Is sola scriptura, or bible alone, in scripture? Joe Heschmeyer gives reason why scripture is most valuable when paired with tradition.
Transcript:
Nowhere in scripture teaches doctrines have to come from scripture alone.
So the first thing to recognize is Sola Scriptura – scripture alone – when you say alone, you’re making a positive claim that you should have evidence for. If I say, “ Jesus alone is a person of the Holy Trinity,” then I’m denying that the Father and the Spirit are. If I’m going to claim that, I can’t say, “Well, Jesus is the only one I’ve ever seen.” If I’m going to assert “alone, this is true,” then the burden of proof is on me. So bear that in mind. The claim in its basic form is that doctrines have to be shown from scripture alone, or from reasonable deduction thereof. And the first problem is, of course, that this doctrine isn’t found in scripture. Nowhere in scripture teaches doctrines have to come from scripture alone.
Second, well which books even belong in the Bible? No book in the Bible tells us, “Here’s the full list of other books that are in the Bible.” And now, however you think you got your Bible, whether from the early church or because you heard these were the ones inspired by God because somebody told you that, or however you’re getting to the exact Bible you have, you’re not getting there from the Bible itself. Somebody puts these books together for you. You can trust the Bible in as much as you can trust that they were correctly assembled, that they’ve got all of the right parts and none of the wrong parts.
Third, you actually have positive evidence against sola scriptura being true. Second Thessalonians 2:15, St. Paul says, “So then brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” So whether you’ve got tradition by letter, which is what scripture is, it’s just tradition that’s been written down, or tradition that’s been transmitted orally, tradition by word of mouth, they’re both given equal authority. So there’s no basis upon which to say only tradition by letter is binding, or that everything in tradition by word of mouth is also recorded in scripture. Neither of those things are taught in scripture. So you have a case against sola scriptura in scripture; you don’t have biblical evidence for it in scripture.