Comments on: Is Sola Scriptura Scriptural? Part II: What Do The Apostles Say?

By: Ken Hensley

Ken Hensley — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 16:14:00 +0000

In reply to Robert Salmon. Haha. Hi Bob!

By: Evangelicus Catholicus

Evangelicus Catholicus — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 01:36:00 +0000

In reply to Ken Hensley. I agree with you Ken. I believe she was perpetually virgin. But the response by those who do not believe is that Jesus' family (brothers and sisters and in-laws and children of the brothers and sisters) ostracized him and also his mother for siding with him against the community and the religious leadership of the day (Mark 3:21,31,32 and John 19:25)

By: Robert Salmon

Robert Salmon — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 23:42:00 +0000

In reply to Alfredo.

The funny thing about “brothers” and “sisters” is that they have the same mother and father.. If Jesus had brothers and sisters, as many Protestants claim (but do not really believe themselves), then there were a great many divine beings alive at the time of Jesus if they believe that God the Father was the Father of Jesus.
Acts 1:14-15 states that “…Mary the mother of Jesus and His brethren.” numbered “about a hundred and twenty.” That is a lot of divine persons who have gone missing!

By: Evangelicus Catholicus

Evangelicus Catholicus — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 18:15:00 +0000

If this was taught to all Sunday Schools, there would be a lot of doubt about sola scriptura in our churches.
Just looking at the New Testament one sees something wrong here. It is less than one fifth of the thickness of the Original Testament. There is no book of Leviticus to tell us how to do church. The book of Acts ends halfway through the apostolic era (Interesting, it starts in Jerusalem and ends in Rome — the Holy Spirit have a reason for that?). And throughout its letters, like Ken says, they are all “occasional documents;” not one book that would become the catechism of the church (although Romans gets close, but even Paul seem to contradict James and Jesus and himself in the discussion of justification, with no explanation in the NT set — other than Peter saying, “Paul is hard to understand”.). Sola Scriptura is rationally left in tatters.
However, having said this. I am not about to say that the New Testament has no place in the Christian Church. It is the Word of God. It must be the Norm that Norms the doctrines of the church and actions of the magisterium. While the church must be the final interpreter of the Bible and Church practice (there is no other), no doctrine or practice of the church may contradict the rational meaning or principle of what is written in Holy Scripture.

By: Mark T

Mark T — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 16:20:00 +0000

In reply to Ken Hensley. You're welcome! And thanks for having this ministry! All to often, we insert our cultural ideologies and practices into what we read, failing to consider otherwise.

By: Ken Hensley

Ken Hensley — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:56:00 +0000

In reply to Mark T. Thanks for this. Yep. The passage that I think struck me most was Jesus from the cross giving his mother to John who then "took her into his house." In the culture of the time, if Jesus had brothers and sisters THEY would have cared for their mother Mary. Jesus would not have been asking one of his disciples to take her in.

By: Mark T

Mark T — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 13:44:00 +0000

In reply to Gracie. Exactly right, Gracie

By: Gracie

Gracie — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 04:34:00 +0000

I spent quite some time in Hawaii. According to the writings of the original Congregational missionaries who translated the Bible into Hawaiian – from the Hebrew and Greek (they were very educated!) – the Hawaiian language was much like the Hebrew. The culture too is very different from our own, and “cousin” and “brah” ( broher) are used very loosely, often to indicate one of the same generation. The parents of the “cousin” would be referred to as auntie or uncle, especially as a sign of respect. Kinship is defined very loosely – very different from our culture. Experiencing the culture helped me understand the references to Jesus’ brothers very easily.

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:03:00 +0000

Ken Hensley,we ( my wife, daughter and I) want to thank you again. We are following your series with interest.

A “Christian missionary” came home and talked about Jesus’brothers. My wife said: we believe in Mary’s perpetual virginity .Are you Luke’s final interpretative authority?
He answered:” Luke is his own final interpretative authority — when Luke used PROTOTOKOS instead of *monogenes*, Luke was CLEARLY stating that Jesus was simply Mary’s first born of other children. your argument is with Luke and the First Church, not with me. if you are choosing to follow your Roman Church’s traditions instead of following the First Church writers of the NT, then you are no better than the religious Pharisees in Mark 7:7-9, 13…. so be it”.

By: Michael Hansell

Michael Hansell — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:55:00 +0000

these are always so good.