Sola Scriptura: Trying Something New | The Jimmy Akin Podcast

The Jimmy Akin Podcast | Episode 021 (February 10, 2025) In this episode, Jimmy explores an idea that is seldom proposed in Protestant circles—the claim that their core principle of sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”) is not actually a doctrine. Instead, it’s an interpretive principle. The motivation for this claim is that, if sola scriptura is a doctrine then—since it holds that all doctrines have to be proved by Scripture alone—sola scriptura itself must be proved by Scripture alone, and it can’t be. It’s thus self-refuting. This has led a few Protestants to propose that sola scriptura is not a doctrine but an ordinary rule of interpretation that should be justified by reason alone rather than by passages of Scripture. One of the most sustained treatments of this idea is from Austin Suggs of Gospel Simplicity, and in this episode Jimmy interacts with Austin’s proposals and sees how well the idea of sola scriptura as an interpretive principle rather than a doctrine holds up. Timecodes 00:00 – Coming Up 00:25 – Intro 01:00 – Who Is Austin Suggs? 01:45 – Sola Scriptura 05:00 – Objection 1: Sola Scriptura Isn’t in Scripture 06:35 – Objection 2: Sola Scriptura Couldn’t Work Before the Canon 11:06 – Objection 3: The Fathers Don’t Teach Sola Scriptura 12:50 – Objection 4: We Can’t Agree on What Sola Scriptura Is 18:29 – Objection 5: Sola Scriptura Makes Everyone the Pope 25:31 – The Story So Far . . . 28:10 – What Is Sola Scriptura? 30:50 – Not the Historic Understanding 34:27 – Catholics Can Agree! 36:31 – What To Do? 38:10 – Doctrine or Principle 39:39 – Justifying Interpretive Principles 42:00 – Sola Scriptura as an Interpretive Principle 44:53 – A Proposed Fix? 46:18 – The First of Two Paths 47:24 – Is Scripture Our Most Reliable Source? 48:32 – Additional Problems 49:10 – The Non-Canonical Problem 52:33 – The Canon Ambiguity Problem 54:42 – The Interior Canon Problem 1:01:45 – The Underdetermination Problem 1:05:36 – The Uncertainty Problem 1:10:27 – Making a Leap of Faith 1:13:22 – Scripture’s Unique Role 1:17:12 – Apostolic Traditions Exist Today 1:22:15 – Scripture’s Attitude Is Different 1:24:17 – Scripture Endorses a Different System 1:27:04 – How To Discern Apostolic Traditions 1:31:46 – Divine Guidance in Later Centuries 1:33:09 – No Paradigm Change 1:36:48 – Reflecting on the Leap of Faith 1:41:56 – Returning to Doctrine 1:45:43 – Closing/Outro 1:46:39 - End