The Three Solas of Reformation

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Welcome to engaging truth. This is Dave. Schultzer a host for this particular program. During the month of October of this year, we are celebrating the reformation and, uh, really understood by most people within the Lutheran community, but really on the outside of that. Um, probably not, but I have a great reformation speaker. Who's gonna articulate some gracious things that he's been doing for years in the Houston area. Dr. Larry White. Welcome Larry.

Thank you, Dave. Always great to be here.

We're going to talk about something, a specialty of yours, and I suppose much of what happens in Luther theology and practice. It's a specialty for you, but we're gonna we're we're gonna isolate just three things today and we're gonna call them as history has called them the three SOS. Larry, what in the world do we talk about when we talk about the three SOS?

Well, Dave, that that series of phrases has been used for centuries to sum up the theology of mark Luther and the Lutheran church Sola S scriptura, scripture alone, Sola gratia, grace alone, Sola fee, day, faith alone, and Luther believed that those core concepts of the Lutheran, the Christian religion put it all together and you will find them in Lutheran churches on the wall, in the pictures, uh, in the bulletins, wherever Luther Renza, scriptura gratia, feee become the summary of the essence of reformation theology. And that's been the case for 504 years. Now, I believe it is. We just celebrated the big anniversary, you know, and, uh, you and I are old enough to remember when, uh, dear Luther honor, the Lutheran, the German version of what is now the Lutheran witness, uh, was published throughout the Lutheran church, Missouri Senate, and the mass head. The on the top of the first page showed a scene from revelation chapter 14, with an angel flying across the sky, holding in his hands, the everlasting gospel as John put it in his vision. And on that picture in our denominational publication, the words on the book were changed in German. It read goddess wart on Luther's layer. Farge no, no ni mayor God's word and Luther's doctrine pure shall now, and evermore endure. And it is that bottom line conviction that has sustained and maintained the Lutheran church for all of these centuries that the teachings of the referee are in fact, the doctrines of the word of God, and therefore will never perish. They will be here until the end of time. Larry,

This is reformation day, uh, 21, 20 21. Uh, what does that mean to you? Uh, I guess as old pastors, it was the most significant, you know, a thing in our life as we learned it. And of course, as we grew, uh, it became less important within the church. What is the reformation? What does it stand for?

Those three phrases capture the theological since, and I think your observation is completely accurate. The importance of this celebration has diminished in year. In recent years. I can remember growing up in Milwaukee, we would go down to the auditorium downtown two blocks away from the slits brewery. And, and, uh, there would be thousands of people from all the churches in the area come together. And when they sang am mighty, fortres that great building shook because they sang with real Gusto, a joyful celebration of what we believed taught and confessed as the everlasting gospel of God's word.

What the event that we today looking back would identify as the trigger of the affirmation was the response, the conscientious response of a young Augustinian monk to the practice of the sale of what we're called and still are indulgences. The paper office issued a document that for in return for a payment would shorten your time in purgatory, given Roman Catholic theology, if your sin balance was out of kilter, when you died, if you had not performed sufficient, good works to compensate for your sins, you went to what might be called a waiting room for heaven to burn off the difference. And the longer you were in that place of suffering and torment depended on how many sins out of balance you were. My wife grew up in the Catholic church because at that time, uh, uh, and became a Lutheran six days before he got married because the seminary would've kicked me out otherwise , but I can remember the summer after, uh, we were married, going to see her grandfather who was an old gentleman in his nineties.

He was in a veteran's hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana in August, no air conditioning. He was hot and dying of cancer. And, uh, he in his agony and his pain, he said, I can see myself shoveling sand in purgatory for a thousand years. He was a railroad worker and they'd spend the whole day loading these cars. And then at the end of the day, the engine would move a little bit and shake 'em all. And the car they had full was suddenly half empty again. And that was his version of purgatory and endless exercise in painful futility. It just broke your heart to listen to it. This guy had gone a mass three or four times a week for his whole life. He was a devout Catholic and still looked forward to shoveling sand and purgatory for a thousand years. And wept made my new Lutheran wife promise to go light candles and, uh, say rosaries to get him out more quickly.

That was the issue. Then Pope Leo, the fifth was in the process of building St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, still there today, as you know, and in order to gather the income to erect that great building, he issued what was called a planary indulgence. That meant that by buying this document to help build the Pope church, you would be forgiven for all of your sins, play an area in Latin each and every, and would immediately be released from purgatory to go to heaven. Now you have a document that can do that. That's going to be a very popular sale and the people flock to buy them Luther again, as your well aware, Dave lived in a little German village in the province of Saxony called Whittenburg and the local Cardinal had sent a Dominican monk named John teel to travel through the province, selling these indulgences and TES's punch line was when the coin and the coffer rings the soul from purgatory Springs.

And, uh, Luther was one of the pastors on the staff city church, where the common people went to church in Whittenburg and found that his time in the confessional booth was going down, nobody was coming to make confession. He went out to figure out what was happening, turns out they're all out, listening to father teel and buying indulgences. So, so they don't need to go to confession anymore. And they are now free to sin as they will. Now you'll notice what happens there is forgiveness has shifted from a gift from a gracious God to a work. In this case, a payment to a man, to a church organization, Luther was horrified because what we've done is we've denied the gospel. We've denied the faith, two of the three souls, which would later characterize the reformation. So gratia and Sola feee. And that meant that once we change from God's gift to man's effort, we are no longer a religion of grace.

And that concern today is certainly not limited to any one particular denomination, both Catholic and Protestant churches throughout America and the world do a whole lot more talking these days about works than they do about grace. A good many of them to fill those churches and meet those budgets. Don't talk about sin at all, because you have to meet the felt needs of your parishioners. If you're gonna get 'em into church. And so we talk about a prosperity gospel, uh, down in the basketball stadium. For example, God wants you to be rich and here's how to get to it. Or gospel of self-esteem. As Robert Scher used to proclaim in the crystal cathedral in New York city, it's exactly the same problem. Luther said, man has an inclination to law. We want to participate. We wanna feel like we've earned it. And so doing works our, our contribution.

And besides that enables me or you or, or anyone to feel better than somebody else, because I've done more works than he has. We're back to the Pharisee and the public in the temple Lord. I thank the that. I am not like this grubby Republican. I mean, public, uh, that was not a political statement that was, uh, inadvertent remark but the core of Christianity is at stake here. And S why, when you looked at all three of the SOS in our world, the most objectionable part of all, three of them is the, so which means alone. This is the truth. And anything that deviates from this is false. We don't believe in objective truth or total all encompassing anything anymore because we live in a world of radical individualism. I'll decide what's right for me, I'll decide. What's good for me. I'll decide what I want to do. And nobody else can tell me anything. There are no universals. And that's why the first of those three. Now remember Dave, I told you before we started, if you don't interrupt me, I'm just gonna keep talking through the whole thing.

So I've got, I've got things in my mind.

Okay. Uh, the first of the three re SOS is Sola scriptura scripture, the Bible alone. That means the doctrines of the Christian faith must come from the word of God. Not from any church bureaucrat, no matter what denomination he's from making, uh, things up as he goes along and changing them as he wishes, not from some entertainment, preacher, who's a fabulous speaker, but, uh, to use a Lutheran analogy, when he preaches it's all foam and no beer, there's no substance to it. And he, he shapes it in terms of what he perceives the expectations of people to be. So they'll come to his church.

Absolutely. And that's a, that's a rat other perceptive question, because if a pastor does not have the word, if a pastor's role is not to be the advocate, the defender of the word, then you're out there all by yourself. You are out there standing alone. What has sustained pastors in their ministry across the centuries is that they are God's men and they proclaim God's word. And if you don't like what I'm saying, take it up with him because all I'm doing is proclaiming the truth of his word. And without that support, the ministry becomes a very lonely place to be. Yes, Luther once said, if the devil ain't screeching, you, ain't preaching. And that's a very loose translation of the J, but, uh, you are proclaiming a word that is not your own, a word that isn't followed because it's, uh, my idea or my preference.

You are speaking for God. And, uh, I remember it instance when the, uh, the SWER, they were called the buzzers, the radical Pentecostals of Luther's day, Thomas Munser was their leader, and they were tearing down the churches and rebelling against the government. And, uh, Munser came to Luther, looking for his support and told him of the beautiful visions he had seen and all the things God had told him. And, uh, the holy spirit was his friend. And Luther's response was, I don't care if you swallowed the holy spirit feathers and all show me in the book and a parted company.

Let's pause for just a minute. Larry. I wanna just do a little bit of PR for, uh, this company that does all this broadcasting for the last 12 years. I'm glad you turned into engaging truth programming tonight. Let me for a moment tell you about Elm, which is evangelical life ministries. It's a group of volunteers in the Houston area who not only plan of these broadcasts, but also produce them. Each broadcast is centered on God's holy word, in particular, this saving grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. You can help us with our programming. First of all, you can pray for us. Pray that the volunteer team who loves to see each broadcast sent not only go to, to this country, but across the world. Secondly, you can support what we do with giving. How do you do that? Go to the website, E L M houston.org and press the donate button.

Many opportunities are there to help you give. You can also send your support to, and I'll give you the address. E L M P O box 5 68, Cypress, Texas, 77, 410. Every gift is receded. Every gift is truly appreciated. And we thank the Lord for your gift to us. I've got in the studio this evening, uh, Dr. Larry White pastor of our savior Lutheran church. Larry, let's go into this business of, uh, the word, the erosion of the word. The, the big question is what do we, as pastors do about that? Um, we know we need to proclaim the truth and to stand alone out there is very hard. Yes, indeed. What, what, what is a formula that you can provide for us as pastors and the pastors in the listen

Audience? The phrase that I use when the going gets rough and you get weary is to remind myself that God does not call me to be successful. God calls me to be faithful in the most difficult moment in Luther's life. When he was now in open conflict with the power of the church and power of the state, he was summoned to an Imperial parliament, a gathering of all the princess of the government, a gathering of all the bishops and the Cardinals of church and state together. And they examined him, took testimony from him. They concluded he was a heretic because he would recognize only the authority, Sola, scriptura of the Bible as God's word and per Charles, the fifth Andor of the holy Roman empire. The most powerful man in Europe, looked at Luther and said, will you recant, will you take this back? If you won't, then your life is on the line.

And we've gotta remember in that historical context that virtually every man who had the courage to try and reform the church before ended up burned at the stake, whether it was John Huss in Bohemia or John wile in English or in England or Jerome saola in Florence, in Italy, they were all executed in the most gruesome way imaginable. So when this guy says your life is on the line, everybody knows it really is. Luther's response was prompt and unequivocal. I cannot, and I will not recant here. Come the crucial words that answer your question, Dave, because my conscience is captive to the word of God. The Lord does not expect us to build huge churches and raise millions of dollars. The Lord expects us to preach his word and leave the results to him to be faithful is doing what God says in God's way and leave the outcome to him. That's where our strength in ministry comes

From. Let's look around the corner a little bit, Larry, uh, we're not profits and we don't even try to be profits. Um, but we're old enough to see history differently than the young pastor see history today. Indeed, when you, when you look at the church at large, um, and the church that you love and the church that I love, what do we see for the future? Um, and, and is there something that we can do to help what needs to be done to correct its its direction?

Well, if it were not for God and his promise that the church will stand forever, it, the future would indeed look grim, all too many churches, local churches and denominations and Lutheran churches and Lutheran denominations have turned away for, from the word to reach out to people with a popular message, shallow and superficial about them. Not about God that they want to hear to be, to achieve worldly success. But we've got to remember that God's pay. People have never been in the majority. God's people are always, as they called it in the old Testament, the faithful remnant. You remember the property, Elijah Mount Carmel. He was all by himself, 800 pre priests and priests of the idle bail dancing and Pring and Elijah yells sing louder. Maybe he's sleeping. So you see sarcasm, can't be a sin and then comes Elijah and the fire descends from heaven.

And the next day he's on the run from the army of Ahab Jebel. And he's up in the Mo up on Mount ho in the cave. And he says, I'm the only one left. I'm the only one left and God takes him out and you listen to the great wind and you see the burning fire. And then you hear the still small voice and God is not in the wind and God is not in the fire, but God is in that still small voice. And he says to Elijah, you may feel like you're alone, but I have held yet 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the need to bail. Now when you're alone, I suppose that's good news, but we're talking about a country with millions of people, people, and there are still only 7,000 in Israel. And that's enough.

Larry. I just has been a pleasure to have you again, uh, because of this is the reformation day, a remembrance of what happened in fifteen seventeen, five hundred and four years ago. Uh, but I just wanna say thank you for the passion that you bring to the microphone, the passion you bring to your people. And those I meet on the road. They say we belong to our saviors and, um, he's uncompromising, which really ought to be all of us. So I just wanna say thank you for your presence here today and your uncompromising stand for the gospel and pray that people will come back and worship with us again, goodnight and come back to, uh, engaging truths next Sunday night. Thank you and good night.

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