Sola Scriptura: According to Scripture Alone
At the outset of the Exodus story there’s a famous theophany
of the burning bush, when God gives his servant Moses a command to go to the
elders of Israel and to say, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.”
Moses’ reply is, “What if they will not believe me or listen
to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”
Today, a great many Christians, are saying what Moses feared
would be expressed by the elders of Israel.
We’re demanding that our churches revisit assertions that have been thoroughly
dealt with by the finest theologians in all of history. Why, you ask? Because the culture demands
that the church change its beliefs. It’s becoming awfully uncomfortable to be a
Christian these days who will stand up for all of the Biblical standards.
Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us unequivocally that throughout
time God has spoken in many ways but in these last days He has spoken through
His Son Jesus, Who is the very Word of God.
Instead of trusting that revealed Word, we ask God to send us another
message. Perhaps, He will change His mind? Maybe God will assuage our
discomfort by telling us to let our guard down and welcome some compromise. Or
we confer authority to a person and allow them to tell us what is and what is
not.
I’m always disheartened at how infrequently people dwell in God’s Word.
Our swords are very very dull. As a church, we don’t wrestle with God’s Word
very often. We rarely study it. We don’t
memorize it at all. We don’t talk about it with our friends. And when our
pastor preaches, we cannot tell if he is accurate or inaccurate, because we don’t
know it ourselves. Furthermore, many
will declare a pastor’s message as good or bad by how rousing, emotionally
gripping, or entertaining it was. We
have, as Christians, abdicated one of our chief responsibilities: Knowing Who God
is, what is true, and what He desires, in His own words: Scripture.
The reformers (Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc…) gave
us incredibly wise counsel and theology from a time period of spiritual starvation
and church apostasy. Today we find ourselves in a similar time as the reformers
did. Their theology codified the
Christian faith we practice today.
These
were recorded in the Latin as:
Sola Gratia: By grace alone (Eph 2)
Sola Fide: Through faith alone (Gal 2)
Sola Christus: In Christ alone (Acts 4)
Sola Scriptura: According to scripture alone (2
Timothy 3)
Soli deo Gloria: For the glory of God alone (Phil 2)
I remember getting into a discussion with a charismatic
brother who delicately put down my emphasis on scripture. He said, “I would just like to encourage you
brother to find the gospel in other places. The gospel is everywhere; in nature
and in our humanity. You just need to look around.”
What is sad is that he could not have possibly understood
the gospel if he thought it was found from looking at streams and
sunsets. His departure from scripture as
the final authority caused him to slide and develop an extra-biblical theology.
One that was not based on the words of scripture but on his experiences and
personal deductions. The heavens declare the glory of God, they do not testify specifically about sin, Christ Jesus, salvation, or the consequence of sin.
His example is one of many in these days of biblical
illiteracy.
The essence of Sola Scriptura is not that scripture is the
only place we find truth, or that it is the only source we can be edified from. However, it means that scripture is the final
authority on all matters in the church.
Sola Scriptura is what the reformers called the ‘Formal
Principle’. The first thing you have to know in belief is “How do we
know anything with certainty at all?” We must start at ground zero. On what
basis do we declare that someone is wrong, has incorrect theology, possesses
incorrect beliefs: On scripture alone. God’s own words recorded and compiled
for us so that man of God may be prepared and trained in all righteousness.
In the Roman Catholic Church, they utilized three things that
comprised their authority: scripture, tradition, and what is called the Magisterium.
Tradition is essentially whatever the church council decides and sticks with
over time. The Magisterium is much more problematic.
When the Pope speaks from his chair, ex-cathedra, it is to
be taken as the very word of God. This becomes tricky when it conflicts with
scripture or in the case of some of the more wicked popes in history,
explicitly denies essential doctrines.
The obvious problem is that if a man (i.e. pope) is seen as
being able to speak with the authority of God then he can manipulate, deceive,
and compromise followers like a hot knife through butter toward what benefits the
church’s desires. And that’s exactly what they did in the centuries leading up
to the reformation.
Historically, if the Magisterium presented a doctrine or
statement that conflicted with scripture, the Catholic Church would “bind the
conscience” of the believer so that they had to accept the Pope’s statement
above scripture. That’s really what drove
the reformers out of hiding and into the light.
Men like Luther went from being peaceful monks to unapologetic and bold preachers
who put their lives in jeopardy for the gospel message.
The writers of scripture were equally committed to their
message and without compromise or equivocation as to what God wanted to say
through them. They hammered out these doctrines in the crucible of facing their
own deaths in the midst of religious darkness which was pursuing their lives to
silence them.
Think of how significantly God must have spoken through His
word as to convince these men to be willing to forfeit their lives in order to teach
justification by grace through faith, in Christ, according to scripture, for
God’s glory.
Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and
active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the
division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the
thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His
sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we
have to do.”
I may have a great experience but its effect rarely
lasts. Even if it does it doesn’t do
what scripture can do. It does not pierce down to the bone and marrow to the division
of soul and spirit, and do so with infallible accuracy.
When Jesus appeared to the woman at the well, she testified
to the others, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.” That is exactly what scripture does. Luther called scripture the “norm of norms
which cannot be normed.” In other words,
there is no other standard which can be raised above it. It is the fundamental
basis for Christian truth.
When Martin Luther stood before the Emperor of Rome at the
assembly of Worms (pron: verms), he had to testify to his theological writings
which affirmed many things standing in direct contrast to Roman Catholic
teachings. When asked if he wrote them, this was his reply:
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures 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 the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the
Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe
nor right to go against conscience…. May God help me. Amen. For Luther, the
Scriptures, and the Scriptures alone, were the final arbiter of what we should
believe.”
That was a man facing a near certain death by being burned at
the stake as Rome was prone to do. He
did not relent, retract, or reword his claims. He stood firm and God preserved
him through it.
What Luther was declaring was that while tradition, reason,
and experience have value, they do not have God’s own words. Scripture alone is
the Word of God. It is God’s direct revelation in written form.
What that Hebrews 4 passage emphatically delivers, is that
the Word of God accomplishes what no other thing can accomplish. It pierces us and enters our being to the
innermost part. It even discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Paul dwells on this more in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, “For
to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things,
even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except
the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows
except the Spirit of God.”
Hebrews tells us that God’s Word pierces down to the
thoughts of men and even the intentions of his heart.
The Word of God has a unique place in that it never returns
void (Is 55:11) and it does more than any assemblage of our own words
can affect. You may recall the story of
the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. The rich man finds himself in Hades and
experiences terrible suffering. He asks
Abraham to send someone back from the dead to tell his 5 brothers so they don’t
end up in torment like him.
However, Abraham replied to him, “If they do not listen
to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises
from the dead.”
Even the very experience of being in the presence of a dead
man raised-to-life, so that he can warn them of what he saw, wouldn’t be enough
to convince them if they reject what? Scripture. ‘Moses and the prophets’
was a traditional way of referring to the scriptures.
Interestingly, Jesus, The Word, spoke these words and He
would later rise from the dead and they would reject Him.
Luther was asked how he was so successful in the
reformation. He replied, “I preached the
Word of God, then I slept. While I
slept, God did it by His Word.”
2 Timothy 3: 16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed
out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training
in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every
good work.”
If we do not get this one principle correct, we will base
our beliefs on people, traditions, emotions, and experiences. Apart from scripture there is no absolute and
unchanging standard that constrains our tendencies toward error.
Natural theology can be seen all around us in creation, with
it’s complexity, and beauty. But it’s only general theology. It doesn’t reveal the gospel to us, tell us
about Christ Jesus, or inform us on other matters of necessary doctrinal truth. It’s inspiring, enjoyable, and useful for
demanding we acknowledge a Creator at minimum.
But scripture explicitly reveals to us God’s specific
revelation. Contained in that revelation
is His will for our lives, doctrines to live by, practice of those doctrines,
truth declaring who we are, Who He is, and what reality is. We must accept God
at His Word and trust in His authority to deliver it – or we don’t accept the
faith at all. We will inevitably invent a different gospel that we prefer to
follow.
Additional Resources:
The Shape of Sola Scriptura: by Keith Mathison
Understanding Sola Scriptura: By Michael Krueger
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