The
cornerstone of the Protestant faith is that the Bible is the only religious
authority – the Bible claims that this position is correct. With this cornerstone the reformers, Luther
and Calvin sought to crush the claims of the Roman Catholic Church which takes
tradition as another authority and has even added some heretical books to the
Bible to boot.
The
Bible leaves many important questions unanswered. Its omissions prove that it is not the only
authority and therefore no authority at all.
No sensible God would compose a book full of pointless genealogies and
repetition and religious bloodshed instead of writing about more edifying
subjects.
Take
euthanasia. In scripture, God commands
us not to kill though he does allow exceptions for what he calls a just case (I
wrote “what he calls” for he has a very twisted idea of justice when he
blackmailed his people to kill adulterers and adulteresses in a most cruel
fashion). This does not prove that it
condemns euthanasia. God tell us what to
do what is best for others in it. This neither proves or disproves the morality of euthanasia. All we can do is reason and the problem with
that is that the Bible bluntly tells us that since we are stupid due to an
inherited mental defect in many things before God as a result of Adam’s sin it
is no use either except when God says it is right. Anyone with reasonable life-experience
couldn’t swallow the Bible’s statements.
The
Bible does not tell us if the human being comes into existence at
conception. David said he was conceived
but those who believe that a newly conceived egg is not a human person still
say they were conceived and we know what they mean. The Bible does not convince us that abortion
and the use of the pill that kills the fertilised egg is immoral. It forbids tradition that is not implied by
God’s word (Mark 7) so it forbids one to have an opinion one way or the
other. This is evil for it is important
to take one stance or the other on something as serious as abortion.
The
Bible does not say if women can be admitted to communion or baptise or if you
can let the infertile get married or if women should be allowed to rule the
land.
Nowhere
does it tell us that the Epistle to Philemon or the Epistles of Jude are
divinely inspired. The list of books in
the Bible is largely unbiblical itself and contradicts the Protestant principle
of the Bible alone. Faith depends on
evidence. The Bible commands faith. This tells us that we should expect true
divinely inspired scripture to have been produced by visions and miracles that
were verified as historical events.
Instead, they were written like a person might write an essay for
school. Also, religion has lots of books
that claim to be inspired but only a few are taken to be inspired in the sense
that they are to be the yardstick against which all revelations are to be
tested. So, what is held to be inspired
is not necessarily scripture to them.
Most of the Bible books do not say what sense they are inspired in. At the end of the day, the Bible books are
scripture because some authorities wanted them to be and not because history or
Heaven or independent corroboration of miracles made it clear. This does not prove that the Bible teaches we
should not look to the Bible alone but it proves that the Bible alone principle
is incoherent. The same holds true for
any scripture that was produced like a normal book. Any book that claims to be the word of God
even if it is just a letter like the letter of Jude has to be should be a
miracle. The Mormons had the right idea
when they said the Book of Mormon was the word of God because its origin was
miraculous. There should be affidavits
proving the books of the Bible each have divine authority. The law itself says that serious claims need
to have a minimum of two independent witnesses.
Even if we had affidavits from the close friends of the apostles that
they wrote the documents ascribed to them it would be better. But we don’t.
We just have popular gossip.
Protestantism
is wrong for belief in scripture alone is a superstition and its Bible should
be thrown on the rubbish tip for it claims to be the boss though it is
incompetent. There is no way out of this
for tradition is a load of junk and would be no use even if it were good for
the Bible never appeals to it. Protestantism
contains a large portion of unbiblical Catholic tradition and pretends it is in
the Bible.
Here
is the list.
Infant baptism.
Sunday as the Sabbath.
Though
they say that the Jewish Law was abolished they don’t say that the Sabbath rest
which they have moved to Sunday from Saturday was abolished though they should
to be consistent.
The
belief in the real presence in Lutheranism, that the body and blood of Jesus
Christ are present in the bread and wine but do not become them.
That the minister only should facilitate and administer
communion. Paul said that the cup is the cup we bless
meaning the congregation too.
That
ordination should be performed by laying on of hands
and that laymen can’t create clergymen.
The belief that Mary was an unusually good woman.
The Anglican and Lutheran idea that baptism forgives
original sin.
That
the whole Jewish law has been abolished (Read my, Jewish Christianity is
Real Christianity).
That Jesus Christ is God.
That
God is three persons in one.
That
God loves all people no matter what they do.
The Bible says that God loved us to save us even before we were saved
and were sinners but sometimes one who hates you could be said to love you in
one or two things. He might want to put
you in jail for nothing but he might not let anybody kill you. Love is good will rather than feeling.
That there are no more persons in God who are simply
not mentioned in the Bible.
That
spirit in the Bible for which the word is breath is an immaterial reality or a
spirit in the sense of a being with no parts making it up. This means that the design argument for God
(God the designer exists for we see design all around us in nature) is invalid
in and alien to Bible theology. We
should not assume the Bible means what Christians mean by spirit for it was
more likely to believe that God was material when that was all the authors
could have known or thought of. If God
is matter then bringing him in to explain design does not make sense for who
designed him? The Bible merely says that
God designed but it does not argue that design is a sign that God exists. Romans 1 employs the design argument for it
says God is recognised through the creation and his existence is obvious even
to those in the grip of sinful depravity.
Some
say it could mean that God uses the creation to show you that he exists say through answers to prayer and the feeling that
there is something more to nature than what meets the eye. He meant design proved a designer because this
explanation is too stretched. Paul is
certainly wrong whatever he meant so we have a fatal error in his epistle that
proves he was not a prophet of God and was actually a bigot who might have lied
to create a new bigoted religion.
That
Jesus was not stolen from the tomb.
That
Jesus had a magic body after he rose from the dead.
That
Jesus Christ’s miracles were all supernatural and contravened the law of
nature.
Though
the Bible certainly claims to be the only reliable word of God and the only
authority, this claim is false. The book
is man-man revelation pretended to be from God.
The Bible, The Biography, Karen Armstrong, Atlantic Books, London, 2007