Sola Scriptura

Day 5- 3/5 SOLA SCRIPTURA- SCRIPTURE ALONE-

Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the servant of God^a may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

(Luther at Worms)

Martin Luther at the Worms: “Since 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. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen."

"a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it".(Luther)
"The true rule is this: God's Word shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel can do so." (Luther Smalcaid Articles II.15)
Scripture alone is the true lord and master of all writings and doctrine on earth.  If that is not granted, what is Scripture good for?  The more we reject it, the more we become satisfied with men’s books and human teachers.(Martin Luther). 

John Calvin- “The difference between us and the papists is that they do not think that the church can be 'the pillar of the truth' unless she presides over the word of God. We, on the other hand, assert that it is because she reverently subjects herself to the word of God that the truth is preserved by her and passed on to others by her hands.” 

“I approve only of those human institutions which are founded upon the authority of God and derived from Scripture.” (Calvin)

The problem of the Reformation is the same problem today.  In the church, people were making up things in the name of scholarship but sometimes with mixed motives and hidden agendas.  One of the breaking points that caused the Reformation was the selling of indulgences in order to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  The cathedral was to be (and still is today) the biggest Roman Catholic church building.  But it costs a tremendous amount (finished in 1626).  The church had no real power to tax. The church taught that the faithful could take part in the cleansing of their own punishment for sin through an indulgence of the church.  The church had the power to absolve or forgive sins and relieve the temporal power of sin. Some carried this a step forward and said that if people gave toward the building of a church that it would ease the punishment of their sin in this life or the next.  Johan Tetzel a Dominican Friar said, “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs.”  Of course, the problem here is that the rich can be forgiven much while the poor are out of luck. Favoritism and materialism are clear consequences of such thought.   Luther and Melanchthon winced at this idea of paying for forgiveness.  While The Council of Trent of the Counter Reformation held back such abusive practices; and Vatican I of 1967 restricted it more, the idea of indulgences still reside in the Roman Catholic church. 
       I was in a conference on the 500^th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth and the speaker, who was advocating social change above all else, said it was time to abandon sola scriptura.  The audacity on the 500^th anniversary to discard the wisdom of the ages- the scriptures and the Reformers in a quest to be relevant and popular!  The motto of the Reformation was not “Reformed and Ever Reforming” as some would like to say- but “Reformed and ever Reforming According to the Word of God.”  The standard is not the pope, or the scholars, or the social engineers of our day- but the scriptures.  Disobedience is just that- jettisoning scripture and God’s Word to go our own way.  I am afraid the Reformed church has destroyed itself as it has abandoned the ability to listen to God’s Word and to be gracious and loving toward each other.  There are 14 different Presbyterian denominations in the United States alone. The abandonment of scriptures as the only standard means at best it is a watered down (wishy washy) standard, and at worst can be ignored when we disagree with it. 
Prayer: Your Word, O Lord is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path