The Five Solas – Why They are Still Important Today (Part 3)

 

So far we have given a brief description of the five solas, which underpinned the Protestant Reformers dispute with the Roman Catholic Church. The five, namely Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia and Soli Deo Gloria were all important pillars but it is to be noted, that four of these five principles flow from the one. Sola Scriptura.

Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone

Sola Scriptura, known as the formal cause of the Reformation, is the doctrine that the Scriptures are the unique, final, supreme authority for the life and faith of the Christian. And it is this foundational doctrine that upholds and supports the other ‘solas’.

Martin Luther said:

We must make a great difference between God's Word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound, that flies into the air, and soon vanishes; but the Word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, greater than death and hell, for it forms part of the power of God, and endures everlastingly. ¹

The ‘Tradition’ spoken of by the Roman Catholic Church was, in Luther’s mind, no more than the word of man. It must therefore be rejected as equal in authority to Scripture. It was not that the Reformers were saying that tradition wasn’t at all valid or people’s experiences didn’t count, but neither of these were equal to Scripture. Tradition and experience had, like everything else, to come under the submission and authority of Holy Writ.

It is also important to mention that the Reformers were not, in proclaiming Sola Scriptura, bringing about some ‘new’ doctrine. It was their assertion that they were simply returning to the teaching and practice of the early church.

The great Baptist preacher of the nineteenth century, Charles Spurgeon agrees. Speaking of those first believers he says:

Evidently, they regarded the statements of Scripture as conclusive. They took counsel of the Scriptures, and so they ended the matter. “It is written,” was to them proof positive and indisputable. “Thus saith the Lord,” was the final word: enough for their mind and heart, enough for their conscience and understanding.

To go behind Scripture did not occur to the first teachers of our faith: they heard the Oracle of divine testimony, and bowed their heads in reverence. So it ought to be with us: we have erred from the faith, and we shall pierce ourselves through with many sorrows, unless we feel that if the Scripture saith it, it is even so.²

What does Scripture say?

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 

(2 Timothy 3:14-17)

These verses are perhaps the most oft-quoted when speaking about the doctrine of sola Scriptura, and with good reason. Paul shares with young Timothy the following:

It is ‘the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus’.

It is ‘ All Scripture is breathed out by God…’ The Greek word translated here as ‘breathed out’ is θεόπνευστος (theopneustos) literally ‘God breathed’

It (Scripture) is ‘profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness’.

It is (Scripture) that makes ‘the man of God...complete, equipped for every good work’.

The Apostle is clearly pointing this young disciple to Scripture, and Scripture alone. He says it is Scripture that makes a person wise for salvation and it is Scripture that teaches a believer how to live.

Scripture elsewhere teaches the importance of the written word.

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against another. (1 Corinthians 4:6)

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

(2 Timothy 2:15)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it! (Luke 11:28)

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

Thus saith the Lord

The issue that the Reformers were dealing with back in the sixteenth century, remains the big issue today. It is the question of authority.

Though many within the Protestant church would say they believe in Sola Scriptura and have it as part of their doctrinal statements on their various websites and literature, in practice they either wilfully, or ignorantly, deny it.

This is rife in the church of the twenty first century. This usually appears in the guise of trying to make Scripture fit the prevailing zeitgeist; claims of we need to read Scripture in the context of our society – times have changed – this is the twenty first century you know – we have to make Scripture appropriate for our time and culture etc.

All of this denies the sufficiency of Scripture. It is claimed that Scripture can, and indeed must, change; that Scripture can evolve or be completely disregarded; that Scripture is not the infallible, inerrant Word of God.

These ideas have lead to downright wackiness and outright heresy within mainstream Protestantism. In our final article, we will consider how the abandonment of Sola Scriptura has left the church vulnerable to falsehood and opened a way for cults to flourish.

1"Table Talk" as translated by William Hazlitt.(1857)

2C.H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. Vol. 36, (Banner of Truth Trust, 1970), 278.