Here’s something I wrote almost 30 years ago for a Christian discussion group. It was sent to me by someone who had kept it all these years and shared it with friends. I was amazed….
The title means “scripture alone” — one of the three ‘sola’s of the Reformation:
Sola Scriptura (scripture alone)
Sola Gratia (faith alone)
Sola Fides (grace alone)
I wrote this as a response to the following question by someone who believed in Catholicism:
What model am I supposed to have of Church doctrine, if one can overturn fundamental doctrines? I see little left but a Modernist one: doctrines change to suit the needs of the times.
To give a rough idea of what I’m talking about, what if we were to decide that Scripture was not a source of Revelation? This is akin to what the Reformers decided relative to Catholic doctrine.
The problem is, what do you do when the traditional interpretations contradict scriptures? A previous poster quoted Jesus’ rebuke to the Pharisees, about how their traditions contradicted God’s commands. Obviously, the revelation from God has to have precedence. Otherwise, one can turn your argument on its head: “What model am I supposed to have of Church doctrine, if the (institutional!) Church can overturn fundamental doctrines?
Another point is the issue of the purpose of revelation. The intent of revelation is not to produce a fixed certainty, but rather to point to the one about whom it gives witness, Christ. On the other hand, the temptation is to attempt to possess the revelation and sort of nail it down so it won’t move. This is a mistake. The revelation (and the revealed one) does not change, but the situation in which they are found changes. As Paul said, “I become all things to all men, that by all means I may save some.” His examples of this are that to the Jews he became as one under the law, though not being under the law, so that he could win those under the law, but to the Greeks he became as one outside the law – though not without law towards God, but under the law of Christ. Obviously, the issue of divine law was one he could treat flexibly.
The Reformers decided that the church as it stood was not faithful to God. On what basis did they decide this? What mechanism was there to call the church back to faithfulness? What point of view could speak to the situation without being controlled by it? The Scriptures, in their objectiveness, could do so, where popes and bishops and councils could not, or at least, did not.
It is clear to me that institutions take on a life of their own after a while, where the imperative of survival replaces the original purpose for which the institution was created. For this reason, institutions and organizations must be broken up periodically. The false life must die so the true life can again show forth. From a human perspective, this is terrifying. But from the perspective of God, whose church it ultimately is, it is a necessary process. Unless it happens, there is no room for him to say a new thing to us.
This process must happen in “Protestant” churches as well. The plethora of Protestant denominations witnesses to the difficulty everyone has in accepting the breaking up of their assumptions. The new freedom of 50 years ago often becomes the new bondage of today. How much worse when religious weight is put behind it, and people are led to believe their immortal souls are in jeopardy if they try to throw off the bondage.
The final point is that we must try not to arrange things so they work without God. An institution faces an almost inescapable temptation to do this. The institution will continue, things will get done, people will get their salaries paid, even if God doesn’t show up. Once this happens, the life tends to go out of things. But it is not the institution that is the point. God is the point. There is no reason for the institution to function at all if God doesn’t show up. A polite response to God’s failure to show up would be to disband. How often do large scale institutions take this possibility seriously?
The Scriptures say,
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.