Posted on 10/04/2005 7:51:36 PM PDT by JohnRoss
Sola Scriptura In the Vanity of Their Minds by Fr. John Whiteford
AN ORTHODOX EXAMINATION OF THE PROTESTANT TEACHING Introduction: Are Protestants Beyond Hope?
Since my conversion from Evangelical Protestantism to the Orthodox Faith, I have noted a general amazement among many of those who have been raised Orthodox that a Protestant could be converted. This is not because they are uncertain about their own faith, usually they are just amazed that anything could break through a Protestants stubborn insistence on being wrong! What I have come to understand is that most Orthodox people have a confused and limited grasp of what Protestantism is, and where its adherents are coming from. Thus when "cradle Orthodox" believers have their run-ins with Protestants, even though they often use the same words, they do not generally communicate because they do not speak the same theological language — in other words, they have no common theological basis to discuss their differences. Of course when one considers the some twenty thousand plus differing Protestant groups that now exist (with only the one constant trait of each group claiming that it rightly understands the Bible), one must certainly sympathize with those that are a bit confused by them.
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What a wonderful article !
If Sola Scriptura were valid, why are there so many Protestant sects ? Was the Holy Spirit napping until John Wesley or Charles Taze Russell showed up ?
That's why I gave up on being Protestant. Of course the Evangelicals and the Lutherans don't like each other very much either. Both believe in Sola Scriptura.
Sola Scriptura has an implicit arrogance to it. Back in 2003 there were threads here about evangelicals wanting to send missionaries to Iraq.
Sure.
We need American evangelicals to bring some old time religion to an Iraqi Christian church that was founded by a Babylonian Jew who went to Jerusalem for Passover and stayed for Pentacost where he heard Peter preach about Jesus the Nazarene.
It's a bit like the American Presbyterians who went to Egypt in the 19th century trying to convert the Copts whose church was founded by St. Mark the Evangelist.
The same St. Mark who wrote the gospel.
Personally, I am a Catholic who loves the Uniate Church.
I try to attend Greek Catholic Easter Mass every year. It is truly wonderful.
Check this out.
http://www.byzcath.org/
No one can fault the Protestants for their love of Jesus and the Bible, but ultimately their approach is like swearing allegence to the Constitution while denying the authority of the Supreme Court.
The kings of Israel were no less kings of Israel when they didn't honor G-d.
My old parish priest once honored the Reformation saying "we needed it," but I wonder why we still need it?
The Church needed the Reformation like the American auto industry needed the Honda Accord.
You'll get no argument from me on that account.
Nevertheless, I wonder how many of Luther's 95 theses are still relevant to the principles and practices of the modern Church. I've yet to meet a single Protestant who has revisited and re-evaluated the original complaints.
read later
That's my Church!
As a Scripture Only Christian and former Catholic, I've met very few Catholics who don't put the musings of men above the Word of God.
My mother-in-law, a lifelong devoted Catholic who began reading the Bible for herself in the last years before her death, and came to a saving knowledge of Christ, was hurt and perplexed because she had been discouraged...told that Bible interpretation would be done for her...from reading the Bible for herself.
My experience has been that you can never pin a Catholic down on anything. It's always "Well, some Catholics may believe that or practice that, but not ALL Catholics do."
I say if you like the liturgy and the costumes, more power to you. As long as the truth isn't made to seem like a needle in a haystack of ritual and rote recitations, which it often has been.
For me, the unvarnished truth is enough.
Pleased to meet you!
And who made the Supreme Court the final authority on the Constitution? The Supreme Court usurped that authority in Marbury v. Madison. They did not derive that authority from the Constitution. The fact is that the Supreme Court derives its authority from the Constitution, not the other way around.
Likewise, any authority that the Roman Catholic Church or any other Church would have would derive from Scripture. Any authority usurped from outside the authority of Scripture would be invalid. Traditions not found in scripture are as invalid as the Court's usurpation of the legislative perogative in cases such as Roe v. Wade.
Jesus appealed to scripture as his authority. He chastised the Pharisees (the religious leaders of his time) for adding traditions to the scriptures which were not scriptural. He told them that their traditions had made the word of God of no effect.
Why are there so many Catholic sectlets?
Perhaps we should post some chapters from Alexander Hislop's Classic Scottish Presbyterian thesis on Babylon.
Amen.
Perhaps the PCA was a bit to ecumenical when we removed certain parts of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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