Sola Scriptura (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2 verse 5 where the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. We are back at the helm,

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Bible, this would not be a good tour for you. I guess you could always just stay in the bus or walk off when

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I teach the Bible. You could possibly do that. Well, what else is going on?

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October 27th, 28th and 29th, I�ll be in New Zealand doing a Reformation conference, the five solas of the

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Reformation. And that has propelled me to think much about the solas.

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And so today, on No Compromise Radio, we�re going to look at sola scriptura, sola scriptura.

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I�ve been thinking about the Reformation of this year as I was in Germany, 500 -year anniversary of Luther, 95

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Theses, the door, the church door there, and so we�re thinking about the solas, sola scriptura.

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If you were to think about God�s providence and how he orchestrated things, you might think to yourself, it was a perfect storm.

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You have in the 1400s the Gutenberg Press, and now you can print things with much more alacrity, speed, frequency.

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You also have the University of Wittenberg, La Correa there, and not many universities around but you�ve got one there, and I think it�s 1503 that was started.

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You�ve got a trade route, the Elbe River, I got to rent a bicycle for 10 euros a day and ride around and near the

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Elbe River, that was fun. And then at the center of the vortex of God�s providence, you have the

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Erasmus Greek New Testament. For centuries, the church was tethered to the

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Vulgate, the Latin Vulgate, Jerome�s Vulgate, and that was a

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Bible they had. Now of course, the New Testament is not written in Latin, so we�re one step removed, and of course when you�re one step removed, things can happen, bad things can happen.

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Erasmus had been working on a Greek New Testament and a New Latin New Testament.

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He said, �But one thing the facts cry out, and it can be clear, as they say even to a blind man, that often through the translator�s clumsiness or inattention, the

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Greek has been wrongly rendered. Often the true and genuine reading has been corrupted by ignorant scribes, which we see happen every day, or altered by scribes who are half -taught and half -asleep.�

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And essentially what Erasmus was going to do, this Roman Catholic humanist, he was going to put together a

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Greek New Testament so you could check the validity and the accuracy of the Latin version of the

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New Testament. And you have in Latin his first product called all of the new teaching, later it was called all of the

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New Testament. And his second edition, the 1519 edition, was what was used by Martin Luther as he began to translate the

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Greek Bible into modern German, and about 3300 copies of that was sold.

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Many of you know a lot about Luther and his exploits.

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Maybe there's someone that you don't know as much, although if you're a listener to this radio station, this blog, you probably know of a man named

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William Tyndale, Billy. There's a kid growing up in our neighborhood and his name was

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Billy, and he lied so much we called him the liar. And Billy, he seemed like a good guy for a young man with a crew cut, but I think

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I also want to go into Billy, don't be a hero, don't be a fool with your life.

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That was an awful time of music, wasn't it? Erasmus's third edition was the 1522.

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That's probably what Tyndale used. Tyndale wanted to have a Bible in English because his primary language was

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English. Now he also knew Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, and French, but he wanted the

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Bible in English. It is crazy for us to think, oh, this is an odd concept.

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This is a novel concept. This is a dangerous concept that you can have the Bible in your own language.

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How can you read the Bible, Tyndale said, if you don't know what it says? How can you understand the

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Bible? And by this time, the Reformation was influencing a lot of places in the

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Western world, including Oxford, including Cambridge. And if you have clergy that can't read the

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Bible, they don't even understand Latin, what are you going to do? How do you even teach people?

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How do you evangelize people? This is what the Bible says. And Tyndale said, it is impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the scripture were laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.

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I almost said swirling, but I think I said swirling earlier in the show. What was the attitude of the

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Roman Catholic Church at this time? Now today, you are not going to hear the Roman Catholic Church say, don't read your

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Bibles. Now later in the show, we'll talk about, or maybe next time we'll talk about how they might say, read your

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Bible. But if you'd like to know the definitive, the conclusive interpretation, we, sola ecclesia, we will tell you.

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But at the time, Luther, Tyndale, Calvin of the Reformation, here was the attitude of Pope Pius IV.

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This was in 1559. So, let's just, you know, 30 years removed, but this was the attitude in a book called

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Index of Forbidden Books, quote, since experience teaches that if the reading of the

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Holy Bible in the vernacular, in the mother tongue, is permitted generally without discrimination, more damage than advantage will result because of the boldness of men.

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The judgment of the bishops and inquisitors is to serve as a guide in this regard. Bishops and inquisitors may, in accord with the counsel of the local priest and confessor, allow

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Catholic translations of the Bible to be read by those of whom they realize that such a reading will not lead to the detriment, but to the increase of faith and piety.

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See where the authority lies. Pius IV goes on, the permission is to be given in writing, whoever reads or has such a translation in his possession without this permission cannot be absolved from his sins until he has turned in these

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Bibles, end quote. This is a sin if you have not been judged worthy, if you have not been judged a biblical, somebody, some kind of savant or something, so you can't understand the

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Bible. You don't have it in writing, no sins absolved until you turn those Bibles in.

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Tyndale wanted to have the Bible in the mother tongue. But the problem is, what happens when the

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Bible is in its mother tongue? There's a riot. There's a reformation.

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Go to Wittenberg. We want a mini Wittenberg happening here in England? This is too controversial.

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Tyndale said if God spared him his life, quote, ere many years he would cause a boy that drives the plow to know more of Scripture than he does.

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Tyndale begins to translate the Bible into the modern English tongue using the third edition of Erasmus' Greek New Testament, and now he's in trouble and so he's on the run.

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Off to Germany, off to Belgium. Some think maybe he even met up with Luther.

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And there's a secret printing area in Worms. That's where Luther, of course, went to when we think of the

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Diet of Worms. And we've got Tyndale finally getting caught, and his enemies betraying him, his friends betraying him, not really real friends, burned at the stake, 1536.

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I took the kids there in Belgium where he was burned, and we just thought about it and thought about how

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Tyndale, his last words were, oh Lord, open the king of England's eyes.

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You probably could make a good argument. I think I read it in Nate Pickowitz's book about the

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Protestant Reformation. What's it called, Nate? I don't know. I endorsed it, but I can't remember what it's called.

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Always Protestant, Reforming Protestantism, Reforming Fundamentalism, Greg Marsden.

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The doctrine of Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone, that feeds this translation.

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That gives the motivation for the desire that you want the Bible in your language.

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If the Bible alone is sufficient, wouldn't it be nice to have that in my language and I don't have to go through a priest or someone else?

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This is very, very practical. You've got the

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Solas of the Reformation, and essentially we're saying it's scripture over tradition, faith over works, and grace over merit.

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That's what we're saying. We've looked at Sola Fide, it's almost like a pillar, and another pillar is

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Sola Gratia, faith alone, grace alone, and another pillar is Christ alone, Sola Christo, or Solus Christus.

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But on the bottom, the foundation, and we'll talk about what goes on the top later, but the bottom to support these pillars of faith alone, grace alone,

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Christ alone, you have scripture alone. We've got this popular phrase, a

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Latin phrase, Sola Scriptura. Why do we want to study such an ancient document?

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Well, I guess the answer is it's the 500th year anniversary. But on a very practical level, it's not like we want to live in the past and dwell in the past and kind of identify with the past.

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But the truths that they were defending and contending for are just as relevant today, are they not?

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What is truth? How are you made right with God? How are you seen as righteous in God's eyes?

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Do these have eternal significance? How do you die and go to heaven?

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Do you contribute to your salvation? These things are very important. How are you able to stand before God?

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But I think the other thing that can be done as we look at the Reformation and the five Solas is to say to ourselves, as much as the detractors, and maybe we might want to say, well,

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Luther was an anti -Semite, Calvin killed Cerebitus, and Zwingli was a warmonger, et cetera.

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I could argue each of those if you'd like. Luther was an anti -Semite. He didn't hate

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Jews because they were Jewish. He hated the Jews that didn't believe in Jesus. I'm not saying he said the right things, but let's make sure we talk properly.

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But here's my point, and here's the tie -in. Will you only learn things from other

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Christians who are perfect, who have no flaws? I would submit to you that these

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Reformers' flaws were so large, you might say to yourself, then how could anything happen like this?

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Because God blesses His Word even in and through sinful people.

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That's really the issue here, is it not? That the Word of God through sinful people still accomplishes its purposes.

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Have you ever evangelized? Well, how perfect is your life? If you're a sinful person, if you're a sinner, you probably are saying to yourself, if it's up to me,

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I would blow my testimony and nobody would ever get saved. But it's not up to you to save people.

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It's up to you to proclaim the powerful Word. Men and women from Mary Schleser to Adoniram Judson to John Wesley to William Carey had clay feet.

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But what made them wonderful, if we talk about the feet of those that bring good news, is the good news itself.

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It's God's Word. That's really the key. So today on the show, we're talking about sola scriptura.

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The Bible alone is the source of authority for scriptures. That means, because remember, it stems from historical context, it's not the

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Bible plus anything. It's the Bible, period, full stop, paragraph, next page.

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Not the Bible plus Pope. Not the Bible plus tradition. Not the Bible plus the church.

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Not the Bible plus the magisterium. Not the Bible plus priests. Not the

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Bible plus a personal experience or subjective mysticism. No, the Bible alone.

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Scripture alone governs everything else. This is what sola scriptura means.

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Now let me give you some words to help you understand sola scriptura and maybe define it a little bit more.

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Define it. Remember, you can write me, info at nocompromisedradio .com. I get,

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I don't know, five emails a week maybe. Most of them are pretty nice. If you want to disagree with me, that is fine.

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And as we say on the show, if you want to just be rude about it, then you're going to get the delete button.

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I also don't argue on social media. Now to me, social media is a one -way communication.

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Here's what's going on with No Compromise Radio. Here's a quote. Here's a video. Here's a book special.

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Here is a thought. Here is an article. Here is a blog post. Here is a trip.

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Here is a prayer request. It's a one -way communication in the sense that if you write back and you say, you're a coward, you're this, you're that.

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I'm just not going to, I mean, when I see stuff on there that's inappropriately displayed,

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I'm just looking outside seeing these people that just drove up and wanted to dump some stuff off of the church illegally.

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I should have gone over there and told them no, but I'm on the radio. One -way communication, social media,

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No Compromise Radio. And I watch people get in these big arguments. And I think it was R.

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Scott Clark that said something to the effect of schoolyard play, a schoolyard play.

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And there's a fight and everybody's out, you know, recess time. There's a fight and everybody else fight, fight. And everyone flocks to see the fight.

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And that's what happens on the internet. It's just fight, fight, not for school, middle school kids, but for sadly, most of the time people who at least have adult bodies.

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It's crazy. Some people just like to argue, but we're not going to do that.

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We're so much better. We're so much more fine. First word to help us with Sola Scriptura is sufficient.

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If you'd like to wrap your mind around what Sola Scriptura means, you should say to yourself, it means the

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Bible is sufficient. And we're talking about from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is sufficient.

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Now, if you look at the very end of John, you see a verse and then in the chapter just before that, that you might not think to yourself, oh yeah, that's

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Sola Scriptura. That's a sufficiency of scripture. John 21, 25, now there were also, or there are also many other things that Jesus did were every one of them to be written.

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I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

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Now, John picked things specifically by the Spirit's inspiration and watch and orchestration.

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There are plenty of things that Jesus did that aren't recorded in Mark or Luke or Matthew, but here we're talking about John.

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John is not a record of everything Jesus ever said or did. That's the last verse of the

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Gospel of John. You think, well, yeah, he's an exaggerator.

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Oh, yeah, just, you know, there'd be all these books and the world can contain all the books if we had all these things.

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I don't know. I think if you consider this idea that Jesus is the eternal

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Son, how much can you write about that? If you talk about Jesus, the one in John 1 who creates the universe, how much could you write about that?

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That Jesus, the eternal Son adds humanity, the incarnation, hypostatic union, how much could you write about that?

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Healing lepers, raising yourself from the dead. I don't think we're going to need a little tiny library for that.

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I think we're going to need a very, very large library, and I don't really think this is hyperbole.

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John is writing, and he knows the impact from the very beginning in John 1 now to the end.

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This eternal Son, he is God, and he is to be praised and to be thought of with awe and reverence.

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Jesus is a wonderful Savior, and what happens with this verse?

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Maybe God left something out that was going to be valuable for us. Now, what you're thinking about already is what?

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Well, what about that tradition? What about that other teaching? We'll go back up a chapter for a second,

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John 20, verse 30 and 31. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written, the ones that are in John, so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Everything you need to believe that Jesus is

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God and go to heaven, stand right in God's eyes, is in this book, the

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Gospel of John. By the way, what's not in that book? Seven total sacraments, the mass, purgatory, etc.

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Those are left out. What's the first word in chapter 20 of John, verse 30, now?

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It's connecting with what precedes it. What precedes it? Verse 24, John 20, 24.

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Now, Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came, so the other disciples told him, we have seen the

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Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side,

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I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.

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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.

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Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my

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Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, and here's the tie -in, have you believed because you have seen me?

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Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.

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What's the purpose of this book? So that you may believe. There are lots of signs that Jesus did that aren't recorded, but these ones that have been recorded are recorded so that you believe.

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That is fascinating. Is anything missing? John wants you to be saved.

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John wants you to keep believing. This is propositional truth. The signs that are recorded, the miracles that are described in John by Jesus are enough to validate the claims of the

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Messiah and his work so that you can have saving faith. Whatever is necessary, whatever is necessary in John, and this is why we talk about sola scriptura, scripture includes what's necessary to bring you to saving faith.

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If there's anything regarding salvation that's necessary, is it left out?

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No, not at all. Are there unwritten traditional things that are required for salvation?

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John doesn't even talk about these unrecorded doctrines. What's written is all you need to believe.

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That's the point. I think Jesus did all kinds of other things, but they're not written.

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You might know them because of tradition. You might know them from firsthand experience, but these things here are sufficient.

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We're going to look more next time about the word sufficient when it comes to sola scriptura, but if you want to come to faith in Christ Jesus, you don't need anything extra.

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The gospel of John is enough. Therefore, even the Bible is enough. It is sufficient.

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It is the sufficient record of God. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. That was a fast 24 and a half minutes.

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We will see you next time for sola scriptura part two. Please come and join us.

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Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.