Why do the Five Solas Matter Today?

Next year, 2017, will be the celebration of the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. At the end of October, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg. We expect lots of murmurings and questionings next year, that that whole event was a ‘fiction,’ and that Luther did not say at the Diet of Worms, “Here I stand; I can do no other.” Luther’s reputation will be blackened with a few condescending remarks about the contribution his translation of the Bible into German made in the preservation of the German language.

But, on a happer note, there will be many conferences and tours of east Germany and books published to celebrate the greatest revival of religion since Pentecost. And here is one of the first offerings that our friends in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster have produced (www.freepresbyterian.org). It is a 26 page workbook on the 5 Solas of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura, (Scripture alone), Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), Sola Fide (Faith Alone), Solus Christus (Christ Alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be Glory). The Preface of this booklet notes that “the Reformers did not introduce a new teaching but rather rediscovered and re-emphasised the truth of the gospel as taught by Christ, the Apostles and the early church.”

The structure of this workbook is as follows. It presents two pages of explanation of each of the five solas followed by two pages containing three questions with blank lines for the student to write out his answers. The book concludes with a bibliography of seven recommended books, five of which are published by the Banner of Truth, Buchanan’s Justification¹, A.A.Hodge’s Confession of Faith², Terry Johnson’s Case for Traditional Protestantism³. John Murray’s Collected Writings, Volume 1⁴ and Thomas Watson’s Body of Divinity⁵. The other books commended are Martin Luther’s Selected Writings (the four volumes Fortess Press edition), and Martin Marty’s life of Luther published by Penguin. The list concludes with the Westminster Confession of Faith.

This admirable booklet would do well in a group of teenagers from Christian homes, students at a Christian Union, a women’s study group, or an office mid day study group. This is a modest, sound and useful contribution to our understanding of the Reformation. It will do well in the next year.