catholicsphere

During the Protestant Reformation, the authority of the Catholic Church was rejected. The only entity that the Reformers left with binding authority was the Scriptures.

The Reformers, such as Martin Luther, saw the necessity to establish the canon apart from the authority of the Catholic Church, and in doing so removed 7 Old Testament books, and even wanted to remove other books, such as James, from the New Testament.

But, the question that wasn’t really answered, it seems, was “by what authority?” What authority was there to (re-)determine the canon of Scripture? What authority was there to (re-)determine that the canon was authoritative and binding on Christians?

Later, in the mid-1600’s, the Westminster Confession of Faith, made the claim that the Scriptures and only the Scriptures were to be authoritative. Again, no definition or establishment of the Scriptures. In fact, the WCF said that they accepted the Scriptures as received. But from where were these received?

In the past I have put forth the following challenge. I repost it now for any who wish to take up the various questions it asks. Read carefully as some conditions may be more or less binding than they first appear.

Your challenge is three-fold. First, to establish the canon of the Bible. Second, to establish those contents as authoritative. And, third, to establish that the the canon you have established as authoritative is complete in it’s contents (no more and no fewer writings); that it addresses completely each and every doctrine that is to be held by those who accept the canon and authority of the Bible as the sole authority in establishing doctrines and pious devotions (such as meditations on the life, death and resurrection of Christ).

The following are the terms of the challenge:

1) In establishing the canon of the Bible, no appeal can be made to the writings you are proposing for a canon. No weight whatsoever will be given to those writings, above that of historical writings among other historical writings, unless this accuracy of such history is established in order to give it significant credence over other documents. They cannot be assumed to be inspired or the “word of God” as that is what you must prove.

– The basis for this condition is because the Bible is not given into the world as a single text, but as a group of texts that were written over time, and then gathered together into a single volume. Any requirement to show where a specific action, event, teaching, etc is found in the Bible must demonstrate that the writings given from which to show such are clearly established and sufficient for doing so.

For instance, I could ask you to show me your complete teaching on the Trinity in the letter to Philemon alone. The burden would be upon me to first show that the letter to Philemon is the sole writing we are to accept as authoritative, and that it is intended to be sufficient to completely teach the doctrine of the Trinity. If I cannot do that, and you hold that there are other writings and things that are also authoritative — even if not as authoritative as the letter to Philemon — then I cannot bind you only to the letter of Philemon.

2) In establishing the authority of the canon you have established, no appeal can be made to the writings in that canon as a proof of authority, as authority cannot be established by that which is seeking authority. For instance, I cannot rightly gain authority simply by saying that I am authoritative.

3) In establishing the authority of the canon, the entire canon should be established as authoritative; not just one, a few or a majority of writings.

4) In establishing the authority of the canon, it should further be established that the established canon is the only valid authority for the establishment of doctrines.

5) In the end, there should be no question of the establishment of these things under logical scrutiny; points should be logically established in unambiguous terms and statements.