33year old Martin Luther nailes his theses to the door 23 Oct 1517.
Sola Scriptura ("by Scripture alone")– The Bible alone is our highest and ultimate authority. scripture must govern over church traditions and interpretations which are themselves held to be subject to scripture. All church traditions, creeds, and teachings must be in unity with the teachings of scripture as the divinely inspired Word of God.
18 Apr 1521 Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.[
Sola Scriptura asserts that the Bible can and is to be interpreted through itself, with one area of Scripture being useful for interpreting others. "All Scripture is God breathed..." 2 Timothy 3:16. That scripture can interpret itself is a means by which to show the unity of Scripture as a whole. As all doctrines are formed via scriptural understandings, all doctrines must be found to align with Scripture and as such are then subject to scripture before the believer can begin to apply them.
This particular sola is sometimes called the formal principle of the Reformation, since it is the source and norm of the material cause or principle, the gospel of Jesus Christ that is received sola fide ("through faith alone") sola gratia (by God's favor or "grace alone"). the Bible does not stand alone apart from God, but rather that it is the instrument of God by which he reveals himself for salvation through faith in Christ (solus Christus or solo Christo).
This stands against church tradition or teaching being an ultimate authority. Our reformed confessions and the ecumenical creeds are secondary confessions subject to Scripture. Nor is human reason an equal or ultimate authority and cerainly not contemporary prophecy.The contrary: Scripture + Church dogma and tradition
Is. 8:20 To the law and to the testimony
Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,
Luther made Scripture available in German.Guttenderg gave the technology. Tyndale the Bible in English.
Sola Fide – We are not saved or justified through our many good works. It is only faith in Christ that saves. Good works are not a means or requisite for salvation. Sola fide is the teaching that justification (interpreted in the Lutheran and Reformed theologies as "being declared just by God") is received by faith alone, without any need for good works on the part of the individual. In classical Lutheran and Reformed theologies, good works are seen to be evidence of saving faith, but the good works themselves do not determine salvation. Some Protestants see this doctrine as being summarized with the formula "Faith yields justification and good works" and as contrasted with the Roman Catholic formula "Faith and good works yield justification." The Catholic side of the argument is based on James 2:14-17. "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled', but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (James 2:14-17, NKJV) In understanding Sola fide, it is important to understand the nuances of difference between Catholic and Lutheran/Reformed notions of the term "justification". Both groups agree that the term invokes a communication of Christ's merits to sinners, not a declaration of sinlessness; Luther used the expression simul justus et peccator ("at the same time justified and a sinner"). However, Roman Catholicism sees justification as a communication of God's life to a human being, cleansing him of sin and transforming him truly into a son of God, so that it is not merely a declaration, but rather the soul is made actually objectively righteous. The Lutheran and Reformed views of justification, by contrast, are that it is the work of God through the means of grace. Faith is the righteousness of God that is accomplished in us through word and sacraments. Law and gospel work to kill the sinful self and to accomplish the new creation within us. This new creation within us is the faith of Christ. If we do not have this faith, then we are ungodly. Indulgences or human prayers add nothing—they are nothing. Everyone has some kind of faith — usually a faith in themselves. But we need God to continually destroy self-righteous faith and to replace it with the life of Christ. We need the faith that comes from God through law and gospel, word, works and sacraments. In the founding document of the Reformation, the 95 Theses, Luther said that (1) "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' (Matthew 4:17) He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance" and (95) "And thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the false security of peace (Acts 14:22)".
The true distinction, therefore, between the Lutheran/Reformed and the Catholic view of Justification is not an issue of being "declared righteous" versus being "made righteous", but rather it is the means by which one is justified. In Catholic theology righteous works are considered meritorious toward salvation in addition to faith, whereas in the Lutheran and Reformed theologies, righteous works are seen as the result and evidence of a truly justified and regenerate believer who has received these by faith alone. The actual effectual means by which a person receives justification is also a fundamental division between Catholic and Lutheran/Reformed belief. In Catholic theology, the means by which justification is applied to the soul is the sacrament of baptism. In baptism, even of infants, the grace of justification and sanctification is "infused" into the soul, making the recipient justified even before he has exercised his own faith (or indeed in the case of an infant who is baptized, before he even has the ability to consciously understand the Gospel and respond with faith). For the Catholic, baptism functions "ex opere operato" or "by the working of the act", and thus is the efficient and sufficient act to bring about justification. In the Lutheran and Reformed theologies, however, the faith of the individual is absolutely necessary and is itself the efficient and sufficient response of the individual that effects justification.
The Sola fide doctrine is sometimes called the material cause or principle of the Reformation because it was the central doctrinal issue for Martin Luther and the other reformers. Luther called it the "doctrine by which the church stands or falls" (Latin, articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae).
The contrary: faith + meritorious works + sacraments (7)
Rom. 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Gal. 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Sola Gratia – None of us deserves salvation. None of us can earn it. It is both the most humbling and liberating truth that we are saved by grace alone."only grace", specifically excludes the merit done by a person as part of achieving salvation. Sola gratia is the teaching that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, not as something merited by the sinner. This means that salvation is an unearned gift from God for Jesus' sake. While some maintain that this doctrine is the opposite of "works' righteousness" and conflicts with some of the aspects of the Roman Catholic doctrine of merit, it might be asserted that this article, taken at face value, conflicts in no way with Roman Catholic teaching; while the doctrine that grace is truly and always a gift of God is held in agreement between both views, the difference in doctrine lies mainly in two facts: that of God as sole actor in grace (in other words, that grace is always efficacious without any cooperation by man), and second, that man cannot by any action of his own, acting under the influence of grace, cooperate with grace to "merit" greater graces for himself (the latter would be the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church). This doctrine asserts divine monergism in salvation: God acts alone to save the sinner. The responsibility for salvation does not rest on the sinner to any degree as in "synergism".
The contrary: merit of works; our merit added to Christ’s.
Eph. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Solu Christus - In Christ alone our hope is found. We can too easily become religious moralists, liturgists, traditionalists or social justice warriors – thinking that this is what saves us. We are saved by Christ. Alone. That is why we proclaim Jesus – and him crucified. This is the power of the Gospel.
Solus Christus, or "only Christ", excludes the priestly class as necessary for sacraments. Solus Christus is the teaching that Christ is the only mediator between God and man, and that there is salvation through no other (hence, the phrase is sometimes rendered in the ablative case, solo Christo, meaning that salvation is "by Christ alone"). While rejecting all other mediators between God and man, classical Lutheranism continues to honor the memory of the Virgin Mary and other exemplary saints. This principle rejects sacerdotalism, the belief that there are no sacraments in the church without the services of priests ordained by apostolic succession. The Catholic Church teaches that lay people, and even unbaptized people, can validly baptize, and may do so in an emergency, and that the ministers of the sacrament of matrimony are the people getting married, not the priest, who is only a witness to the marriage, although a witness is legally required in the modern Western Catholic church. Other sacraments, according to Catholic doctrine, essentially require a bishop or at least a priest in order to be valid. Martin Luther taught the "general priesthood of the baptized", which was modified in later Lutheranism and classical Protestant theology into "the priesthood of all believers" denying the exclusive use of the title "priest" (Latin sacerdos) to the clergy. This principle does not deny the office of the holy ministry to which is committed the public proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. In this way, Luther in his Small Catechism could speak of the role of "a confessor" to confer sacramental absolution on a penitent. The section in this catechism known as "The Office of the Keys" (not written by Luther but added with his approval) identifies the "called ministers of Christ" as being the ones who exercise the binding and loosing of absolution and excommunication through Law and Gospel ministry. This is laid out in the Lutheran formula of holy absolution: the "called and ordained servant of the Word" forgives penitents' sins (speaks Christ's words of forgiveness: "I forgive you all your sins") without any addition of penances or satisfactions and not as an interceding or mediating "priest", but "by virtue of [his] office as a called and ordained servant of the Word" and "in the stead and by the command of [his] Lord Jesus Christ". [15] In this tradition absolution reconciles the penitent with God directly through faith in Christ's forgiveness rather than with the priest and the church as mediating entities between the penitent and God.
The contrary: Christ + Mary + saints + pope.
Matt. 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Col. 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Soli Deo Gloria – To God’s glory alone. After finishing every piece of his glorious music, Bach would sign it SDG. To the glory of God alone. If we recovered more of that zeal, humility and love – what a transformation would be seen in our self-obsessed, faction ridden, hypocritical churches."glory to God alone", stands in opposition to the veneration or "cult" perceived by many to be present in the Roman Catholic Church of Mary the mother of Jesus, the saints, or angels. Soli Deo gloria is the teaching that all glory is to be due to God alone, since salvation is accomplished solely through His will and action — not only the gift of the all-sufficient atonement of Jesus on the cross but also the gift of faith in that atonement, created in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit. The reformers believed that human beings — even saints canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, the popes, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy— are not worthy of the glory that was accorded them; that is, one should not exalt such humans for their good works, but rather praise and give glory to God who is the author and sanctifier of these people and their good works. It is not clear the extent to which such inappropriate veneration is actually approved by the Roman Catholic Church and so the extent to which this Sola is one of justified opposition is unclear. The Roman Catholic's official position, for example as described in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, make it clear that God alone is deserving of glory.
The contrary: through our efforts, we share some glory.
Psa. 115:1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
Jer. 9:23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
Jer. 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
1Cor. 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Rom. 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
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