Sola Scriptura

Objection # 1: No document can ever be self-attesting

First it is important to affirm and respect Protestants who with love and fidelity hold to doctrine of Sola Scriptura.  And while I love and respect my protestant brothers sisters and admire their passion for Scripture, I find this Sola untenable, unsound and unreasonable.  On the surface it may seem convincing but let’s take a closer look.

But first, what is Sola Scriptura?

As quoted from ligonier ministries...

“The Reformation principle of Sola Scriptura has to do with the sufficiency of Scripture as our supreme authority in all spiritual matters. Sola Scriptura simply means that all truth necessary for our salvation and spiritual life is taught either explicitly or implicitly in Scripture.”


Now this sounds Solid, right?  Even I can appreciate the conviction and intent.   But in order for this doctrine to be both convicting AND true, requiring my obedience, it must stand up under scrutiny.  

Now consider this.  The first task of the new believer who desires to follow God’s word is to embrace scripture.  I am assuming that Scripture is necessary for salvation and to that end one must know what scripture is and is not in order for it to become solely sufficient.   Now in general, the way both Catholics and Protestants do this is ostensibly the same. We accept the scriptures that have been handed to us by our friends, our community, and our pastors who have accepted the same books as the previous generation who accepted the same books as the previous generation until you get back to 1546 when Trent gave definitive declaration to the Canon of Scripture to which Luther and the protestants opposed.

So in short, in order for someone to embrace Sola Scriptura and not rely on Sacred Tradition, one must first know what is and is not Scripture independently APART from tradition.  And anyone should be able to do this without the assistance of anyone. This dogma or Sola in fact, requires that all men, believers and non believers, must be able to independently determine the canon of Scripture using only Scripture to do so. However,  It is an indisputable fact that no document can be self attesting. Simply put, Scripture doesn’t provide an infallible list of inspired books or Canon. Instead Scripture is received by the church and handed on to the faithful. Both Catholics and protestants do this in the exact same way.  They hand on what they have “faithfully” received to the faithful. The only difference is that the Catholic Church claims to do this infallibly while the Protestant church recognizes that Protestants are fallible in their efforts.

Look carefully at this example, You can see this played out practically when often-times a family member or friend will buy a new convert a bible.  The protestant purchases a bible missing inspired books and the Catholic purchases a bible that is complete and includes all the inspired books. When the new convert receives the bible and begins to study, they have just affirmed the Catholic position that Scripture being our supreme rule of faith also requires a Sacred Tradition that we can trust with an obedience of faith that helps to ensure that what is being passed on is authentically true.