Slowly but surely, parts of the Christian church have been loosening their ties to the likes of Luther and Calvin and opting instead for a cacophony of contemporary voices informed primarily by human experience. To its detriment, the church has listened with itching ears to voices that tell us things we want to hear instead of submitting to the authority of the Word of God. Unable to elevate the voices of this generation to the level of Scripture, the tactic employed was to bring the Bible down to our level.

Almost five hundred years ago, Martin Luther stood before the Diet of Worms and declared, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” He and other Reformers identified five essentials of the faith that they could not compromise: Sola Scriptura—Scripture Alone, Solus Christus—Christ Alone, Sola Gratia—Grace Alone, Sola Fide—Faith Alone, and Soli Deo Gloria—To the Glory of God Alone.

While the issues that caused the Reformers to lift up the Solas may be different today, the importance of the Solas as boundaries of authentic, biblical Christian faith remains the same. In this article, we will look at the original issues at work in the church that gave rise to the Solas. Also, we will look at liberalism’s rejection of the Solas today and then finally we will look at how we can restore an understanding of the Solas in the church.

Sola Scriptura is Alive and Well

Sola Scriptura for the Reformers
The Reformers began their list of essentials with Sola Scriptura because the Bible had gotten buried beneath human ideas. Papal encyclicals, church councils, and even village priests spoke as if they had greater authority than Scripture itself. God’s Word was so far removed from the people that they could not even access it in their own language, much less study it forthemselves. The Reformers returned Scripture to its proper position—the measure by which all other words would be judged. The people were given the Scriptures to study for themselves so that they too would be able to compare the words they heard from the pulpit and the institutions of the church with the very Word of God.

Liberalism’s Rejection of Sola Scriptura
In 2010, Landon Whitsett, the vice-moderator of the 219th PC(USA) General Assembly, made a now-famous comment that “Sola Scriptura is dead in most places and rapidly dying in others.” In many parts of the church, this is an accurate assessment.

Slowly but surely, parts of the Christian church have been loosening their ties to the likes of Luther and Calvin and opting instead for a cacophony of contemporary voices informed primarily by human experience. To its detriment, the church has listened with itching ears to voices that tell us things we want to hear instead of submitting to the authority of the Word of God. Unable to elevate the voices of this generation to the level of Scripture, the tactic employed was to bring the Bible down to our level. The Confession of 1967 illustrates this point, saying, “The Scriptures, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are nevertheless the words of men, conditioned by the language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places and times at which they were written.” Multiple generations of pastors have now received a seminary education that reinforces the teaching that post-Enlightenment people are of a superior time and culture, and we can therefore sit in judgment above Scripture, determining for ourselves which parts are applicable.

The incremental shift from scriptural authority to human authority was punctuated recently with the decision by the highest court in the PC(USA), the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC). In the Parnell v. San Francisco decision issued in May 2012, the GAPJC was asked to affirm that Scripture is the only rule of faith and practice. It declined.

The commission wrote in its decision, “The Book of Confessions reflects that the Church listens to a multitude of voices in shaping its beliefs.” It affirmed the synod judicial commission’s earlier ruling that found a “vast diversity of interpretation of the meaning of Scripture and the confessions.” Instead of seeing the order and clarity presented in Scripture and the confessions, the GAPJC gave credence to the false teaching that listening to a multitude of human voices rightly supplants the authority of God’s Word in the common life of the PC(USA).

With its decision, the commission has placed Scripture, the confessions, and human opinion on par with each other. Sola Scriptura is indeed dead at this level of the PC(USA).

However, many Presbyterians continue to exalt the Scriptures above every other authority. We will stand with the Barmen Declaration and say, “We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation” (Barmen Declaration, BOC 8.12).

Restoring Sola Scriptura
One member of my church recently asked, “When did all of this begin?” So many different points come to mind in the PC(USA)—the 1920s and the Modernist/Fundamentalist controversy, the Confession of 1967, the Reunion of 1983, pick a number and someone has pointed a finger. Other denominations would find other starting places. We could look back to Genesis 3 when the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” With that spark, Eve exalted her experience of the fruit (“good for food and pleasing to the eye”) above God’s word and took it and ate.

But with each of these foundational issues of the faith, each of us must stand to account before the Lord. Let us then ask, “When did I begin to demote the Scriptures in my thinking and my living?” And “when did I sit idly and silently by as human reason and human ideas usurped the authority of the Scriptures in my church?”

It began when we stopped making disciples and started making audiences. People are being fed endless courses of milk instead of graduating to solid food. Having no ability to discern between truth and error when they hear it, and having not been equipped to wield the sword of the Spirit themselves, congregations consume whatever is set before them, including philosophies and lies that directly contradict the Word of God.

The ability to be spiritually discerning has been lost. Many are not able to discern between the times when we are to “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law because these are unprofitable and useless” (Titus 3:9), and the times when we are to “hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that [we] can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9). Dual pressures have led us down this path: the cultural call of tolerance and the bureaucratic call to unity at all costs coupled with a lack of courage to stand.

Fortunately, the truth and power of Sola Scriptura does not depend on a denomination or congregation. Hebrews 4:12 confirms: “Indeed, the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” And although we will all return to dust, the Word of God will stand forever. While there remains breath in our bodies, may we commit ourselves to the re-elevation of the Word of God in our personal discipleship and in our life together.

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