Sola Scriptura and early Christians

[Good Ship]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

 

[Charlie24]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

From the beginning in the Garden of Eden man has been saved by faith in the Messiah (Christ). When Adam and Eve committed the first sin, God provided animal skins to cover them, those animals shed their blood which represents the shedding of blood by Christ for mankind. This is what the animal sacrifice represented throughout Scripture, even before the Law of Moses where the Sacrificial System was made official.

In the New Testament, Christ made the perfect sacrifice of Himself which ended the need of animal sacrifices. Now the New Covenant is born in Christ's blood. The preaching of the Gospel, which is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, according to Paul, is now the source of salvation. That has always been the way of salvation, but now sealed in the blood of Christ through His sacrifice.

Before the canonization of Scripture, the letters written by the authors were circulating around the churches. The apostles and disciples were preaching the Gospel of Christ, and this is how they were saved. Paul took the Gospel to the Gentiles and preached "Christ crucified for the sins of man." Eventually the apostles also took the Gospel to the Gentiles, after being rejected by those who rejected Christ and held to the temple worship of the Law.

The Scripture then and now is the source of all truth concerning that Gospel of Christ. Even though the canon of Scripture was not complete, the message was present and alive.

Anything that anyone now says concerning the Gospel that can't be found in the canon of Scripture, is to be ignored, it's simply not grounded on the truth of Scripture, therefore to be understood as false doctrine.

Paul made it clear in Gal. 1:8,

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

The 12 apostles of Christ, and Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, all agree in their letters found in Scripture as to what that Gospel is. Anything else is to be ignored and considered false doctrine, period!

 

[Episkopos]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

That is an understatement. Sola Scriptura was a religious convention that sought to eliminate the influence of tradition being equal to the weight of Scripture in the Roman church. It was one religious idea trying to fix another religious idea. But people were fooled...then and now...into playing the religious shell game.

The early church was based on life in the Spirit not a dogmatic belief system.

So then both positions are equally carnal.

Scriptures do not replace life in the Spirit. No, they testify of it. Without the experience of a divine eternal dimension to life the scriptures cannot be understood let alone fulfilled. We are to seek first the kingdom of God...not bibles. We are to get things in proper perspective. Scriptures don't save people...the Lord does. The Scriptures point to the Lord.

So then it should be Sola Christus.

 

[L.A.M.B.]

Luke 11:28
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God,and keep it. Luke 819-22

Ezekiel 34:5-8
Tells of the scattered sheep bc the shepherds were self centered and ignored the health of the flock.

There was an hunger among the early believers to be relieved of the oppression they were under. Good news of a saviour rang among them and made their hope and joy full. It was simple and direct in how they should receive and walk.

Now days there is too much of the so called Word of God via the translations and interpretations of it.

His words are pure and truth and will prepare the believer for every event in life. We have what we have in the first world wide translation in the KJB. I feel it has been anointed as the Word of God for doctrine and our walk in him.

Satan has an agenda to weaken all, that is God's, to devour, destroy and prevent the kingdom of God from growth.He is using the tools of righteousness to accomplish this.

Hearers must be doers of the Word, instead ppl are more concerned today with WHAT THE WORD SAYS OR DOES NOT SAY as opposed to FOLLOWING its precepts.

I believe it is still the 5 solas for it all must be in God or the mark has been missed. Of grace, by faith in the shed blood of Jesus, not by any human means may we receive the gift of salvation.

 

[Enoch111]

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized?

You have several misunderstandings about this subject.

1. Before there were Christians there were believing Jews who had the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh). That was the canon of the Old Testament.

2. Christ and the apostles had the Tanakh, and so did the early Christians.

3. There was no formal "canonization" of the New Testament. The Gospels and epistles were circulating within the churches while the apostles were alive. Christians also discerned which were the true Gospels and which were Gnostic fabrications.

4. By the 2nd century, there was already a Syriac translation of the New Testament in which the canon was practically complete.

5. There was also a Greek document from the 2nd century called the Muratori Canon in which the New Testament books were listed, and it too was practically complete.

6. So between the 2nd and 4th centuries the complete Bible was available, and being translated into other languages.

However, none of this is relevant to the biblical principle of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone). It is the Lord Jesus Christ who established and practiced this principle, as is quite evident from the New Testament. He also automatically dismissed the apocryphal books of the OT by designating the Holy Scriptures as (a) The Law (5 books), (b) the Prophets (8 books), and (c) the Psalms (11 books). That is a total of 24 books in the Hebrew Bible equivalent to the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament. The Reformers were simply reverting back to the example of Christ and His apostles.

Now when Paul speaks of "traditions" (literally that which is handed down) what he means is that he was directly taught by Christ, in turn he handed down divine revelations and teachings to faithful men, who would hand them down to others, and that what he had written in his epistles is not human traditions by divine revelations. And that is exactly why Peter placed all his epistles alongside the Hebrew Tanakh as "Scripture".

 

[Ronald Nolette]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

Any oral tradition or private revelation that contradicts or negates any part of teh New Testament epistles is not from god.

Yes if a bible is not available and if a person is sensitive to teh Spirit they can learn alot of Scripture without Scripture. but that is only for those who have no access to teh Word of God. It does not apply to those in countries like America where there are plenty of Bibles. The oral traditions and "special revelations" are just another way of saying: "I don't like what Scripture says on a subject" or"I'm too lazy to read and learn so I will go to places that can scratch my itching ears.

 

[michaelvpardo]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

This is a bit inaccurate. The cannon was reduced to include only 66 books, but the Septuagint was a rabbinical translation to Greek that was assembled for the Diaspora in the 3rd century BC, and included the books of the old testament and some apocryphal texts.
Some modern translations used the Septuagint as a source, because the text represents a Hebrew understanding of the Old Testament over 250 years before the birth of our Lord.
The Apostle Paul taught Christ to Jews reasoning from the Old Testament.

Jesus Himself said this about the written word (Old Testament scriptures):
39“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
John 5:39

Everything that pertains to Christ is found in the Old Testament including the gospel, but veiled in prophecy, law, Psalms, proverbs, and history. The New Testament was written as Epistles to the churches, letters to saints, and as accounts of Jesus' ministry during His incarnation and after His resurrection.

The Apostle Paul wrote his second epistle to Timothy, a leader in the first century church and said this:

14You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:14-17

If you read the entire chapter, this instruction was addressing false teachings, abuses of the faith by thieves and liars that were taking advantage of unstable people.
There were already numerous heresies, false gospels, perversions of the truth, being taught by wicked men for personal gain while the Apostles were still alive.

The "canon" was described and sealed by early church patriarchs to protect the immature and carnal minded from being drawn away from the truth, our Lord Jesus the Christ.
Cults add to the written word for the benefit of the cult leaders, and all to enslave minds to their purposes.

Does God speak to our spirits to give us guidance?
Scripture says that He does, but He doesn't guide us to oppose His word (that would make Him schizophrenic. )
Does Satan and the unclean spirits speak to us to lead us away from the truth. Scripture says that he does and that the demons obey him.

If you can accept that the purpose of scripture is the revelation of God in the person of His Son, then the revelation is complete in Him.

Instructions for guidance in serving the body of Christ is an entirely different matter, but to be clear, the Holy Spirit glorifies our Lord, our Lord glorified His Father, and the Father glorified His Son.
Any voice that denies these basic truths opposes Christ and serves another.

 

[ScottA]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

I am not for or against "Sola Scriptura", not sure I even fully understand the claim.

However, on the subject of what any time in history or generation before God has from Him--it is the providence of God and not of men, regardless of what may be claimed. Just as no man can actually claim to have changed history (except Christ), or just as Pilate had no power other than what was given to him from above, it is rather God who decides what each generation has access to and what clarity, confusion, delusion, or revelations are set before them. His word does not return void in either case, and His strength is made perfect in weakness in spite of the folly of men. All of which can be understood as a choice of life or death set before all.

 

[GRACE ambassador]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

Sola Scriptura/Christos Is Definitely The Infinite Way Of God, Because:

1) Psalm 138:2 "I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and
praise Thy Name for Thy Lovingkindness and for Thy Truth:
for Thou Hast MAGNIFIED Thy Word Above All THY NAME."

2) "The Words of the LORD are Pure Words: as silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou Shalt Keep Them,
O LORD, Thou Shalt Preserve Them from this generation for ever."
(Psa 12:6-7)

3) 1Co 4:6 "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred
to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us

►►► not to think above THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN, ◄◄◄

that no one of you be puffed up for one against another."

Is all the Confusion, "going ABOVE Scripture," that is causing this sin,
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "Pleasing To God"?

Conclusion?: Christ, The Living Word, And Scripture, The Written Word,
Cannot be separated, added To, or taken away From, as the enemy would
deceive us, and have us believe, Correct?

Grace, Peace, And JOY...

 

[Davy]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

You appear to be viewing this matter according to the secularist unbeliever, that of an idea like God's written Word cannot cover all things in this world, so you might think it cannot be the Measure of all things. If you think that, then you'd be wrong. God's Word is so profound in its coverage, that it can cover all things just in general terminology, idiom and symbology.

God's Word did not just come about by 'chance' through men's decisions either. If you believe that, then you might as well try some other faith, because it would mean you are putting your faith in men, and not in God.

 

[Good Ship]

Scripture doesn’t explain a whole lot about hell. Despite the Bible containing 73 books, having 40 authors, and being written over a 1,500-year period, it tells relatively little about the afterlife for the condemned souls who refused the redemptive power of Christ.

Sure, there’s verses like Mark 9:48 that talk about hell, which says the horror of those who failed to achieve salvation never really ends. However, the Bible doesn’t really get into lucid detail about hell; it is illusive and sort of vague on this subject.

Some of us believers have been allowed to see various parts of hell. In fact, I am one such person who has seen some of the areas where the condemned suffer for all eternity.

I’ll tell everyone about an experience.

One time after I spoke with God, he showed me a really horrible, evil-looking forest place. There were constant lightning strikes; everything was so dark and scary. My ghost had been lifted out of my body by God, and he brought me to the First Circle for 5 or so seconds. And those brief 5 seconds really startled me.

What triggered God to show me that place in hell? I had been talking to him about pre-Christian peoples of Europe who prayed to so-called gods like Odin. In fact, Odin was a very popular battle “god” among tribal Germans like 2,000 years ago. I wondered where these folks went, since they had not heard about Christ. That is when God showed me the First Circle, a special spot in hell reserved for the heathens.

(By the way, Odin is actually a demon who works for Satan. I found this out some time later.)

Some people think that the Nine Circles of hell are inventions of Italian poet Dante. But they are actual places. God must have decided to write through Dante to tell people about hell in lucid detail, since not much about hell is written in the Bible.

People here on this thread say that Sola Scriptura is the only way to receive theological information about various spiritual and religious subjects. But if that is true, why have I learned a lot about hell from private revelation from God? It seems to me like private revelation and experience is an equally valid way to learn about Christian subjects as the Bible.

 

[Bob Estey]

Sola Scriptura is a theological tenet that says Christian beliefs or views can only come from the Bible. This belief implies that if a Christian receives a revelation or esoteric knowledge from God on any religious subject, it cannot be valid unless it stacks up with Bible scripture.

I’m not so sure I agree with this opinion. The Bible didn’t get written down and canonized in its present form until many decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. But there were many early believers who were around before that, and they didn’t have the Bible, so they had to learn from oral tradition or private revelation from God about theological subjects.

If you believe in Sola Scriptura, how would you explain how people were Christians before the Bible was canonized? In my opinion, this seems to suggest that Sola Scriptura may not be the best theology.

The purpose is to walk with God - learn directly from him. Still, God isn't going to say anything that contradicts what he or Jesus told us in the Bible.

 

[Daydreamer]

The biblical message is inerrant. However, sola scripture, without understanding the message contained in it, leads to error

 

[Davy]

Scripture doesn’t explain a whole lot about hell.

Any disciplined Bible student would disagree strongly with that statement.

Lord Jesus in Luke 16 even revealed where the abode of the wicked called "hell" (haides in the Greek) is located, across a great gulf fixed border in Paradise.

Now the KJV translates different Greek words to "hell", so it's important to go into the Greek and find out which Greek word was translated to "hell" in English. In several examples of "hell" Jesus used the valley of Hinnom to point to the future "lake of fire", which is different from the abode of the wicked known as haides (or Hades). The word pointing to Hinnom used was Greek 'geena' (NT: 1067).

The valley of Hinnom was a place outside Jerusalem that served as a perpetual burning garbage pit. Lord Jesus used that as a metaphor for the future "lake of fire" event that is set to happen at the end of His future "thousand years" reign, per Revelation 20. The abode of the wicked (haides as hell) is to be cast into that future "lake of fire", along with Satan and the wicked, and even death is cast into it.

Another Greek word used for "hell" in the KJV is 'tartaroo' (NT: 5020) used by Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 2:4 about the fallen angels of Genesis 6 that are kept in chains in darkness until the Judgement. It is based on the Greek idea of Tartaros (the deepest abyss of Hades).

In 1 Peter 3:18-20, we are shown about Lord Jesus Christ at His resurrection going to the "spirits in prison" and preaching The Gospel to them, those who were disobedient back in the days of Noah. These were flesh men that had died back in The Old Testament time, because in 1 Peter 4:5-6, the very next Chapter, we are told that for this cause was The Gospel preached also to the dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit (per KJV). Isaiah 42:7 is actually the OT prophecy that Lord Jesus would do this at His resurrection, and lead those who believed out of the darkness of the heavenly prison house. Thus the "spirits in prison" example gives solid Biblical evidence that we are still aware after death of our flesh body, and that Jesus has already offered The Gospel even to those who had died prior to His death and resurrection. It reveals the side in Paradise where the poor beggar preacher Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham is real, and that is where our loved ones in Christ that have died now are, waiting for the resurrection.