DOCSLIB.ORG

Contending for Doctrinal Language in Missions: Why Imputation and Sola Fide Are Good News for Karma-Background Christians1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Contending for Doctrinal Language in Missions: Why Imputation and Sola Fide Are Good News for Karma-Background Christians1 TMSJ 32/1 (Spring 2021) 131–156 CONTENDING FOR DOCTRINAL LANGUAGE IN MISSIONS: WHY IMPUTATION AND SOLA FIDE ARE GOOD NEWS FOR KARMA-BACKGROUND CHRISTIANS1 E. D. Burns Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Director of Master of Arts in Global Leadership Studies Western Seminary * * * * * The frontlines of missions are where theological error has a tendency to fester. New missional movements draw distinctions between the helpfulness of the Bible and theology, affirming the former and disregarding the latter. The mission field has become a place of embarrassment regarding many of the doctrines that the church fathers lived and died over. Specifically, the doctrine of imputation has been practically neglected amongst many of the frontline missional efforts. And the consequences are and will continue to be devastating. This article is a call for missionaries to reach the unreached with the beautiful and historic doctrines of the Christian faith. * * * * * “We don’t want to impose our white Western cultural interpretations upon their theology.” These are sentiments I hear frequently from missionaries who have undergone years of derisive ‘white-shaming’ for the eighteenth–to–twentieth centuries’ excesses of colonialization and Western theological imperialism. A consequent mixture of doctrinal confusion, embarrassment, and hesitancy plague many missionaries from traditionally missionary-sending Euro-American countries. So, to prevent future failure and humiliation, some popularly overemphasized, hyper- contextualization practices encourage theological or doctrinal deconstruction. They encourage local Christians in a target culture to liberate themselves from imperialistic Western theology and thus to interpret Scripture according to what they value in their 1 This essay is an abbreviated synthesis of chapters 4-5 in the forthcoming book: E. D. Burns, Ancient Gospel, Brave New World: Jesus Still Saves Sinners in Cultures of Shame, Fear, Bondage, and Weakness (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2021). 131 132 | Doctrinal Language in Missions own cultural orientation. This is a tendency in the movement towards contextual theology, ahistorical indigenous theology, and standpoint self-theologizing.2 So, they ask the Christians of the target culture, “How do you understand this biblical passage?” And when the indigenous Christians, being respectful of their teachers, turn the open-ended question back to the missionaries, if the missionaries are ungrounded in doctrine and historical theology, they will often employ a method devoid of doctrine (because in their mind, Bible = good; doctrine = bad). So, what is one essential doctrine that missionaries tend to sideline more than others? That Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins? That God is Creator? That there is a heaven and a hell? Those are still, nevertheless, central themes that many missionaries treasure. Yet, one key doctrine that most overlook, and some even outright reject, is the glorious truth of justification, specifically imputation. If missionaries do, however, claim to uphold the doctrine of justification, the way they might describe it is as though it were synonymous with pardon and forgiveness—not a small oversight. The implications of neglecting the doctrine of Christ’s imputed righteousness through faith alone have eternal consequences, and for those in merit- based, karmic cultures, this doctrine is eminently relevant. One common example on the mission field of this anti-doctrinal approach is putting a Bible into the hands of new believers and asking them how they interpret it and plan to apply it. Errors abound, then, especially in terms of confusing achieved personal righteousness with received alien righteousness. This is especially true for those people who view reality through a meritorious system that they believe secures favor with spirits, gods, ancestors, Allah, etc. If the missionary doesn’t contend for the centrality of justification through faith alone, errors of works-righteousness will inevitably creep in unnoticed. Consequently, the local Christians’ hermeneutical grid, worship, discipleship, and assurance suffer. Bible-Only Language Versus Doctrinal Assertions These kinds of fallacies abound in missions networks where the needs of the unreached are staggering, progress has been slow and discouraging, theological precision and exactitude are disparaged, and listening for the Holy Spirit’s secret, extrabiblical words is regularly practiced. And the Bible becomes a mystical book, quoted out of historical and doctrinal context, but quoted nonetheless as the basis for their ministry practices and conclusions. If there is any pushback, anti-doctrinal missionaries might claim, “I’m just doing what the Bible says”; “The Bible is my creed”; “I’m just listening to the Spirit”; or “I’m just following the way of Jesus.” This distinction between using Bible-only language as definitive versus employing doctrinal formulations might seem hair-splitting and pedantic. That’s an understandable assessment. Nevertheless, this issue is worthy of our attention as missionaries. It has eternal ramifications. 2 This is not to say that seeking to apply Scripture to a local, indigenous context is unwarranted. Indeed, we should duly encourage it. For instance, teaching a theology of vocation and work has many different applications: where one people group might corporately struggle with sloth and idleness, another people group might corporately err on the side of being worried busybodies and vainly self- sufficient. Both need a theology of vocation and work under God’s natural and providential decrees, but such theology will be uniquely applicable and meaningful depending upon the context. The Master’s Seminary Journal | 133 The history of false teaching and heresy records the practice of using the Bible’s language to affirm imprecise doctrine or to suggest patently false doctrines. Saying, “I’m a Jesus-follower” and refusing to clarify what one believes to be true about Christ’s identity and Christ’s work is a pious distraction clouded by sentimental, hazy, and “authentic” language. The follow-up question, then, is, “Who is Jesus and what did He do?” Well, which Jesus? Muslims have a Jesus. Mormons have a Jesus. Secular elites have a Jesus. The Word of Faith movement and the New Apostolic Reformation have a Jesus. In claiming that doctrine is divisive and that “the world will know we are Christians by our love,” propositional truth becomes not only extraneous but sometimes even a perceived threat to true spirituality. All that matters, then, is a “pure and simple devotion to Jesus,” not proactively teaching truth claims of the history and doctrine of Christ. In other words, some big-hearted, undiscerning missionaries improperly use the Bible’s own language in a way that sounds sincere and pure-hearted, but in the end, such solo scriptura (not sola scriptura) obfuscates well-crafted creeds and doctrines that discriminate between orthodoxy and heterodoxy. To put it bluntly, each person’s eternity is on the line in knowing, assenting, and trusting propositional truths that rightly cut between truth and falsehood. Heaven and hell hang in the balance. And one iota can tip the scale one way or the other. This is why missionaries and translators, of all people, need to handle language with painstaking attentiveness. Irreversible syncretism can sneak in through a negligence of theological and transcendent categories, embracing the target culture’s value systems, adopting their standpoints, and not redefining common-sounding categories with biblical truths. As dogmatic theologian, Gilles Emery, describes Thomas Aquinas’s (1225–1274) tenacity for exacting theological language, missionaries and translators should take note: “St. Thomas is constantly working at the purification of our language, in order to make it appropriate for a correct understanding of the faith.”3 Words have meaning, and theological ideas have generational and eternal consequences. No concealed missiological conspiracy likely exists to “dumb down” theological tradition and doctrinal standards. Yet, as in psychological warfare where radical ideologues employ disinformation campaigns, so demonic powers and the spirit of the age all practice biblical disinformation tactics to blur, deviate, and pollute doctrinal truth. Believers are engaged in a truth war, and maybe no other arena suffers more blitzkrieg than the frontlines among the least-reached language groups. Ever since biblical times and especially throughout church history, the doctrines of demons have threatened to infiltrate the ranks of God’s elect. Commonly the enemy has done this through undiscerning, and occasionally even devious, leaders in the church who promote biblical-sounding terminology with doctrineless or twisted doctrinal definitions. 3 Gilles Emery, “Central Aristotelian Themes in Aquinas’s Trinitarian Theology,” in Aristotle in Aquinas’s Theology, ed. Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering (Oxford University Press, 2015), 21. 134 | Doctrinal Language in Missions Athanasius, Doctrinal Language, and Righteousness in Christ One classic example of anti-doctrinal solo scriptura was the controversy over the nature of Christ between Athanasius (300–373) and Arius (250–336) in the fourth century. Arius and his followers’ denial of the divinity and eternality of Christ was the locus of the controversy, but because they were using biblical verses and language to prooftext their arguments, this issue was unusually complex to unravel. Historian, Mark Noll,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sola Fide and Sola Gratia in Early Christianity
    Salvation sola fide and sola gratia in early Christianity Published in: P.N. Holtrop, F. De Lange, R. Roukema (eds), Passion of Protestants, Kampen 2004, 27-48 Riemer Roukema Martin Luther‟s passion was to proclaim his discovery that man is justified by faith in Christ. This meant to him that, in man‟s relationship with God, he does not have to correspond to God‟s „righteousness‟ by his own „works‟ or efforts, but that God freely bestows the righteousness of Christ on everyone who believes in Christ as Saviour.1 Luther even intro- duced his discovery into his translation of Rom. 3:28. Whereas Paul wrote there that „man is justified by faith apart from works of the law‟, Luther translated that „man is justified without works of the law, only by faith‟.2 Although this translation was fiercely criticized, he vigorously defended it, saying that a version including „only‟ made up a more natural German sentence than without this adverb. Moreover, he referred to Ambrose and Augustine who said before him that faith alone makes one righteous.3 In Latin, „only by faith‟ is sola fide; combined with sola gratia, „only by grace‟, these words became important slogans of Lutheran and Calvinist Protestantism. For sola gratia, one may refer to Rom. 3:24, „justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus‟ (RSV), and to Eph. 2:8-9a, „For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not because of works‟ (RSV).
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Protestant Christianity Today Daniel H. Bays
    Chinese Protestant Christianity Today Daniel H. Bays ABSTRACT Protestant Christianity has been a prominent part of the general religious resurgence in China in the past two decades. In many ways it is the most striking example of that resurgence. Along with Roman Catholics, as of the 1950s Chinese Protestants carried the heavy historical liability of association with Western domi- nation or imperialism in China, yet they have not only overcome that inheritance but have achieved remarkable growth. Popular media and human rights organizations in the West, as well as various Christian groups, publish a wide variety of information and commentary on Chinese Protestants. This article first traces the gradual extension of interest in Chinese Protestants from Christian circles to the scholarly world during the last two decades, and then discusses salient characteristics of the Protestant movement today. These include its size and rate of growth, the role of Church–state relations, the continuing foreign legacy in some parts of the Church, the strong flavour of popular religion which suffuses Protestantism today, the discourse of Chinese intellectuals on Christianity, and Protestantism in the context of the rapid economic changes occurring in China, concluding with a perspective from world Christianity. Protestant Christianity has been a prominent part of the general religious resurgence in China in the past two decades. Today, on any given Sunday there are almost certainly more Protestants in church in China than in all of Europe.1 One recent thoughtful scholarly assessment characterizes Protestantism as “flourishing” though also “fractured” (organizationally) and “fragile” (due to limits on the social and cultural role of the Church).2 And popular media and human rights organizations in the West, as well as various Christian groups, publish a wide variety of information and commentary on Chinese Protestants.
    [Show full text]
  • The Five Solas of the Reformation
    The Five Solas of the Reformation Contents Background ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Sola Gratia ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Indulgences .................................................................................................................................. 6 Definition of Grace ...................................................................................................................... 7 Grace Alone ................................................................................................................................. 9 Grace is Part of the Character of God ...................................................................................... 9 Grace is Clearly Displayed by the Cross of Jesus .................................................................. 11 Grace is Expressed in Different Ways ................................................................................... 12 Grace is Pure .......................................................................................................................... 14 Grace is Sovereign ................................................................................................................. 14 Grace in Relation to the Law ................................................................................................. 16 Grace is Given
    [Show full text]
  • Turning Point: Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521)
    Turning Point: Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521) Mark Noll, Turning Points, ch. 7 Key texts to start with: The Freedom of a Christian, On the Bondage of the Will, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, The 95 Theses. Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran churches (1530). Luther on reading and teaching the Gospel narratives. Luther's amazing sermon on John 1:29. Luther's blistering commentary on Galatians. Guys who blog quite a bit on Luther - Ron Frost, Peter Mead, Glen Scrivener. Carl Trueman on Luther at the Clarus Conference 2005 - audio. Martin Luther in 30 minutes from MTC. A Mighty Fortress is Our God: The Story of Martin Luther - available at iServe Africa bookstore Graham Tomlin, Luther and his World – available in the iServe Africa library Michael Reeves, Unquenchable Flame / On Giant’s Shoulders Some of the key issues: Authority of Church versus authority of Word – “my conscience is captive to the Word of God” Against Papacy that Luther saw to be slamming the door to the kingdom in people’s faces, not going in and preventing others from entering Sacraments reduced to Baptism and Lord’s Supper (versus 7 catholic sacraments) Luther’s ‘theology of the Cross’ (from 1517 onwards) - increasingly seeing that the will is bound, can do no good of ourselves (and if we think that we can, that is evil); it is in powerlessness that there is power. This was an extension of Augustinianism that the church could no longer contain. Summary of Alister McGrath’s Luther’s Theology of the Cross, 1985 McGrath starts by placing Luther is his setting as a late medieval theologian of the via moderna.
    [Show full text]
  • Sola Fide the Relevance of Remembering the Reformation
    Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary ConcordiaPages Resources for Ministry 1-1-2018 Sola Fide The Relevance of Remembering the Reformation Erik Herrmann Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/concordiapages Part of the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Herrmann, Erik, "Sola Fide The Relevance of Remembering the Reformation" (2018). ConcordiaPages. 6. https://scholar.csl.edu/concordiapages/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Resources for Ministry at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in ConcordiaPages by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SOLA FIDE THE RELEVANCE OF REMEMBERING THE REFORMATION ERIK HERRMANN pages SOLA FIDE THE RELEVANCE OF REMEMBERING THE REFORMATION ERIK HERRMANN About the Author Erik Herrmann r. Erik Herrmann is associate professor of historical theology, chairman of the Department of Historical Theology, director of Concordia Theology, and director of the Center for Reformation Research at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. DHerrmann joined the faculty of Concordia Seminary in 2005 after serving as an assistant pastor at Timothy Lutheran Church in St. Louis. He received his Ph.D. (2005) and Master of Divinity (2000) from Concordia Seminary. His earned his bachelor’s degree (1995) from Concordia University Wisconsin. His areas of interest and expertise include the history of biblical interpretation, with a particular focus on Martin Luther and the Reformation period; history of Medieval and Reformation/early modern Europe; 20th–century interpretations of Martin Luther and his theology; and the history of American Lutheranism.
    [Show full text]
  • Content I II IV V
    Content I IV io Forewords 20 Finding Luther 136 Luther as a Monk, Scholar and Preacher io Greeting 22 The Luther Family in Mansfeld Frank-Walter Steinmeier 24 The “ Luther Pit” in Mansfeld: 140 Luther’s Academic Background Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs What their Garbage Tells Us about 145 Leucorea 12 Foreword the Luther Family Harald Meller, Martin Eberle, 154 The Ninety-Five Theses 38 The Counts of Mansfeld and the Copper Ulrike Kretzschmar and Stefan Rhein Shale Mines of Mansfeld 160 From Likeness to Image: 15 Foreword Early Portraits of Luther 44 Dawn of a New Era Kay win Feldman 165 The Imperial Diet of Worms 17 Foreword Colin B. Bailey II 19 Contributors to the Catalogue V 46 Worldly Power and Courtly Art 180 Luther’s Theology 183 Sola Fide - 52 The Emperor and the Papacy Justification by Faith Alone 59 The Joint Exercise of Clerical and 186 Law and Grace- Worldly Power A Pictorial Subject of the Reformation 62 The Rulers of Saxony 198 The Eucharist 73 The Cranach Family in Wittenberg 203 Luther’s Translation of the Bible III 92 Pre-Reformation Piety 94 Parochial Churches and Divine Service prior to the Reformation 114 Piety in the Late Middle Ages 130 The System of Indulgences in the Catholic Church VI VIII 226 Luther in Wittenberg 358 Luther’s Legacy 455 Appendix 230 Hitched with Luther: 363 The Death of Martin Luther 456 References The Marriage between Katharina von 480 Printed Sources 374 In Memory of Luther: Bora and Martin Luther 481 Archival Primary Sources Museum, Memorial and Relic 240 Katharina von Bora (1499-1552)
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas More on Luther's Sola Fide: Just Or Unjust?
    ANGELICUM90 (2013) 761-798 761 Thomas More on Luther's Sola Fide: Just or Unjust? CHRISTOPHER J. MALLOY THE UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS (DALLAS, U.SA.) Thomas More's Dialogue Concerning Heresies contains a sustained, inci­ sive polemic against Luther's doctrine iustificatio sola fide sine operibus or justification by faith alone without works'. Most contemporary schol­ ars, both Catholic and Protestant, hold that the work of the early Catholic controversialists was largely a failure in responding to both the spiritual and theological concerns of Martin Luther2• One chief contention is that the controversialists failed to understand Luther correctly. This essay ar­ gues, against the consensus, that More's presentation of the Lutheran doc­ trine so/a.fide is substantially correct. The Dialogue, composed and edited A.D. 1528-1532, is presented as More's account to Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (who appointed More cen­ sor of heretical texts) of a lengthy set of his conversations with a certain 1 Thomas MoRE, Dialogue Concerning Heresies, rendered in Modem English by Mary Gottschalk. New York, Scepter Publishers, Inc., 2006, Part IV, §11, 428-55. 2 See David V.N. BAGClll, Luther's Earliest Opponents: Catholic Controversialists 1518-1525. Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1991, 9-14; Mark U. EDWARDS, Printing, Pro­ paganda, and Martin Luther. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994, 158; John M. FRYMIRE, The Primacy of the Postils: Catholics, Protestants, and the Dissemination ofIdeas in Early Modern Germany. Leiden, Brill, 2010, 41-42; Joseph LORTZ, "Wert und Grenzen der katholischen Kontroverstheologie in der ersten Hiilfte des 16. Jahrhunderts", in: August FRANZEN, ed, Um Reform und Reformation: Zur Frage nach dem Wesen des "Reformatorischen" bei Martin Luther.
    [Show full text]
  • Retrieval and the Doing of Theology
    Volume 23 · Number 2 Summer 2019 Retrieval and the Doing of Theology Vol. 23 • Num. 2 Retrieval and the Doing of Theology Stephen J. Wellum 3 Editorial: Reflections on Retrieval and the Doing of Theology Kevin J. Vanhoozer 7 Staurology, Ontology, and the Travail of Biblical Narrative: Once More unto the Biblical Theological Breach Stephen J. Wellum 35 Retrieval, Christology, and Sola Scriptura Gregg R. Allison 61 The Prospects for a “Mere Ecclesiology” Matthew Barrett 85 Will the Son Rise on a Fourth Horizon? The Heresy of Contemporaneity within Evangelical Biblicism and the Return of the Hermeneutical Boomerang for Dogmatic Exegesis Peter J. Gentry 105 A Preliminary Evaluation and Critique of Prosopological Exegesis Pierre Constant 123 Promise, Law, and the Gospel: Reading the Biblical Narrative with Paul SBJT Forum 137 Gregg R. Allison 157 Four Theses Concerning Human Embodiment Book Reviews 181 Editor-in-Chief: R. Albert Mohler, Jr. • Editor: Stephen J. Wellum • Associate Editor: Brian Vickers • Book Review Editor: John D. Wilsey • Assistant Editor: Brent E. Parker • Editorial Board: Matthew J. Hall, Hershael York, Paul Akin, Timothy Paul Jones, Kody C. Gibson • Typographer: Benjamin Aho • Editorial Office: SBTS Box 832, 2825 Lexington Rd., Louisville, KY 40280, (800) 626-5525, x 4413 • Editorial E-Mail: [email protected] Editorial: Reflections on Retrieval and the Doing of Theology Stephen J. Wellum Stephen J. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theo- logical Seminary and editor of Southern Baptist
    [Show full text]
  • Culture, Worldview, Biblical Interpretation, and Mission 129
    Doss: Culture, Worldview, Biblical Interpretation, and Mission 129 GORDEN R. DOSS Culture, Worldview, Biblical Interpretation, and Mission Case Study 1 Not long ago the Seventh-day Adventist Church completed a study of the theology of ordination. The Theology of Ordination Sub-Committee (TOSC) invested an amount of money and effort into the study of just one issue unprecedented in Adventist history. As the TOSC process has been described to me, there was a two ton elephant that wondered around the room, receiving only slight attention. That elephant was culture. When the elephant was acknowledged at all, it was through such comments as, “Well, they just think that way because of their culture!” By implication, some participants were shaped by their cultures and others were not. Consider some differing cultural perspectives that potentially influ- ence the view of women in ministry. Some cultural traditions are very concerned with ritual purity and impurity. Ritually impure people must be excluded from regular community life and especially from religious rituals because their presence would make rituals non-efficacious. Female menstruation is sometimes seen as causing ritual impurity. I do not know the full extent of this perspective but believe it exists on several continents, including Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Within the last month I was told by a seminary student wife from Latin America that when she was growing up her pastor-father always asked whether she was in her monthly cycle on the Sabbaths when she was to serve on the platform. In many Adventist churches there is an upper and lower platform.
    [Show full text]
  • Infallible?" (Hans Küng, 1970)
    On "Infallible?" (Hans Küng, 1970) First published (in German) as "Unfehlbar?", 1970; transl. E.Mosbacher, Collins, 1971 © C.Jeynes, Guildford, 2nd June 2012 (revised 24th August 2012 and 17th February 2014) Infallibility: a question for all Christians Küng is a prominent German theologian of the Roman Church. He is notorious for attacking Roman doctrines, and, in particular in this book, Infallible?, he attacks the Roman doctrine of Papal infallibility. It was for this book that his licence to teach Roman theology was revoked by the Roman authorities. He remains as emeritus Professor of ecumenical theology at the University of Tübingen. Let me parenthetically comment here that in this review I systematically refer to the "Roman" Church, not the "Roman Catholic" Church, since the question of what is really "catholic" ("universal") is at the heart of this book.1 For example, I would say that Luther was the catholic where the then Pope was the heretic. I would say that any Christian with acceptable doctrine is "catholic" since he or she thereby belongs to the body of believers, the "cloud of witnesses" (Heb.12:1). But is the Roman Church "catholic"? But why should we be interested in such apparently arcane matters of Roman theology? It turns out that we2 have a similar doctrine, of inerrancy: We believe the Bible to be the only inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God, inerrant in its original manuscripts. http://epsomcf.org.uk/about-us/what-we-believe/ (downloaded 14th May 2012) This statement follows recent conservative theological positions, and in particular the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy"3 (1978) which was signed by nearly 300 scholars including J.I.
    [Show full text]
  • JAMES 2:24: RETRANSLATION REQUIRED (Part 1 of 3)
    JAMES 2:24: RETRANSLATION REQUIRED (Part 1 of 3) by John Niemelä Introduction: Sola Fide Requires Sola Scriptura How easy it is to assume sola fide as axiomatic to Christi- anity without comprehending the tremendous battles Martin Lu- ther and other Reformers fought. Luther’s nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of the Church at Wittenburg marked an auspi- cious beginning on October 31, 1517. One of Luther’s greatest contributions to the Reformation was his translation of the Bible into a language accessible to the common man. However trans- lating from Hebrew, Greek and Latin texts into German was a massive task. Did Luther have lexicons of today’s caliber? Did he have access to an established scholarly community dedicated to biblical languages? Did Luther have any of the modern pub- lishing tools let alone a computer? And, yet the Reformation’s success not only depended upon sola fide (faith alone), but also sola Scriptura (Scripture alone). Indeed, Martin Luther and his contemporaries argued that departures from the Scripture authorized by the pope and various councils obscured the biblical doctrine of eternal justification, sola fide. In other words, sola fide was a compelling argument only if sola Scriptura were true. Luther’s enemies not only rejected sola fide, but also sola Scrip- tura, while those who embraced sola fide, of necessity, embraced sola Scriptura. The two doctrines stand or fall together. Luther quickly saw the practical ramifications of sola Scriptura: People who read the Bible for themselves could dis- cover (or verify) that eternal justification comes by faith alone.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Solas' of the Reformation
    THE ‘‘SOLAS’’ OF THE REFORMATION The Reformation’s theological basis, though deep, was simple, resting on a handful of fundamental principles. Our salvation is entirely by God’s grace and not of our own doing. We receive that grace, and are justified, through faith, and not by any works we do. These principles were set forth in Article IV of the Augsburg Confession. 1 To these material principles of the Reformation is added the formal principle, stated in the Formula of Concord, that the sole norm and rule of doctrine is the Holy Scripture. These three principles are referred to as the ‘‘three solas’’------by grace alone, through faith alone, learned from Scripture alone. Some writers, especially among the Reformed, would add two other ‘‘solas’’------for the sake of Christ alone, and to God alone the glory. 2 Lutherans would not disagree with them as to that, though those two ‘‘solas’’ are actually solo propter Christum and soli Deo gloria . Nothing could be more important to each of us than knowing whether we are saved, whether we are destined for eternal life with God. There has been a certain tension in Christian doctrine from the very beginning. Christians agree that the saved have eternal life with God; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life”3; “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it we not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and 1 prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” 4 All Christians likewise agree that our salvation comes by God’s grace.
    [Show full text]