Protestant Christianity in the United States and around the world has just celebrated the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Yet according to a recent study, less than half of Protestant adherents embrace the two major tenants of that movement — sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) and sola fide (faith alone).
Protestant denominations trace their origins back to this important time in religious history. More importantly they trace their theological convictions back to this turbulent era. Yet a study released Aug. 31 by the Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life found that only 46 percent of Protestants believed “faith in God alone is needed to get into heaven” (sola fide). The same percentage also believed “the Bible provides all religious guidance Christians need” (sola Scriptura).
That means more than half of all Protestant Christians — 52 percent in each case — believe good works must accompany faith for salvation and church teachings and traditions stand alongside the Bible as authoritative for Christian belief and practice.
Unfortunately, the Pew study found a bleaker picture than that. Only 30 percent of Protestants believe both Scripture alone and faith alone. The study found 17 percent believed in Scripture alone but not faith alone and 18 percent believed in faith alone but not Scripture alone.
A lot of work to do
White evangelical Christians showed more commitment to these two central doctrines flowing from the Reformation. Sixty-seven percent of this group affirmed belief in faith alone as the way of salvation. Fifty-eight percent said the Bible provides all the religious guidance Christians need. But that still leaves one-third of evangelicals who add good deeds as a necessity for salvation and 41 percent who say church teachings and traditions stand alongside the Bible as authoritative.
Obviously, evangelical churches have a lot of work to do to help people know and believe the cardinal truths of Christianity.
The recent Confession of Faith titled “A Reforming Catholic Confession” (see The Alabama Baptist, Sept. 21, 2017, pp. 1, 6) expressed both doctrines in succinct fashion for evangelicals. Of Holy Scripture, it says, “That God has spoken and continues to speak in and through Scripture, the only infallible and sufficiently clear rule and authority for Christian faith, thought and life (sola Scriptura).
Of salvation, the confession states, “It is wholly by grace, not our own works or merits that we have been forgiven; it is wholly by Jesus’ shed blood, not by our own sweat and tears, that we have been cleansed.”
The Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) is equally clear. Related to authority, it states, “(The Bible) reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and religious opinions should be tried.”
For Baptists and other evangelicals the Bible alone is the final authority for our faith and practice.
Of salvation the BF&M states, “(Salvation) is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.” Salvation comes by the work of Jesus, not by any good works done by human beings.
Perhaps the way Pew Research phrased the question about authority of Scripture contributed to skewed responses. Respondents were asked if they believed that, in addition to the Bible, Christians need guidance from church teachings and church traditions.
A “yes” answer to that question could come from anyone. Baptists and other evangelicals believe church teachings and traditions inform us about insights and understandings of past generation. It is important to know one’s history if for no other reason than not to repeat past errors.
But in the Protestant tradition, including Baptists, church teachings and church traditions stand under the authority of Holy Scripture. They do not stand alongside the Bible as co-equals.
During the Reformation the question about salvation was called the “first and chief article.” Some said the position on that issue was “ruler and judge over all other Christian doctrines.” There was no give between the position of the Reformation in salvation by grace through faith and the position of the Roman Catholic Church at that time that salvation included both faith and personal merit.
As the Pew study indicates, the majority of Protestant and Roman Catholic lay members continue to believe in a combination of grace and works. However, the official positions of Roman Catholics have moved away from such teachings toward the traditional position of Protestants.
In 1999 in a Lutheran and Catholic “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,” both church groups declared, “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works” (Paragraph 15).
Other paragraphs of the statement said, “Listening to the Word of God in Scripture has led to such new insights” and that Lutherans (the acknowledged beginning of the Reformation) and Roman Catholics “are now able to articulate a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ” (see Paragraphs 5 and 8).
Nearly 20 years after this change of position was officially announced few outside the worlds of academia and church hierarchy seem to know of its existence. That is unfortunate and another indication of the immense amount of work left to be done by all churches as they help members know, understand and believe what the Bible teaches.
Atoning work of Jesus Christ
Salvation is offered by God’s grace alone through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. As the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration says, “Sinners stand under God’s judgment and are incapable of turning by themselves to God to seek deliverance, of meriting their justification before God or of attaining salvation by their own abilities. Justification takes place solely by God’s grace” (see Paragraph 19).
That is the message of the Bible — God’s Holy Word and our final authority of faith and practice. That is the message we preach and teach so let’s get busy and begin changing the religious landscape of America and the world.
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