DAY 5
CHALLENGE
“It is a foundational principle that you need to be able to prove your theological beliefs by Scripture alone, and Catholics can’t do that.”
DEFENSE
Sola scriptura may be a foundational principle of Protestantism, but not of Catholicism. Further, it does not meet its own test.
Catholics do not accept the principle of sola scriptura (“Scripture alone”), and so they have no need to justify their theological beliefs using only the Bible. In many apologetic discussions, it can be helpful to do so, since many Christian and non-Christian groups see Scripture, or parts of it, as an important source of information, and its role as a commonly recognized authority is helpful. But one should not fall into the trap of thinking that Catholics have that obligation.
It can also be helpful in discussions with Protestants to directly challenge sola scriptura, because it has a serious problem: If theological beliefs need to be proved by Scripture alone, then so does sola scriptura. Its advocates need to produce verses showing that every theological belief must be provable by Scripture alone, and this cannot be done. There are verses its advocates sometimes appeal to (some of which we deal with elsewhere; see Days 50 and 177), but none says or implies what is claimed.
We can point out that all such verses were written before the canon was finished. At that time, sola scriptura was not in operation, for Christians were bound to accept the teaching of the apostles, whether it was written or oral (2 Thess. 2:15; cf. 1 Cor. 11:2). Consequently, for a verse to prove sola scriptura, it would need to indicate that there would be a shift in how Christians form their beliefs in the post-apostolic age.
Yet there are no verses that say things such as, “After we apostles are dead, everything we said orally loses its authority; you are to look only to Scripture,” or, “We apostles have agreed to make sure all of our teachings are written down in Scripture, so use only that to settle theological questions after we are gone.”
In the absence of verses saying or implying these things, sola scriptura does not meet its own test and thus is a self-refuting doctrine.