Aaron Shafovaloff is associated with Mormonism “Research” Ministry, whose founder, Bill McKeever, has tended to embarrass himself in debates; see, for example, my review of his debate on salvation with LDS scholar James Holt. Aaron and a few other anti-Mormons set up a Website, “God Loves Mormons.” I recently encountered the Website and wrote responses to a few of their articles:
It was due to the first response, Yes, We Need Modern Prophets: Responding to Godlovesmormons.com, and my calling out the author of the piece for simply assuming sola scriptura to be true (alongside his gross eisegesis of texts such as Heb 1:1 and Luke 16:16) that Andrew Sargent, a fellow LDS apologist, asked Shafovaloff if he would debate me. Shafovaloff agreed, but wanted it to be a skype dialogue he could control. However, I proposed this as the debate format:
Thesis: Is Sola Scriptura, the Formal Doctrine of the Reformation, Biblical?
Opening statements: 20 mins each
Rebuttals: 10 mins each
Cross ex: 10 mins each
Conclusions: 10 mins each
I also stipulated a neutral moderator (this annoyed him as he clearly wanted to be in charge of the "dialogue").
Shafovaloff wanted me to first defend/prove “Mormonism”; however, as I pointed out, such is a dodge from Aaron—even granting Mormonism to be false does not mean that sola scriptura is true; that is akin to a Catholic who claims that if sola scriptura is false, ipso facto Rome is the true Church. Instead, we would examine, using the historical-grammatical method of exegesis, whether the Bible itself teaches the formal sufficiency of the Bible. As I have demonstrated many times, sola scriptura can be refuted using the framework of sola and tota scriptura itself (in other words, it can be [exegetically] hoisted by its own petard).
The debate is not happening, as Aaron backed away from defending sola scriptura. Apparently, anti-Mormon Evangelicals are more than willing to lie through their teeth about LDS theology (e.g., see Ronnie Bray’s refutation of Aaron and MRM on 2 Nephi 25:23), but they do not have the intellectual honesty, integrity, and even intestinal fortitude to defend their own theology, in this case, the formal doctrine of Protestantism itself.
I do find it funny that some (e.g., James White) claim that Mormons do not debate anymore—many of us are more than willing, and some do, but many Protestants tend to run away from informed opponents. Desmond Ferguson, an anti-Mormon activist here in Ireland, has done the same, refusing to interact with/debate me for over a decade now, as has David Bartosiewicz in more recent times.
By the way, here is a wonderful documentary about Brave Sir Aaron who bravely ran away from the LDS apologist:
Brave Sir Aaron ran away
Bravely ran away away
When debating sola scriptura reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, brave Sir Aaron turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat
Bravest of the brave, Sir Aaron!
