"Tell me you have never studied the passages you use to support Sola Scriptura without saying you have not studied the passages you proof-text to support Sola Scriptura"
Evangelical Protestant apologist: *during presentation exemplifying the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy* Hold my beer, you prot-hating paddy:
On the "blood of Zechariah" saying in Matthew and Luke, and the question of which book was the final book of the Old Testament, see:
Gary Michuta on the Zechariah of Luke 11:51
Related to this is the claim that the bath qol was inactive during the intertestamental period (a point Beckwith [1985] et al. need for their thesis to hold up), see, for e.g.:
Does 1 Maccabees Teach the Cessation of Prophets and Prophecy?
Miriam Caravella on Prophecy Not Ceasing After Malachi
Prophetic Gifts during the Intertestamental Period
Also:
Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
The phrase "Anachronistic cultic eisegesis" comes to mind.
During the Q&A period, Low IQ wondered why, if Joseph Smith personally pre-existed, why he did not come to the earth earlier. This alone shows that Low IQ is not a deep thinker: in LDS theology, we are all influenced by the time/culture we belong to. The premortal spirit of Joseph Smith, had he come to earth in, say, the year 1000 would not have lived the same way, nor have had the same experiences and influence, as he did in the 19th-century. It really is that simple and Low IQ's argument is really that, well, low IQ (apparently Americans don't like a certain 'r' term, though for Low IQ and his ilk, it is perfectly apt).
It should be noted that
Low IQ clearly has not studied the reception history of the
Apocrypha/Deutero-canonical books in early Christianity. Had he done so, it
would not be so clear-cut as he and others present it to be; indeed, works such
as Tobit were not just quoted but used to support doctrines such as
justification (hardly “minor” issues). As I wrote in Born of Water and of the
Spirit: The Biblical Evidence for Baptismal Regeneration, p. 209 in a
footnote:
Another text from this short epistle [Polycarp, Epistle
to the Philippians] that refutes Sola Fide is chapter 10, "Exhortation
to the practice of virtue":
Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and
follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith,
loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in
the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one
another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because
"alms delivers from death." Be all of you subject one to
another "having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles," that ye
may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed
through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Teach,
therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct. (ANF
1:35)
The note following the quotation in bold reads
“Tobit iv. 10, Tobit xii. 9.” Let us quote from these texts from the book of
Tobit:
For almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you
from going into the Darkness. (Tobit 4:10 NRSV)
For almsgiving saves from death and purges away
every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life. (Tobit 12:9)
There is a variation in the Greek of Tobit 12:9.
The New English Translation of the Septuagint (S) renders the verse as:
For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will
purge away every sin. Those who practice almsgiving and righteousness will have
fullness of life.
Interestingly enough, it was not just
writings from Polycarp that refute sola fide; letters
written to Polycarp also refute such. Ignatius of Antioch, in
his Epistle to Polycarp affirmed the concept of gracious merit:
Please ye Him under whom ye fight, and from whom
ye receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism
endure as your arms; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your
patience as a complete panoply. Let your works be the charge assigned to you,
that ye may receive a worthy recompense. Be long-suffering-, therefore, with
one another, in meekness, as God is towards you. May I have joy of you for
ever! (6.2)
The term translated as "charge assigned to
you" is δεποσιτα (whence "deposit"), with such works being said
to be "worthy" (αξιος) of an ακκεπτα ("recompense"), which,
per BDAG, refers to "military finance: a sum credited to a Roman soldier
and paid upon his discharge."
It is clear that Polycarp is teaching that
almsgiving is an instrumental means of God purging away our sins, all the more
strengthened by the use of Tobit which explicitly teaches this. This flies in
the face of various formulations of Sola Fide!
