Sola Scriptura on Trial: Who Has the Right Interpretation? | Response to Anglican Priest | U Decide?

“Scripture will correct the councils.” It sounds simple, even reassuring. But once you slow down and ask how that correction actually happens, the clarity starts to unravel.

This episode follows that question all the way down. The Bible does not speak out loud—it must be read. And reading always means interpretation. So when two sincere Christians, both appealing to Scripture, arrive at different conclusions… who decides what is true? What actually settles doctrine, worship, and practice?

We move beyond slogans and into the real mechanics of biblical authority. What does it mean to “submit everything to the Word” if there is no agreed way to identify the right interpretation? Why do disagreements persist even among people who are equally committed to Scripture? And what happens when the principle meant to unify ends up multiplying divisions?

Along the way, we explore the deeper philosophical and historical layers beneath the debate. We look at the burden of proof required to overturn long-standing Christian practice, and why Chesterton’s fence reminds us that tearing down inherited structures without understanding their purpose can leave us with less clarity, not more. We also examine the authorities Protestants often rely on in practice—confessions like the Westminster Confession of Faith, trusted pastors, and study Bible notes—and ask whether these function as a kind of tradition, even when they are not named as such.

From there, we widen the lens. Why has sola scriptura, in practice, coincided with endless denominational fragmentation? And how does that compare with the Orthodox Christian claim that the faith has been preserved, lived, and handed down continuously from the apostles within the life of the Church?

This isn’t a surface-level debate. It’s a direct confrontation with the question that sits underneath all theology and all disagreement:

Who gets to decide?

If you’ve wrestled with Scripture, authority, church history, or the tension between personal interpretation and historic Christianity, this conversation will challenge you to think more carefully—and more honestly—about where Christian authority ultimately rests.

Subscribe for more thoughtful conversations, share this episode with someone who loves theology, and join the discussion: where do you believe the final authority in Christianity should be found?

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Transcript

Sola Scriptura And Infallibility;

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Your defense with the scriptura. All Christians have more than one authority, but the only one that's infallible, which means it can never fail, never err, never be wrong, is the scriptures.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Which means that statement can be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Whereas Protestants are saying these other authorities you guys are bringing in, councils or whatever may be, those are also fallible statements and they can be reformed and corrected by the scriptures.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hold on, he just said it.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Whatever may be, those are also fallible statements and they can be reformed and corrected by the scriptures.

Scripture Must Be Read And Interpreted;

Who Bears The Burden Of Proof;

SPEAKER_00 0:31

They can be reformed and corrected by the scriptures. Okay, so scriptures, I need you to reform and correct doctrines. Hello? Okay, oh I I know. I need to use my Geneva Study Bible. Certainly the Geneva Study Bible. Uh, this can reform and correct the councils. Okay, listen closely, guys. Scriptures. Please reform and correct the councils. I don't hear anything. Wait a second. So you're saying I have to I have to read this? Oh. So the scriptures are just a collection of writings that need to be read. Okay, so if they have to be read, they have to be interpreted. Who's interpreting the scriptures? Who's reading the scriptures? Who's proclaiming the scriptures? How do I know where to go? What's my roadmap? Do I just kind of start reading randomly, start in Genesis, and just see if somewhere along the way it corrects or revises the councils or the tradition of the church? To those of you that don't think very far, this might seem like a you know low-tier or silly response, but it's trying to make a point. Scripture does not speak for itself. Scripture does not have a voice. Scripture doesn't stand up and say, Oh, hold up there. You got that part wrong. Scripture must be read, it must be understood, it must be interpreted. And what about when our interpretations differ?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

The burden of proof is on them to say these other authorities are also infallible.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

See, he again has it just completely backwards. The burden of proof is on the Johnny come lately Protestant. Right? You can take uh Chesterton's fence. Don't take down the fence unless you know why it was put there, right? Or even more famously, you got St. Vincent Lorenz. He says that we are to believe and and um hold true to what has been believed by all, right, at all times. What has been handed down to hold to the traditions is what scripture tells us to do.

Private Revelation And Submitting To The Word;

SPEAKER_01 3:23

And even someone that maybe is receiving a private revelation from the Lord, what do we tell that person to do? Submit it to the word it's go submit it to the word.

Confessions And Study Bibles As Authorities;

Orthodoxy As The Preserved Church;

Find An Orthodox Church Nearby

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Okay. So someone who's receiving a private revelation is to what? You can hear they all agreed, all these Protestants agreed. Go submit it to the Word. So so let's say I had what I thought was a private revelation from God. What do I do? What do I do? I submit it to the Word. Okay. Bible, I'm submitting it to you. How do I know? Who do I go to? You see, it begs the question. Scripture has to be read, and if it's not being read just by me, then it's being read in conjunction with the things that I happen to believe, i.e., perspectives and traditions that may or may not be in line with what the church has always taught and practiced. For example, these guys, right? They're Chris, they're Protestant Christians, they're, you know, likely reformed or I don't know. So what do they do? They go to their reformed standards, they go to the Westminster Confession of Faith, they they go to um, you know, the three unities. They get interpretation for them. They might even read the Geneva Bible, which is packed with commentary interpretation. But whose? Some Protestant from the 17th century? Why on earth would I want to listen to a German reading scripture three languages removed from the original, from the 17th century telling me what real Christian doctrine is, what the real gospel is. When I have what the church has always taught, what the church has always handed down from the very earliest of times, from the apostles to the initial bishops, and on down to this very day. You see, this is why Protestants are completely run amuck. You see, this Anglican priest here, and again, nothing against him personally, or these guys, I'm sure their hearts are, you know, seeking Christ. And I pray that at one point they will find and open their hearts to orthodoxy. Because everything they're looking for, everything they think they've found the answer to in Protestantism is in holy orthodoxy. They just don't know it yet. They have a false dichotomy. They're still comparing themselves to Rome while ignoring Eastern Orthodoxy. So, brothers and sisters, I urge you to realize you think there's some high volutant, some sophisticated response explaining sola scriptura. Well, here you have an Anglican priest, and I'm sorry, his responses are anything but impressive. In fact, it leaves you wanting. Go submit it to the word. Scripture will correct tradition or counsels. How does Scripture do that without needing someone to read the scripture and to interpret the scripture? And if that's the case, who gets to decide who is interpreting? Who makes the call? Who's the official interpreter? You, me, Joe Schmoe? Some non-denominational pastor down the road? Or some more high church, you know, Missouri Synod Lutheran. Why them over a Reformed Baptist? Who gets to say from a Protestant perspective? You see, it is a futile endeavor that leads to bifurcation and segmentation. It leads to, well, these guys were in their little group over here, and these other guys were in their little group over there. None of it getting them any closer to the actual truth. Why? Because actual truth has been preserved from the beginning, as Christ said it would be. The truth has been handed down as it has been once and for all delivered to the saints. That practice is the practice of the Orthodox Church. It's a practice that is unchanged from the earliest centuries. Protestants simply cannot make the same claim. Do you understand this? Protestants' only hope is that sola scriptura is true. But we know it is not only self-defeating, but we know it from its fruits that it is utterly false and untenable. Why? Because of the thousands of different denominations all running around claiming, each one, that they have the best interpretation of Holy Scripture. If any of this is making sense to you or is resonating with you, I beg you, find an Orthodox Church near you today. Talk with a priest, find out what you've been missing. The Orthodox Church is not some scary, weird thing. It's the church of Christ, it's the body of Christ. It's the historic Christian church. It's the church that when you look at history, whether it's the first century, the third century, the fifth century, the ninth century, the tenth, the thirteenth, the seventeenth, the eighteenth century, to this present day, you say there was the Christian church. There were the Christians right there. It's the Orthodox Church.