R. Andrew
DeFord, a former Christadelphian
who is now a Reformed
Protestant, made the following admission about Sola Scriptura and the (lack
of) evidence thereof in the Bible:
Sola Scriptura generally is defined as “scripture
is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” There is a problem however.
How do we arrive at Sola Scriptura?
As our Roman Catholic (RC) friends will gladly point out, Sola Scriptura is not articulated in the bible either. There are
passages in the bible that give a fairly clear definition of the divine nature of the holy scripture, but not any clear definitions of its scope
(canon) or exclusivity for defining divine truth. To make matters worse,
there is no general principle for a proper interpretation of the scriptures
found within its pages. (R. Andrew DeFord, The
Triune God and the Doctrine of the Covenant: Answering Unitarian Objections to
the Doctrine of the Trinity [2018], 13, emphasis in bold added)
Notwithstanding
his appeal to various “proof-texts” such as 2 Tim 3:16, coupled with his
dependency upon James White’s 2004 Scripture
Alone book, DeFord is forced to conclude that:
Still, we have no passage that directly
states that the Scripture alone is
the only rule of faith. The doctrine of Sola Scriptura is arrived at not by a
codified explanation somewhere in the bible, but by the authority of its
author. There is no Scripture that proclaims, “Because God wrote the bible, you
must look to it and it alone for . . .” (Ibid., 17)
For a full
discussion of Sola Scriptura, including an exegesis of 2 Tim 3:16-17 and other
common “proof-texts” abused by Protestants to support this man-made tradition,
see:
Not
By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
