Welcome back to Seamus Poppre. I'm Joe Heschmire, and I recently found myself the target of a three-and-a-half-hour-long video accusing me of all sorts of nastiness, a video supported by some of the better-known Protestant apologists on YouTube, folks like Gavin Ortland, Redeem Zumer, the other Paul, and so on.

The subject matter? My recent video arguing that the one question that unravels

Protestantism is which doctrines are essential. So today I want to explain why that question

matters and then show why none of the accusations and responses are actual rebuttals to the

argument. So let's start with why the argument works and why it's

important. First, against the Catholic Church, which argued that we needed the interpretive

authority of the church, the reformers, like the Protestant reformers in the 16th century,

argued that scripture alone is the infallible authority, and scripture is all clear. This is

called Solicitora and the clarity or perspicuity of Scripture.

And I've been referring to this throughout as the Protestant view of Scripture, since it's

not just the Lutheran or Calvinist view, it's a pretty standard view of Scripture across

denominational lines.

For instance, the Book of Concord,

which is Lutheran, talks about how scripture is the only standard by which all teachers and doctrines are to be judged.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, which is Calvinist, says the whole council of God,

concerning all things necessary for His, meaning God's own glory, man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly

set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.

And then the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 says the Holy Scripture is the only sufficient,

certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith,

and obedience. So this is enough of a common Protestant belief that you have, for instance,

the book co-authored by a bunch of different reformed theologians, Sola Scriptura, the Protestant

position on the Bible. So to the extent we can talk about anything as like a commonly

...