Safe Haven

In the course of time, when investigating the history of Christianity, and in fact tracing the development of Christian doctrine, we face two distinct problems. One problem relates to how one satisfactorily reconciles known Christian practice with the claim of continuity made by those who formed ecclesial communities at the Reformation. One must either say that a distinct continuity of doctrine and practice is not a necessary part of Christ’s faithful preservation of the Church, (which is absurd) or make oneself the arbiter of the marks of that continuity, which does an obvious violence to the historical data itself. The second problem emerges after one has assumed that the first problem is not in fact the problem, and that we can safely assume a continuity between the early Church and the communities of the Reformation. That second problem is this: How do we determine the doctrine of God, given Reformation assumptions, tools and methods, they use of which has obviously led to radical...

If that is the case, then the Holy Spirit cannot lie. He would not, and He cannot; he's bound by his nature. Thus, when the interpretive problem caused by Sola Scriptura hits, it is raised to a crisis only insofar as the problem is theological in the strict sense--that is, of or pertaining to God--and the two or more disputants have clear consciences, that is, a charge of dishonesty or manipulation from one to the other would be an act of bad faith, lacking any credible justification. The so-called Noltie Conundrum is a good faith problem. And if in fact one resorts to some notion of "total depravity" in order to explain it, some general idea of human sinfulness to avoid getting one's hands dirty with a particular accusation, then it bites back hard: one's own interpretive judgments can and ought to be similarly accused, having failed to even attain the right to be preferred over another view. Therefore, the multiplicity of opinions under the Protestant interpreti...