Credo 2026 | Sola Scriptura with Rev. Dr. Jonah So

0:59 This series is truly something that is special because the clergy get a chance to come together to present to you more of those questions of what does it mean to be Presbyterian, and we love exploring that and going on a journey with you. But before we do that, would you bow your heads with me in prayer? loving God we invite your spirit to stir in this room to open up our hearts to pique our curiosity to open our minds help us to hear things anew help us to learn and receive and and contemplate and perhaps even debate but ultimately have a conversation with what we will encounter today so move powerfully and move graciously among us we ask in Christ's name Amen.

1:47 So, because Jamie didn't spoil all of that, I get to do a little bit of what our credo is about. This year, our adult education credo series focuses on the five solas. These are foundational principles of the Reformation that summarize core Christian beliefs. So together, our clergy is exploring sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria. And we'll discover how each shapes faith and life today. Now, the five solas were not exactly Reformation slogans. It would have been awesome if they had merchandise and you'd be like, oh, which team are you on? You know, I just would love to do that. But again, they were not systematically created so that they could be taught.

2:39 Rather, they serve as a good summary of the Reformed faith. So neither Martin Luther or John Calvin nor any other Protestant reformer summarize their teachings in a tidy list, including Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, and to the glory of God alone. As a matter of fact, this kind of bullet point took flight in the 19th and 20th centuries. That's like really close to us. So you think it's so old, but it's actually these were not used until much later, closer to us than to them. And this five-fold summary became, again, the shorthand version of what is known as Reformed theology.

3:27 While this description of the Reformed faith came later, it still captures well the core of the gospel in all its graciousness and Christ-centeredness, just as it is revealed in the scriptures. These five solas show the glory of God's gracious way of salvation in a way that sets the tone for theology, resounding in how we think and live in this world. So with any sort of teaching, we've got to kind of go back a little bit to some history. So the Christian church has experienced two major permanent splits. I don't like that. I don't like that. I know Christ doesn't like that, but it's happened. Christ's church went through two permanent splits. The first one, so if we look at the diagram here, we have the early Christian church in the middle, top, and Catholic and Eastern Orthodox to the left and right.

4:25 And then we'll go underneath. But for now, early on, the early Christian church, let's say it started around 33 AD after Christ has died and has risen, and the church is coming together and being birthed through the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, the church went on for some time. The Great Schism of 1054 was the first of the splits. This East-West split formalized the divide between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The split arose from centuries of cultural, political, and theological friction between the two. because we could go like forever with history lesson. What I'm going to just highlight is the theological cause of this rift was the filioche controversy.

5:20 This is a Latin phrase and it means and from the son. This was added to the Nicene Creed stating that the Holy Spirit proceeds from where? It used to be the father, but they added and the son. So the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and this was the view of the West. The Eastern view opposed it, arguing that the Father is the sole source of the Holy Spirit. That's another credo for another time, but that's the split. To be clear, if you're wondering which side do we land on, Presbyterians descend from the Western split. The concerns and struggles of Christians who would eventually protest and be subsequently mocked as those protesters or those Protestants would eventually come to a boiling point 500 years later. So we see that from the Catholic Church, which is the West, the Protestant Reformation happens, and from there, boom, splits galore.

6:23 And this second split, we call the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation arose in the 16th century, driven by a desperate need to address widespread corruption, theological stagnation, and authoritarian abuses within the Roman Catholic Church. Key drivers included the sale of indulgences, the secularization of the clergy, and a desire for direct Bible-based faith over papal control. The movement, although it had its simmerings and stirrings, the movement officially began in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, which were arguments against the church's practices and teachings, and it changed European religious, political, and social life.

7:23 Key Protestant reformers include Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Huldrych Zwingli. They articulated and crystallized ideas that had been floated around by those we might call pre-reformers, such as John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and Peter Waldo. So what's the problem? In the context of the reformer's struggle with the Roman Catholic Church, the notion of Scripture's clarity was at the heart of what set up the problem. So with all of the complaints and concerns about the Roman Catholic Church, one of them was authority. Does it make sense to ascribe authority to a Bible which is unclear?

8:15 Let me explain more. Leading up to the time of the Reformers, a climate had built up regarding the obscurity of Scripture for which the reason the laity were actually encouraged to not read it. We have to let that land for a second. In the Presbyterian Church, we do lots of Bible study. We read the Word. We focus on the Word, and we're so used to that. But in the time of the Reformation, in the 16th century, and prior to that, the laity didn't have easy access to Bibles. They weren't told to read it. They didn't understand it. As a matter of fact, in 1199, Pope Innocent III declared that the desire to read the Bible is commended. Commended.

9:07 but that the reading without the supervision of duly appointed priests was not to be tolerated so you can't just pick it up and be like what does this say right it was not tolerated it was because and they say the profundity of scripture is such that not only the unlearned but also the educated and wise ones can't grasp the meaning it was too dangerous to be put into the hands of those who did not know, which is again a far cry from, hey, let's give Bibles away. The Gideons put it all in all the hotels and motel rooms because it should be for everyone. Completely different mindset. This passage, I mean, this is one of the things that the critics said. According to Rome, it is far more correct to say that the Bible needs the church than the church has need of the Bible. Again, let's let that land. How odd is it to say that the Bible needs the church more than the church needs the Bible? This is the climate to which the Christians were saying, something's not right. Something is not right.

10:33 the church had lost its way. The corruption and sinfulness of humanity had affected the body of Christ. We're not, again, sometimes I have to pause to make nuances. We're not saying the church was no good, but sinful people running church affected the church, the beautiful body of Christ. And so the church had lost its way, and to Luther, the authority of scripture was the way in which the church needed to move forward. As a familiar passage from Psalm 119 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. On April 18, 1521, before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Germany, Martin Luther defiantly refused to recant his writings and the false teachings within them.

11:37 He said this, Unless I am convinced by the testimonies of Scripture or evident reason. For I believe neither the Pope nor councils alone, since it is established that they have often erred and contradicted themselves. I am the prisoner of the scripture cited by me, and my conscience has been taken captive by the word of God. I neither can nor will recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to act against conscience. God help me. Amen. So Luther asserted that his conscience was captive to the word of God. He declared that he could not go against scripture. He highlighted also that the pope and councils have historically been susceptible to error and have been corrected.

12:33 And he ultimately separated the papal authority from that of scripture, leaving only scripture as the ultimate authority. So up until this time, it was the papal authority or the clergy that would ultimately say, this is what the Bible is saying, and it would be authoritative.

12:54 So the interpreter would tell you, this is what you're to think. This is how it is. No discussion. Sometimes I think, what about it? No, I kid, I kid. I hate that. If you're taking Bible study with me, I can't stand that. What do you think, pastor? I'm like, what do you think? So, Luther's refusal to recant resulted in the edict of Worms, which declared him a heretic, an enemy of the state, and banned his writings. But while Luther thus voiced at Worms shows the essential motivation, concern, theological, and religious of the entire Reformation movement, namely that the word of God alone must rule, and no Christian dared do other than to allow it to enthrone itself in its conscience and their hearts.

13:52 And this solidified sola scriptura as a central tenant of the Reformation and demonstrated the defiance of individual conscience against papal and imperial authority. I don't know if you know this, but there was this Belgic Confession of Faith of 1561. It was one of the earliest statements of faith that churches, right, statements that bring communities, churches together say, this is what we believe. And articulating and say, this is it. So 1561 was one of the earliest statements of faith that articulates the concept of sola scriptura. Scripture as the sole authority. We see here, nor age, nor the passage of times or persons, nor councils, decrees, or official decisions above the truth of God.

15:15 Note how persons, in other words, the pope, and the councils are named as not above the word of God. The reason why we might not hear this Belgic Confession is because this Belgic Confession comes from the Dutch reform tradition, which is not part of the PCUSA heritage, not because the content is like, whoa, we don't believe that, but because of geography. Our strain of Presbyterianism didn't come from that part of the geographic world. But if we want to nitpick, the polity, the way that they did church wasn't quite aligned with ours. So we revere it as a good writing, but it's not part of our confessions. Our strain comes from the Scottish and English Reformed traditions. allow me to bring in John Calvin because as reformed, he must be in play.

16:15 Deuteronomy 29, 29 is among Moses' last words to Israel before his death and before Israel's entrance into the promised land. He exhorts Israel to heed what God has spoken to them. This is what it says. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever to observe all the words of this law. So Calvin observes that Moses condemns the audacity and excessive curiosity of those who would desire to be God's counselors and to penetrate into the deepest recesses of heaven. Oh, I know God's secrets. I'll tell God what to do.

17:00 Calvin goes on to claim it as folly. to pass our bounds by being more inquisitive than it is lawful for us, just guessing as to what God is doing in secret. So rather, Calvin proposes that faith looks up to God's secret providence with awe. We can be like, respect it, but instead of focusing on what we do not and cannot know, Calvin redirects our attention on what is actually ours to do. and Calvin says faith should occupy itself with the word that is that which has been revealed to us so Calvin encourages a quote from Calvin here no abyss is here rather a way in which we ought to walk in safety and a lamp to guide our feet the light of life and the school of sure and clear truth in the word God's will is declared to us as if God were openly speaking to us.

18:07 Now, Calvin did not excuse the uneducated from the work of learning the word by saying, the law is set forth to all folk between both little and great. God would have us all be instructed therein. If someone does not understand the Bible, then they should crave the spirit of understanding, and it shall be given to them. Not only is the word meant to be read by all kinds of people, but it is also designed to benefit all kinds of people. The word is for our profit. We can find spiritual growth there, and we know that God wants us to live according to these truths. Calvin argues that the only place that we may safely consult the mind of God is the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Again, the words written and revealed unto us.

19:04 Because the scriptures are the very word of God. To nowhere else has God directed us in order to learn what God would have us believe and to live in reference to our salvation. God has authored the Bible for the learned and the unlearned, both of whom are to avail themselves of the helps of God that kindly supplies the understanding of God's word. And to Calvin, the word is for practical, not speculative purposes. I just want to bring in one more important figure

19:46 before we look a little bit more at Sola Scriptura. This figure is a little bit anachronistic for the Sola Scriptura conversation because he predates the Reformation by more than a millennium. Isn't that cool weird font there? It says Saint Augustine. around 400 A.D., the Reformation was in the 1500s, around 400 A.D., St. Augustine wrote on baptism against the Donatists. In his work, he writes what eerily sounds like Martin Luther. And I actually added the underlines just to highlight, but he wrote this. But who can fail to be aware that the sacred canon of scripture, both of the Old and New Testament, is confined within its own limits, and that it stands so absolutely in a superior position to all later letters of the bishops, that about it can hold no manner of doubt or disputation whether what is confessedly contained in its right and true, but that all the letters of bishops which have been written or are being written since the closing of the canon are liable to be refuted if there be anything contained in them which strays from the truth.

21:08 And that even of the plenary councils, the earlier are often corrected by those which follow them. So in this quote, Augustine draws a clear distinction between scripture and all subsequent writings respect to their authority and truthfulness. A clear line to say the scripture, the letters that were written and captured, this is authoritative all others after the closing the canonization of the Bible that's helpful but it's not ultimately authoritative and unchanging And Augustine, like Martin Luther, maintains that councils and bishops can err and be corrected by later ones. So again, authority, where for many years, people had relied on clergy to tell them what it means, and they're like, oh, you can make a mistake? What? That's not the case?

22:09 That is changing. So what is sola scriptura? Sometimes to define what something is, it is helpful to define what it's not. Sola Scriptura does not mean that the Bible is the exclusive source of all theological knowledge. There might be some people, you might be among them, who believe, Oh, only Bible, nothing else. What about my science book? No, no, just Bible. What about, history book? No, Bible. it prevents that simplification to say the Bible is the only thing. That knowledge comes from nowhere else. That is not what sola scriptura is saying.

23:04 The sola scriptura does not mean that the Bible is the infallible rule for every subject. Similarly, with life and faith, it might be infallible, but we do not turn to it to help us understand chemistry. or arithmetics, or history, world history. it is the infallible rule for life and faith, but not for everything.

23:38 Sola Scriptura does not mean that the Bible is the only authority for each individual Christian. This goes against, so we have Sola Scriptura, but there's this thing called Nuda Scriptura, which is the belief that we should ignore history, creeds, teachers entirely and only look at scripture in a vacuum.

24:04 This is sometimes what people think sola scriptura means that get rid of everything and just Bible. and what Sola Scriptura is speaking against is we do not read the Bible in a void. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. To put it in another way, in a biblical way, we are part of a great cloud of witnesses.

24:29 And some ways that we understand this is the rule of faith. You see, the early Christians used consensus of the church to guard against wild, individualistic interpretations, heresies. and also use tradition as a tool. Traditional sola scriptura views tradition as a very useful servant of the text. It helps us understand how the Holy Spirit has guided the church to understand difficult passages over 2,000 years. sometimes in Bible study I say to people share what you're thinking and if it's wacky and heretical it's okay not to say that it's okay to be heretical but it's okay to say it because in this space we are gonna hear oh that sounds close but that's that's off and we'll correct it because in a group we're able to hear what's been passed down to us and we're able to filter together what sounds almost right to say, no, not quite though. And that debate helps us grow and understand our faith.

25:41 if an individual claims that their interpretation of the Bible is the only thing that matters, ignoring 2,000 years of church history, they aren't practicing sola scriptura. They're actually making themselves the ultimate authority. How I understand it is how it is. And I will use my understanding to judge all you. That's what's really going on. But by acknowledging historical circumstances, the statement argues that you are not the first person to read the Bible. And it says that the church is a community, and the Bible was given to a community, not just a collection of isolated individuals. And lastly, that the confessions and creeds are necessary guardrails that prevent individuals from accidentally inventing something new and often historically rejected gospels.

26:45 Sola Scriptura does not mean that it can be amalgamated with other Protestant doctrines concerning scripture, such as perspicuity, sufficiency, etc. What this means is, while Sola Scriptura is a part of the family of doctrines about the Bible, It is not a catch-all term for everything Protestants believe about the word of God. If we amalgamate them or mix them into one giant pile, we lose specific nuances required to defend each point. So sola scriptura must be distinguished from its sibling doctrines. So the two that I want to use here just to kind of make a point is sola scriptura versus sufficiency. Sola Scriptura is about authority. It answers the question, who has the final say? And the answer is scripture. Sufficiency is about content. It answers the question, is there enough information here for salvation?

27:50 And the answer is yes. And here's the nuance. you could theoretically have a document that is the final authority, but it doesn't contain everything you need, like a rule book for a game that requires an external referee. And conversely, a book can be sufficient for a task, but not be the only authority on the matter.

28:16 The second example is sola scriptura versus perspicuity, which means clarity. Perspectivity is about understandability. It claims that it is that the essential message of the Bible is clear enough for the ordinary person to understand. And here's the nuance. Just because the Bible is the final authority doesn't mean that every verse is easy to understand.

28:44 Amalgamating these or mixing these leads to the false idea that if the Bible is my only authority, I should be able to understand every mystery in it without help. How's that go for all y'all reading the Bible? So classic Protestantism disagrees, noting that while the gospel is clear, many parts of scripture are hard to understand, as 2 Peter 3.16 would say. So when someone says you cannot mix these, they're actually trying to prevent two specific errors. The first, we kind of touched on it, they're error of individualism. If you mix sola scriptura with perspicuity too tightly, you end up with solo scriptura. This idea, again, that you don't need the church, you don't need history or scholars, because the Bible is clear to me.

29:38 It's my only authority. And by keeping them separate, theologians can argue that while the Bible is the final authority we still need the church to help us interpret the parts that are not clear and it helps us combat the error of categorical confusion. In a debate, if an opponent proves that a certain verse is unclear, they haven't disproven sola scriptura. They've only challenged a specific view of perspicuity. If you have amalgamated the two, your entire theological house falls down over one difficult Greek verb. I don't know, it's unclear. Oh, that means the whole Bible's unclear, no good. So it prevents that from happening in an argument.

30:25 So that we have an idea of what sola scriptura is not, sola scriptura does mean that scripture is the only infallible rule for faith and practice. It's to say that scripture must govern over church traditions and interpretations which are themselves held to be subject to scripture. and that tradition has a place. Creeds and councils can be binding and authoritative, but all that is subsequent to scripture is reformable in the light of scripture. Scripture is the only source of normative, apostolic, infallible revelation and that all things necessary for salvation and about faith and life are taught in the Bible with sufficient clarity so that the ordinary believer can find it there and understand it.

31:18 So what are the results of sola scriptura? The first, beliefs which could not be demonstrated to be grounded in scripture were either to be rejected or declared as binding on no one. For example, the reformers had little time for the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. That is, this is the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without any taint from sin. And they would fight about why that's so important.

31:54 And the reformers found that they regarded this as lacking in a scriptural basis, and thus they discarded it. Talk about it if you want. That's not necessary for faith. And second, new emphases were placed on the public status of scripture within the church. because of the Reformation, the expository sermon.

32:18 And I know some of you are like, oh my gosh, those are long because you have to explain, right? But if you're here, you kind of like it. But the expository, oh, this is what it's saying, this is the history, this is what it means, oh my gosh. But, and, biblical commentary. I hope you all have a commentary set that you can kind of go to. When I say Bible study, always read with a partner. Don't read it by yourself. It's like not just to call me up and be like, hey, let's read the Bible together. I'll do that for Bible study. But having a commentary means that you're reading it with someone else who's kind of read it with you and guides you. It's a partner to talk back and forth. Their idea. It doesn't mean their ideas are truth and you must receive it the way scripture is. It's just saying someone read it and said, this is what I think it means. You're like, oh, that's a great idea. I kind of like that. How am I making my own? Right? You know how it works when you first find something. Oh my gosh, you're like, wow, like, you know, as Socrates once said, and then over time, you're like, a wise man once said, and you say it enough, and you're like, as I've always said.

33:20 So you learn, you hear, and you become who you're becoming in faith by reading commentaries. And the works of biblical theology, like Calvin's Institutes, came to be characteristic of the Reformation because scripture was such a core. So, what does it all come down to?

33:49 With all of this, the most practical implication that I wanna say about Sola Scriptura is biblical interpretation. I wanna, to kind of close it out, I wanna offer the two challenges, and I wanna offer some guidelines. Six of them, they're just real fast though. But, so here are the challenges of biblical interpretation. First is confirmation bias, right? We know that sola scriptura, what it means for us, Bible study is no automatic guarantee of good theology for two reasons. That doesn't have to do so much with the authority of Scripture as with the more difficult problem of the right interpretation of Scripture. So first, there's always the danger that we will find in the Bible only what we take with us to it that we will use to confirm what we already think and we will only hear what we want to hear. That's not us, right?

34:41 We don't do that. None of us do that here. I know you guys are better than that. For example, because they already hated Jews before they read the Bible, some German Christians once found the Bible justification for slaughtering millions of Jews. Because they wanted to keep their human property, some American Christians once argued from the Bible that it is right to buy and sell human beings as if they were animals. Mean people usually find a mean God in the Bible. Superficial find superficial God. Comfortable and powerful people find that the Bible supports social and political conservatism.

35:32 Poor, exploited people usually find that it supports social and political reform or revolution. So what's to prevent us from using the Bible to give authority to our own religious, social, political, and economic prejudices? What is to prevent us from using the study of the Bible as a pious exercise for refusing to face the radical claims of the living God in every area of our lives here and now? Second, figuring out the context. The difficulty doesn't just lie with us. It lies with the Bible. The Bible is not one book, but a collection of writings composed by and for ancient Near East people over a long period of time. It bears witness not to general timeless truths about God.

36:31 Let me just sum it up for you in this beautiful nugget. But to the way that different people and groups using different ways of speaking and thought forms discern the work and word of God in their particular time, place, and situation. All of them lived with a pre-scientific, pre-industrial worldview in a patriarchal, hierarchical society that generally treated women as inferior, accepted slavery as normal, and did not even dream of the complex problems and needs of the kind of modern technological society that we live in. So how are we supposed to distinguish within Scripture what the will of God in all times and places from what was God's specific will for a particular people in one or another of the particular historical situations we read about in the Bible?

37:38 So the confessions of the Reformed tradition give us some widely accepted rules of interpretation that can help us. So with these challenges, I offer some guidelines. biblical interpretation guide. First, scripture is to be interpreted in light of its own purpose. We read the Bible rightly when we read it to learn who God is and how we may faithfully, how we may live faithfully in the presence of God. We do not read it properly when we read it as if it were a textbook of scientific information about the structure of the world and human life in it, or a book about world history in general. It tells us about the ultimate origin, meaning, and goal of human life that lie beyond the scope of modern scientific and historical disciplines.

38:41 Scripture interprets itself. The Westminster Confession in 1.9 states, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, it may be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly. When we encounter passages that are hard to understand, we can look at other passages that throw a different light or more light on a question at hand. This rule also means we must listen to the total witness of scripture, not to just selected passages that support what we already think and want to hear.

39:25 Even Luther was not immune to this. He had, and you're gonna learn, he had his books that are like, that shouldn't be in the canon, that shouldn't be in the canon. You can take a guess as to what that might be and you hear it, you're like, yeah, I knew it. but yeah there are certain Bible books we like and others are like I don't really want to read that one but we must look at scripture in totality we must remember the Christological principle. Jesus Christ is the clearest revelation of who God is and what God promises and wills for faithful Christian life. Therefore, all scripture is to be interpreted in light of what Jesus Christ himself did and commanded, which is from the Scots Confession, chapter 18. And in the light of its witness to God's work of reconciliation in Christ, which is from Confession of 1967, and when we encounter apparent tensions and conflicts in what scripture teaches us to believe and do, the final appeal must be to the authority of Christ, which is from the Declaration of Faith, chapter 6.3.

40:33 the rule of love. The Scott's Confession, chapter 18, says, we dare not receive or admit any interpretation which is contrary to any point of our faith. And the Declaration of Faith, chapter 6.3, says more generally, listening with respect to fellow believers, past and present, we anticipate that the Holy Spirit will enable us to interpret faithfully God's word for our time and place. We interpret scripture rightly when we do not try to interpret it by ourselves as if we were the first ever to ask what it means. And then the rule of love. And this is the often forgotten rule. This one is based on the fact that the fundamental expression of God's will is a two-fold commandment to love God and neighbor.

41:27 Any interpretation of scripture is wrong that shows indifference toward or contempt for any individual or group inside or outside the church. All right interpretation reflect the love of God and the love of God's people for all kinds of people everywhere. Everyone included and no one excluded. And lastly, the study of scripture in its literary and historical context. The classical confessions of the 16th century knew that it is important to interpret scripture from the nature of the language in which they were written, likewise according to the circumstances which were set down. This is from the Second Helvetic Confession. But more contemporary confessions go deeper into that. The Declaration of Faith says, God has chosen to address God's inspired word to us through diverse and varied human writings. Therefore, we use the best available methods to understand them in their historical and cultural setting and in the literary forms in which they were cast.

42:36 scholars who are skilled in investigating scripture in its original literary and historical context help us understand that God spoke to our ancestors and they helped us discern what the God who spoke and acted back then is saying and doing here and now God can seem so old and so long ago and so obsolete.

43:05 If you love history, like Jamie says, I love history. You can like that old stuff. And maybe you're like, oh, that's great. As a matter of fact, one of the leaders of our officers coming in shared how singing hymns from the 1500s connects us to believers in time and space. That 1,500, they were singing these very words on their lips and we do the same. but if it was just history that we're here for we have many less than we have here there's something in this room that you're all asking what does that God of so long ago have to do with today the here and now my life as I'm leaving it now and the concept of sola scriptura doesn't keep God in the past God's word helps us read it and make the living word real and manifest in our lives as we study it together through discipline of study and through worship so that is one of the bullets of the Reformation Sola Scriptura so that's a check mark for your 105