John 5:39: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” [King James Version]. “See,” our protestant friends assert, “Jesus is commanding us to search the Scriptures. He doesn’t tell us to consult Tradition or the Church. He tells us to consult the Scripture alone.” This verse also fails to prove sola scriptura for two reasons: (1) Most translations render this type as a statement of fact not a command: “You search [or “are searching”] the Scriptures…. “Jesus is telling the Jews that He is the fulfillment of their OT Scriptures. He is saying, “You think you know the Scriptures, but you missed their whole point—me.” (2) If somehow this verse proves sola scriptura, then it proves that the OT alone is sufficient since the NT hadn’t been written yet. Matthew 4:1-11. Three times in this passage Jesus responds to the devil’s temptations by saying, “It is written,” referring to Scripture. “Notice,” Protestants say,” Jesus did not appeal to Tradition or the Church. He appealed three time to Scripture. That means Scriptures alone is to be our guide to truth. ”But that’s not what this passage means at all. Notice that one of the verses Jesus uses to rebuke the devil is, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Not all of God’s words are contained in Scripture. Many of God’s words comes to us orally (John 21:25; Acts 20:27; 1 Thess 2:14-15,3:6; 2 Timothy 2:2). Moreover, Jesus is the preeminent Word of God (John 1:1,14). Jesus is not teaching a “Bible alone” approach to truth. He is reminding us to hold and live by every word He speaks, not just those written down in Scripture. Notice also that merely quoting the Scripture is not enough to establish the truth. The devil himself—in this very passage—quotes Scripture for his untruthful purposes. We must also rightly understand and interpret Scripture. As St Peter warned, “There are some things in [Paul’s letters] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16).
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:24:27 +0000
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