“To believe in sola scriptura [‘Scripture alone’] is to allow God to speak without interruption. It is to trust His self-revelation, refusing to mix man’s words with God’s, man’s thoughts with His thoughts. It is to be quiet and to let God speak” (White, James R., Scripture Alone, Minneapolis: BethanyHouse [2004], 25).

Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses in response to the sale of indulgences by Johann Tetzel and the exploitation that came with it. This stirred up serious controversy and eventually led to a debate with John Eck at Leipzig in 1519. During this debate Luther presented Scripture as more authoritative than a church council:

“A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it. As for the pope’s decretal on indulgences I say that neither the pope nor the Church can establish articles of faith. These must come from Scripture. For the sake of Scripture we should reject pope and councils” (Bainton, Roland H., Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, Nashville: Abingdon Press [1978], 90).

Luther continued his writing criticizing of the Roman Catholic church. Pope Leo X issued a papal bull against Luther, which Luther burned. The emperor Charles V called an imperial diet, and on April 18, 1521 at the Diet of Worms, when asked to recant, Luther gave his famous response:

“Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.” (Bainton, 144)

Sola scriptura has often been described as the formal principle of the Protestant Reformation because re-asserting the sufficiency of scripture and placing it above human tradition allowed the Reformers to reaffirm key biblical doctrines, such as justification by faith alone and the priesthood of the believer. It affirms that God’s revelation in the Bible is the only inspired and infallible authority for all matters of doctrine and practice. Everything that a person must believe in order to be a genuine Christian is found in the Bible. Confessions and creeds are useful, but they are always subordinate to Scripture.

Second Timothy 3:12-17 says:

12Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Scripture is able teach us what we need to know regarding salvation. Scripture is sufficient to instruct us in righteousness, making us “complete, equipped for every good work.” In this passage Paul warns Timothy about persecution and deceivers. To combat such challenges he does not point Timothy toward the modern popular theories of the time or to a church magisterium. He points Timothy to scripture. He exhorts Timothy to remain true to God’s revelation. There he could find his solid foundation.

Everything that God has revealed regarding salvation and righteousness (both doctrine and morals) is revealed in the Bible. We do not need to search church traditions to learn what God expects from us and the means by which he provides salvation. God’s revelation in the Bible is sufficient, and only the Bible is God-breathed.

Second Peter 1:20-21 says:

20knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

In this passage Peter explains the divine origin of scripture – coming from God, not the opinions of man. Scripture stands apart from the words of men as coming from God and by His will. Its authority is grounded in its origin – God Himself.

Sola scriptura does not assert that the Bible contains all knowledge on every topic. First, some facts are known only to God (Deut. 29:29). Second, the Bible was never intended to be an exhaustive compendium of all human knowledge. Instead, it is our sufficient, inspired, and infallible source on what we need to know regarding salvation and godly living.

God does reveal Himself through the creation, which can be investigated through science (Psalm 19; Romans 1-2), and through moral conscience (Rom. 2:14-15) by which we instinctively know right and wrong, but these are insufficient without His written revelation.

Role of tradition

Sola scriptura does not deny all value of church tradition. Instead, it denies that any authority, including tradition, can be placed on an equal or greater level compared to the Bible. The Bible does speak of tradition, but not as an authority equal to or greater than the Bible. In Mark 7:5-13 Jesus subjects tradition to judgement by scripture and rebukes the Pharisees for using tradition of men to override the commands of God:

9“You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” . . .

13“thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Second Thessalonians 2:15 says, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” Paul refers to tradition, but he identifies this tradition with his writings to the church and those of the other apostles, which we now have in the Bible. The same can be said regarding references to tradition in 2 Thess. 3:6, 1 Cor. 11:2, and 2 Tim. 2:2.

Creeds, confessions, and catechisms are valuable as helpful summaries of biblical teaching and as teaching aids. Teaching from such sources is much less common today, but we could greatly benefit from studying and teaching them. They would provide a valuable cure to the theological illiteracy of modern churches. We can all learn from the biblical insight of past generations, and when we see how they faced false doctrine and persecution we can learn how to face them today.

Nevertheless, these sources are valuable only as far as they accurately reflect biblical teaching. They must never be used to override the Bible or force the Bible into an unbiblical mold. As the Westminster Larger Catechism (Question 3) says, “The holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.” The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (ch. 1) makes a similar statement: “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.” No human authority can legitimately require members, as a pre-condition for being a follower of Christ, to believe doctrines which either lack explicit biblical support or cannot be clearly deduced from biblical teaching.

Conclusion

“How one views Scripture will determine the rest of one’s theology. There is no more basic issue” (White, Scripture Alone, 41). The Bible is the only “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16) revelation from God. Any attempt to elevate another authority to an equal or greater level will ultimately create error in other doctrines. This is the danger of allowing the opinions of men, whether they are church tradition or currently popular theories, to trump the written words of God. This compromise will not always produce an outright rejection of the Bible, but they can easily produce attempts to force the Bible into the mold of currently popular views with elements of the biblical worldview being modified or tossed out in the process.

In all matters of faith and practice, God’s revelation in the Bible is the final arbiter. As James White explains, “the Bible, being God-breathed, partakes of the very authority of God Himself. As such, it cannot possibly embrace a non-divine authority alongside itself” (White, Scripture Alone, 37. Emphasis original). The Bible is our divinely inspired, sufficient, and readily available guide on matters of faith and conscience. May we all be motivated to study it diligently and apply it to our lives, for our own benefit and also for the strengthening of the church and proclamation of the Gospel to the world.

“10With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:10-11) “103How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. 105Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:103-5).