Sola Scriptura

It's been a while, but I did say I was going to write a post about "sola scriptura" or "scripture alone". If you're not grokking what that means, it basically means the the Bible is THE authority for doctrine. To be very clear, that means we should hold to the doctrines clearly found in the Bible (directly or through valid logical reasoning of what the text says) and that we should NOT hold to doctrines that are not clearly found in the Bible (again, directly or through valid logical reasoning of what the text says).

I'm writing this to think more about this statement, which was a response to a man questioning whether or not the Bible was the only authority for truth -- "You can't really demonstrate sola scriptura from Scripture. The Bible doesn't expressly declare that it is the Christian's only authority. In other words, sola scriptura is essentially the historic confession of the Reformers, over and against the Catholic claim that it is Scripture plus the Church and Tradition. For us, then, it is a theological presupposition, our starting point rather than a proven conclusion."

It's a well said answer, but I'm not sure I agree with it. I think I can demonstrate the Bible is our only authority from Scripture, and I'm not going to do it with a verse, but with bigger ideas that surround a lot of verses. For some context, look up the following:

- The first parts of Matthew 15 and Mark 7, where Jesus is ripping the religious dudes for putting their traditions over the word of God.

- Colossians 2 where Paul argues against listening to reasonable human arguments for things that are really only self-made religion, which takes away from Christ.

So how does that tie into scripture alone? It's all in the DANGER.

When we go outside scripture for something, we're depending on men, fallible and sinful. Even the most well meaning men who love the LORD are bound to screw things up. That's kind of our whole problem in the first place. So let's go into the way back machine to when Moses was walking and talking and leading a bunch of grumblers and complainers through the desert.

God delivers the law. God's people want to follow the law. Leadership looks at something like "don't work on the sabbath" and tries to figure out how they should obey that. That's a good thing. Unfortunately over time you end up with a mess of rules that is put forth and accepted by many as what God wants, rather than looking at what God's Word is going for. For fun, go read some of the things rabbis way back wrote about proper washing of hands. It's absolutely insane, and it *started* with men trying to faithfully obey God -- but it went way off in the weeds. Jesus wanted, among other things, to get people out of the weeds and on the road.

So what about groups that claim Christ but don't have the Bible as the sole and ultimate authority? Off the top of my head I can think of Mormonism, Catholicism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have more than the Bible -- as well as many, we'll call them "liberal" -- Christians who don't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

In Mormonism you have other stuff (the Book of Mormon for example) and a claim to be the true church, but that the other stuff doesn't conflict with the Bible or is supported outright by it. In Catholicism you have other stuff (church tradition for example) and a claim to be the true church, but that the other stuff either doesn't conflict with the Bible or is supported outright by it. On top of that you have the idea that the extra stuff the Mormons say doesn't conflict really does. Then you have the Jehovah's Witnesses who claim our translations are jacked up so they have their own version of it, the New World Translation -- along with the claim that the Watchtower Society is the only group with the authority to interpret scripture.

Then you have Bible-only Christians who say this is all nonsense.

What we've ended up with in many cases are extra-biblical beliefs invented by men and taught as truth. Sound familiar in a way? There's nothing new under the sun.

Now before I continue, know that I'm not writing this to pound on and argue individual doctrines in different groups, but rather to point out that you need to start out with the Bible as your authority and go from there -- not start with extra junk you've been taught and shove it into what you read into the Bible. You can find some verses to support any fool thing you want to. Satan did tempting Jesus. The prosperity gospel people do. The "homosexuality and abortion are not sins" people do. We do, but we shouldn't -- we need to catch ourselves and read things in context and look for the plain simple meaning of the text!

With that said, I'll fairly pick on one thing from each of the groups I mentioned to make my point very clear.

- You don't START with the Bible and get different levels of heaven. Yes, I see in 1 and 2 Corinthians where people try to back that up with. If you didn't start with the Mormon doctrine you were taught about the celestial, terrestrial, telestial (what?), and so on, you wouldn't come up with that in reading the Bible. You know what you get when you read phrases like "third heaven" -- well, the atmosphere, space, and what is actually heaven, which is what Paul saw but had no words for. "The LORD will open the heavens to give rain / Anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat / rain from heaven. Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens / stars of heaven. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven." Hundreds more uses of heaven to mean three different and obvious things!

- You don't START with the Bible and get that Mary led a sinless life, was taken up into heaven like Jesus was, and is an intercessor for us now that we can ask to pray for us. That's not even a logical conclusion based on the biblical text. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed / Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Plus, where the Bible mentions talking to dead people, it's always in the context of sorcery, witchcraft, and so on, not asking them to pray for us!

- You don't START with the Bible and get that Jesus was Michael the archangel. Yes, I see in Hebrews where people try to back that up with, and I get the New World Translation of the Bible is different -- despite the fact that people who actually know Greek and look at it will tell you the translation doesn't match any source documents we have correctly! I've done the "Jesus Is God" post before, so go look that up if you really want to understand this; I'm getting a bit tired of writing, and this is a BIG one.

Now that I've probably pissed some people off, including friends and family, PLEASE take this advice: read the Bible for YOURSELF, ALONE, PRAYERFULLY, without drawing from what's been drilled into your head as much as you can -- and see what the plain meaning of the text is. God gave us a book that is simple enough to read and understand without us crapping it up and shoving our own ideas into it. It's a very dangerous thing that didn't end so well the first time.