Monday, September 18, 2023

Note on the Claim that the Bible is "Sufficient"

I recently encountered the following from Jeremy Howard:

 

Scripture's Sufficiency

 

One will note that Howard engages in equivocation, treating "the Bible" (read: the 66 books of the Protestant canon) as one to one equivalent to "scripture" and "the Word of God" (even when that is not the meaning of "scripture" in 2 Tim 3:16-17 and Matt 4:4, the two proof texts he does not even attempt to exegete to support Sola Scriptura anyway).

 

For a thorough refutation of the presuppositions underlying Sola Scriptura, as well as exegesis of the relevant texts, see:

 

Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura

 

It is rich when a Protestant like Howard will write that

 

When we say we will go through a book of the Bible together, we mean that we will look at every word of it. We will embrace how God chooses to lead us along and we will permit His revelation to take preeminence among our creaturely thoughts and opinions. We will see how Scripture fits with and interprets itself and ask God to help us apply what He has said to our lives.

 

When they engage in all types of mental gymnastics when it comes to the Bible's teachings on baptismal regeneration, the transformative (not merely declarative) nature of justification, and other issues, too. The Protestant claim to believe in the whole counsel of God, and the perspicuity of the Bible is similar to the Protestant understanding of justification: a lie.