Joshua Fogle, a Seventh-day Adventist, wrote the following:
No Bible, No
Eternal Life
How important are the Words of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the Christian life? The answer: Without the
Words of God, we will not inherit eternal life as we find declared from our
Savior Himself were He states: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28), and the way
you can hear His voice, is to read His Words, as we can see when we consider
that which is stated in (Acts 13:27) where reading and hearing a voice are
synonyms.
Furthermore, we read were our Savior
states: “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
(John 6:53-54), and He clarifies that eating His flesh really means to read His
Words, for “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63). Therefore we as followers of Christ
are commanded to “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit
which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17), for we are to “Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15), and this is not just a simple one
time reading of the Word of God, but a continual action, for if the seed of the
Word of God remains within you then you cannot sin, that is, the seed is the
Word as we read: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed
remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:19)
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of
God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)
And finally, it is not enough to
simply read that which Holy Write states, we must actually do as it commands as
we read in James (1:22): “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves.” for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ “became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Hebrews 5:9) for
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness? (Romans 6:16) Therefore, let us obey His commands to take His
Holy Words unto ourselves and to read and study from them, and then further our
obedience by actually following through with what they command us to do. Amen. (Joshua
Fogle, The Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon Compared [N.P. Joshua Alan
Fogle, 2022], 36-37)
The
belief that salvation is contingent upon the Bible is loaded with problems, including
the false a priori assumption that “Word of God” is exhausted by “the Bible.”
Furthermore, it limits God’s ability to save.
For
a thorough refutation of Sola Scriptura, see:
Not
By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
