What are the five solas •  By Pastor David Kim Difference between Theology and theology •  Ancient Truth. Be careful not to be doctrinal innovators. ChrisAans? Evangelical catholics? •  We believe and teach nothing more and nothing
less than what the Scriptures themselves teach
and what Christians through the ages have always
believed. We therefore consider ourselves to be
catholic (small "c"), which means "universal." At
the same time, we have always thought of
ourselves as evangelical, since the evangel–the
Gospel, the good news of the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sins of the
world–is at the heart and core of everything we
believe and teach. Christians, therefore, can
rightly be regarded as evangelical catholics.
What we believe? •  Standing firmly in the tradition of the trinitarian and
Christological formulations of the 4th and 5th
centuries, we believe that
•  sinners are justified (declared right) with the Creator
God by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone
(sola fide), on the account of Christ’s merit alone
(Solo Christus) on the basis of Scripture alone (sola
scriptura), and for the Glory of God alone (Soli Deo
Gloria). These five great "Reformation solas" form a
handy outline of what we (LINC/GLOCAL) believe,
teach, and confess.
Five Solas •  The five solas are five Latin phrases
popularized during the Protestant
Reformation that emphasized the
distinctions between the early Reformers
and the Roman Catholic Church. The word
sola is the Latin word for “only” and was
used in relation to five key teachings that
defined the biblical pleas of Protestants. 5 Solas=5 Solae •  The Five solae are five Latin phrases that
emerged during the
Protestant Reformation and summarize
the early Reformers' basic theological
beliefs in contradistinction to the teaching
of the Roman Catholic Church of the day.
The Latin word sola means "alone" or
"only" in English. The five solae articulated
five fundamental beliefs of the Protestant
Reformation, pillars which the early
Reformers believed to be essentials of the
Christian life and practice."
5 solas are: •  1. Sola scriptura: “Scripture alone”
2. Sola gratia: “grace alone”
•  3. Sola fide: “faith alone”
4. Solo Christo: “Christ alone”
5. Soli Deo gloria: “to the glory of God
alone”
5 solas •  Each of these solas can be seen both as a
corrective to the excesses of the Roman
Catholic Church at the start of the
Reformation and as a positive biblical
declaration.
Sola Scriptura •  Sola scriptura emphasizes the Bible
alone as the source of authority for
Christians. By saying, “Scripture
alone,” we reject with all our hearts
whatsoever does not agree with the
infallible teaching of the Word of
God." We believe that Scripture alone–not Scripture and
tradition, Scripture and the church, Scripture and human
reason, or Scripture and experience, or Scripture and
emotions, or Scripture and science–stands as the final
standard of what the Gospel is.
Formal Principle & Material Principle •  But we also believe that confidence in the reliability of
the Bible is not possible apart from faith in Jesus Christ.
Christians believe what the Scriptures teach because
they first believe in Jesus Christ. Christ is the object of
faith, not the Bible. We believe that the inversion of this
order compromises "scripture alone" and results in
rationalistic fundamentalism, as if an accepted
demonstration of the Bible's truthfulness and reliability–
perhaps a piece of Noah's ark, for example–could
provide a foundation for faith in the Gospel. The Bible
remains a dark book apart from faith in Christ, for He is
its true content. But when sinners are brought to faith in
Him, Christ points them back to the writings of the
prophets and apostles as the sole authoritative source
for all the church believes, teaches and confesses.
Law and Gospel •  The key to understanding Scripture properly, we believe,
is the careful distinction between the Law and the
Gospel. The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel
is C. F. W. Walther's best known book. The Law tells
what God demands of sinners if they are to be saved.
The Gospel reveals what God has already done for our
salvation. The chief purpose of the Law is to show us our
sin and our need for a Savior. The Gospel offers the free giN of God's salvaAon in Christ. The whole Bible can be divided into these two chief teachings. Scripture alone... •  As the Scripture says,
Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things
from Thy law....I will bow down toward Thy holy temple,
And give thanks to Thy name for Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth; For Thou hast magnified Thy word
according to all Thy name....You, however, continue in
the things you have learned and become convinced of,
knowing from whom you have learned them; and that
from childhood you have known the sacred writings
which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All
Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for
every good work. (Psalm 119:18; Psalm 138:2; II Tim.
3:14-17)
Sola Scriptura: The Scripture Alone is the
Standard
•  The doctrine that the Bible alone is the
ultimate authority was the "Formal
Principle" of the Reformation. In 1521 at
the historic interrogation of Luther at the
Diet of Worms, he declared his
conscience to be captive to the Word of
God saying, "Unless I am overcome with
testimonies from Scripture or with evident
reasons -- for I believe neither the Pope
nor the Councils, since they have often
erred and contradicted one another -- I am
overcome by the Scripture texts which I
have adduced, and my conscience is
bound by God's Word."
•  Sola Scriptura!
•  Sola scriptura is the teaching that the
Bible is the only inspired and
authoritative word of God, is the only
source for Christian doctrine, and is
accessible to all—that is, it is
perspicuous and self-interpreting.
"Scripture interprets scripture" is a
governing principle of many Protestant
denominations."
•  Sola scriptura!
•  Sola scriptura is sometimes called the
formal principle of the Reformation, since
it is the source and norm of the material
principle, the gospel of Jesus Christ that is
received sola fide ("through faith alone")
sola gratia (by God's favor or "grace
alone"). The adjective (sola) and the noun
(scriptura) are in the ablative case rather
than the nominative case to indicate that
the Bible does not stand alone apart from
God, but rather that it is the instrument of
God by which he reveals himself for
salvation through faith in Christ (
solus Christus or solo Christo)."
Sola GraAa= Salvation by Grace Alone
•  Sola gratia emphasizes grace as the reason
for our salvation. In other words, salvation
comes from what God has done rather than
what we do. Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches, “For
by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift
of God, not a result of works, so that no one
may boast.”
By grace alone •  It means "only grace" and it excludes the
merit done by a person to achieve
salvation. Sola gratia is the teaching that
salvation comes by divine grace or
"unmerited favor" only, not as something
merited by the sinner. This means that
salvation is an unearned gift from God for
Jesus' sake."
•  Two wrong views: "
•  no synergism: cooperation"
•  no universalism: everyone will be saved"
Grace Alone •  At the heart of what we believe is the conviction that
salvation is the free gift of God's grace (undeserved
mercy) for Christ's sake alone. "Since the fall of Adam all
men who are born according to the course of nature are conceived and born in sin" (Augsburg Confession II, 1), the Lutherans confessed before Emperor Charles V in Augsburg, Germany, in 1530. This "inborn sickness and hereditary sin" makes it uZerly impossible for people to earn forgiveness. If salvaAon were dependent on human iniAaAve, there would be no hope for anyone. But God forgives our sins, says Luther in his Large Catechism (1529), "altogether freely, out of pure grace" (LC III, 96). Grace Alone •  The basis for the grace of God that alone gives hope to
sinners is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We believe, as Luther put it in his explanation to the
second article of the Apostles' Creed, "that Jesus Christ,
true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also
true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has
redeemed me, a lost and condemned person . . . not
with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and
with his innocent suffering and death. . . ." (Luther's
Small Catechism with ExplanaAons, p.14). Grace Alone •  We believe that the Scriptures teach that God's grace in
Christ Jesus is universal, embracing all people of all
times and all places. There is no sin for which Christ has
not died. Says the Formula of Concord (1577), "We must
by all means cling rigidly and firmly to the fact that as
the proclamation of repentance extends over all men
(Luke 24:47), so also does the promise of the
Gospel . . . . Christ has taken away the sin of the world
(John 1:29)" (FC SD XI, 28). Therefore, there need be no
question in any sinner's mind whether Christ has died
for each and every one of his or her personal sins.
As the Scripture says,
Sola Gratia
•  In Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace,
which He lavished upon us. (Ephesians
1:8)
Sola Fide=Sola Fide: Justification by
Faith Alone
•  Sola fide emphasizes salvation as a free gift.
The Roman Catholic Church of the time
emphasized the use of indulgences (donating
money) to buy status with God. Good works,
including baptism, were seen as required for
salvation. Sola fide stated that salvation is a
free gift to all who accept it by faith (John
3:16). Salvation is not based on human effort
or good deeds (Ephesians 2:9).
Sola Fide (by Faith alone) • 
It means "only faith" and it excludes the good works as necessary for
salvation. Sola fide is the teaching that justification (interpreted in
Protestant theology as "being declared just by God") is received by
faith only, without any mixture of or need for good works, though in
classical Protestant theology, saving faith is always evidenced, but
not determined, by good works. Some Protestants see this doctrine
as being summarized with the formula "Faith yields justification and
good works" and as contrasted with the Roman Catholic formula
"Faith and good works yield justification." The Catholic side of the
argument is based on James 2:14-17. "What does it profit, my
brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of
daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be
warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are
needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it
does not have works, is dead." (James 2:14-17, NKJV)"
Faith Alone • 
A thousand years before the Reformation, St. Augustine (A.D.
354-430) had fought strongly against the errors of a monk
named Pelagius. Pelagius taught that sinners could contribute
to their salvation by their own efforts, apart from God's grace
in Christ. Relying on St. Paul's letter to the Romans, Augustine
held that Adam's fall into sin had so corrupted human nature
that the human will was completely depraved and enslaved to
the flesh. But Augustine believed that sinners, following their
conversion and infused with renewing grace by means of
baptism, begin to be healed, and are actually empowered by
God's grace to perform inherently good works. Christians,
according to Augustine, do continue to commit some sins, but
they also begin to do more good things and fewer bad things
as they are gradually justified by God.
Faith Alone • 
Luther had learned from Augustine that only the grace of God
could save him. But Luther's rediscovery of the Gospel in all its
clarity took place when he came to see that he did not first
have to do something to merit God's saving grace. Philip
Melanchthon, Luther's colleague at the University of
Wittenberg, writes in the Augsburg Confession: "Our churches
also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their
own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for
Christ's sake through faith when they believe that they are
received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account
of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This
faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight (Rom.
3,4)" (AC IV, 1-3).
Faith Alone • 
We believe that the conversion of sinners is a gift of God and not the
result of any human effort or decision. Lutherans therefore confess in
the words of Luther's explanation to the third article of the Apostle's
Creed: "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in
Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called
me by the Gospel." (Luther's Small Catechism with ExplanaAon, p. 15). Faith Alone • 
Lutherans are by no means anti-intellectual, and we thank
God for our reasoning ability. We use it to seek to understand,
to present and to defend what we believe, but we do reject all
suggestions that scientific evidence or rational arguments can
prove Christian truth claims. By the same token, we uphold
the importance of emotion and feeling in the life of the
Christian, but we steadfastly repudiate any reliance on
conversion experiences or "charismatic gifts" for the certainty
of salvation. We believe that the Scriptures teach that the sole
object of saving faith is Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and
that it is only by the miraculous power of God the Holy Spirit
that the Christian can say, "I believe." Faith is not a human
work but a gift from God.
Faith Alone • 
"Through faith alone" also implies that it is only through the
proclamation of the Gospel–in Word and Sacrament–that the Holy Spirit
gives the gift of faith. The proclamation of the Gospel Word in public
preaching therefore occupies a central position in our Christian
theology. Christian churches are preaching churches. But we are also
sacramental churches, for the sacraments–Baptism and the Lord's
Supper–are the Gospel made visible (cf. Circumcision and Passover in
the OT).
Faith Alone •  Finally, to say "through faith alone" means that we
believe that, to use a phrase Luther made famous,
Christians are at the same time sinners and saints
(simul justus et peccator). Justification is an act, a
declaraAon. It is not a process. Through faith in Christ, and only through faith, sinners are declared to be forgiven and to be perfectly right with God. This declaraAon is whole and complete, totally independent of any inherent goodness in us sinners. In short, because of God's act on the cross received through faith, we sinners are declared to be perfect saints in God's sight. But this does not mean that forgiven sinners, when judged by God's law, do not conAnue to be sinners. We are not "perfecAonists" in the sense of teaching that following conversion, ChrisAans stop sinning. "Forgiveness is needed constantly," says Luther. "Because we are encumbered with our flesh, we are never without sin" (Large Catechism II, 54). Faith Alone •  Yet we also disagree with those who answer the
question "why some and not others" on the basis of
something which human beings do or possess, as if the
ultimate cause for salvation is our striving or
cooperating or "deciding" for Christ. The Scriptures
teach that all people by nature are "dead
in ...transgressions and sins" (Eph. 2:1), utterly
incapable of contributing anything to their conversion or
salvation. If sinners, therefore, come to believe in Christ,
this is the result of God's power at work in them. If they
continue to reject the Gospel, this is their own fault. We
do not regard this response as a "cop-out" but simply as
faithfulness to what the Scriptures themselves teach
about the doctrine of election.
Faith Alone •  Because of our emphasis on justification through faith alone, we
Lutherans have sometimes been understood to advocate, or at
least to condone, what the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer condemned as "cheap grace," that is, taking sin for
granted and ignoring concern for a life of holy living. But such
notions are a perversion of what we believe. "Love and good
works must also follow faith," writes Melanchthon, because "God
has commanded them and in order to exercise our
faith" (Apology of the Augsburg Confession IV, 74 and 189). In other words, we believe that good works are necessary—but they are not necessary for salvaAon. Because we believe that salvaAon is both "by grace alone" and "through faith alone," we Lutherans refuse to give a logically saAsfying answer to the age-­‐old quesAon of why some people are saved and others are not. We disagree with those, like Calvin, who teach that since salvaAon is God's free giN, hell for those who do not believe must be proof that God does not want everyone to be saved. In opposiAon to this view, we maintain that the Scriptures clearly teach that God desires all "to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). Faith Alone •  We believe that Baptism has God's command and promise. Baptism
is "the Word of God in water," Luther said (Smalcald Articles, Part III,
V, 1). We believe that it is precisely in the baptism of infants, who
are included in Christ's Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20), that we
can see the full meaning of "through faith alone." We believe that
those who deny that God gives faith to infants through Baptism,
nevertheless in actuality deny salvation by grace alone (perhaps
without intending to do so). God's action in Baptism,apart from any
human initiative, creates and bestows the gift of faith through which
the Christian lays hold of God's grace. We also believe that the
Scriptures teach that the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper are
the true body and blood of Christ. Although we do not presume to
understand how this takes place, we confess that in, with and under
the earthly elements God gives the true body and blood of Christ for
the forgiveness of sins. Missouri Synod Lutherans therefore seek a
balance in public worship between the proclamation of the Gospel in
the Word and in sacrament. It is only through these "means of
grace" that sinners are brought to faith in Jesus Christ and preserved
in it.
Failth Alone •  While God's grace is universal and
embraces all people, we believe that
the Scriptures teach that this grace
can be appropriated by sinful human
beings only through faith.
Solus Christus=By Christ's Work
Alone are We Saved
•  Solo Christo (sometimes listed as Solus
Christus, “through Christ alone”)
emphasizes the role of Jesus in salvation.
•  Hebrews 4:15 teaches, “For we do not have
a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one who in every
respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin.” Jesus is the One who offers
access to God, not a human spiritual leader. •  The Reformation called the church back to
faith in Christ as the sole mediator between
God and man. While the Roman church
held that "there is a purgatory and that the
souls there detained are helped by the
intercessions of the faithful" and that
"Saints are to be venerated and invoked;"
"that their relics are to be venerated" -- the
reformers taught that salvation was by
Christ's work alone.
Solus Christus or Solo Christo ("Christ alone" or "through Christ alone")
•  Solus Christus is the teaching that Christ
is the only mediator between God and
man, and that there is salvation through
no other (hence, the phrase is
sometimes rendered in the
ablative case, solo Christo, meaning that
salvation is "by Christ alone")."
•  This is laid out in the Lutheran formula of holy absolution: the
"called and ordained servant of the Word" forgives penitents'
sins (speaks Christ's words of forgiveness: "I forgive you all
your sins") without any addition of penances or satisfactions
and not as an interceding or mediating "priest," but "by virtue
of [his] office as a called and ordained servant of the Word"
and "in the stead and by the command of [his] Lord Jesus
Christ" [The Lutheran Hymnal, (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1941), p. 16]. In this tradition
absolution reconciles the penitent with God directly through
faith in Christ's forgiveness rather than with the priest and the
church as mediating entities between the penitent and God."
Soli Deo Gloria= For the Glory of God Alone
•  All of life is to be lived to the glory of God. As the
Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "What is the
chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God
and to enjoy him forever." This great and all
consuming purpose was emphasized by those in
the 16th and 17th Centuries who sought to reform
the church according to the Word of God. In
contrast to the monastic division of life into sacred
versus secular perpetuated by Roman Church, the
reformers saw all of life to be lived under the
Lordship of Christ. Every activity of the Christian is
to be sanctified unto the glory of God.
Soli Deo Gloria •  As the Scripture says,
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God; Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the
utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the
strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be
glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and
dominion forever and ever. He has made us to be a kingdom,
priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the
dominion forever and ever. Grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now
and to the day of eternity. To Him be the glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and
might, be to our God forever and ever. For from Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
(1CO 10:31; 1PE 4:11; REV 1:6; 2PE 3:1; EPH 3:21; REV 7:12;
ROM 11:36)
•  Soli Deo gloria
•  Soli Deo gloria emphasizes the glory of
God as the goal of life. Rather than
striving to please church leaders, keep
a list of rules, or guard our own
interests, our goal is to glorify the
Lord. The idea of soli Deo gloria is
found in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So,
whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Soli Deo Gloria= Coram Deo •  Coram Deo: Living our entire life in the
presence of God, under the authority of
God, to the pleasure and glory of God
alone. Therefore, whatever we are doing,
wherever we are doing it, and however
doing it, we are acting under the gaze of
God (Col. 3:22-23; Gn. 39:8-10; Eph. 6:6;
Ps. 51:9-12; Dt. 31:16-18; Ps. 27:9-10; Lk.
22:61-62; 2 Cor. 4:14)
Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone")
•  It means "glory to God only" and it
excludes veneration or cult given to the
Virgin Mary, the saints, or angels. Soli Deo
gloria is the teaching that all glory is to be
due to God alone, since salvation is
accomplished solely through His will and
action — not only the gift of the allsufficient atonement of Jesus on the cross
but also the gift of faith in that atonement,
created in the heart of the believer by the
Holy Spirit. one should not exalt such
humans for their good works, but rather
praise and give glory to God who is the
author and sanctifier of these people and
their good works."
•  We are called to focus on Scripture, accept
salvation by grace through faith, magnify
Christ, and live for God’s glory.
• The primary mission of the church is...
•  The primary mission of the church,
according to our Christian belief, is
the preaching of the Gospel and the
administration of the sacraments.