The Five Sola’s (Pt. 2 of 5)

Sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”)

Sola scriptura is the teaching that the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative word of God, is the only source for Christian doctrine, and is accessible to all — that is, it is perspicuous and self-interpreting.

May I suggest that this idea has been and continues to be under attack in the church. The emergent church has basically determined that they can move beyond the Bible. That what the Bible says is not true anymore to them, they have evolved beyond Scripture. They put culture above Scripture.

The mystics/Pentecostals/charismatics tend to believe that personal experience trumps the Bible. Their final authority is experience.

Others have said that the logic trumps the Bible in knowing Jesus. You can see threads of this in the fundamental church.

May I suggest that these are all false. Scripture alone is our final authority. If that which we believe disagrees with Scripture then that which we believe is false. This is a hard place to come to. Sometimes life would be easier if we could move beyond Scripture. However Scripture is to be our highest authority. If not then why believe anything, we might as go be as the world. The Word of God must be held to the place of highest authority.

Now this does not mean that nothing else has authority. We can still find authority in Science, in Psychology, Engineering, Medicine, and many others. However when they disagree with Scripture then we are to disagree those points of that field of study. We must test everything by Scripture.

So I hope that we repent of our pride that we can find a higher authority than God’s Word. And may Scripture alone be our highest authority.