6.29.2006

sola scriptura

I believe that what separates my Church (cult?) from the rest of the Churches out there is revelation.

9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

Sola scriptura is an idea of that faith and ideas for Church related practices must come from the revealed word of God. The phrase is latin for by scripture alone. The connotation is that tradition isn't fit to interpret scripture, but that the individual must read the Bible and decide for his/herself what the interpretation is. Many early protestant reformers felt that the Catholic Church was straying from the word of God in their edicts, laws, and regulations, and no longer accepted Church authority as being based on tradition as well as scripture. Martin Luther especially was a tad annoyed with the practice of indulgences. Many of his 95 theses deal with the selling/using of indulgences.

I first came across sola scriptura while taking History of Christianity, my history general course. I thoroughly enjoyed the class. When we began talking about this, and the whole dispute over what scripture meant what, it hit me just how thankful I was for revelation.

Although I'm sure that many religions feel that they are inspired by God, I believe that Joseph Smith is the only guy who ever said that he sought God and got answer. He didn't just read the Bible and say "OK, doing it this way makes sense according to what I know and what I've read, so this is how I'm going to do it." No, he first sought, then saw God. I believe that the Mormons are the only group that says "Don't take my word for it, pray and ask God."

2 comments:

Eeyore said...

Actually, if you look up the definition of "cult", you'll find that anyone claiming to be a Christian should be seeking to have such a word used to describe them. It's only recently come to have negative connotations, but these still don't change the actual meaning of the word. We are indeed extremely devoted to following Christ. :)

sixline said...

It's funny. In France, the chapel area of a Church is called the "Place of Cult," or Place of Worship.