The location of infallibility. . .

If I had a dollar for every Roman Catholic author who attempted to undo sola scriptura or the inerrancy of Scripture, I would have more than enough money to retire and do this blog full-time.  But the money is not forth coming so I will have to wade into the debate.

It is certainly true that sola Scriptura is not directly or explicitly referenced in Scripture itself but is the conclusion of many passage speaking together.  It is, however, not obscure or rare.  The term refers to what has become known as the formal principle of the Lutheran Church. In the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Rule and Norm 3 we read: “We pledge ourselves to the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments as the pure and clear fountain of Israel, which is the only true norm according to which all teachers and. teachings are to be judged and evaluated.”  The Latin phrase sola scriptura, literally “Bible alone,” began as a Reformation slogan but it was soon co-opted by others and it is important that it summarizes something a bit more complex than its English translation. 

I cannot speak to what others mean when they say sola scriptura but I learned very quickly on that the detractors are not listening as carefully to Lutherans as they are listening to those others who use the same term but do not mean the same thing.  Lutherans do simply say the phrase and then walk away.  In fact, all the Reformation solas were in response to something and they were a short hand phrase for the entire issue of the Reformers (including sola, gratia and sola fide).

Lutherans claimed in the Augsburg Confession and continued this claim throughout the rest of their Confessions that they are evangelical catholics (indeed, they insist that they have not departed from catholic doctrine and practice and challenge their detractors to show where they have).  In claiming this evangelical catholicity, the Lutherans stood upon the shoulders of the Church that went before the Reformation -- confessing the Trinitarian and Christological formulae of the orthodox Christian faith from 4th and 5th centuries right down to the present day.  They did not invent the justification which became the core and center of Reformation preaching but learned that sinners are justified (declared right) with the Creator God by grace alone (sola gratia) from the Scriptures and the faithful teachers of the early Church.  These fathers used the very same language of the Reformers in proclaiming this gracious gift of salvation, known and grasped through faith alone (sola fide).  The Confessions themselves are replete with references from the early Church fathers in this.

Scripture is not naked nor does Scripture exist within a vacuum.  Scripture is the norming norm for the Church in all matters of faith, doctrine and practice. Scripture is not the only authority but it is that authority that norms or establishes the boundaries for every other authority.  We hold to the three catholic creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian) and esteem them with great and profound authority.  While they are not found in Scripture, Scripture has informed theses creeds and the creeds do not supplant the Scriptures or exist on their own but within the context of what God has spoken and the biblical authors have passed on to us.

Sola scriptura is not the Bible alone but the confession that everything else is subject to Scripture and not the other way around.  Scripture judges and the other way around.  Of course, the Scriptures do not live in a vacuum or in isolation.  Sola scriptura is not an enemy of the catholic and apostolic tradition but is its source and what bounds or norms that faithful tradition.  Tradition cannot contradict Scripture and be authentic or true.

It might be simplistic but it is still true enough that Rome places the Church above the Scripture and Lutherans place the Scriptures above the Church.  Rome claims that the Church is older than Scripture, at least the New Testament) and that the Church decided what was Scripture.  While it is certainly true that the clearest delineation of the canon of Scripture is late -- fourth century, the earliest delineation of the canon is at least a couple of hundred years earlier (the Muratorian Canon). The Church did not give us the Scriptures but the witness of the Church recognized those Scriptures and what was not Scripture.  Yet that does not place the Church above the Word of God.

This is not some Lutheran innovation.  Listen to what the fathers of the Church said long before Luther:

St. Athanasius (c.296-373):

The holy and inspired Scriptures are fully sufficient for the proclamation of the truth.  

(Against the Heathen, I:3, quoted in Carl A. Volz, Faith and Practice in the Early Church [Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1983], p. 147.)  

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c.310-386):

For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell you these things, give not absolute credence, unless you receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.  

(Catechetical Lectures, IV:17, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983 reprint], Second Series, Volume VII, p. 23.)  

St. Gregory of Nyssa (330-395):

...we are not entitled to such license, namely, of affirming whatever we please. For we make Sacred Scripture the rule and the norm of every doctrine. Upon that we are obliged to fix our eyes, and we approve only whatever can be brought into harmony with the intent of these writings.  

(On the Soul and the Resurrection, quoted in Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971], p. 50.)  

and

“Let the inspired Scriptures then be our umpire, and the vote of truth will be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words.

(On the Holy Trinity, NPNF, p. 327)

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430):  

Let them show their church if they can, not by the speeches and mumblings of the Africans, not by the councils of their bishops, not by the writings of any of their champions, not by fraudulent signs and wonders, because we have been prepared and made cautious also against these things by the Word of the Lord; but [let them show their church] by a command of the Law, by the predictions of the prophets, by songs from the Psalms, by the words of the Shepherd Himself, by the preaching and labors of the evangelists; that is, by all the canonical authorities of the sacred books.  

(On the Unity of the Church, 16, quoted in Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, Part I [Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971], p. 159.)  

St. Augustine of Hippo:  

What more can I teach you, than what we read in the Apostle? For Holy Scripture sets a rule to our teaching, that we dare not “be wise more than it behooves to be wise,” but be wise, as he says, “unto soberness, according as unto each God has allotted the measure of faith.”  

(On the Good of Widowhood, 2, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume III, p. 442. The quotation is from Romans 12:3.)  

St. John Chrysostom (c.347-407):  

Let us not therefore carry about the notions of the many, but examine into the facts. For how is it not absurd that in respect to money, indeed, we do not trust to others, but refer to [our own] calculation; but in calculating upon [theological] facts we are lightly drawn aside by the notions of others; and that too, though we possess an exact balance, and square and rule for all things, the declaration of the divine laws? Wherefore I exhort and entreat you all, disregard what this man and that man thinks about these things, and inquire from the Scriptures all these things; and having learned what are the true riches, let us pursue after them that we may obtain also the eternal good things...  

(Homily 13 on 2 Corinthians, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume XII, p. 346.)  

and

Regarding the things I say, I should supply even the proofs, so I will not seem to rely on my own opinions, but rather, prove them with Scripture, so that the matter will remain certain and steadfast. 

(Homily 8 On Repentance and the Church, p. 118, vol. 96 TFOTC) 

St. Basil the Great (c.329-379):  

They are charging me with innovation, and base their charge on my confession of three hypostases [persons], and blame me for asserting one Goodness, one Power, one Godhead. In this they are not wide of the truth, for I do so assert. Their complaint is that their custom does not accept this, and that Scripture does not agree. What is my reply? I do not consider it fair that the custom which obtains among them should be regarded as a law and rule of orthodoxy. If custom is to be taken in proof of what is right, then it is certainly competent for me to put forward on my side the custom which obtains here. If they reject this, we are clearly not bound to follow them. Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the Word of God, in favor of that side will be cast the vote of truth.  

(Letter 189 [to Eustathius the physician], 3, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume VIII, p. 229.)  

and 

What is the mark of a faithful soul? To be in these dispositions of full acceptance on the authority of the words of Scripture, not venturing to reject anything nor making additions. For, if ‘all that is not of faith is sin’ as the Apostle says, and ‘faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,’ everything outside Holy Scripture, not being of faith, is sin.

(The Morals, p. 204, vol IX TFOTC)

St. John of Damascus (c.675-c.749):  

It is impossible either to say or fully to understand anything about God beyond what has been divinely proclaimed to us, whether told or revealed, by the sacred declarations of the Old and New Testaments.  

(On the Orthodox Faith, Book I, Ch. 2, in The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 37.)

However, what we confess for Scripture, Rome confesses of the Church and, specifically, of the Pope.  Lutherans have nothing but the highest reverence for and appreciation for the Church, the Body of Christ, seen locally where the Word of God is rightly proclaimed and the Sacraments of Christ are rightly administers. 

The issue both of Scripture and the papacy and the Church is one of authority.  Sola Scriptura means that Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice, the ultimate and final authority on matters of faith, but not the only one.  On a practical level, Lutherans reveal this understanding of sola scriptura by their Confessions (including the three creeds) which stand with Scripture but not above it.

The Reformers not only affirmed the importance of the early creeds but also the ecumenical councils,  the writings of church fathers, and the clergy but as secondary authorities -- secondary authorities that testified to the right interpretation of Scripture and its endurance in the face of false interpretations and interpreters but still subject to Scripture’s own norming authority.  So Lutherans could appreciate and confess as opinion the ever-virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary but would not require it since Scripture did not teach it as a doctrine.   

Inherent in sola scriptura is itself the affirmation that the Word of God is not simply a word or fact or description of an historical event but the living voice of God, through which the Holy Spirit is at work. The Scriptures are not a book of legal code or a record of events but the living voice of God in which we meet the Word of God made flesh for us and our salvation.  Scripture is efficacious -- it actually does what it says and delivers what it promises.  Only an authority with this power can be sola and this is also part of the Lutheran confession.