Opus 2024-188: Click-Bait: Solo or Sola

I got pulled in again by clickbait.  The title had the Nicene Creed juxtaposition against the concept of sola scriptura.  And it said that we couldn’t have both.  OK.  You got me.  I clicked and started listening.

It was an interesting conversation up to a point.  The problem that I saw developing was the same tension that I see every day between people who have a theological position, and what the Bible itself actually says.  They often are quite different.

The Bible does not use the terms, sola scriptura, mainly because that’s Latin and the Bible is written in Hebrew and Greek.  I don’t even think the concept is there.  The Bible does say that all scripture is inspired, or God breathed, but it doesn’t say it is the only anything.  And yet we have this group of concepts, I think there are five, that are sola:  Scripture, grace, faith, and so forth.  The logic of five different “only’s” escapes me, but it is vital to some theological systems.

The point I’m trying to make is that we need to keep the advice of theologians and gurus in perspective.  The Nicene Creed developed at the Council of Nicea is of great assistance in understanding the complexity of our faith.  The debate on the trinity was very helpful to Christians today.  It is not the word of God.  We need to be careful when we take something even as traditional and long-standing as the Nicene Creed and try to make them into doctrine.  Oh, creeds are helpful in someway, but they all have their limitations.  I think of the Apostles Creed recited in our church.  It leaves out the divinity of Christ.  It doesn’t deal with salvation by faith alone.  And yes, it is something which has been helpful to believers for centuries.

You have a Bible, use it.  Let people help you with their ideas, discuss things, disagree, disagree with enthusiasm.  Ultimately though, focus on what God tells us through the Scriptures and understand that the theologians all have their own point of view and system they are pushing.

Come, let us reason together.  I think someone said that once.

homo unius libri