We’ve taken a deep look at how the teachings of the Apostles led to various beliefs and compromises that created the Catholic Church. We’ve dug into why the gospel simply couldn’t survive under the belief system that was dominating the world, and why true followers of Christ had no choice but to risk their lives to defend the truth. In the last article, we even ended by looking at a variety of ways God has used the split from Catholicism to show Christians everywhere the importance of owning their own faith. This world-shaking church split, called the Protestant Reformation, is why we are what we are today.
In my next 5 articles, we’ll zoom out and look at the 5 major beliefs that came out of the Protestant Reformation. Although the Catholic church had a lot wrong, these are the beliefs that absolutely defined the major errors in their teaching.
These are popularly known as “The 5 Solas of the Reformation.” Sola is a Latin word that simply means “alone.” I’ll briefly list and explain each below, and as I release an article about each of these I’ll include a link.
Here are the 5 solas that we’ll be looking at:
- Sola scriptura (scripture alone) – The Bible is our single highest authority for truth
- Sola fide (faith alone) – We are saved by nothing else except faith in Jesus Christ
- Sola gratia (grace alone) – It is only the grace of God that saves us
- Solus Cristus (Christ alone) – Jesus Christ is our only savior
- Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone) – God alone deserves the glory for everything we do and He’s done
If you were to look back at everything we’ve discussed up to this point, it comes as no surprise that these were so important. We’ve seen the authority of the Bible compete with proclamations from various popes that contradict God’s word. We’ve seen salvation so muddied and confused that Christ is just one of many things required to be forgiven of our crimes against God. And above all, we’ve seen that people lost sight of not only why God has done all of this, but how that should dramatically impact our focus in life.
These next articles will define why Christians believe what they believe. Everything else we do is rooted firmly in these 5 understandings about the Bible, salvation, and God. These are the things that define our lives, and these are the things we must continue to defend as people try to add or take away from what is clearly taught in the Bible. Some things in Christianity are a matter of preference or conscience, but we’ll soon see why these can never be up for debate or compromise.
