A tip to get an Evangelical Protestant acquaintance to
begin to think about their faulty theology and presuppositions (based on their
acceptance of sola scriptura) would be to ask them to fill in the blank in the
following sentence:
The _____ is the ground
and pillar of our faith
In most cases, due to their a priori acceptance
of sola scriptura, they will answer “the Bible.” However, get them to open up
their Bible to 1 Tim 3:15 where this comes from:
But if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
In other words, it is the church (ἐκκλησία), not
Scripture/the Bible that is the "pillar and foundation of the truth"
(NIV). This would be a good tip to get an Evangelical to be open to discussing
the overwhelming biblical-exegetical case against sola scriptura, a topic I have discussed a number of times on this blog.