Scripture Alone
2 TImothy 3:16-4:3
Pastor Ryan
Part of The Five Solas—The Battlecry of the Protestant Reformation
September 18, 2024

The Reformation began October 31, 1517.

• The Reformation was not a

, but it was an ecclesiological earthquake happening in Europe.
• In light of the Catholic church’s departure from sound doctrine, a young priest was stirred up to dispute the effects these shifts had on his people. This priest, named Martin Luther, saw these wrongdoings and publicly confronted the church by nailing a called the “95 Theses” to the church door there in Wittenburg, Germany. These were 95 points where Catholic doctrine did not line up with biblical doctrine. Luther had done this before. The church door was the bulletin board when you wanted to initiate a debate about something.
• The claim of the individuals known as Reformers, would eventually be distilled down to five , also known as the five Solas.

// Sola means “only” or “alone” in Latin.
// The Five Solas consisted of: Sola Scriptura = Scripture Alone, Sola Fide = Faith Alone, Sola Gratis = Grace Alone, Solus Christus = Christ Alone, Soli Deo Gloria = To God Be the Glory Alone

• In order to understand the 5 Solas, we need to go back before Martin Luther to a man named John Wycliffe. He and man named William Tyndale, who would come later, developed and laid the framework for the first battlecry:

Alone
• To understand their conviction, we are going to look at 2 Timothy 3:16 to understand something fundamental about the Christian life.
2 Timothy 3:16-4:2 | But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Sola Scriptura means Scripture is

• The Bible consists of

books originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and some Aramaic.

// The 39 books of the OT were written in Hebrew and was completed and finished in Jesus’ day. There was no dispute about which books belonged in the OT. That had already been settled. Because of the proliferation of the Greek language, the OT had been translated from Hebrew to Greek between 200-300 BC.
// The 27 books of the NT were written mostly in Greek, with some Aramaic in the text as well. These books were written after Christ had lived and chronicle His work and in the years of the early church. The first book written was Mark and the last book written was John’s Revelation (around 95AD).
// Around 405 AD, the Catholic priest and theologian Jerome, knowing that many in Europe no longer knew Greek, translated the Scriptures from Hebrew and Greek in Latin. The finished product was known as the Vulgate and for 1000 years it was considered the sole and sacred text used for worship in the Catholic Church.

• So, as time went on and English and other languages became common in Europe, some thought it needed to be

again. John Wycliffe was one of these individuals.
• The Catholic Church believed that Scripture AND tradition were authoritative. Tradition had come to outweigh Scripture. But Wycliffe said, “Holy Scripture is the highest for every believer.”
• As the Reformation went on, Bible translation was nurtured by men with convictions like:

// William Tyndale >> “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life [for] many years I will cause a boy who drives the plough to know more of the scriptures than you [preists] do.
// Martin Luther, who translated the Bible into the German language and saw it move mightily for the salvation of many >> “I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept…the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all.”

Application

• The Bible we hold in our hands that we can read for ourselves is a precious

.
• Scripture Alone means that there is no higher for faith and practice.

// Luther >> A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it.
// French Theologian John Calvin >> The Word of God is the only instrument by which the Lord dispenses the illumination of his Spirit to believers.