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October 16, 2024 - Drew Golden
Forty-eight percent of evangelicals now believe that religious belief is a matter of personal opinion and not objective truth[1]. This data comes from a 2022 survey by Ligonier that left many of us scratching our heads and trying to figure out how we fell this far so fast.
It seems that every news cycle is littered with updates of new denominations that are splitting.
As a self-identifying evangelical protestant myself, I can recognize how easy we are to critique. We often look like hydras; except we are the ones cutting our heads off to watch two more grow back.
The many causes of the current condition of Protestantism are well beyond the scope of this blog’s ability to address.
But there is one misunderstanding of a foundational protestant belief that if corrected, would be able to help start the healing process.
Sola Scriptura
Sola Scriptura
Martin Luther once said, “A simple layman armed with scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it”[2].
He asserted the supremacy of scripture over both the Catholic Church and tradition. This came to be known as the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, and it's arguably the foundational belief of Protestantism and now Evangelicalism.
But today, one simple layman armed with scripture will say that gay marriage isn’t sinful while the next leads a church split over a church’s pandemic decisions.
Sola Scriptura seems to mean that if you have a proof verse, any action can be justified. Jesus flipped tables, didn’t he?
But this definition wouldn’t be recognized by Luther or the writers of historic protestant confessions of faith. To quote the 1689 London Baptist Confession, “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience”[3].
What it says: the bible is the only source of authority without error and sufficient in the knowledge of salvation and obedience to Christ.
What it doesn’t say: scripture is our only authority in life and doctrine.
Two Fallible Sources of Authority
Two Fallible Sources of Authority
The definition above leaves no room for the proof text and run strategy described earlier. It does leave room for fallible sources of authority to be introduced into the equation.
These sources of authority are fallible in the sense they aren't without error like scripture is. This means that they must be submitted underneath Scripture themselves even as we submit to them.
The Local Church
In Acts 2, we see that committing to fellowship and the apostles’ teaching were marks of the early church. Interpreting scripture was not a game they played on their own but one of the many things that they all held in common.
Also, the Lord has gifted the congregation elders to shepherd the local church. He’s calling you to be a sheep of a local shepherd by sitting under their authority and teaching from the Word.
This works best when you are a sheep to a shepherd that knows you.
In my experience, it is in the midst of trials when our view of God and his scriptures can be most easily warped. Committing yourself to a local congregation and its leaders makes it much easier to “count it all joy” and “let steadfastness have its full effect” (James 1:2-4).
Church History
When I was young, I would often open my bible and have the urge to find new insights from the text that hadn’t been seen before.
Often as evangelicals, we act like Christopher Columbus discovering a new land every time we open our bibles. But just like there had been people living in the land for thousands of years before Columbus “discovered” it, so have people been reading and interpreting scripture for thousands of years before us.
This means that opening your bibles and looking for a new interpretation is a recipe for disaster that can quickly lead to heresy.
You can help guard yourself from such faults by studying church history, both the history of Protestantism and that of the church as a whole.
While we don’t hold tradition to be infallible, we have much to learn from the saints of the past. We can either keep trying to build on our own or we can stand on their shoulders and benefit from their faithfulness.
In light of this understanding, I'm praying that we will be able to better fulfill Christ's prayer for unity from John 17:20.
I am under no illusions that a corrected view of sola scriptura will solve the protestant condition of division on its own. But unity in the church and union with God is possible and promised when we submit to God.
20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.
John 17:20-21 CSB
[1] Ligonier Ministries. (2022). The State of Theology. https://thestateoftheology.com/data-explorer/2022/31?AGE=30&MF=14®ION=30&DENSITY=62&EDUCATION=62&INCOME=254&MARITAL=126ÐNICITY=62&RELTRAD=2&EVB=6&ATTENDANCE=254
[2] Bainton, R. (2007). Here I stand - A life of Martin Luther. Bertrams Print On Demand.
[3] Malcolm, B. (2019, December 16). Of the holy scriptures. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. https://www.the1689confession.com/1689/chapter-1
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