DAY 270
CHALLENGE
“Catholic apologists misrepresent the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura (‘Scripture alone’). It merely means that Scripture contains everything necessary for salvation.”
DEFENSE
This is not how the teaching is understood by most Protestants, who apply it to all Christian doctrine.
Salvation-based explanations of sola scriptura are sometimes found in popular-level writings of Protestant apologetics, but they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Anglican Articles of Religion state: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation” (art. 6).
Those who define sola scriptura in terms of what is needed for salvation presumably mean Scripture contains all truths of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), which is a subset of theology in general. Saying we should be able to prove all truths of soteriology by Scripture alone is a more modest claim than that we should be able to prove all theology this way. It is thus a more defensible claim, and one with which Catholics could potentially agree.
However, this is not how sola scriptura is generally understood or applied. Even the Articles of Religion indicate a broader application, for they say that nothing that can’t be proved by Scripture is an article of faith—the faith as a whole being broader than the subject of salvation.
A more typical formulation is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (1:6).
Here sola scriptura is said to cover everything necessary for “salvation, faith, and life”—with faith and life including doctrinal and moral theology.
The broader use of the concept is also confirmed by experience, which shows Protestants regularly ask the question “Where is that in the Bible?” on theological subjects in general, not just on soteriologi- cal ones.
This broader understanding, however, is a more expansive and thus less defensible claim (see Days 5 and 16).