1.21 blog

There were many dividing lines in the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation. But the principle of Sola Scriptura is perhaps the most well known and one of the most significant. It’s one of the most significant because it’s the wellspring from which all the other issues flow. This is so because it settles the issue of authority and standards. If you and I have a disagreement, we can only settle it if we have a common standard or authority. It might be reason (i.e., whoever is most logically persuasive wins). It might be observation (whoever can bring the most evidence wins). It might be emotional (whoever’s viewpoint feels best wins). But no matter what, we have to refer to some sort of standard in order to settle things. The Protestant Reformers determined to base their views upon and settle their disputes by reference to the Bible.

This means that creeds, traditions, perceptions, experiences, cultural expectations and so on are all subjected to the Bible. All these things are good. Indeed, they all have their place (our church holds to a confessional document, draws from historical traditions, seeks spiritual experiences, and tries to engage and be conversant with culture). But as Protestants, we test them by the Bible. The Bible gets the first word in the conversation. It gets the last word in the conversation. And it guides the conversation as it takes place.

Sometimes Sola Scriptura is misunderstood, as if to imply that truth is only found in the Bible. That’s not the case. That’s not what the Reformers were getting at. It also doesn’t mean that we can safely ignore other sources of knowledge (e.g., the sciences). All truth is God’s truth.

But finding truth is not always so simple a matter as we think it is. In postmodernity, we come to realize that “truth” isn’t just lying around out there for us to find. So much of our view of the world and what we consider true is inescapably conditioned by our cultural situatedness, our limitations, our expectations, and so on. In the sciences, certainty is no longer the name of the game. And because that’s the case, we need the Bible. Truth does exist, and it can be known and discovered. The problem is we’re often mistaken about the truth we discover. But God guarantees that the Bible is true. Scripture offers us a standard outside of ourselves. Because of this, it’s able to correct us.

And because of this, in the church we settle things by the use of Scripture. The Bible is the church’s book, which means that the church is ruled according to the Bible (in other words, the larger culture is not). In the Bible, God reveals to us everything we need to know in order to be reconciled to him (gospel) and live lives that please him (law), but this doesn’t mean that he’s revealed absolutely everything (2 Timothy 3.15-17; Deuteronomy 29.29).

So, how does this play out? We do our best to study the Bible, to understand what God is saying in it. Then we believe and do what it says. We refuse to allow what the Bible forbids. And we refuse to forbid what the Bible allows. Only the Bible is binding upon the conscience of Christians because only the Bible has the full authority of God. The church, particularly the elders of the church have divinely granted authority. But that authority is limited, delegated, ministerial authority. Only God in Scripture has unlimited, absolute, magisterial authority.

Sola Scriptura ensures that God is able to speak into and rule his church, rather than letting us with our preferences and biases to “determine” reality.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger