Did The Early Church Fathers Know The Gospel? (Also: Patristics For Busy Pastors)

Dr. Ligon Duncan, one of the growing number of Protestant scholars who is actually familiar with the writings of the Early Church Fathers, did a wonderful interview for Sovereign Grace Ministries titled "Patristics for Busy Pastors." This is a great introduction for those unfamiliar with the Fathers, especially those who don't have time to take seminary courses or attempt to wade through the massive body of Patristic literature on their own. If you're already familiar with the Fathers, this is still an interesting interview and well worth your time. And if you're like me, a Protestant who laments modern Protestant ignorance of the Fathers (this was not the case in the 16th century!), then you should be cheering that Dr. Duncan and others like him are attempting to cure that ignorance!

Now, on to the provocative title of this blog post! It is the title of Dr. Duncan's message from last week's Together For The Gospel Conference. The Video is below.

But, let's face it, the real reason for this blog post was an excuse to share this picture of Dr. Duncan's head on a Church Father's body (courtesy of Sovereign Grace's website).

T4G 2010 -- Session 7 -- Ligon Duncan from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Introduction

Is Scripture the only infallible authority?
Why trust Scripture alone and not oral tradition as equally authoritative?

Before sorting through questions of canon, the Christian must decide who or what is to be considered his or her ultimate authority. Since Christians already agree the apostles are where God has grounded His authority, our next question ought to be how God has preserved His truth (as found in the apostles) through the wear and tear of time. As a Protestant, I have been taught that Scripture alone is the final authority while my Catholic and Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters strongly believe it is the Church or Tradition (for Orthodoxy, Scripture is a part of tradition) that must be our guide in matters of faith and practice. They also say only the Church can properly interpret Scripture. Otherwise, there would be mass chaos and interpretation would be based upon the authority of the individual.

In this blog, I am going to be exploring these questions and focusing mainly on the Eastern Orthodox view of authority in contrast to the Protestant view. Through these posts, I hope to gain a better understanding of other people's views, make up my own mind and one day share my findings with others who are struggling with these questions like myself.