The "Solas"

Last week I said we would spend a few weeks looking at what makes us Lutherans unique.  We start out by looking at the three “Solas.”  The word is Latin for “alone.”  The early Lutherans developed three prongs to their theological differences with the Church at that time.  They were:  Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Fide (faith alone) and sola gratia (grace alone).  This week we consider Scripture alone.

    Luther believed that the things that mattered most were those things contained in the Bible.  The Bible was the source of authority for all Christians.  In Luther’s day that meant that decrees by the Pope carried no authority because the Pope was human not divine.  It also meant that certain traditions were suspect because they were created by humans and not mentioned in the Bible.  Luther was not against tradition but if the tradition was contradicted by the Bible, it was to be rejected and all tradition was to be recognized as human and thus subservient to the Bible.

    This emphasis on Scripture alone motivated Luther to believe that the Bible should be in the language of the people so they could know what was contained in the Bible and what things had been created by humans.  Luther took this so far as to translate the Bible into German and to encourage Bible teaching in the common languages of the people instead of Latin.

    Today the Bible is translated into almost all the languages of the people on earth and people, including you and me, are encouraged to read and study the Bible so that we too might distinguish between what the Bible commands as opposed to what we are “told” is in the Bible.

    This emphasis on having access to the Bible in the common language is one of the reasons Lutherans encourage lifelong education and learning.  If you look at a Lutheran church, most have the sanctuary, the worship space, and an education wing (for Sunday School, Bible Study, etc.) and if you don’t see an education wing, you can bet that in the basement there are room dividers and space for Bible study to take place! 

 Have a wonderful week!

Pastor Nancy