The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Solo Scriptura

The Church is the totality of those who have been genuinely converted by grace throughout the centuries. Within the Church, God has raised up various men, gifted by the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures and to guard against error. However, each and every true believer is likewise indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Who witnesses to the truth and allows the individual to confirm that which others have written. It's a check and balance system. However, the most important point is that Scripture is its OWN authority and depends not upon any man for it is self-authenticating; Scripture interprets Scripture.

Scripture itself indicates that the Scriptures are the possession of the Church and that the interpretation of the Scripture belongs to the Church as a whole, as a community. In particular it has been entrusted to specially gifted men. This has already been examined in some detail in the previous discussion of the Bereans and the Jerusalem Council. The Apostles did not tell every individual believer to take their Bibles and decide by themselves and for themselves whether the Judaizers were correct. On the contrary, they gathered in a council as a body and discerned the truth of the matter. Their decision then was given to the various churches. The fundamental point is that Christ established His Church with a structure of authority that is to be obeyed (Heb. 13:7). Even in the first years of the Church, there were those who were specially appointed to the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:2-4). In his letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul indicates that a special teaching ministry was to continue after his death (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1-7; 2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 8:5-9). The modern Evangelical doctrine of Scripture essentially destroys the real authority of ministers of the Word and the Church as a whole.

Adherents of the Evangelical position also ignore the positive scriptural references to tradition. The Gospel was preached for at least 15-20 years prior to the writing of the first book of the New Testament, and that preached gospel was authoritative and binding. This apostolic tradition was the faith of the churches who received the first books of the New Testament, and it was the context within which these books and the books of the Old Testament were to be interpreted. This is the tradition to which the churches were commanded to adhere (e.g., 2 Thess. 3:6). We have already discussed the manner in which this apostolic kerygma was taught to every catechumen and recited from memory at baptism. It is important for our purposes here simply to note that this hermeneutical context of Scripture was not abrogated once Scripture was completed. The Scriptures were written to already existing churches, and this means that these churches had the Gospel before they had the completed Scriptures.

It renders the universal and objective truth of Scripture virtually useless because instead of the Church proclaiming with one voice to the world what the Scripture teaches, every individual interprets Scripture as seems right in his own eyes.

The difference between "SolA Scriptura" and "SolO Scriptura" is that the latter stands on individual autonomy for understanding the Scriptures and the former takes into account what the Church has concluded and officially declared in its Ecumenical Councils

I haven't a clue who "Matthew" is, but I suspect you are responding to someone's post in another thread? Be that as it may, I'll pick up the ball here and entertain your question and statement below.