Sola scriptura (
Latin ablative, "by
scripture alone") is the doctrine that the
Bible is the only
infallible or inerrant authority for
Christian faith, and that it
contains all knowledge necessary for
salvation and
holiness.
Consequently, Sola Scriptura demands that only those doctrines are
to be admitted or confessed that are found directly within or
indirectly by using
valid logical deduction
or valid
deductive reasoning
from
Scripture. However, Sola Scriptura is
not a denial of other authorities governing Christian life and
devotion. Rather, it simply demands that all other authorities are
subordinate to, and are to be corrected by, the written word of
God.
Sola scriptura was a foundational doctrinal principle
of the
Protestant Reformation
held by the
Reformers and is a
formal principle of Protestantism
today (see
Five solas).
During the Reformation, authentication of Scripture was governed by
the discernible excellence of the text as well as the personal
witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart of each man. Furthermore,
per Sola Scriptura, the relationship of Scriptural authority to
pastoral care was well exampled by the
Westminster Confession of
Faith which stated:
VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in
themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are
necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are
so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or
other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use
of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding
of them.Here the phrase "due use of the ordinary means" includes
appeals to pastors and teachers(Ephesians
4:11-14). As such, Sola Scriptura reflects a careful tension
between the perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture necessary for its
role as final authority, and the occasional need for its meaning to
be revealed by exposition (Hebrews
5:12).
Beyond the Reformation, as in some Evangelical and Baptist
denominations, Sola Scriptura is stated even more strongly: it is
self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader,
its own interpreter ("Scripture interprets Scripture"), and
sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine.
By contrast, the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches teach that the
Scriptures are not the only infallible source of Christian
doctrine. For them Scripture is but one of three equal authorities;
the other two being Sacred
Tradition and the episcopacy. These
bodies also believe that the Church has authority to establish or
restrict interpretation of Scriptures because, in part, it implicitly
selected which books were to be in the biblical canon through its traditions,
whereas Protestants believe the Church
passively recognized and received the books that were already
widely considered canonical.
Overview
Sola scriptura is one of the five
solas, considered by some Protestant groups to be the
theological pillars of the Reformation. The key implication of the
principle is that interpretations and applications of the
Scriptures do not have the same authority as the Scriptures
themselves; hence, the ecclesiastical authority is viewed as
subject to correction by the Scriptures, even by an individual
member of the Church.
Luther said, "a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than
the mightiest pope without it". The intention of the Reformation
was to correct the perceived errors of the Catholic Church by
appeal to the uniqueness of the Bible's authority and to reject
what Catholics considered to be Apostolic
Tradition as a source of original authority alongside of the Bible,
wherever Tradition did not have biblical support or where it
supposedly contradicted Scripture.
Sola scriptura, however, does not ignore Christian history
and tradition when seeking to understand the Bible. Rather, it sees
the Bible as the only final authority in matters of faith and
practice. As Martin Luther said, "The
true rule is this: God's Word shall establish articles of faith,
and no one else, not even an angel can do so."
The term heretical is commonly used by Protestants who
denounce teachings and institutions that they accordingly view as
deviating from Scripture.
Characteristics in Lutheranism
Lutherans believe that the holy Bible of
the Old and New Testaments is the only divinely inspired
book and the only source of divinely revealed knowledge. Scripture
alone is the formal principle
of the faith, the final authority for all matters of faith and
morals because of its inspiration, authority, clarity, efficacy,
and sufficiency.
Inspiration
The Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but every word
of it is, because of verbal inspiration, the direct, immediate word
of God. As Lutherans confess in the Nicene
Creed, the Holy Spirit "spoke through the prophets". The
Apology of the
Augsburg Confession identifies Holy Scripture with the Word of
God and calls the Holy Spirit the author of the Bible. Because of
this, Lutherans confess in the Formula of Concord, "we receive and
embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures
of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of
Israel." The apocryphal books were not written by the prophets, by
inspiration; they contain errors were never included in the
Palestinian Canon that Jesus used, and therefore are not a part of
Holy Scripture. The prophetic and apostolic Scriptures are
authentic as written by the prophets and apostles. A correct
translation of their writings is God's Word because it has the same
meaning as the original Hebrew and Greek. A mistranslation is not
God's word, and no human authority can invest it with divine
authority.
Divine authority
Holy Scripture, the Word of God, carries the full authority of God.
Every single statement of the Bible calls for instant and
unqualified acceptance. Every doctrine of the Bible is the teaching
of God and therefore requires full agreement. Every promise of the
Bible calls for unshakable trust in its fulfillment. Every command
of the Bible is the directive of God himself and therefore demands
willing observance.
Clarity
The Bible presents all doctrines and commands of the Christian
faith clearly. God's Word is freely accessible to every reader or
hearer of ordinary intelligence, without requiring any special
education. Of course, one must understand the language God's Word
is presented in, and not be so preoccupied by contrary thoughts so
as to prevent understanding. As a result of this, no one needs to
wait for any clergy, and pope, scholar, or
ecumenical council to explain the
real meaning of any part of the Bible.
Efficacy
Scripture is united with the power of the Holy Spirit and with it,
not only demands, but also creates the acceptance of its teaching.
This teaching produces faith and obedience. Holy Scripture is not a
dead letter, but rather, the power of the Holy Spirit is inherent
in it. Scripture does not compel a mere intellectual assent to its
doctrine, resting on logical argumentation, but rather it creates
the living agreement of faith. As the Smalcald Articles affirm, "in those things
which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that
God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with
the preceding outward Word."
Sufficiency
The Bible contains everything that one needs to know in order to
obtain salvation and to live a Christian life. There are no
deficiencies in Scripture that need to be filled with by tradition, pronouncements of the Pope,
new
revelations, or present-day development of doctrine.
Prima scriptura
Sola scriptura may be contrasted with prima scriptura, which holds that,
besides canonical scripture, there are
other guides for what a believer should believe, and how he or she
should live. Examples of this include the general revelation in creation,
traditions, charismatic gifts,
mystical insight, angelic visitations, conscience, common sense, the
views of experts, the spirit of the times or something else.
Prima scriptura suggests that ways of knowing or
understanding God and his will, that do not
originate from canonized scripture, are in a second place, perhaps
helpful in interpreting that scripture, but testable by the canon
and correctable by it, if they seem to contradict the
scriptures.
Sola scriptura rejects any original infallible authority,
other than the Bible. In this view, all secondary authority is
derived from the authority of the Scriptures and is therefore
subject to reform when compared to the teaching of the Bible.
Church councils, preachers, biblical commentators, private
revelation, or even a message allegedly from an angel or an
apostle are not an original
authority alongside the Bible in the sola scriptura
approach. Even though most protestants look at scripture alone and
no other authority, some theologians [Who?] say that the Bible
itself teaches against sola scriptura. They believe that
if a person believes in the whole Bible then that person cannot not
believe in sola scriptura. These theologians believe that
those following the concepts of sola scriptura have
personally perverted the meaning of either the Bible or sola
scriptura. They point to passages in Kings, Chronicles, and
Jude which directly refer to writings that are not part of the
Bible.
Singular authority of Scripture
The idea of the singular authority of Scripture is the motivation
behind much of the Protestant effort to translate the Bible into
vernacular languages and distribute it
widely. Protestants generally believe each Christian should read
the Bible for themselves and evaluate what they have been taught on
the basis of it. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, motivated
by their belief that authoritative doctrine can also come from
tradition, have been more active in translating them as well as the
Bible into the vernacular languages, though this has not always
been the case. Traditions of these non-Protestant churches include
the Bible, patristic, conciliar, and liturgical texts. Even prior to the Protestant
movement, hundreds of vernacular translations of the Bible and
liturgical materials were translated throughout the preceding
sixteen centuries. Some Bible translations such as the Geneva Bible included annotations and
commentary that were anti-Roman Catholic. Before the Protestant
Reformation, Latin was almost exclusively
utilized but it was understood by only the most literate.
According to sola scriptura, the Church does not speak
infallibly in its traditions, but only in Scripture. As John Wesley stated in the 18th century, "In all
cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the
Scripture by the Church." For this reason, sola scriptura
is called the formal cause or principle of the Reformation.
Protestants argue that the Scriptures are guaranteed to remain true
to their divine source; and, thus, only insofar as the Church
retains scriptural faith is it assured of God's favor. Following
such an argument, if the Church were to fall away from faith
through Scripture (a possibility which Roman Catholics deny but
Protestants affirm), its authority would be negated. Therefore, the
early Protestants targeted for elimination traditions and doctrines
they believed were based on distortions of Scripture, or were
contrary to the Bible, but which the Roman Catholic Church
considered scripturally-based aspects of the Christian faith, such
as transubstantiation (John
6:51), the doctrine of purgatory (1 Cor
3:15), the veneration of images or icons
(Numbers 21:8), and especially the doctrine that the Pope in Rome is the head of the Church on earth
(Papal supremacy) (John
21:17).
However, the Reformers believed some tradition to be very seriously
in conflict with the Scriptures: especially, with regard to
teaching about the Church itself, but also touching on basic
principles of the Gospel. They believed that
no matter how venerable the traditional source, traditional
authority is always open to question by comparison to what the
Scriptures say. The individual may be forced to rely on his
understanding of Scripture even if the whole tradition were to
speak against him. This, they said, had always been implicitly
recognized in the Church, and remains a fail-safe against the
corruption of the Church by human error and deceit. Corruptions had
crept in, the Reformers said, which seriously undermined the
legitimate authority of the Church, and Tradition had been
perverted by wicked men.
Sola scriptura is a doctrine that is not, in the words of
the Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6 "expressly set down in
scripture". However, it is claimed that it passes the second test
of being part of "the whole counsel of God" because it is "deduced
from scripture" "by good
and necessary consequence", citing passages such as 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.". Jesus is
also typically understood by Protestants as expressly nullifying
unscriptural traditions in the (Jewish) church, when he says, for
example in Mark 7:13: "thus making void the word of God by your
tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you
do."
Scripture and Tradition
The Catholic Church against which the Reformers directed these
arguments did not see Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the faith as different
sources of authority, but that Scripture was handed down as part of
Sacred Tradition (see 2 The 2:15, 2 Tim 2:2). Accepted Traditions
were also perceived by the Church as cohesive in nature. The proper
interpretation of the Scriptures was seen as part of the faith of
the Church, and seen indeed as the manner in which Biblical
authority was upheld (see Acts 15:28-29). The meaning of Scripture
was seen as proven from the Faith universally held in the churches
(see Phil 2:1, Acts 4:32), and the correctness of that universal
Faith was seen as proven from the Scriptures and apostolic Sacred
Tradition (see 2 The 2:15, 2 The 3:6, 1 Cor 11:2). The Biblical canon itself was thus viewed by the
Church as part of the Church's Tradition, as defined by its
leadership and acknowledged by its laity.
However, this view of scripture and tradition was not universally
accepted. Throughout the history of the Church, movements have
arisen within the Church or alongside of it which have disputed the
official interpretation of the Scriptures. The leaders of these
movements were often labeled heretics and their doctrines were
rejected. According to Irenaeus, the
Judaistic Ebionites charged less than one hundred years
after the Apostles that the
Christians overruled the authority of Scripture by failing to keep
the Mosaic Law, see also Biblical law in Christianity.
Later,
Arius (250-336), once he had been made a presbyter in Alexandria
, began arguing that the teaching concerning the
deity of Christ was an invention of men not found in Scripture and
not believed by the Early
Christians. The Church held that when disagreements over
Scripture arise, the correct interpretation of the Bible will be
consistent with how the Church authorities have believed in the
past (see 2 Tim 2:2, 2 The 2:15, 1 Cor 11:2) , as revealed by the
Ecumenical Councils, the writings
of the Apostles of Jesus and
Fathers of the Church, the decisions
of the Bishops of Rome and similar
sources of Tradition.
This system served the Church well as is illustrated by the dispute
between Arius and Athanasius. Both of whom were Bishops of the
Catholic Church. Both of whom used Scripture to defend their
positions. And both of whom claimed the Holy Spirit was guiding
them to their understanding of the Scriptures.
The judgement as to which of the two was teaching orthodox truth
came before the Church in accordance with Matthew 18:17. The Church
decided in favor of Athanasius because his teachings were supported
by Scripture, Tradition AND the prior teaching of the Church (i.e.
the Magisterium).Arius was promptly condemned a heretic.
Legacy
Sola scriptura continues to be a doctrinal commitment of
conservative branches and offshoots of the Lutheran churches, Reformed churches, and Baptist churches as well as other Protestants,
especially where they describe themselves by the slogan "Bible-believing" (See Fundamentalism).
References
- Martin Luther, Smalcald Articles II, 15.
- For the traditional Lutheran view of the Bible, see . For an
overview of the doctrine of verbal inspiration in Lutheranism, see
Inspiration, Doctrine of in the Christian
Cyclopedia.
- ,
- , , , , , , , , , ,
- "God's Word, or Holy Scripture" from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article II, of
Original Sin
- "the Scripture of the Holy Ghost." Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Preface, 9
- The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord,
"Rule and Norm", 3.
- (Tobit 6, 71; 2 Macc. 12, 43 f.; 14, 411),
- See Bible, Canon in the Christian Cyclopedia
- , , , , , , , ,
- , , , , , , , , , , ,
- , , , , ,
- , , , , , ,
- , , , , , , , , , , , ,
- ,
- , , ,
- , , , , , , ,
- , , , , ,
- Smalcald Articles, part 8, "Of Confession"
- , , , ,
- , , , ,
- Popery Calmly Considered (1779) in
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. XV, p. 180, London
(1812), digitized by Google Books
See also
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0409fea3.asp
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