In my last blog post I began reviewing a list of points made by a man on Facebook. As I had said before, "Ed" continually would attack Protestantism by using popular Roman Catholic tropes. When these wouldn't work, he just moved on to the next point. If that wasn't bad enough, he did bring back at least one of the erroneous tropes to attack me with again. After that, he gave me a list of points that is supposed to demonstrate that Sola Scriptura is false. Today I will be looking at the second point that he made. Words by "Ed" are in red and words from the Scriptures are in blue.
2. The first NT books written were 17-20 years after the resurrection.
This point is basically a sub point from point number one. However, there are some things that should be noted. The first thing is that we don't know when exactly any of the books of the Bible were written. We can make educated guesses for when we believe any particular book was written, but we still don't know for sure. It's not like the authors dated their books.
Something that is very popular right now is the theory that the Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel written. The understanding of this is that the Synoptic Gospels are so similar to each other that there must be a written source that they all came from. Some people even believe that there is an unknown source of the Gospels which is labeled the "Q" source (coming from the German word "Quelle", which means "source" in English). I don't believe in the "Q" source. The problem with all of this dating though is that we just don't know.
There are plenty of good arguments as to why Mark was the first Gospel written, and while it is the popular opinion, it is not the sole opinion. Other arguments have been made as to why Matthew was the first, and even some believing that Luke was the first. But even if Mark is the first Gospel written, we don't know when it was written. Maybe it was written just after the Resurrection, it could have been.
The opposite is also possible. Maybe the first NT writing was decades later, even beyond the 17-20 year window that "Ed" believes in. My point is is that "Ed" is prone to making a lot of assumptions. Just because the first NT writing MIGHT have been written down 17-20 years later, it doesn't follow that Sola Scriptura is false and Roman Catholicism is true.
If it's true that the first NT writing was about 17-20 years after the Resurrection, that has no effect on Sola Scriptura. The Apostles were first hand eyewitnesses to the ministry of Jesus Christ. They didn't rely on their own authority either. In fact, believers who tested the words of the Apostles were praised, and followers were encouraged to test everything by the Scriptures.
The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
Acts 17:10-12
As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
Galatians 1:9 NASB1995
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