HOLY SCRIPTURE
The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith

A 3 Volume Biblical and Historical Defense
of the Reformation Principle of Sola Scriptura
by David T. King and William Webster



ENDORSEMENTS

Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

The historic and biblical doctrine of sola Scriptura (the final authority and sufficiency of Holy Scripture for Christian faith and life), once the subject of great controversy in the age of magisterial Reformation, is being called into question again in our own day. However it is not so much Roman Catholic counter-reformers, but evangelical Protestants who are undermining this important truth of the Christian faith. The fact is that some of our very best pastors and ministerial students are insufficiently equipped to engage in this foundational discussion. That’s why the three volumes of David King and William Webster, Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith are so timely and important. The authors provide helpful biblical and historical argumentation for the classical Protestant position, and supply a treasure trove of church historical witness to it. This is a subject of which no truly evangelical minister ought dare be ignorant. King and Webster have greatly aided our remedial education in this vital area (J. Ligon Duncan III, PhD, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church; Moderator, General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America; President, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals; Convener, Twin Lakes Fellowship; Adjunct Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary; Chairman, Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood; Editorial Director, Reformed Academic Press).

Dr. Joel Beeke

A massive work that contains an enormous amount of biblical and patristic research, Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith ably answers Roman Catholic arguments that denigrate the ultimate authority and perspicuity of Scripture. King and Webster excel in meeting Roman Catholics on their own turf, frequently drawing on their works. They provide a compelling read for both Protestants and Catholics who seriously desire to grasp the proper role of Scripture and tradition for the life of believers and the Christian church today (Dr. Joel R. Beeke, President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary).


Dr. John MacArthur

William Webster and David King have done a tremendous amount of careful, painstaking research to bring us this valuable work. It is a digest of patristic writings on the sufficiency and perspicuity of Scripture. It reveals that the leading Church fathers’ view of the authority and finality of the written Word of God was as lofty as that of any Protestant Reformer. In effect, Webster and King have demonstrated that sola Scriptura was the rule of faith in the early church. The absolute sufficiency of Scripture is not a novel doctrine unknown until the time of the Reformation, as Roman Catholic apologists are fond of claiming. Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith is a monumental achievement and will be of immense value to anyone seeking to understand the high esteem in which the early church held Scripture (Dr. John MacArthur, Pastor/Teacher of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA and President of The Master’s College and Seminary).


Dr. Tom Nettles

William Webster and David King have hit the bull’s eye repeatedly and with great force in their treatment of sola Scriptura. The exegetical material sets forth a formidable biblical foundation for this claim of exclusivity and the historical argument illustrates how the early church believed it and traces the circuitous path by which Roman Catholicism came to place tradition alongside Scripture as a source, or deposit, of authoritative revelation. The authors’ knowledge of both primary and secondary literature is massive and their analysis of it is helpful and rigorously honest. Romans Catholicism’s departure from this principle receives a healthy investigation while the Protestant affirmation of it also is investigated critically, and affirmed. The endnotes, while intimidatingly long in places, are of immense help in placing the pertinent material directly before the reader. This book is not a quick read but its subject matter and its execution are well worth the time and concentration demanded (Dr. Tom Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY).


Professor Edward Donnelly

Belief in sola Scriptura - that the Bible is the supreme, sufficient and perspicuous authority for Christian faith and life - was the foundation stone upon which the 16th century Reformation was built. But this conviction has been blurred and weakened by the relentless assaults of Roman Catholic apologists and the Church`s failure adequately to assert and expound the doctrine. The prevailing mists of uncertainty should now be dispersed for many by the publication of this massive 3-volume work from David King and William Webster. The authors show, with painstaking thoroughness, that sola Scriptura is the teaching of the Bible itself and was central in the belief and practice of the early church, as exemplified in history and the writings of the Fathers. Roman claims collapse in the face of overwhelming evidence, skilfully marshalled and cogently presented. The measured gentleness of this demolition is devastating and unanswerable and the people of God are indebted to Webster and King for their labours in producing what will prove an invaluable resource.' (Professor Edward Donnelly, Minister of Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church, Newtownabbey, and Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological College, Belfast, Northern Ireland).


Dr. Jay Adams

For centuries the Roman Catholic Church has maintained that the rule of faith and practice is Scripture plus tradition, which is understood as the unanimous consent of the Church fathers. Now, in an unprecedented manner King and Webster have utterly destroyed that position by showing that the consent of the fathers teaches the doctrine of sola Scriptura. This work is a substantive volume, providing much material in one place that would take a scholar years to amass. It is a vital resource for the study of the fathers, the canon and, particularly, of the apocrypha. I predict that it will become the standard work on these subjects (Dr. Adams is currently co-pastor of The Harrison Bridge Road A.R.P. Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina, editor-in-chief of Timeless Texts, a publisher dedicated to publishing Biblical books and founder of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation of Laverock, Pennsylvania).


Dr. James White

Great efforts must be put forward to defend great truths. Each generation of faithful believers is tempted to rest upon the laurels of past generations, especially when it comes to foundational truths of revelation that ‘everyone knows.’ The result is always the same: the slow but certain degradation of the Church’s dedication to those beliefs that make up the very foundation upon which she stands. At first the decay is not blatant or even noticeable except to the most observant eyes. As it spreads and becomes more pervasive, however, it begins to impact the entire life of the Church. And history shows that God often uses a the enemies of His truth to remind His Church of the preciousness of the faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints.’
We live in such a day. God is reminding us that we must cherish certain beliefs and embrace them with our whole heart or else lose the precious freedom of the gospel that has been entrusted to us. On every hand the defining truths of the Christian faith are under constant and often vitriolic attack. The Trinity, and its constituent truths of the deity of Christ and the deity and person of the Holy Spirit, is more of a historical novelty in many seminaries than a definitional truth. The gospel of grace and justification by faith without human works of merit has been placed in the category of the ‘negotiable’ and ‘non–foundational’ by major leaders of ‘conservative’ denominations.
But underneath all of the compromises lies a deeper problem, a more fundamental erosion of Christian belief. Christian theology by definition comes from the Scriptures, and as soon as one rejects the ultimate authority of Scripture, the rest of Christian theology must be redefined and in the end, denied. The doctrine of Scripture—its nature as God–breathed revelation and its resultant ultimacy in the realm of religious authority—is always under attack from the enemies of the cross. The Reformers understood well the truth that the Word must be allowed to speak without the addition of human authority or the Church would be left without the clear voice of her loving Husband. The result they knew too well: a gospel encrusted in man–made tradition, a dead, externalized ‘church’ without the vibrant heart–beat of truth.
The doctrine of sola Scriptura is a divinely given bulwark against error and the traditions of men. It teaches us that Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith for the Church. This divine truth provides us with the ‘walls’ of revelation outside of which we dare not roam if we wish to remain true to the only reliable source of Christ’s voice to His sheep. But since the doctrine quashes all additions to God’s truth, all human traditions, and all false authorities, it likewise is under constant attack by those who seek to enslave God’s people. Each generation of Christ’s followers must be reminded why they look to the sure Word as their sole infallible rule of faith.
William Webster and David King are passionate about sola Scriptura, so passionate, in fact, that they have given the service of their hearts and minds to produce for this generation the very defense of the doctrine that is so sorely needed in the believing Church. In a generation where postmodern exaltation of feelings and emotions runs rampant, Webster and King remind us of the objective truth of a completed and perfect revelation in Scripture. Responding directly and forcefully to those of the Roman Church who press flawed, illogical, un–scriptural, and a–historical arguments upon a gullible audience, Webster and King demonstrate the truth of sola Scriptura through sound and knowledgeable exegesis of the text of Scripture and the writings of the early Christians. No element of Rome’s modern assault upon this divine truth is left without a full and at times simply over–whelming rebuttal.
The reader may judge from the sheer size and volume of the work the amount of effort and research that went into its production. But lest the girth of this work intimidate, I wish to encourage the reader to realize its necessity. The enemies of sola Scriptura, whether they be Roman Catholic apologists, LDS scholars, or even ‘evangelicals’ who have abandoned this truth, are never at a loss to come up with another argument, another twist on Scripture and history. A full work is therefore necessary, and given the need, more than warranted.
You possess in these volumes a veritable treasure of biblical and historical facts. Read it deeply, refer to it often, thank God for those who labored so hard to provide it to you, and then make it all worthwhile by sharing its insights with those who need to hear them (Dr. James White, Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, Columbia Evangelical Seminary, Director of Alpha and Omega Ministries).


Dr. Eric Svendsen:

I have anxiously awaited this work since I was informed about the decision to write it several years ago. To characterize these volumes as comprehensive and historically informed is to engage in understatement. I can always count on Bill Webster to provide meticulous documentation of the fathers; and the addition of David King lends a certain pastoral element that causes the reader to relive the emotions surrounding the events of the Reformation itself. In painstaking detail, Webster and King systematically dismantle the unbiblical and ahistorical assertions made by modern Roman Catholic apologists who all too often rely on eisegetical interpretations of the Bible and ‘cut and paste’ patrology. Not many books qualify as an actual reference volume. This volume will prove to be an invaluable reference to the scholar, pastor and layman alike; and I anticipate consulting it again and again (Dr. Eric Svendsen, Professor of Biblical Studies at Columbia Evangelical Seminary and co-founder and co-director of New Testament Restoration Ministries).

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