Dr. Peter Kreeft's conversion to Catholicism from Protestantism (Full)

"OK, I'll accept that. There are two sources of truth..the word of God and the Holy Spirit. One is written. One teaches us about God. Would you agree?"

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No, not really HarleyD. Actually, I would add many other "sources of truth" that we know about besides the written Word of God and the Holy Spirit directly (all coming ultimately from God, of course). God chose to use many different people to be "sources of truth" to other people throughout history, not just the written scriptures and the Holy Spirit directly, and, actually, Jesus Himself was also a direct "source of truth" for many people.

For example, "The Word", Jesus Christ, was also a "source of truth", long before the first line of the New Testament was written. He went about proclaiming the truth verbally in many locations, long before any part of the New Testament was written, so that He was a direct "source of truth" for those people.

He also verbally revealed the truth after He had ascended to "The Father", when He spoke directly and verbally to Saul from the light:

Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, " Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “ I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Acts 9:3-5

(We can read about that in the scriptures now, but the "source of truth" there for Saul at that time was simply Jesus verbally talking to him directly (so, Jesus, "The Truth" was the source of truth directly for Saul too.)

A similar kind of "truth revealing" was also done many times in the Bible, via the prophets. The people alive during the times of each of the prophets of God actually received the truth directly and verbally from the prophets, not from the scriptures, after the prophets had received the truth directly from God.

Think for example of John the Baptist. He was the "source of truth" for many people in his day, as he proclaimed the truth from God directly and verbally to the people. (Some of his proclamations were later recorded in the scriptures, but when he initially revealed those truths, God chose him to do it directly and verbally to those people of that day, not the written scriptures. John the Baptist received the truth directly from God, and the people there listening to him received the truth from John the Baptist.)

The last verse in the Gospel of John also states that Jesus did many other signs which were not recorded in that book, so His signs in those cases (and accompanying words of truth) were given by Him directly, both visually and verbally to those people present there, but were never written down in the scriptures (according to John), so, again, Jesus was the direct "source of truth" for those people when those signs were performed and those words were spoken, not the written scriptures.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. John 20:30

Jesus had also told His apostles that when He was gone, He would send the Counselor, the Spirit of truth, to guide them into all the truth in the future.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." John 16:7-15

Later, after His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His apostles, breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit (which He had earlier promised would guide them into all truth), and also gave them the authority to forgive sins or retain sins at that time.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." John 20:19-23

Since the vast majority of the original apostles never wrote any "books" for the Bible, it is clear that that special "guidance" provide by the Holy Spirit given to all of those early leaders of the Church Jesus began to build goes far beyond just the few who would later be writing the written scriptures of the New Testament.

There isn't anything I would disagree with in your statement. But what our Lord stated outside the scriptures we have no idea. And, I would suggest that no matter how much the prophets went around the countryside telling about things revealed from God's wisdom, the only thing that we know is what is written down for us. We don't know what Moses, Amos or even John the Baptist stated verbally. So saying that the prophets went around speaking verbally is a rather fruitless and circular argument. Yes they did, but we don't know what was said. We only know what is written. One can say the prophets went around telling all sorts of godly wisdom, but that doesn't mean anything. The things that are written down are the things for our instruction. And our Lord Jesus constantly reminded the people, "it is written..." (approx. 50 times). So our Lord Jesus constantly referred to the text, not verbal sayings.

I stated that there is no inerrant and inspiration outside of the word of God and the Holy Spirit. It is complete and full of what God has revealed to us. This is what is written for us. If you could provide an example of where God directly spoke to us outside of the scripture that we can take as the word of God that may be beneficial.

Joh 20:30-31 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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