Steve Ray has reposted his famous questions for Bible Christians. I thought I’d take a few posts to address Mr. Ray’s questions. It will either shake my faith in sola scriptura, or strengthen it. Here’s the document. This post assumes that you are familiar with the questions that Mr. Ray proposes.
Question 1. By example. Each time he rebuked the Pharisees it was by the use of Scripture. When he rebuked Satan, it was by Scripture. I believe that Jesus was leading by example without using words.
Question 2. Nowhere.
Question 3. Nowhere.
Questions 4-5. No Protestant has ever claimed that traditions are bad things to have or hold to. The question is one of authority: which traditions do you believe? The answer is the traditions that we can date back to the apostles and are supported by Scripture. Why? Because Scripture is written by the apostles (or by people close to them) and are the best-attested documents from that era of church history. Therefore, these documents should carry more weight than any tradition of men.
I have no idea why the NIV changes the word “tradition” to “teaching” in 1 Corinthians 11:2. The Greek word paradosis means “ordinance” or “Jewish traditionary law,” so “tradition” is the better translation. The NIV is the only Protestant translation I can see that actually makes that change. Even the more dynamic God’s Word translation uses “tradition.” But the fact that it actually refers to Jewish law doesn’t help the Catholic case at all.
Question 6. No one said that the authors of the New Testament believed in sola scriptura. They don’t have to. Scripture is used to check tradition, not the other way around. At the time of the apostles there were no traditions to check.
Question 7. Again, no one said tradition was a bad thing. But when someone speaks something in the name of God, they become subject to the prophet test in Deuteronomy, which implores you to check Scripture to see if what they say is in line, and what they do is in line.
Question 8. Tradition, which again is not a bad thing!
Question 9. On the principle that the author knew an apostle and that the book had that apostle’s approval. One would also apply the test from Deuteronomy to see if the book contradicted established Scripture.
Question 10. The Bible is a fallible collection of infallible books. For more, read C. Michael Patton’s article here.
Recent Comments