The Five Solas of the Reformation

In an article entitled "Civilization and the Protestant Reformation," John W. Robbins has claimed that the Protestant Reformation resulted in reforming the following areas of society:

Religious Subjectivism And Stagnation
The Priesthood of All Believers and Democracy
The Bible Alone and Constitutionalism
Christian Faith and Religious Liberty
The Reformation in Law And
Economics

Robbins concludes:

A Brief Statement

Gregg Strawbridge, Ph.D.

This document was originally written for the 1993 Reformation Celebration at Audubon Drive Bible Church in Laurel, MS, as part of a worship service.

It was not Luther's intention to create a civilization: he intended to proclaim the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. His life was dedicated to a far more important activity than building an earthly city. Western civilization was an unintended byproduct of his faithfulness to the Bible. The Reformation put the Kingdom of God first not the kingdom of man or the kingdom of the church. The results were just as Christ said they would be:

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is. and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all things." "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6).

Justification by faith--the righteousness of God imputed to sinners--is the only foundation of eternal salvation and earthly civilization. The Reformers sought first the Kingdom of God and all these things--the things we call Western civilization--were added to them, and to us.

See also the fine essay by Robbins entitled, "Christ and Civilization."

Catholics would make two responses:

"Western Civilization" began before the Protestant Reformation. In his book on How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, Tom Woods perhaps overstates the role of the Institutional Church and understates the role of the Bible in the creation of Western Civilization, but he correctly shows that Christianity was creating "Western Civilization" before the Protestant Reformation. I would give credit to the Messiah for creating Civilization.
An intelligent argument can be made that the Protestant Reformation actually put Western Civilization on a detour; that Joel Osteen and Vladamir Putin are both products of the Protestant Reformation. That the Enlightenment and the Gulag are products of the Reformation. The "Magisterial Reformation" created the secular magistrate, and hundreds of millions of murders by the State. America, once called a "Christian nation," and a "Protestant nation," and even a "Calvinist" nation, is now the greatest enemy of Christianity and humanity on the planet. The crippling of "the Church" by the Reformation led to the rise of Secularism and the Total State. One such argument can be heard here.

Let's look at the areas singled out by Robbins as "achievements" of the Protestant Reformation:

Robbins	Reality
"Democracy"	Democracy is mass ignorance and slavery. The average colonial American 17-year old in 1776 knew more about what it takes to make America a prosperous and virtuous nation than the average American adult in 2015. The average colonial American teenager would be horrified at the things American adults tolerate in 2015: Tyranny, public immorality, idiocy. Unbelievable.
Constitutionalism	The Constitution is Dead Meat. Legal scholars admit we are no longer a "constitutional republic," but an "administrative state."
Religious Liberty	30,000 protestant denominations, generally ignorant of the Five Solas, protective of ecclesiastical territory, would stop preaching against homosexuality if ordered to by the government. Probably already have stopped, evn without being directly ordered, just because they don't want to be "politically incorrect."
Law	"Rights" substituted for Theonomic duty have created an "entitlement" mentality and economic bankruptcy.
Economics	The Reformers abandoned Biblical Laws on ecomomics in favor of Roman law. As a result, what we call "Capitalism" = mass theft, covetousness = idolatry (Col. 3:5) "Personal Peace and Affluence"

The essay in the left-hand column champions the "Five Solas" of the Reformation. Let's see what light it sheds on this issue of "Reformation and Civilization," and specifically the question, Are the Five Solas sufficient to ground a new reformation of law, economics, culture and society -- in short, of civilization?

Sola Scriptura: The Scripture Alone is the Standard

The doctrine that the Bible alone is the ultimate authority was the "Formal Principle" of the Reformation. In 1521 at the historic interrogation of Luther at the Diet of Worms, he declared his conscience to be captive to the Word of God saying, "Unless I am overcome with testimonies from Scripture or with evident reasons -- for I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils, since they have often erred and contradicted one another -- I am overcome by the Scripture texts which I have adduced, and my conscience is bound by God's Word." Similarly, the Belgic Confession stated, "We believe that [the] holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught therein...Neither may we consider any writings of men, however holy these men may have been, of equal value with those divine Scriptures nor ought we to consider custom or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times and persons, or councils, decrees or statutes, as of equal value with the truth of God... Therefore, we reject with all our hearts whatsoever does not agree with this infallible rule" (VII).

I believe the Bible is the Word of God and the necessary foundation for any social reformation. But the Belgic Confession betrays a belief that the Bible is limited to "religion" and "salvation." In this case, "salvation" means "a ticket to heaven when I die." In the Bible, however, "salvation" means Civilization.

The previous sentence is the key to our next reformation.

As the Scripture says,
Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Thy law....I will bow down toward Thy holy temple, And give thanks to Thy name for Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth; For Thou hast magnified Thy word according to all Thy name....

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (Psalm 119:18; Psalm 138:2; II Tim. 3:14-17)

Soli Deo Gloria! For the Glory of God Alone

The Reformation reclaimed the Scriptural teaching of the sovereignty of God over every aspect of the believer's life. All of life is to be lived to the glory of God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." This great and all consuming purpose was emphasized by those in the 16th and 17th Centuries who sought to reform the church according to the Word of God. In contrast to the monastic division of life into sacred versus secular perpetuated by Roman Church, the reformers saw all of life to be lived under the Lordship of Christ. Every activity of the Christian is to be sanctified unto the glory of God.

"Monastic" is not all bad. The current idea of "The Benedict Option" is not a "division of life into sacred vs. secular." The Jesuits certainly don't ignore "secular" fields of endeavor. The Reformation resulted in magisterial confiscation of monastic properties and the destruction of ecclesiastical art in the name of iconoclasm.

As the Scripture says,
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God;
Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.
He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.
To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
(1CO 10:31; 1PE 4:11; REV 1:6; 2PE 3:18; EPH 3:21; REV 7:12; ROM 11:36)

Well-educated Catholics don't deny these verses.

But Luther's "Two Kingdoms" sociology led to the secularization of the secular, that is, taking "secular" fields out from under God's Law.

Solo Christo! By Christ's Work Alone are We Saved

The Reformation called the church back to faith in Christ as the sole mediator between God and man. While the Roman church held that "there is a purgatory and that the souls there detained are helped by the intercessions of the faithful" and that "Saints are to be venerated and invoked;" "that their relics are to be venerated" -- the reformers taught that salvation was by Christ's work alone. As John Calvin said in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, "Christ stepped in, took the punishment upon himself and bore the judgment due to sinners. With his own blood he expiated the sins which made them enemies of God and thereby satisfied him...we look to Christ alone for divine favour and fatherly love!" Likewise the Heidelberg Catechism, Question 30 asks, "Do such then believe in Jesus the only Saviour who seek their salvation and happiness in saints, in themselves, or anywhere else? They do not; for though they boast of him in words yet in deeds they deny Jesus the only deliverer and Saviour: for one of these two things must be true that either Jesus is not a complete Saviour or that they who by a true faith receive this Saviour must find all things in him necessary to their salvation."

Again, "salvation" is relegated to the afterlife.

I think a new holistic "Reformation" depends on seeing "salvation" more Biblically.

As the Scripture says,
There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time...
For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.
(1TI 2:5-6; COL 1:13-18)

The Biblical idea of Jesus as a Mediator is not just about going to heaven when you die.

In the world before Christ, political emperors were priests and mediators. Caesar said,

"There is no name under heaven by which men must be saved than that of Caesar Augustus."

I hope the reader knows how Peter turned this imperial declaration on its head.

The concept of "mediator" is intensely political.

Political Saviors - Research - Chalcedon

Sola Gratia: Salvation by Grace Alone

A central cry of the Reformation was salvation by grace. Though the Roman church taught that Mass is a "sacrifice [which] is truly propitiatory" and that by the Mass "God...grant[s] us grace and the gift of penitence, remits our faults and even our enormous sins" -- the reformers returned to the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. Our righteous standing before God is imputed to us by grace because of the work of Christ Jesus our Lord. In contrast to the doctrines of self-merit taught by Rome, sola gratia and the accompanying doctrines of grace -- total depravity, unconditional election, particular redemption, and perseverance of the saints -- were preached by all the reformers throughout the Protestant movement. As the Baptist Confession of 1689 says, "Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf;...their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners."

Again, "salvation" is limited to an individual, after death. Luther was very ego-centered in this regard. He agonized over petty sins, concerned only about his own justification. This is not the Biblical concept of "salvation." As an abstract theological argument, I side with the Reformers as against the priests. But the Biblical doctrine of "salvation" sees God's grace creating civilization, not man by the works of his political machinery ("The State").

We should be more dedicated to serving others (and creating businesses which will serve generations to come) than getting our ticket to heaven when we die.

As the Scripture says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. (Ephesians 1:3-8)

Sola Fide: Justification by Faith Alone

The "Material Principle" of the Reformation was justification by faith alone. As the Westminster Confession of Faith says, "Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love." The Genevan Confession likewise pointed out the necessity of those justified living by faith saying, "We confess that the entrance which we have to the great treasures and riches of the goodness of God that is vouchsafed us is by faith; inasmuch as, in certain confidence and assurance of heart, we believe in the promises of the gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as he is offered to us by the Father and described to us by the Word of God (Genevan 11).

How do "salvation by grace" and "justification by faith" differ? Most children of the Reformation can't answer that question.

As the Scripture says,
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them." Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "The righteous man shall live by faith." (Galatians 3:6-11)

"The Gospel" in verse 8 is the good news that "all nations shall be blessed."

In the Bible, "blessing" comes from obedience to God's Law in every area of life. "Blessing" is material, economic, cultural, political, social salvation. In short, Civilization.

"The just shall live by faith" is from Habakkuk 2. That chapter is about the contrast between politicians who plunder whole nations, and the just, who are promised a day when

the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
(verse 14)

"The Gospel" is the "good news" of a world free of statism.

I believe the next Reformation will based on the principle of "anarcho-preterism."

The "Five Solas" are true as far as they go, but they do not go far enough.

Imagine a long journey, that requires you to cross many rivers to get to your destination. The "Five Solas" are the first bridge you encounter. You must cross the river on this bridge or you will never get to your destination. But don't try to carry this bridge with you on the rest of the journey.

Justification, clearly, is important. So is the alphabet. We do not learn the alphabet to spend our lives majoring in the alphabet, but in order to read, learn, and grow. Justification is the alphabet of Christian faith whereby the whole world of God’s calling and law are opened up to us. Have we learned to read, if we get no further than the alphabet, and its repetition? Are we justified, if we do not move beyond the justification experience, and, if not, is that experience then real? Life means growth, not paralysis, and true justification is the beginning of life and growth.
(Adapted from R.J. Rushdoony, God's Plan for Victory)

Growth toward what?
Sure, growth away from the present reign of Secular Humanism, but it still helps to have an idea about what the journey looks like going toward our destination.