Facts Refute the Error of “Scripture Alone”

Book of Wisdom, Bible, Jonah, Truth, Gospel, Hebrews, homosexuality

Put simply and bluntly, the facts of history and the teaching of Scripture clearly refute the error of “Scripture Alone” that several apostate Catholics introduced as their justification for rebelling against the Catholic Church fifteen centuries after it was founded by Jesus Christ. For most Protestants, it is ignorance, but for some, it is stiff necked opposition to the truth that keeps them enslaved to the error of “Scripture Alone”.

The Evidence From History

The rebels who led the mis-named “Protestant Reformation”, all claimed for themselves the right to personally interpret the Scriptures and that the sole source of the truths of the Christian faith was “Scripture Alone” aided by immediate and sufficient gifts of grace by the Holy Spirit. Because of the chaos caused by the individual and  private interpretation of Scripture, it didn’t take all that many years before they denied that right to others and condemned all who disagreed with their opinion of how Scripture should be interpreted. In practice, they far outstripped the Pope in their implied claim of personal infallibility.

Evidence in Nature

The evidence from nature is identified in Scripture’s explicit affirmation that much about God is revealed through nature itself and Scripture’s expressed condemnation of those who failed to learn and act upon the truth embedded in that source of knowledge. This occurs in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures. (See and recognize  the truth identified in the “Wisdom of Solomon 13: 1 – 9”. See also Romans  1: 18 – 2: 16 for what Scripture teaches; rather than continuing to follow the erroneous opinion of fallible and rebellious men.

Yet these people are little to be blamed, for perhaps they go astray while seeking God and desiring to find him. For while they live among his works, they keep searching, and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful. Yet again, not even they are to be excused; for if they had the power to know so much that they could investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things? (Wisdom 13:6–9 ).

Despite the obvious folly, evidenced by the chaos that followed its introduction by those original Apostate Catholics, many others continue to insist upon “Scripture Alone” despite its not being a truth that is stated in Scripture. Notice those who profess it are not following their own unsupported doctrine of Scripture alone! Scripture’s explicit contradiction of “Scripture Alone” by example and statement is presented by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2: 14-15:

For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

See part II of my earlier article,  “Five Truths all Christian Share and How and Why We Separated” for Scripture’s answer to those who ignore and dismiss this Scripture’s testimony.

Evidence in Scripture

For those still unconvinced that the Protestant doctrine of “Scripture alone” is a diabolic error, consider the fact that not only is it not explicitly found in Scripture; it is explicitly denied in Scripture’s statement of  how God reveals His eternal plan and purpose to us:

Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him (Ephesians 3: 8-12).

Do recognize that the phrase, “through the Church”, is a doctrine that the Catholic Church is most strongly rejected for insisting upon and teaching. Unfortunately, Scripture’s affirmation that the Church is the body of Christ [visibly] present in the world isn’t that widely known and understood.

I believe that “The Bible alone” error conceals another vital truth that needs to be better understood, by Catholics as well as Protestants. While we need the guidance of the Church to correctly understand Scripture, we also need to personally devote time and effort to reading and striving to understand Scripture, if we are to grow in the knowledge and love of God that God intends for us.

By the “Word” of God, Jesus, becoming incarnate, Jesus was able to satisfy perfect justice by acting as both man and God to repair the damage and restore humanity to God’s friendship.

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5 thoughts on “Facts Refute the Error of “Scripture Alone””

  1. I apologize for my failure to clearly state what I was trying to share in the last paragraph of the article. Upon further reflection, I would have included credit to the priest who in his presentation identified God’s initial problem, and how God solved it. I pray God that I have herein adequately and accurately presented this awesome detail regarding our salvation by Jesus.
    It was at a 2022 Divine Mercy conference that a priest speaker explained the problem that God faced in rescuing mankind as a race and also as individual men and women from the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin.
    Fallen and sinful humans were and are incapable of doing anything, much less anything adequate to repair the damage caused by their disobedience. While God had the capability to repair the damage; perfect justice would not have been satisfied if God had simply forgiven us and only repaired the damage by merely restoring us to the supernatural state of life that Adam and Eve had forfeited.
    The problem was solved by the “Word of God” becoming incarnate as Jesus. With both a human and a Divine nature, the one person, Jesus, had both the capability in His Divine nature and the means in His human nature to act on behalf of mankind to repair the damage caused by the original sin of Adam and Eve and of all of our individual sins as well.
    Thus, Jesus was able to perfectly satisfy justice by acting as both man and God to heal the breach and restore humanity to God’s friendship by our being born again of water and the spirit. Jesus did this by His acts of perfect obedience to the Father throughout His human life, even to the point of “becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross”, at the hands of sinful men who failed to understand what they had of God’s revelation.
    And by His death on a cross, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Jewish Law.

  2. Scripture has all that we are required to know for arriving at salvation. If we have supernatural discernment from the Holy Spirit, we are able to receive correct instruction from reading Scripture. If the Holy Spirit is not given a place of prominence in a Christian organization, then there is a greater possibility of error in understanding. It can’t be Scripture alone when the influence of the Holy Spirit needs to be part of the interpretation of Scripture. This could have been the major reason why the Reformation ended up with so much division. Not only was the Church abandoned by the reformers, but also the Holy Spirit.

    1. You state that: “Scripture has all that we are required to know for arriving at salvation.” If that is true, cite the Scripture verses that identify exactly what is and what is not “Scripture”.

      I submit that the Catholic Church irreformably defined what is recognized as Scripture prior to the sixth century AD. Notice that except for that “irreformable” definition by the Catholic Church, Protestants only have books published by few or more fallible humans who do believe what they have is Scripture. But by your statement above that Scripture has everything they need, it follows that they have no authority or basis for believing those books are Scripture – unless they can cite statements in Scripture clearly identifying the contents of Scripture.

      By the way, would you please cite the Scriptural statement that explicitly identifies that “Scripture has all that we are required to know for arriving at salvation.”

      Judge for yourself whether your statement and belief is that of a person who loves and is committed to the truth.

  3. There remains the problem that Catholics (generally speaking) are insufficiently conversant in the Scriptures, a problem that seems to be insoluble. I suspect that at the root of the problem is precisely the belief that the Church –meaning church officials — gives us infallible guidance as to the meaning of Biblical passages. If all we have to do is to ask the clergy and hierarchy what a passage means, then what need is there for personal study? But this attitude is rooted in a misconception ; as a matter of fact there are only a small handful of passages whose meaning has been authoritatively defined. The rest are fair game for one’s private judgment, provided that no doctrine is contradicted.

    1. The fact that supernatural discernment applies to the laity is not fully appreciated even though it is a part of Church teaching, also contributes to the problem (cf. Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium 12).

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