Saturday 6 February 2010

Sola Scriptura

If Sola Scriptura is taken to mean that only the Bible is used in theology and is the only authority in life, then it just doesn't make sense. As Ben Witherington III points out in a guest post at Theology Forum, the New Testament itself does not provide a full justification of the New Testament! So, for example, there is no list of the books of the New Testament in the New Testament; it was the church that decided which books would be included, and to which books Sola Scriptura would be applied. And another excellent example he cites is the Council of Nicea and the Creed it produced. The New Testament as we have it had not been set at this point in Christian history. However, those assembled felt perfectly able to set down the normative faith on the basis of the apostolic witness, which included the books of our New Testament, as well as other writings.