Gairney Bridge

In Soli Deo Gloria Publications’ Sola Scriptura: The Protestant Position on the Bible, Sinclair Ferguson has an essay entitled “Scripture and Tradition: The Bible and Tradition in Roman Catholicism.” Ferguson mentions a Roman Catholic scholar by the name J.R. Geiselmann, who argues that there is a sense in which the doctrine of sola Scriptura (Scripture alone; or as Question 3 of the Westminster Larger Catechism states, “The holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.”) can be properly understood as being consistent with the pronouncements of the Roman Catholic Council of Trent concerning Scripture and Tradition. In response to this, another prominent Roman Catholic has penned these words:

As a Catholic theologian, [Geiselmann] has to hold fast to Catholic dogmas as such, but none of them is to be had sola Scriptura, neither the great dogmas of Christian antiquity, of what was once the consensus quinquesaecularis [i.e., the agreement of the first five centuries of the church], nor, even less, the new ones of 1854 and 1950 [i.e., papal bulls affirming the Roman Catholic doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and Bodily Assumption of Mary]. In that case, however, what sense is there in talking about the sufficiency of scripture?

The author of these words is none other than the former Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger, better known today as Pope Benedict XVI. Since the current Pope rejects the sufficiency of Scripture, it should not come as a surprise to read of the recent news coming out of the Vatican:

Pope Revives Use of Old Latin Mass

Pope: Other Christian Denominations Not True Churches

Philadelphia Archdiocese Offers Indulgences

Hmmm. Denying the sufficiency of Scripture, instituting a return to the Latin mass, denying that non-Roman churches are true churches, offering indulgences?!? Sounds like business as usual. Somebody should investigate at the Vatican, because it sounds like Leo X might still be in charge.