I had recently become a Christian and was travelling with a group of my new friends to something called Spring Harvest. They were excited about this week away in Lincolnshire and assured me it would be life changing. I thought to myself, can my life really be changed by a week in Skegness? But they were right.
It was during that week that I heard two men speak, both of whom I had never heard of before. I hung on their every word, and when one of them asked those who would like to give all in following Christ, I rushed to the front. The names of these men were Steve Chalke and Tony Campolo.
I cannot recall anything Steve Chalke said that week, and very little of what Tony Campolo said, apart from his stories (he is a master storyteller), but I do remember leaving Skegness believing both men to be giants of my new found faith.
Today, I wouldn’t see them as such. At best, I would consider them to be believers who have veered from Biblical truth, and that they are now purveyors of falsehood. Why would I say such a thing? Because of sola Scriptura.
Scripture exhorts us to test everything; hold fast what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). We must hold up every teaching to the light of Scripture. If a teaching cannot be found in, or supported by, the Word of God, it must be rejected.
When the Reformers tested Roman Catholic doctrine and Papal Decrees against Scripture, they immediately denounced Romanism as false, as heretical. The Reformers wasted no time in forcefully condemning any teaching not clearly found in Scripture.
Their words, spoken of against the Pope and Rome, would sound very ‘unloving’ to twenty first century ears. The words of Thomas Cranmer, the English Reformer and sixteenth century Archbishop of Canterbury, is typical of the language they used:
"Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of Antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons."1
We would not find so stinging a condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church from the current incumbent of Canterbury, in fact we would probably find the complete opposite. Is that because the Roman Catholic Church has changed? Not at all, but the Protestant churches and their leaders, as if suffering from some form of historical and spiritual amnesia, have forgotten the price paid by Reformers for standing solidly on the principle of ‘sola Scriptura’.
If they were alive today would Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, Knox and the like, now embrace the Pope and the teachings – absolutely not! The Roman Catholic Church may now call Protestants ‘separated brethren’2 rather than ‘heretics’, but its doctrine has not changed one iota since the Reformation.
Indeed they have added even more extra-biblical teachings to those alreadydeemed ‘devilish’ by the Reformers.
This is one of the reasons why the five solas are still needed today but sadly, it is not the only reason. Much of the modern day Protestant church has forgotten the Reformation battle cry of sola Scriptura. Sure many would claim a belief in sola Scriptura, it may even be found on their websites as part of their statement of faith, but in practice this key doctrine would be either subverted or denied.
This has lead to widespread falsehood and heretical teachings within the church, and opened up the way for countless cults to claim that they are the ‘true’ Christians.
I am convinced that it was never the intention of the Reformers to bring about the situation the church finds itself in today, in fact I believe they would be horrified. So what can be done about it?
My first thought is that the job is too big, that we have gone so far away from sola Scriptura, from Biblical truth, that not only can I not see a light at the end of the tunnel, I cannot see the tunnel! But then this is surely how the Reformers must have felt when faced with the all pervading power and might of the Roman Catholic Church.
We, like Luther before the Diet of Worms, need to say: ‘Here I stand I can do no other… God help me’3; and assert as he did that his ‘conscience is captive to the Word of God and to go against conscience is neither right nor safe’.4
Friends it’s a big job, but we have a big God. For our part let us remain faithful to all that God has revealed to us through his unchanging, infallible Word an in asserting and declaring sola Scriptura, we affirm sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus and soli deo gloria.
Over the next few weeks, I will take a look at how the forsaking of sola Scriptura has allowed two groups in particular to flourish within modern mainstream Christianity; and why sola Scriptura should be the weapon of choice when fighting against falsehood in the church, and against the heresy of the cults.
1 Works by Cranmer, vol.1, pp.6-7
2 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36409
3 https://www.sjsu.edu/people/james.lindahl/courses/Hum1B/s3/Luther-Speech-Worms-1521.pdf
4 Ibid
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