Is Sola Scriptura pagan?

[ChristineM]

It seems to me that "religious texts" have been followed by all sorts of polytheistic and other pagan religions for thousands and thousands of years.

...So why do Protestants act like traditions such as Easter and Christmas are evil pagan traditions when following religious texts is also following in the footsteps of pagan traditions?

Who says protestants say christmas and eostre (oops easter) is evil pagan? Some few of the christian cults such as the JW dont celebrate christmas or easter but most have no such restriction.

 

[ChristineM]

I mean, if you really think about it, in Christianity, It's either:

1. You follow the Church that Jesus Christ Himself founded.

Or

1. You follow the scriptures written by the Apostles, who were men.

<EDIT >
(Really, those were supposed to be numbers 1 and 2. )

The various christian churches are 3.

3. Adaptations of the faith compiled by committee from oral tradition and a few scrolls around 350 years after christs death. That became the first bible of which there are no surviving copies.

3A. The vulgat was compiled 80 years later and is the earliest complete bible. Which gave rise to the catholic and orthodox faiths.

3B. Other versions were compiled, translated or copied, by hand along with the inherent errors of the process. Which gave rise to derivatives of those earlier faiths

3C. Henry VIII fell out with catholicism and adopted the great bible which increased the anglican church and its derivatives

3D. In the early 160Os king james said, "woah!!! Enough of the different versions, i will produce a new bible based on the 6 most popular bibles of the period". He assembled a team of about 40 guys to cherry pick and make the KJV as the definitive one source bible.

3E. Since then there have grown several hundred versions of new definitive bibles, each subtly (or not so subtly) different from the others.

3F. All these different bibles and the multitude of ways they can be interpreted to suite an individuals personal needs in belief has given rise to over 50,000 christian churches, each with slightly different beliefs and with the majority believing that only their interpretation of the particular version of the bible is correct and all the others are wrong and the followers who are wrong will not get to heaven.

 

[shmogie]

Someday I hope that I can laugh about what the Christian Church is. Right now I ...

Laugh, if you choose. Whether you laugh, cry, or are ambivalent makes no difference.

In the end you will find that God is, Christ is and your relationship to them is the most serious thing imaginable.

 

[Quintessence]

Yes mostly. But according to the Wikipedia aeticle, scriptures existed in other religions prior to Christianity... And Christianity was originally not a religion "of the book", because there was no bible.

So it seems to me, that Protestants who want to base their faith solely off of Scripture are copying off other religions -that's why Protestants always cite scripture and Catholics tend to stick to the Traditions instead.

Well, nothing arrives out of a vacuum so in the sense that all religions build off of their surrounding cultural and environmental context, you're correct on that front. Your thought process here in tracing the notion of following "scripture" to Paganisms is more than a little bit off base, though.

Again, the vast majority of indigenous religions were oral. Not just because writing wasn't really a thing for most of their development, but because they were organic, living religions that were not intended to be codified and dogmatized like the Bible does with its scriptures. Where such tales were recorded, it is very important to keep in mind that Pagan "scriptures" really do not hold the same meaning as they do for the codified and law-oriented writings of Abrahamic religions.

It's even more important to keep in mind that in most cases, it isn't the Pagans who told these stories who wrote them down. Rather, it was often Christian scribes or other outsiders who were recording the tales and they often did so centuries after the original cultures telling them had been decimated. Many of them had agendas too, meaning the original stories are frequently Christianized or corrupted. This is an issue most contemporary Pagans like myself are keenly aware of, because we just don't have "original" source material to work with. We know next to nothing about the historical Druids, for example, because of this.

 

[Ellen Brown]

Laugh, if you choose. Whether you laugh, cry, or are ambivalent makes no difference.

In the end you will find that God is, Christ is and your relationship to them is the most serious thing imaginable.

I have no problem believing in God, and the Christ. It is the organizations that claim to know and define him that are an abomination to me.

 

[Father Heathen]

btw we Catholics find some Protestant concepts really absurd...

Yet you're all peas in a pod.

 

[shmogie]

I have no problem believing in God, and the Christ. It is the organizations that claim to know and define him that are an abomination to me.

Sadly, very often religion isn´t Christian.. The Book defines Him perfectly without anyone having to tell you who He is, or how to be right with Him.

 

[Ellen Brown]

Sadly, very often religion isn´t Christian.. The Book defines Him perfectly without anyone having to tell you who He is, or how to be right with Him.

And, there is the individual Priesthood of the Believer. Perhaps too much doctrine is shaped by "who is paying you?"

 

[Sky Rivers]

Yes mostly. But according to the Wikipedia aeticle, scriptures existed in other religions prior to Christianity... And Christianity was originally not a religion "of the book", because there was no bible.

So it seems to me, that Protestants who want to base their faith solely off of Scripture are copying off other religions -that's why Protestants always cite scripture and Catholics tend to stick to the Traditions instead.

I’ve been wondering on this as well. As a Christian, I wonder... is scripture everything? There isn’t to my knowledge a verse in the Bible which mandates one must read and obey to the letter, the entire Bible, nor even to take it as absolute authority (as if it’s God). Isn’t that a form of idolatry?

Currently, I’m a Bible literalist, minus Revelation (it’s a very confusing book). However, I’ve really been questioning this, especially since the Bible has been translated so many times?

However, what is our standard of truth without scripture?

 

[shmogie]

And, there is the individual Priesthood of the Believer. Perhaps too much doctrine is shaped by "who is paying you?"

Perhaps. I sometimes forget that the church isn´t a museum of saints, but is a hospital for sinners. We sinners sometimes say and do sinful things. If you want to find Christian perfection, a church isn´t a place to find it, except by focusing on Christ.

Yes, the priesthood of all believers, we each are responsible for study and establishing our faith. We won´t stand in the judgement as part of a denomination, we will stand as individuals. God won´t care then about denominations, just who we are, what we did, what we believe, and are we saved by Christś atonement.

 

[Ellen Brown]

I’ve been wondering on this as well. As a Christian, I wonder... is scripture everything? There isn’t to my knowledge a verse in the Bible which mandates one must read and obey to the letter, the entire Bible, nor even to take it as absolute authority (as if it’s God). Isn’t that a form of idolatry?

Currently, I’m a Bible literalist, minus Revelation (it’s a very confusing book). However, I’ve really been questioning this, especially since the Bible has been translated so many times?

However, what is our standard of truth without scripture?

I hope that I am not Butting in. Some Pastors will bitterly refute what I am going to say. Most Christians, only about 10%, do not study, or pray much. Scripture is clear about the Priesthood of the Believer, and "studying the scripture daily to see what is so". It is hard to study Revelations unless you have studied key books of the OT. Lots of folk consider it to be Dispensational, um sort of.

In my own snotty opinion, Micah 6:8, The Lord's Prayer, The 23rd Psalm, and the 10 Commandments cover most of it. Most belief systems want lots of rules, but it really is your choice about that.