Parchment & Pen Blog

By the time you read this blog post, I will be back in Athens, coming off a week-long expedition to the island of Lesbos. Yes, Lesbos. This is the third largest of the 2000 Greek islands. And yes, it’s the place where the name ‘lesbian’ comes from. The reason for the name and its association [...]

Now I will start to give a brief positive defense of the Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura. The Scripture implicitly and explicitly speaks of its unique authority and sufficiency. 2 Tim. 3:14–17 “You, however, must continue in the things you have learned and are confident about. You know who taught you and how from infancy [...]

3. Division is not always a bad thing I am a Calvinist, others are Arminian. I believe in a premillenial eschatology, others are amillinial. I am a traducianist with regards to the creation of the soul, others are creationists. I believe in inerrancy, others believe that this is an archaic naive doctrine. There are many [...]

The fifth argument against sola Scriptura: Without the infallible authority of the Church, the Church would be hopelessly divided on matters of doctrine and morals. This would not be the Church that Christ started. The idea here is that when doctrine is left to the “private interpretation” of the individual, this leads to doctrinal anarchy. [...]

For my upcoming Bibliology and Hermeneutics students, here is a rework of my stance on inerrancy. Do I believe in inerrancy? I guess, these days, it depends on who you ask and how you define it. My initial answer is “yes”. But it may not reflect how you define it. I am not trying to redefine anything, but [...]

The next argument against sola Scriptura: Without the infallible declaration of the Church, there would be no way of knowing what books belong in the canon of Scripture. Since there is no inspired canon of Scripture, the “Scripture alone” is not even enough to establish what Scriptures are truly Scripture. Therefore, the doctrine of sola [...]

If you have not subscribed to the Theological Word of the Day, you should. Here is today’s entry: Sola Fide Latin “faith alone” The historic Protestant doctrine that the only instrumental cause of justification, from the human perspective, is faith. While God is the ultimate cause of justification, Protestants believe that faith in Christ through [...]

The third argument for the Dual-Source Theory and against sola Scriptura has to do with a concept called “apostolic succession.” Most non-Anglican Protestants are not very familiar with this concept, but it has deep roots in the theological history of the church. How one defines “apostolic succession” will differ. This differing is not one with [...]