A Defense of Sola Scriptura Against False Tradition

A friend of mine alerted me to a rather alarming section of a recent sermon given in Phoenix where the speaker gave a rather sarcastic commentary, laced with invective, against those who would depart from human traditions based on supposedly new understandings from the Bible. In every generation there is a struggle between the Word of God, and its sharply worded commands, and the wishes of entrenched hierarchies who wish to pass down received traditions that supposedly spring from apostles and prophets but are mediated through priests or pastors according to their own biases, seeking to defend their positions rather than the truth entrusted to them from above. It is for that reason that true believers must continually come out of Babylon because of the corruption that constantly assails all human organizations and societies.

If we are to refresh our spirits in these dark times, we must drink from the living waters of Christ, and every generation anew must find in those Words of precious truth the sword of the spirit to cut down the arguments of those who oppose God's way in practice, however much they may claim to support Him in theory. The Bible, far from being obsolete, speaks to the very concerns we deal with in life, though we do not often see it because few people are willing and able to face the harsh light of truth that the scripture has to say about human relationships and obedience to God's laws. One must remember there are two great commandments: to love God with all our heart and all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

These two great commandments lead into two essential and difficult elements of true religion. True religion must be in conformity to God's ways. If we are truly called, and truly a part of God's church (that is, the spiritual organism), we will behave in accordance with God's law, or at least have that as our target, and admit when we (often) fall short of it. When someone, no matter what their title or position, or whatever their claim of obedience to God, mocks divine commands and calls those who point out scriptures previously neglected (though never new, for what is true has always been true, and therefore there is really no such thing as a "new truth") as rebels and blasphemers, followers of the doctrines of demons, such a person does not speak with God's Holy Spirit, but rather slanders God's servants and holds himself as a judge of souls, only to find himself condemned.

The second obligation of true religion is no easier to accomplish, loving our neighbor (which means everyone else we happen to come across) as we regard ourselves. If we have an accurate knowledge of ourselves, we will see that we have dignity in that we are children of the Most High God, and we will see the depravity that all of us share as fallen sons of Adam. Such mixtures of dignity and depravity we see in ourselves (if we are honest) are also present, in varying quantities and qualities, in everyone else as well. No one is above the curse of sin and the suffering that results from a fallen nature, and no one is below the dignity of being a child of God. We are all struggling humans alike, whether we realize it or not. None of us has any place for shame, for all of us were put here for His purposes, and none of us has any place for glorying in ourselves, for God alone has the glory--solo gloria Dei.

We can only know these things, though, from a knowledge of the scriptures. It was the scriptures that the wise Bereans searched to prove whether Paul was truly speaking correctly in his messages. It was the scriptures (probably Deuteronomy) that Josiah the righteous king of Judah looked in to see the harrowing judgment about to fall upon his idolatrous nation that God mercifully allowed him not to see. It was the scriptures that inspired men like William Tyndale to risk their lives to translate these good words for the spiritual building up of their fellow human beings trapped in ignorance to vain and corrupt priests who claimed that the church was infallible and that only they had the right to read the scriptures and interpret it. They were wrong--no human church is, ever has been, or ever can be infallible. So long as we are human beings serving other human beings, there will be some area we fall short in, some way to improve, some aspect of our knowledge that is incomplete, or that we give too much credence to human traditions and false interpretations taught by well-meaning people that were nonetheless just as flawed (and hopefully just as sincere) as we are.

It is for that reason that we must ever be willing to look to the Word of God for reproof and instruction, for we are never too wise to learn something new or so knowledgeable that we have no need of further instruction, nor so good that we have no need of further correction. The more a wise person knows, the more they are aware of their ignorance, and the more aware they are of their fallen and sinful nature that they must struggle with constantly. It is only an errant fool that considers themselves all-knowing and all-good, and above any accountability to others or to the scriptures. It is not merely a matter of seeking a private word to God that makes us superior to others, but rather a matter of letting ourselves remember that we are all to be held accountable to the standard of God's word.

It is, incidentally, for this very reason that God commands us to fellowship with other people. We all have, by virtue of our experiences and personalities, and differing quantities and usage of different talents and gifts, some areas where we excel and some where we struggle. Without a close awareness of where our gifts can help someone else with a shortfall in a given area, and a close awareness of our shortfalls that need help from other people who are blessed in that particular area (let none of us suppose we are without them), we fall into the trap that says that we are blessed and others have to follow our example, but we have nothing to learn from them, and no use for them except as followers of us. There is no believer, no matter how old or how young, how intellectual or how unlearned, how patient or how much in a hurry, how fast or slow, how wealthy or how poor, how healthy or how frail, that we cannot learn from and that we cannot teach.

What we lack, more than anything, is that spiritual sight that looks beyond the superficial and physical things, the pretty titles and vain use of power and the bully pulpit, and that examines the spiritual heart within ourselves and others. Let us be less proud of our own thoughts--all of us--and more interested in learning what God has to tell us, and maybe then we could fight less about stupid things, spend less time on what is not remotely important, and get to the hard work that is helping improve the world one life and one relationship at a time, whether that means forgiving wrongs, not being easily offended, changing our ways that lead to our unhappiness and trouble, taking our pride a few notches down so that we can listen to what other people tell us without becoming angry, and facing ourselves and others as the mixture of good and evil that all of us possess. We cannot, though, reach these heights unless we realize that we have not finished climbing the mountain yet, and are still struggling to find a place for our feet and hands to latch onto on the sheer cliff we have made it our goal to climb. Until we reach the top, we have no cause to think ourselves or our organizations to be without flaw and blemish, for if we were without blemish, we would not need to crow about it, or insult others who pointed out our flaws for good motive or bad, but would rather be living testaments to God's goodness even without speaking a word at all. I wish I were at that point. Perhaps someday.