How the Authority of the Scriptures Collapses
“The Protestantism of those days* was not a negative protest against Roman errors. Rather, it was a positive witness to the authority of Holy Scripture as the only source and rule of all doctrines of the Church. To these Protestants Holy Scripture was the Word of God. We must recognize that the Sola Scriptura of the Reformation depends on the firm belief that the Bible is the Word of God. Where this belief is shaken or even abandoned, the authority of Scripture collapses. This is the tragedy of modern Protestantism. We can not deal here with the process of this collapse. We only note that first the theologians and then one after another of the churches severed Scripture from the Word in their official statements of faith. They were satisfied with the assumption that this Word is only contained somewhere in the Scriptures, or that the Scriptures are only a record of a past revelation in the mighty acts of God which were the true Word of God. Or we hear that under certain circumstances the Bible can become the Word of God.”
*Sasse is referring to the time of the Reformation and the period of theological orthodoxy which followed in the 17th century.
From The Inspiration of Holy Scripture, an article published in the American Evangelical magazine Christianity Today, March 16, 1962.
For Rome, it is Scripture PLUS Tradition. For many “evangelical” Christians, it is Scripture PLUS my experience/emotions. The later results with many only accepting the proper interpretation is their personal interpretation.
In addition, many “evangelical” Christian disregard history of the Church so they do not understand how we have dealt with errors in the Church thus many of the same errors keep affecting the Church.
Watching the descent of the American Lutheran Church (ALC) into the ELCA from the inside, I was impressed by the fact that the ALC founding documents (I looked them up) clearly declared the inerrancy of Scripture, but that this “confession” had no impact on their practice at all. Their seminaries and colleges denied the teaching, and no one saw a problem with that. When the ELCA appeared, behold, the inerrancy clause was gone. Now they affirmed only the Lutheran confessions and the creeds. So I wasn’t surprised to see that they treated those confessions and creeds just as the ALC had treated inerrancy. It was mere boilerplate. It had no effect on the way they actually operated. Founding documents, it seems, are a sort of lagging indicator.
With Sola Scriptura, God comes to us.
With Sorta Scriptura, man breaks the First Commandment by making redaction his god.
The former brings thanksgiving to be shared.
The latter can never allow a life of God’s promises.
Lovely article with. Always needed.