Please note that Dr. Mathison’s distinction was between accepting Rome’s claims for herself (in which case there is no apparent difference between the sola/solo positions) and not accepting Rome’s claims for herself (in which case it is possible to discern the differences).

His precise words, you will recall are:

If one assumes the correctness of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the church, then the differences I allege between sola scriptura and solo scriptura become invisible, but if one does not assume the correctness of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the church, the differences can be discerned.

(emphasis mine)
-TurretinFan

Thanks for pointing that out. I missed that little ‘only’. I should now say that, if he had left it out, he would have been right.

Best,
Mike

Is it fair to say that Mathison’s “only when one begins by assuming…” amounts to saying, in so many words, “only when one begins by rejecting Catholic teaching does the distinction emerge”?

Same here. Long before I knew anything at all about the Catholic Church, I had seen that sola scriptura necessarily reduces to solo scriptura. All by itself.

Both you and Mathison are right. He’s right to say that, if you assume the truth of Catholic ecclesiology, the sola-solo distinction disappears. You’re right to say that one doesn’t need to make that assumption to see why the distinction disappears. The trick is to get Protestants to see that your being right doesn’t depend on his being right.

Best,
Mike

If one assumes the correctness of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the church, then the differences I allege between sola scriptura and solo scriptura become invisible, but if one does not assume the correctness of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the church, the differences can be discerned. (p. 4)

It is incorrect to say that one must assume anything about the Catholic doctrine of the Church in order to see that there are no differences between solo and sola scriptura. I say with complete confidence that it is incorrect, because five years ago as a Protestant I came to conclusions about sola scriptura which are functionally indistinguishable from those in Bryan’s article, and I knew practically nothing about the Catholic doctrine of the Church (or any other Catholic doctrine, for that matter) at the time. Though I did not know it at the time, and I absolutely did not intend it, it was reaching those conclusions that eventually got me started on my way to swimming the Tiber.

I strongly suspect that my experience is not unique. :-)

Fred