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WITTENBERG, GERMANY - OCTOBER 20: A statue of 16th-century theologian Martin Luther stands on Marktplatz square on October 20, 2016 in Wittenberg, Germany. In 1517 Luther nailed his 95 theses to a door of the nearby Schlosskirche Church. Next year will mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation that Luther set in motion and that led to the creation of successful Protestant movements in history's most significant challenge to the Catholic Church. Celebrations and events in Germany will begin later this month and continue globally through next year. Luther's translation of the Bible made it accessible to a much broader audience. He also spoke out against the practice of indulgences and the sale of relics, and also argued that a place in Heaven is possible not by good deeds but through faith. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Five Solas: Sola Scriptura

· October 22, 2020

Thomas R. Schreiner, Carl Trueman, Matthew Barrett, Stephen Wellum, and David VanDrunen all came together to discuss the five solas of the Reformation at Southern Seminary’s Theology Conference, sponsored by Zondervan. Credo Magazine will be sharing one message a day as Reformation Week quickly approaches.

Historians and theologians have long recognized that at the heart of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation were five declarations, often referred to as the “solas”: sola scriptura, solus Christus, sola gratia, sola fide, and soli Deo gloria. These five statements summarize much of what the Reformation was about and they distinguish Protestantism from other expressions of the Christian faith. Protestants place ultimate and final authority in the Scriptures, acknowledge the work of Christ alone as sufficient for redemption, recognize that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and seek to do all things for God’s glory.

Sola Scriptura Presented by Matthew Barrett

Five hundred years after the Reformation, we need to recover these truths and restate them for a new generation. As James Montgomery Boice once said, while the Puritans sought to carry on the Reformation, today “we barely have one to carry on, and many have even forgotten what that great spiritual revolution was all about.” In this series, you’ll travel back to the Reformation and learn where these rallying cries first emerged, examining the historical, biblical, and theological roots of the solas.  Then you’ll learn how they are relevant today and how to apply the solas in a fresh way in light of many contemporary challenges.

 

Matthew Barrett

Matthew Barrett is the editor-in-chief of Credo Magazine, director of the Center for Classical Theology, and host of the Credo podcast. He is professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the author of several books, including Simply Trinity, which won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in Theology/Ethics. His new book is called The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. He is currently writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic.

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