesus deals with what were considered divine traditions of his day. In a Matthew chapter 15 something comes up that is very very important and Matthew chapter 15 something comes up called the Corban rule and in the Corban rule this was seen as a tradition that went all the way back to Moses.

So they knew what their Bible was, their inspired writings, what the prophets had taught in the Torah, Psalms, all those. They knew what those were. As I said Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says they were entrusted with the very oracles of God.

They knew what those were but they also had divine traditions that they would claim went all the way back to Moses. I'm not gonna give an entire lesson today on Sola Scriptura, but just to show you Jesus actually teaching the principle of Sola Scriptura.

In Matthew 15, it says then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat? He answered them and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

For God commanded honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God.

He need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God. So Jesus takes what they thought was a divine tradition in terms of the Corban rule and you know they're supposed to care for their aging parents, supposed to take care of them, but they gave that money to the temple.

So they gave it to a holy thing and now they're leaving their parents behind and Jesus is saying basically you're violating God's law through what you say. You say this, Moses said this. So what is it?

It's in Jesus day a parallel to the situation that we have with Rome today. They claim divinely inspired traditions that run alongside the written Word of God and they say that it is it is it is these two things that work together.

Scripture and tradition. This is divine tradition. You must accept it as well. Well when Jesus was dealing with that in his day with the Jews, same situation, inspired revelation of God and you've got this divine tradition coming alongside of it.

Jesus said this, you say this, your tradition says this, but God says this. So he says thus you invalidate the Word of God, you make void the Word of God for the sake of your tradition. Jesus believed that you could take the Word of God and you can compare it to so-called divine traditions and you could see that this divine tradition actually contradicts the Word of God and therefore makes void the Word of God.

Scripture as the Standard of Truth

So I want to hold to the position Jesus held to. He's the divine Son of God. He's the Incarnate One. I want to do what he did and when the Incarnate One comes and walks among us, when he's confronted with divine traditions in his day, what does he do?

He tests them by the scriptures. This has been the standard throughout redemptive history. It is the revelation of God, the inspired revelation of God, that is supposed to be the standard. Whether it's in Isaiah 8 20 to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light in them.

Whether it's Deuteronomy 13 and a prophet comes and has signs and wonders, if they contradict God's previous revelation, they're a false prophet. Whatever the case may be in redemptive history, you always see that principle running.

It is the revelation of God, the inspired revelation of God, that is the reference point and standard. Jesus says, John 17 17, Thy word is truth. It's the plumb line. It's the reference point to see if something is right or true.

You hold it alongside of it to see, is it true? Jesus said that about the word of God. His word is truth. It's the reference point. You see that throughout redemptive history, the word of God being the standard.

And yes, of course, you can even show instances in church history from the text where, for example, in the book of Acts, you had the Berean Christians who were more noble-minded than the ones at Thessalonica because when they heard Paul preaching, what did they do?

They searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was the truth. In other words, you had these early Christians given a compliment in scripture because they actually tested the words of an inspired apostle.

Imagine that, the apostle Paul, an inspired apostle preaching and teaching and Christians in that day going, hmm, let's see, is what he's saying true? Why? Well, that wouldn't have been offensive to Paul because God's revelation is the reference point, right?

And you're to be tested. That's the point. And so we could do a whole thing on this, but I think that'll suffice for now. Oh, one more thing. I totally forgot this. On the subject of Sola Scriptura, I wanted to add this in terms of just showing you these glorious moments in church history, and I highly encourage a good, I think it's a three or four volume set by William Webster.

Just go to Amazon, look up William Webster Sola Scriptura in History. It's in the Fathers and through scripture. It's an amazing volume set series. I highly encourage that. But Augustine, the principle of Sola Scriptura, I have learned to yield this respect and honor only to the canonical books of scripture.

Of these alone, do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error. As to all other writings, in reading them, however great the superiority of the authors to myself in sanctity and learning, I do not accept their teaching as true on the mere ground of the opinion being held by them, but only because they have succeeded in convincing my judgment of its truth either by means of these canonical writings themselves or by arguments addressed to my reason.

That's in Augustine's letter to Jerome. That's Augustine saying the canonical books of scripture. These alone, do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error. These other writings, they need to convince me by the fact that they're consistent with the canonical books, which are the only thing free from error.

We can go on. I have tons of quotes here just from Augustine on the issue of Sola Scriptura. So, my point there is not to say that Augustine didn't hold to traditions of the church and all those things.

It's a glorious moment in Augustine where he teaches, look, this is the only thing free from error and everything else has to be tested by this. You've got to convince me by scripture. I don't care how learned you are.

I don't care how great you are. You need to show me that you are consistent with the canonical books, which are the only thing free from error. That's the principle. It's not a novelty by Protestants.

It's something you find, of course, in the Bible and you see it throughout church history. It's all over the place. So that's where the fight needs to be. I agree with Augustine. That's where the fight needs to be.

The canonical books. What does the scripture say? Hey, what's up, guys? This is Pastor Jeff Durbin. Thank you for watching Collision. We wanted to provide a solid resource to help you to respond to anything coming into Collision with the Christian worldview.

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