Critical Mass

I recently saw an interesting quote from G.K Chesterton: "Christianity is not a religion; it is a Church." Coupled with this I've also been reading a book by Jimmy Akin, a Catholic apologist, called "The Bible is a Catholic Book." He makes the argument, quite convincingly, that the Bible and its canon is something that wouldn't be with us today if it weren't for the Catholic Church. A standard Protestant response to this would be to argue that it was the guiding power of the Holy Spirit, not the Catholic Church, that has preserved Scripture for us. That is true, although God does use means to accomplish His purposes, but there is another leg to the argument that Jimmy Akin makes that does require serious consideration. It is this: the notion of Sola Scriptura was not possible before the 16th century.  There are several reasons for this: The printing press had not been invented, and copies of the Bible took a long time and a lot of money to produce.  Even...

 I've been listening to a lot of debates on Sola Scriptura. Unfortunately there aren't many Protestants out there who are willing to go head to head against Catholics on the issue. So that means I've had to listen to about 4 James White debates, all against different opponents. That's not taking anything away from James White, however. As a biblical scholar and Protestant minister, I do respect him. I've listened to him in person debating Islam, Homosexuality in the Church, and Calvinism, and I've found him to be very good at presenting his position. However, in listening to him more recently debating Patrick Madrid, there are a couple of things that have struck me: The issue is really not Scripture itself. Catholics and most conservative Evangelicals believe that the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and authoritative. The issue really comes down to interpretation of Scripture. James White upholds the Reformation principle that the "main things are the plain th...