Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is authoritative for the faith and practice of the Christian!

Today’s sermon is going to be a bit different than what you are used to. Instead of us looking at a portion of scripture and breaking it down, I want to take us on a trip through history. Our modern society is so blessed to have access to God’s word. Outside of a few distant countries, pretty much everyone, regardless of their level of education, how wealthy they are, whether they are a man or a woman…all of us have pretty much unlimited access to God’s word. It’s easy to take that for granted. However, for the vast majority of human history the common person did not have access to a Bible and even if they did, they probably couldn’t read it. People had to rely 100% on what the church…meaning the Pope and priests to tell them what the Bible say and what the words actually mean to everyday people. Because of this, Christianity became a means to an end…Those who were in control of the Christian message became corrupt, seeking only money and power. How could something like this happen? How Christianity go from the Apostle Paul and Peter to massive corruption in just a few hundred years?

The point of my sermon today is not apologetics, or defending as to WHY the Bible is God’s Word, that is a different sermon entirely. Rather, today is about recognising what happens when we get away from sola scriptura.

This morning, we are going to examine the single issue that has caused most of the problems throughout church history. Then we will talk about how this issue is still around and is causing some big problems within Christianity modern day. Let’s go ahead and pray.

PRAY

The title of my sermon today is Sola Scriptura…some of you have probably heard this term before, it means: Scripture Alone. Sola Scriptura was a part of a set of 5 beliefs that were taught during the protestant reformation. The five solas stated:

Christians are saved by grace alone,

through faith alone,

in Christ alone,

as revealed by Scripture alone,

to the glory of God alone.

When the famous reformer, Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis, his goal was not to break apart from the deeply established Catholic Church. Luther wanted to reform the church from within. However, they soon discovered that was not going to happen. It’s hard for us to contemplate just how difficult it would have been to stand up against the Catholic church. The reformers were fighting against centuries of tradition that held that a person becomes a Christian through the sacraments of communion and baptism. In addition, in order for a person to have a relationship with God, they must confess their sin to a priest. The church had become extremely wealthy and powerful and corrupt. Priest would sell indulgences, which operated similar to a Monopoly “get out of jail free card.” It could be used for a sin committed in the past or in the future…it secured forgiveness of any sin, for a price. Also, you could pay money to have the priest pray a deal loved one out of purgatory. All of these terrible things originated from the leader of the church, the Popes…who were and still are viewed as infallible in matters of doctrine. In other words, if a pope said: God told me…fill in the blank, then it had to be true and it was never to be questioned.

Obviously, the church had drifted quite a bit since Paul said:

Ephesians 2: 8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

How did this happen? How did the church leaders go from teaching Salvation by grace to having widespread practices that had no basis in scripture? Well, there were many reasons, but at the heart of it all, they stopped believing (or never believed) in the practice and doctrine of Sola Scriptura…that Scripture alone determines proper teaching and doctrine. Instead they began relying on the reasoning and wisdom of man and gave the authority that belongs only to scripture to a fallible man. Instead of scripture alone determining what should be taught, the Pope was now equal and even superseded the authority of scripture…that is how it happened.

The flip side of that coin is when a small group of men decided to go back to the teaching and practice of Sola Scriptura. For these men, once their eyes were opened to to what scripture actually read, they realized just how far church leaders had strayed from the teaching of salvation through grace. As a result, they called for Sola Scriptura to be restored. They understood the danger of giving the authority of scripture to man. They had been a witness to what happens when the corrupt hearts of man are allowed to be equal with or (as I said) supersede the authority of God’s written word. There is a saying that Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think most of us understand the first part…if you give a person unchecked power, it can go to their head. The second par of the saying means that a persons corruption is equal to the amount of power they have. For example, take someone in my position, there is an amount of power to running a church…left unchecked, that can cause problems. On the other hand, take the president or king of a country, the amount of power they have far exceeds that of a pastor, therefore, the depth of corruption can run much deeper and affect many more people.

Let’s back up now, and take a closer look at how all of this happened. You might be asking why it’s important to know these things. My answer would be the same reason it’s important to know and study the sinking of the Titanic. You see, if we do not know what happened, it’s only a matter of time before we fall prey to it again. Also, knowing how it happened allows us to see where and when it may be happening here and now.

Imagine you are the Apostle Paul and are coming to the end of your life. You have done your best to leave behind solid leaders to guide the church into its next phase. As most of you know, Christianity actually started out as an offshoot of Judaism. The new sect of Judaism was called Christianity. All of the disciples were Jewish, the Apostle Paul was Jewish and most of the earliest converts were Jewish. Two events then happened which would affect the Christian church greatly. First, in around 63 AD the city of Rome caught on fire and was pretty much destroyed. Then, in around AD 66 the Jews revolted against the Roman Empire. Those who had converted to Christianity did not participate in the uprising…this is when most scholars believe that Christianity stopped being considered an offshoot of Judaism. The Emperor (Nero) largely blamed the Christians, for the fire so he began persecuting them in terrible ways. Then, for the next approximately 300 years, Christianity was viewed as a vile and evil religion. During most of this time, Christians would continue the tradition of meeting in houses. It’s believed that around 200 AD that a number of house churches combined and began meeting in larger buildings. Even so, the persecution continued quite heavily until something happened that would change the Christian faith forever. Depending on the account you read, by the year 300 AD Christianity had spread wide and far throughout the Western part of the world and to parts of Asia. During these years Christians were persecuted in terrible ways. Yet, despite the ugly persecution, Christianity grew and grew, bit by bit, throughout the world. In an article I read about how the early church grew, despite the fact that Christians were being executed…the author said: “The reason that the early church grew was because it offered something different than what the society offered. If a religion isn’t different from the surrounding culture—if it doesn’t critique and offer an alternative to it—it dies because it’s seen as unnecessary. I thought this was some great insight into why the church grew in such adverse conditions. It also should give us pause to think about how much the church seeks to “fit in” to our current culture and might be the reason why church attendance has dropped dramatically over the last couple of decades

Anyway, In the year 312 AD the large scale persecution stopped when the Roman Emperor (Constantine) converted to Christianity.

From this point forward, the Religion of Christianity became the law of the land. While this sounds good, in reality, people became Christians in name only-in order to belong to a recognised group who recieved special protections from the government. Starting with Constantine we also saw what happens when Christianity becomes a “state religion.” It didn’t take long for laws to be passed that made it illegal to be anything other than a what they called a Christian. So, even as soon as around 250 years after Paul died, the church had become so powerful and so bureaucratic that it made other religions illegal. This is really the first sign that things are getting bad.

Keep in mind that an official “cannon” of scripture had not been adopted yet. Different groups used different texts…and some of them were inconsistent with each other. Because of this and other reasons, in 325 AD the council of Nicea happens, they adopt what is refereed to as the Nicene Creed. I’ll take a moment and read it. The original rendition was made in 325.

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontus Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit.

One of the reasons that the Nicene council was needed was because there were no officially approved texts, that we knew were authentic. In other words, The church and its leaders had no set standard for theology…it would be like trying to build a house without a tape measure. Up to this point, the scriptures were passed down by oral tradition, from generation to generation, but it was starting to degrade, bit time.

Then, in the year 397 a number of religious scholars convened for another meeting called “The Council of Carthage.” The Council of Carthage decided on and officially listed the 27 books of the New Testament, as well as the 39 books of the Old Testament, but it also included several books not part of the typical canon, such as Maccabees. These books are part of what is known as the Apocrypha and are not considered inspired texts. So, how did these people determine what was inspired and what wasn’t inspired? There were a number of factors that went into deciding what books made the cannon and which didn’t, but the most important factors had to do with when they were written and by whom they were written. In addition, if the author of a book was not known for sure, but had been widely accepted in the church for the preceeding 300 years, the book was looked at and was debated as to the theology present and whether it conflicted with the books whose author was known. For example, the book of Hebrews was highly debated, but was eventually accepted as cannon.

After the Council of Carthage there were a few more meetings, but the cannon of scripture was confirmed to be accurate. Naturally, this was a major turning point for Christianity. Unfortunately, not long after the cannon was officially accepted, society entered what we know as the “dark ages.”

From 400 AD to about 1000 AD not much good happened within Christianity. What was once the Roman Empire fell, causing the Western world to devolve into smaller states and countries that fought one another. Christianity was the most prominent religion at the time and was often forced upon the population. During this time there was a growing argument between the Churches in the Western part of the world and the Eastern part of the world. Then in 1054 AD what is known as the Great Schism occurs. This is where the “church” splits into two main factions: The Orthodox Church in the East and the Roman Catholic Church in the West. There were two main issues that caused this split, one of them was the claim that the leader in Rome (The West) had(what is called) universal papal supremacy and the other issue was called the filioque clause, which had to do with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

Papal supremacy is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, the visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful, and as pastor of the entire Catholic Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered: that, in brief, "the Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls.”

Naturally, the Orthodox church in the Easter part of the world did not like this, as they had their own church leader. The Roman church was basically saying that anyone who did not recognise the pope as their leader were not Christians. Then, on top of this, they made it a capitol offense to disagree. That would have probably been enough for the split, but the Roman church also insisted on adding a new description to the previously adopted Nicene creed that had to do with the Holy Spirit....it’s a long story that we don’t have time for. So, to this day there is still a difference between Orthodox churches, like the one in Russia and the Roman Catholic church. The great schism was the first time the church was split, and I would argue it was for a good cause. The second split would come a few hundred years later and once again, had pretty much everything to do with the Authority of Scripture to govern theology and doctrine.

Psalm 19: 7-11

The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. 10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.

The leaders of the church at that time are very similar to the ancient Israelites. As I was doing my research and studying for this sermon, something came to my mind when I got to this point. You see, back when the Israelites finally took the promised land, what did they ask for? A king. God was not pleased with this, as He knew the problems this would bring upon the nation. Instead of relying on the Law that God had laid out as the supreme authority for how to please the Lord, they wanted a king…someone to make the tough calls, someone that would be responsible for direction of the nation. To us, this may seem reasonable, but that is not what God had designed…God never intended Israel to be a nation led by a King. Regardless, God gave them what they wanted.

Fast forward thousands of years, God worked through men and established the cannon, the authoritative word of God. However, instead of wanting to rely solely on the scripture…they wanted a king, which is exactly what the Pope is…not even figuratively…but literally a king. They wanted the king to have supreme authority…it is almost exactly what happened back in ancient Israel. They wanted a single individual to decide what was right and wrong…instead of forming councils and bringing people together to debate theological matters…like we see, even as early as the Apostle Paul and the Jerusalem council, they wanted to give all of the power to one man. Perhaps their intent was noble, it probably was, just as the Israelites had a noble intent when demanding a king…neither has worked out to well for those who follow the king. Now, maybe someone here or someone watching online might be saying: how do we know that the men who put the cannon together did so being led by the Holy Spirit? The same way we know that God, somehow, told one cohesive story using dozens of human authors who spoke at least 3 different languages, over the course of thousands of years. Of course, a big part of it is faith…faith that the Creator of the universe has the power and sovereignty to move upon the hearts of man to accomplish His will for humanity.

Let’s wrap up the narrative section of the sermon real quick, then we will get into what all of this means today.

After the Great Schism, time moved forward, deepening the divide between the Eastern Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic Church. The church leaders sought more and more power over theology and doctrine. Also, I forgot to mention this, but right before the great schism, at one of the councils, the use of Icons were approved. This was a hotly debated topic, leaving many people who disagreed with the use of icons really upset. Icons are seen as a representation of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, and they may also depict scenes from the Bible. If you are familiar with the Catholic church, you know that they still use icons to this day. Also, right after the great schism, the Roman Catholic church began the crusades, in which untold numbers of people were killed as a result of trying to force people to become “Christians.”

In the year 1499, something very important happens, this was just a few years before the reformation. The Gutenberg press was invented and for the first time, the Bible was able to be printed, instead of hand copied. It wasn’t exactly mass producing the Bible, but, the printing press was vital to bringing society out of the dark ages. Then, in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of a local church in Germany. This document detailed all of the ways in which the church had strayed from using scripture as the sole authority for theology and doctrine. Both secular and Christian historians agree that the protestant reformation is one of the most influential events to ever occur in recorded history.

After the reformation took hold and over a number of years, the 5 solas that I mentioned earlier were formed. These saying are what separated the new reformed church from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. A number of different denominations formed out of the protestant reformation, including the church of England. Outside of the church of England, we have the Methodist church, the Lutheran church, and the Baptist churches. Despite the different churches that arose under the reformation, all of them supported the 5 solas that were adopted by the protestant reformation. When Europeans started coming over to “the new world,” they brought with them the different protestant denominations that had arisen during the reformation…yet again, all of them holding to the Nicene creed and the 5 solas.

The Eastern Orthodox church is still around, as is the Catholic Church. In the year 1870 the Catholic Church adopted the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. Meaning, in matters of theology and doctrine, the Pope is infallible, he can not be wrong. In circumstances where the church offers a doctrine that appears to contradict the Bible, Papal infallibility is considered to superseded any inconsistencies.

All of that history is good to know, I think it’s important…but what does it have to do with us? How can we learn from the history of the church to follow what worked and stay away from what did not work. Now, there are many differences between the protestant and catholic churches…I don’t need to go down the list. But there is one difference that causes all of the other differences. That is the protestant belief that God’s Word, the Bible, is authoritative in all aspects of the Christian life.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

The ideas presented in the Bible superseded the ideas of any man or woman. Of course, that does not mean that we can not learn Christian principles from good books or good preachers…as long as what they are presenting is an appropriate representation of the words and ideas that God spoke through the authors to us…not just want they think it means. Now, I’ll admit that discerning certain ideas and principles in God’s word can sometimes we tough. People can disagree, but both hold the conviction of sola scriptura. I will say this though, the further away a certain theological principle or doctrine is from the core message of the Bible, the more people tend to disagree. That is why, despite the differences between many protestant churches, the 5 solas remain in tack…because they are all centered around the core message.

Let’s switch gears for a second, then we will wrap up.

Do you see the image up on the screen? That right there is the oldest known ruler. It was found in a pyramid, over in Egypt, in the crypt of King Tutankhamun. Not only is it the oldest ruler, but it is believed that the Egyptians were the first ones to come up with a devise, used as a means of measuring something. This ruler is called a cubit rod. The length of it equals one cubit…which was a unit of measure back then…and also in the Bible. The cubit rod was used for 2 important reasons, when the Nile river would flood, it would cover marker stones, which let people know property lines. The cubit rod would also measure the harvest. On the rod itself were different lines and marks which would indicate a certain length. Like on our modern day rulers we have fractions of an inch, then 1 inch…up to 12. Or a yard stick, it marks inches and feet. The cubit rod was one of the first ways that humans could measure something with complete consistency. Previous to that, they would use their palms or feet or an average step span. So, depending on the person measuring, the figures could be much different.

Earlier I refereed to trying to build a house without a tape measure. If you had no way to measure the lengths of wood that you need to cut, it would be near impossible to build a home that was sturdy.

The Bible is our ruler. The Bible is our set standard for all doctrine, theology and Christian living. The Bible is our set standard for what we believe and how we ought to live. History tells us what happens when men stop using the standard measurement of God’s Word. Since before there was an official cannon up to today, people have been searching for ways to negate the authority of God’s Word to make it fit their presuppositions and worldview. Secular scholars, who study the Bible for a living are missing a big part of being able to understand it. They start from the presupposition that God can be explained with human reasoning and understanding. Therefore, if they read something that doesn’t jive with human reasoning, it must be dismissed as false or allegorical. It is impossible to understand the Bible without having a personal relationship with the author.

Hebrews 11:6

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

People will want to enter into a relationship with God, but deny the authority of scripture over their doctrine and lives. We say: “well, that doesn’t make much sense to me, therefore, it can’t be true.”

In the book of 2nd Peter chapter 1, Peter is explaining how the message of Christ is not something that someone just thought up out of the blue. In the O.T. there was a rule that in order for there to be a judicial decision about something, there had to be 2 witnesses. Peter makes the point that there are way more than 2 witnesses. All of the apostles witnessed the events, plus, in addition to that, the O.T. speaks about the events. So, in addition to himself and the other disciples, the O.T. prophecy about Jesus is yet another witness. Starting in vs. 16

2nd Peter 1: 16-21

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Peter says: Listen, you don’t have to just believe me and my testimony about Jesus, read the O.T., because the scriptures talk about Jesus. Peter clearly believed in Sola Scriptura, that God spoke through humans to bring forward His thoughts and ideas. Think about how often Jesus would quote the O.T.. Why would He do this? Because the Jews believed strongly in Sola Scriptura…the authority of scripture. Jesus used scripture to show people that he, himself was God’s Word, in human flesh…the Logos, God incarnate.

Conclusion

Up until the last 30 or so years, the doctrine of Sola Scriptura was the driving force that kept protestant churches in the same basic circle. In fact, the term Evangelical was coined to describe believers and churches that believed in the 5 Solas. There were many differences between these denominations, but all of them subscribed to the 5 Solas, with the authority of scripture being the glue that held everything together. After all, we get all of our information about God and the plan of salvation from scripture.

Recently though, over the past 15 or so years, many main-line protestant denominations have broken ranks with this long held beliefs. Either that, or they claim to follow them, but have made major doctrinal changes that soften the language. As just one example, for the history of the church, both catholic and protestant, marriage was defined between a man and a woman and sex outside of marriage was understood as a sin. However, according to the PEW research center,

a solid majority of white mainline Protestants (62%) now favor allowing gays and lesbians to wed, with just 33% opposed, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey. A similar share (63%) say there is “no conflict” between their religious beliefs and homosexuality. In my view, the same thing that led to indulgences, is the same thing that led to our modern problem…which is ignoring Sola Scriptura or church leaders being more influenced by secular scholars, that give them justification to set aside well established doctrine.

We need to pray for the churches that have embraced the worldview of secular theologians. More than that, we need to intercede for the people who attend these churches that have been led astray. It’s our job to stand in the gap for them, that God would rid those churches of the wolves in sheep's clothing.

Let’s Pray.