There is an important rule of our Christian life that I see so many people, even people in influential positions, not keeping in the front of their minds at all times. When it is ignored it doesn’t tend to just cause a couple of rocks to tumble, it very often causes theological landslides.

In Latin, we have a core Protestant doctrine stated as “Sola Scriptura“; it means “Scripture Alone” or “by Scripture Alone”. This core doctrine tells us that if it doesn’t come from the Bible or if the Bible doesn’t agree with it, then we are to reject it.

The world is guided a lot by its experiences, what “happens” to people or “what they see” influences what they believe.

As Christians, we are commanded to be guided by God’s Word and its truth. “For we live by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7, and our faith should be in the scriptures.

I like to state it this way:

Experience does not dictate to us what the Bible teaches.
The Bible tells us the truth about our experiences.

Let me give you an example:

The doctrine of “Once Saved Always Saved” or OSAS is biblically sound and clearly outlined in the New Testament. God’s Word is sufficient and sharp enough to back this up all day long. I’m not going to get into the detail of this here as it would make this a very long article, but if you’re interested I have an article on my blog (jeremiah2911.blog) called “Did you check under the Sofa?” that goes into detail.

However, I often see people calling this doctrine “demonic” or “false doctrine” because of several reasons:

• They have experienced (there’s that word!) people who call themselves “Christians” about face and abandon their faith and concluded from that experience that OSAS is a lie. The truth is, these people were never saved in the first place.
• They have experienced people, who have fallen into willful sin, being told “Once Saved Always Saved” and watched them use this as a license to sin rather than repent, then concluded that OSAS is evil. The truth is that OSAS isn’t to blame, the right tool was used for the wrong job. OSAS should not be presented as a license to sin or a comfort to someone who refuses to repent, but as a comfort to the true believer who chooses repentance. If you use a dinner plate to hammer a nail and the plate breaks, it doesn’t mean it is no good as a dinner plate.
• They have experienced people backsliding, sometimes very heavily, and concluded that they have “lost their salvation”. The truth is that they either didn’t have it in the first place or they are fighting godly grief and conviction.

This is a complex example, but it does illustrate the point well. In each of the above cases we can open our Bible and find text that “tells us the truth about our experiences” instead of concluding that we understand what we saw and either ignoring or never having read doctrine that tells us otherwise.

This brings up another important truth that leaves “Sola Scriptura” standing alone in the rain: There is an epidemic of biblical illiteracy today.

Please, if you call yourself a Christian, make time for your Bible every day! It doesn’t matter if you can only study a few verses or 10 chapters, insist on the habit and grow the habit through repetition. If you struggle with comprehension, seek others who can help you.

Also, please make a habit of reading from Genesis to Revelation occasionally. I do this at least once a year, as well as more focused studies on particular books or sections as the Spirit leads me.

Godly people fought evil, risked and even gave their lives to put an English Bible in your hands:

John Wycliffe translated the Bible from the Latin text into English around the 1380’s. He died of natural causes, but his body was later exhumed and burnt for heresy. During his lifetime he was brought up on heresy charges multiple times.

William Tyndale was put to death by being strangled and burnt at the stake on October 6, 1536 for the heresy of his “unauthorized English translation” of the Bible. His was the first translation from the original Greek and Hebrew into English. He translated the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament before being executed for it. He correctly translated terms from the original languages that had been subverted to support Roman Catholic doctrine.

Your Bible is a gift! It is the living, breathing Word of God in your hands. Penned by the hands of men under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit.