Sola Scriptura

Objection #2 As a doctrine, Sola Scriptura does not stand alone throughout History

Sola Scriptura was simply not a doctrine of the early Church and therefore something new, introduced much later in history.

Scripture says: Galatians 1:8-9

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Christianity is in unity when it comes to the fervent desire to follow the Gospel, sound doctrine, orthodox teaching and Apostolic truth. With unanimity we seek to follow what has been taught from the beginning. This doctrine of Sola Scriptura however was not taught from the beginning. It’s origin as a “Sola” comes into play in dramtic fashion on April 18 1521 at the Diet of Worms via Martin Luthers testimony.

”Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scriptures or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or of councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word. I cannot and will not recant anything,” Martin Luther 1521

Many protestants will assert Luther was not the first to affirm Sola Scriptura but the truth unarguably remains that we see a an unprecedented proliferation in this belief spread throughout protestantism in the late 1500’s. This widespread adoption was unseen and unheard of prior to Luther’s Confession. It was in truth, a turning point. A moment that one can point to where we see a remarkable change. Prior to 1521 this particular doctrine was simply not universally taught or adhered to by the Church

But let’s go back further. What exactly is Scripture and how could it ever be taught as Sola? Simply put, scripture is the sacred writings of Christianity contained in the Bible. But our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God did not originate from Sacred writings, the source of our faith is in a person, Jesus himself. Jesus communicated the message of salvation to us by word and by action; by proclaiming the Gospel and dying on the cross to save us. The apostles and first disciples being witness to this and empowered by the Holy Spirit followed the command of Jesus who said.

Matthew 28:19 

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

And thus the apostles went out to world and in word and deed spread the good news, baptizing new believers and forming the first christian communities. They did this all without a full collection of New testament writings. The faithful had oral preaching and would never have been able to assert with the protestant believer that “all truth necessary for our salvation and spiritual life is taught either explicitly or implicitly in Scripture”. Sure they had the OT, but the collection of new testament books would take decades to write and centuries to circulated and even longer to assertain by the Church and the faithful what was and was not scripture.

Initially, Jesus sent the apostles the Holy Spirit and they were set apart to preach the word, Jesus christ crucified died and risen. By their preaching and teaching large numbers of converts were baptized. In fact, for the next 10 years after the death and resurrection of Christ the church springs into life and is thrust forth on the world stages without even the scent of the doctrine of Sola Scripture in the air. We don’t see the first NT manuscript of any writer until 40 - 45 AD and several decades the later NT writings such as 1- 3 John were penned and began to circulate

. The letters of John were written around 85 AD. It is important to point that during this 50 - 60 year period of NT writings christians did not have access to each and every manuscript being written. In fact most communities would be lucky to have 1 gospel or 1 letter and that would continue for decades and in some parts of the world centuries.

And finally, during the first 350 years after christ there were many many sacred texts in circulation and being used by christian communities. Many of these books did not make it in the bible. The point here is that having a master list of Sacred texts with which to cross reference was not a practice of the early church. Books such as; Apocalypse of Peter, The Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement, Gospel of Thomas and the Didache were all in common use among the early church. We would not have our first authoritative list until 367 AD from in the famous Festal letter from St Athanasius.

Sola Scriptura does not stand up well against the test of time in that it was not present in a Sola fashion in the early church in the same way we see it in use today from its protestant inception at the Diet of Worms.