The Protestant's Dilemma Read Online Free Page A

councils must somehow have ceased to carry that universal teaching authority. Instead they became mere ceremonial gatherings of the Church’s bishops—or worse, cabals of an apostate church taken over by traditions of men.
     
    The Protestant Conception of Ecumenical Councils
    Protestants contend that no council of the Church, even the ones traditionally deemed ecumenical (universal), carry any authority—except insofar as they accurately interpret Scripture, in which case the authority is the Bible’s, not theirs. Thus the first four councils of the Church, which largely answered trinitarian and christological questions, are considered “authoritative” only insofar as they are accurate deductions from the words of God in the Bible. Most Protestants allege, however, that even these early councils contained errors. For example, few are willing to accept that Mary is the “mother of God,” as the third ecumenical council in Ephesus declared. Even Martin Luther, who had no problem with this title, contended that Church councils in general contained errors, as he revealed in his famous concluding remarks at the Diet of Worms:
     
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scripture or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by Scripture I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the word of God.
     
    Luther here presents the accepted Protestant belief that ecumenical councils have erred and “contradicted themselves” by deviating from the true meaning of God’s word as found in the Bible. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the most important confessional document of Calvinist (or Reformed) Protestantism, echoes Luther’s distrust of Church councils:
     
All synods or councils since the apostles’ times, whether general [ecumenical] or particular, may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help in both. 9
     
    Instead, the Bible alone is to be the sole authoritative rule of faith within Protestantism. This is the doctrine known as sola scriptura , which we will explore in greater depth later.
    More traditional Protestants of the Anglican or Reformed communities, however, do view the first four councils as authoritative. They contend that for a council to be considered an ecumenical (and therefore authoritative) one, it had to have been attended by all five major patriarchs (bishops of important cities or areas): those of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. They claim that the first four councils met this criterion. But, they argue, due to the divisions that have occurred in the Church since—notably the Coptic and Eastern Orthodox schisms—it has become impossible for these five patriarchs to be present at a council, making ecumenical councils a practical impossibility to this day.
     
    BECAUSE CATHOLICISM IS TRUE,
    Church councils have the same binding authority today that they did in the early centuries.
     
    The Church has held ecumenical councils since the apostolic age (first century). We see the precedent and pattern for these councils in Acts 15, the Council of Jerusalem. The Church was posed with the question of whether Gentile converts to the Christian faith needed to be circumcised in order to be saved. In preparation for the council, Paul and Barnabas “had no small dissension and debate with them [Judaizers],” and so they were “appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question [of circumcision]” (Acts 15:2).
    After much debate among the apostles and elders, Peter stood and explained how God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, and that salvation comes by grace through faith—not by following the Mosaic Law. The apostles then drafted a letter, to be sent out to the churches, in which the men making these challenges were rebuked as having