Bondage of the Blog 
Friday, 19 February 2010

Steve Ray has posted 35 Questions for "Bible Christians". Apparently, he believes these questions expose the internal inconsistencies of Protestantism. TurretinFan has already provided responses to each of these questions which can be found here, but I thought I would add a few comments of my own.

Questions 2: "Other than the specific command to John to pen the Revelation, where did Jesus tell His apostles to write anything down and compile it into an authoritative book?"

Answer 2: This sort of question seems only relevant to the one who is uncertain about the authority of the Bible. Steve Ray presumably believes in the authority of Scripture so one can only wonder how this is relevant to Protestants and not to Roman Catholics as well. That said, we must bear in mind the Scriptures were not given to us by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:21). Moreover, the subtle attack on the authority of the Bible appears to stem from an ignorance of the nature of Scripture as being theopnuestos. See part 1 of this series for a further explanation of "God-breathed". 

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Question 3: "Where in the New Testament do the apostles tell future generations of Christians that the Christian faith will be based solely on a book?

Answer: How do we even know about the apostles if it were not for the "book"? Again, Steve Ray does seem to understand the nature of Scripture, nor does he appear willing to listen to the arguments presented on why the Bible is authoritative.

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Question 4: "Some Protestants claim that Jesus condemned all oral tradition (e.g., Matt 15:3, 6; Mark 7:13). If so, why does He bind His listeners to oral tradition by telling them to obey the scribes and Pharisees when they "sit on Moses' seat" (Matt 23:2)?

Answer 4: Classical Protestantism has never rejected oral tradition per se. Instead, Protestants recognize that traditions can originate from the zealous intentions of men, such as the corban rule as discussed in Matthew 15, and as such, all tradition must be tested in light of Scripture. This is the very thing which Jesus did when He was accused of violating the "tradition of the elders". Yet, when accused of violating the purported oral tradition handed down from Moses, Jesus opposed their tradition after testing the corban rule in light of Scripture.  

POSTED BY: Adam Murrell AT 08:10 am   |  Permalink   |  E-mail this

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