Christina
Darlington, a Protestant “counter-cultist,” wrote in her book Misguided by Mormonism the following
admission:
. .
.it is true that there is no specific verse in the Bible that says that God’s revelation
in the form of Scripture is completely closed . . . (Christina R. Darlington, Misguided by Mormonism But Redeemed by God’s
Grace: Leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for Biblical
Christianity [2d ed.; 2019], 7)
In other words, according to this Protestant apologist, (1) the Bible does not teach, at least explicitly, Sola Scriptura and (2) the Bible does not teach, at least not explicitly, that special revelation would cease at the inscripturation of the final book of the Bible. The biblical authors, if Protestantism is true, were incredibly sloppy and careless about a belief that is the formal doctrine of Protestantism.
Still, as a
Protestant, she must desperately try to find support for this man-made
doctrine. She continues:
. . .the Bible does say in 2 Peter 1:3:
“According as his divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hat called us to glory
and virtue.”
If “all things” that are necessary for life
and godly living were revealed to first century Christianity, what further need
do we have for additional revelation from God in the form of Scripture? (Ibid.,
7)
This
argument is a failure as we are not told what the “all things” constitute. She
assumes, without any evidence, this refers to the Bible. There is one glaring
problem with this: if 2 Pet 1:3 is teaching Sola
Scriptura, all books written after
2 Peter is superfluous and are not needed, just like she claims uniquely LDS
Scriptural texts are unnecessary. As I am sure she accepts Petrine authorship
of 2 Peter (most scholars believe it is pseudepigraphical), this would mean
that she rejects, among other texts in the New Testament, the Book of
Revelation.
Furthermore,
as we see in Acts 15 and 1 Tim 3:15, one of the “things” God has gifted His
people is the Church.
For a
discussion of Sola Scriptura (as well as Acts 15 and NT ecclesiology), see:
