Sola Scriptura - By Scripture Alone Part 1: What Roman Catholics believe

With any area of faith and practice where do you appeal as grounds to make and justify your decisions? For some it is reason, for others experience, to others it is tradition that has the final word. Is the bible enough for Roman Catholics or must they look beyond scripture for certainty of God's will, and on what grounds do they believe this to be true?

Solus Christus - Christ Alone

Johnny be good. This, unfortunately, is the central belief of not only non Christians, but of most mainline evangelicals statistics reveal. Sociologist Christian Smith recently conducted a survey in American and the results were, that of those who considered themselves to be mainline evangelical Christians, 76% adhered to what he called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. In summary he explains the central tenants of this belief system as:

1. "A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth."
2. "God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions."
3. "The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself."
4. "God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem."
5. "Good people go to heaven when they die."

We are at a crisis point in evangelical Christianity. What is needed is a return to the Word of God. And this is exactly where the reformers found themselves in the 16th century. One of the most significant points of contention was -what role does Jesus play in Salvation? On what basis do we have access to the father? This very issue was one heatedly contested in the reformation as the reformers rejected the many means the Roman Catholic Church had instituted as the grounds of our communion with God. So.... whose good works really save us?

Sola gratia - Grace alone

Grace. Its not just something you say at the dinner table. There is no teaching in Christian theology that offends our contemporaries (especially our Christian friends and family), any more then the teaching of sola gratia. Most people hate to be told that they are helpless. For the reformers they saw grace as the underlying issue that gave clarity and assurance and confidence to everything Christ has done for us. But what is it? Many Roman Catholics, when asked whether they are saved respond with uncertainty. For them grace is not enough. And many arminian Christians they see grace as something that assists us, but, salvation is ultimately up to us. Knowing how sinful we are, and how easy it is for us to fall back into self obsession and idolatry, what hope and assurance does God truly offer us with the doctrine of grace alone. Does it ultimately come down to us, or can we have certainty of the hope that is in Christ? Here, in this doctrine we find the reformers recover our assurace and our hope that Christ will hold on to us.

Sola Fide - Faith Alone

God “justifies the wicked.” (Romans 4:5) As counterintuitive as it is simple, that claim which lies at the heart of the good news has brought immeasurable blessing – and trouble – to the church and the world. The arguement surrounding the doctrine of justification, of how we are made right before God led to the largest split in Christendome in the history of the world. And became the volatile controversy of all time. How is it that a wicked person can be made right before a just and holy God?

The Five Solas

What does it mean to be protestant? What are you protesting against? By definition protestants are Protesting against the false teaching of Roman Catholicism. These days many see creeds, affirmations and denominational affiliations as barriers to unity. The danger with this is we could loose everything we claim to stand for that our forefathers have fought so hard to preserve. We cannot know what we stand for until we know what we stand against. So what is it we stand for, and what is it we as protestants stand against?

The 5 points of Calvinism - How it should transform us!

So many people seem to think that, if God is sovereign, choosing people unconditionally before the creation of the world, then this negates the need and the motivation for evangelism and godliness. Far from this, the doctrines of grace give us our only hope in evangelism and our confidence that God will grant us the will to follow Him.

The 5 points of Calvinism - Perseverance of the Saints

 Charles Hadden Spurgeon, known as the Prince of Preachers spoke of this doctrine saying , “I think few doctrines more vital than that of the perseverance of the saints, for if ever one child of God did perish, or if I knew it were possible that one could, I should conclude at once that I must, and I suppose each of you would do the same.” Spurgeon saw the preserving grace of God as a primary component of the gospel. “The doctrine of the final perseverance of believers seems to me to be written as with a beam of sunlight throughout the whole of Scripture. If that is not true, there is nothing at all in the Bible that is true. It is impossible to understand the Bible at all if it is not so.” He added: “If there is anything taught in Scripture for certain, it is the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints. I am as sure that doctrine is as plainly taught as the doctrine of the deity of Christ.”