Sola Scriptura: Needing an explanation
- Thread starter Holly3278
- Start date
Hello Holly.
Sola Scriptura is a reformation motto (16th century historic Christian movement) along with sola fide and sola gratia. I believe "sola" means "solely" or "only by means of". The reformation, against the Roman Catholicism of that day, asserted the authority of the Bible against the dictates of the Church and sought to defend the Word Of God as the only basis of right doctrine and practice. They held that the Bible is the only source of truth. "Sola" was their answer to how salvation comes to be, i. e. only by scripture truth, not by assent to the doctrines of the Church: only by God given faith and not by priests or church approved sacerdotal sacraments, and only by Christ's direct mediated Grace not by the sacraments or works of man.
Sola scriptura, or rather the primacy and exclusive authority of the Bible, is not unique to the reformation however. It is a Biblical teaching: Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Moreover the Bible taught: we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God.
Any one defending a biblical teaching today against any supposed authoritative assertion (whether: science, governments, philosophy, religion, or church) of any contrary teaching, basing his arguments solely on "the Bible", is carrying on that same tradition today. So is any one asserting that the Bible is the sole (only) measure of truth, being absolute and reliable in all of its statements and assertions: Divine authoritative truth.
This is very brief, but I hope it helps. DGB
Isaiah 8:20
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Sola Scriptura is a reformation motto (16th century historic Christian movement) along with sola fide and sola gratia. I believe "sola" means "solely" or "only by means of". The reformation, against the Roman Catholicism of that day, asserted the authority of the Bible against the dictates of the Church and sought to defend the Word Of God as the only basis of right doctrine and practice. They held that the Bible is the only source of truth. "Sola" was their answer to how salvation comes to be, i. e. only by scripture truth, not by assent to the doctrines of the Church: only by God given faith and not by priests or church approved sacerdotal sacraments, and only by Christ's direct mediated Grace not by the sacraments or works of man.
Sola scriptura, or rather the primacy and exclusive authority of the Bible, is not unique to the reformation however. It is a Biblical teaching: Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Moreover the Bible taught: we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God.
Any one defending a biblical teaching today against any supposed authoritative assertion (whether: science, governments, philosophy, religion, or church) of any contrary teaching, basing his arguments solely on "the Bible", is carrying on that same tradition today. So is any one asserting that the Bible is the sole (only) measure of truth, being absolute and reliable in all of its statements and assertions: Divine authoritative truth.
This is very brief, but I hope it helps. DGB
Isaiah 8:20
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
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John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
1 John 2:21
I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
1 John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
These are interesting passages. And, “that no lie is of the truth” is a very potent proposition. Let it be granted that lie is not the truth and that truth is not the lie, and the exclusive natures of the two are established. The father of lie is identified in Jn.8:4; and we should put forth the proposition that Jesus Christ the Son of God in his person is the Truth.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
As man created in the image of God, we were meant to walk, think, and live in the truth: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedes from the mouth of God. This, our savior did for us and in our place that righteousness might be imputed unto us who have believed in Jesus Christ the Son of God for righteousness apart from the works of the law.
When Christ was tested of the Devil, as we are as well, he answered with the Scripture (sola scriptura). Even when the Devil used Scripture, Christ’s answer shows that what truth was in the quotation the Devil used was not understood by him and that the use the Devil suggested was lie and not the truth.
Matthew 4
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
As above the Devil is the father of lies, yet also unregenerate men are reckoned up as his offspring. Humanism as a philosophical system is nothing other than mankind speaking of his own like his father before him. Trouble is, even then man is not unique, nor the ultimate source of the “lie value” of his words or thoughts. God did not create a humanistic man, but he created a dependent theistic image man. Man then is not the measure of all things in and of himself. Yet man if he begins with truth, receiving truth as his standard of measure, is meant to measure or test all things—This makes man a different kind of creature than is assumed under the philosophy of humanism.
The universe, including the universe of theoretical reason, which man lives in is radically divided between truth and lie. And since man is not the originator of truth as humanism assumes, but rather a tester of truth, the most important issue in discerning the truth is a set of absolute propositions that abide outside of man-in-and-of-himself and being from God are not a lie. This alone is the presupposition framework creature-man can begin to think, test, and reason safely from and within. This is the role of testimony. Devine truth, soverignly provided transcendent truth, immune from the taint of the lie, reliable in its parts as in its whole, perspicuous, and divinely transmitted to man’s heart is the Bible. As it has come by the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim.3:16), so it is spiritually understood by the illumination agency of the same Person of the trinity (1 Cor.2:6-16). By this agency we can have the mind of Christ, as scripture speaks, and likewise judge all things by the Bible. We are to bring every thought into the captivity of Christ our measure of all things revealed unto us in the Holy Scripture the Devine testimony concerning Him.
This again is very brief; I only want to supplement Chad’s article which is excellent. My only cavil being, the reason Catholicism does not see the Bible teaching sola scriptura is because of their humanistic presopositions about man that misconstrue the passages and propositions the bible teaches it in. This is not unlike the Devil using scripture with Christ. To the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
As Christ in the wilderness, so are we in this age; and the temptations that are life and death, truth and lie, are everywhere upon us. We can only overcome in our evil day as He did before us in that evil day: by the reliance upon wholly and fully inspired Scripture. Like the Bereans in acts, the true nobility of man resides in this; so does our strength and salvation.
Grace and peace be unto all you in Christ Jesus. DGB
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
1 John 2:21
I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
1 John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
These are interesting passages. And, “that no lie is of the truth” is a very potent proposition. Let it be granted that lie is not the truth and that truth is not the lie, and the exclusive natures of the two are established. The father of lie is identified in Jn.8:4; and we should put forth the proposition that Jesus Christ the Son of God in his person is the Truth.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
As man created in the image of God, we were meant to walk, think, and live in the truth: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedes from the mouth of God. This, our savior did for us and in our place that righteousness might be imputed unto us who have believed in Jesus Christ the Son of God for righteousness apart from the works of the law.
When Christ was tested of the Devil, as we are as well, he answered with the Scripture (sola scriptura). Even when the Devil used Scripture, Christ’s answer shows that what truth was in the quotation the Devil used was not understood by him and that the use the Devil suggested was lie and not the truth.
Matthew 4
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
As above the Devil is the father of lies, yet also unregenerate men are reckoned up as his offspring. Humanism as a philosophical system is nothing other than mankind speaking of his own like his father before him. Trouble is, even then man is not unique, nor the ultimate source of the “lie value” of his words or thoughts. God did not create a humanistic man, but he created a dependent theistic image man. Man then is not the measure of all things in and of himself. Yet man if he begins with truth, receiving truth as his standard of measure, is meant to measure or test all things—This makes man a different kind of creature than is assumed under the philosophy of humanism.
The universe, including the universe of theoretical reason, which man lives in is radically divided between truth and lie. And since man is not the originator of truth as humanism assumes, but rather a tester of truth, the most important issue in discerning the truth is a set of absolute propositions that abide outside of man-in-and-of-himself and being from God are not a lie. This alone is the presupposition framework creature-man can begin to think, test, and reason safely from and within. This is the role of testimony. Devine truth, soverignly provided transcendent truth, immune from the taint of the lie, reliable in its parts as in its whole, perspicuous, and divinely transmitted to man’s heart is the Bible. As it has come by the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim.3:16), so it is spiritually understood by the illumination agency of the same Person of the trinity (1 Cor.2:6-16). By this agency we can have the mind of Christ, as scripture speaks, and likewise judge all things by the Bible. We are to bring every thought into the captivity of Christ our measure of all things revealed unto us in the Holy Scripture the Devine testimony concerning Him.
This again is very brief; I only want to supplement Chad’s article which is excellent. My only cavil being, the reason Catholicism does not see the Bible teaching sola scriptura is because of their humanistic presopositions about man that misconstrue the passages and propositions the bible teaches it in. This is not unlike the Devil using scripture with Christ. To the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
As Christ in the wilderness, so are we in this age; and the temptations that are life and death, truth and lie, are everywhere upon us. We can only overcome in our evil day as He did before us in that evil day: by the reliance upon wholly and fully inspired Scripture. Like the Bereans in acts, the true nobility of man resides in this; so does our strength and salvation.
Grace and peace be unto all you in Christ Jesus. DGB
