Sola Scriptura is epistemically self-undermining.

This debate concerns whether the doctrine of Sola Scriptura can coherently justify the epistemic conditions required for its own use.

For the purposes of this debate:

Sola Scriptura refers to the doctrine that Scripture alone is the sole infallible rule of faith for the Church. Epistemically self-undermining means that a position cannot account for the knowledge conditions necessary for its own operation without contradiction, circularity, or reliance on what it excludes.

The affirmative does not deny:

that Scripture is inspired, that Scripture is authoritative,
or that Scripture is central to Christian life and doctrine.

Rather, the claim is that Sola Scriptura specifically cannot justify, by its own principles, the authority needed to:

identify the canon of Scripture,
adjudicate interpretation,
and establish its own exclusivity as the sole infallible rule.

The burden on the negative is therefore not merely to argue that Scripture is authoritative, but to show that Sola Scriptura as a doctrine is coherent and can justify its own epistemic preconditions without self-defeat.

Debate should focus primarily on the doctrine itself, not on broad denominational score-settling.