Keith Mathison on “Solo” Scriptura

All appeals to Scripture are appeals to interpretations of Scripture. The only real question is: whose interpretation? People with differing interpretations of Scripture cannot set a Bible on a table and ask it to resolve their differences. In order for the Scripture to function as an authority, it must be read and interpreted by someone. According to “solo” Scriptura, that someone is each individual, so ultimately, there are as many final authorities as there are human interpreters.

Keith Mathison – Solo Scriptura: The Difference a Vowel Makes

Catholic convert Joe Palmer on Mary as a stumbling block

Mary was a stumbling block, but the Church’s doctrines/dogmas regarding her were not the major stumbling block. Once I had the separation of Protestants and Catholics narrowed down to the question of authority and the nature of the Church, I had come to the conclusion that “if the Catholic Church’s claims are true, and the Apostles and their successors had authentic sacramental authority granted by Christ, then I would have to submit to that authority regardless of what I thought in order to be authentically Christian” and that Catholicism meant humbling oneself instead of placing one’s opinion of matters on a pedestal, I began to take the approach of reading Church teaching from the eyes of a Catholic, so-to-speak (lending some level of trust to it). Not because I was submitting to the authority of the Church at that time, but only because I realized that unless I tried on the Catholic glasses, I’d never be able to understand it from a Catholic point-of-view. It was only by God’s Grace and by giving the Catholic view a chance, that I began to see how necessary, beautiful, and Christological the Marian doctrines and dogmas are. Also, from a historical standpoint, there is no doubt that these doctrines and dogmas were represented in various devotions, writings, and quotes from the Early Fathers. So, aside from my conclusion on the importance of the authority question that led me to seek an understanding of Marian doctrines, I also came to realize that the anti-Marian Protestant position I had been raised to hold did not gel with historical Christianity at all, but was a rather new development.

Joe Palmer – comment on Called to Communion

St. Isidore on Apostolic Authority

We, as Catholics are not permitted to believe anything of our own will, nor to choose what someone has believed of his. We have God’s apostles as authorities, who did not themselves of their own wills choose anything of what they wanted to believe, but faithfully transmitted to the nations, the teachings of Christ.

St. Isidore of Seville – 560 to 636 A.D.

Martin Luther on his authority to add to Sacred Scripture to support his doctrine of Faith Alone

You tell me what a great fuss the Papists are making because the word “alone” (which Luther added) is not in the text of Paul (Romans 3:28). If your Papist makes such an unnecessary row about the word “alone”, say right out to him: “Dr. Martin Luther will have it so”, and I order it to be so, and my will is reason enough.I know very well that the word “alone” is not in the Latin or the Greek text…it shall remain in my New Testament. All the Popish donkeys will not get it out.

Martin Luther – Source: John Stoddard, Rebuilding a Lost Faith, (Rockford, IL: TAN Books), 136-137

St. Augustine on Believing the Gospel because of the Catholic Church

Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should … With you, where there is none of these things to attract or keep me… No one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion… For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.

St. Augustine (354–430): Against the Epistle of Manichaeus called Fundamental, chapter 4: Proofs of the Catholic Faith

St. Augustine on the Papacy and Apostolic Succession

In the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep (Jn 21:15-19), down to the present episcopate.

St. Augustine (354–430): Against the Epistle of Manichaeus called Fundamental, chapter 4: Proofs of the Catholic Faith

G.K. Chesterton on Submission to Truth and Authority

We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.

G.K. Chesterton

Dr. Jeff Mirius on Catholic claims as regards Authority and Revelation

There are plenty of reasons to be a Catholic, and the mix of motivations can have as many variations as there are people. For me, however, the very first reason that comes to mind is that Catholicism is the only religion in the entire world that has a logical and consistent approach to the problem of Revelation….Even the Protestant reliance on the Book provides no guide to the Book’s interpretation, as the incessant splintering of Protestantism itself attests. Because a principle of authority is essential to Revelation, and because only the Catholic Church makes a clear and consistent claim to such authority, something very important follows. What follows is not that the Catholic Church must be right, but that the Catholic Church is the only religion which advances a credible claim.

Dr. Jeff Mirius