Does denominational disagreement disprove sola scriptura?

A true standard can have fallible readers. I’m asking how a serious dispute gets settled when both sides accept Scripture as the final rule.

You grant the distinction between a rule and its readers. Westminster makes a narrower claim about clarity for salvation. Ask how that claim relates to the particular dispute.

If the Bible is clear, anyone reading it sincerely should come to the same conclusion on every doctrine.

That assumes a stronger promise than Westminster makes. Its clarity claim concerns what is necessary for salvation, and it recognizes differences in clarity across texts and readers.

Both baptize, so they have the same rule for who receives baptism.

Their rules differ in practice. Westminster includes infants of believing parents. The 1689 Baptist confession requires a personal profession.

Their rules disagree about who receives the ordinance. We can recognize that concrete difference and still discuss what each church considers necessary for salvation.

You identify an incompatibility without assuming both confessions make identical claims about salvation. Read the two rules and the reasons offered for each.

Your councils have real authority within your confession. How does their role compare with the apostles and elders acting with the Holy Ghost in Acts 15?

You represent the Protestant position fairly and ask a historical question. Westminster gives councils authority under Scripture and treats them as fallible. Compare the apostolic decision with each tradition’s account of later authority.

If councils can err, they have no authority at all.

Fallible bodies can still govern and make judgments. The dispute concerns the source, scope, and finality of their authority.

The tradition with more agreement has the strongest claim to divine authority.

Consensus can describe a community. The claim that Christ actually commissioned leaders requires evidence about that commission.

The same distinction applies to us. I believe Christ restored apostolic keys. Evaluate that claim through the Restoration’s testimony and evidence, and apply the same standard to other claims of authority.

You defend the Restoration on its own grounds. Disagreement and agreement can each exist in a community with a claim to authority.