Doctrine and Mission

Tag: Church Tradition

  • The Reformation is Not Over: Why the Church Still Needs Reform Today

    On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg—not to start a new religion, but to call the church back to the gospel. The Reformation was the recovery of Christ-centered Christianity from a system that had obscured grace behind religious performance, institutional power, and cultural assumptions.

    We celebrate the Reformation historically—but the work of reform is unfinished. Churches drift. Hearts drift. Cultures shift. And every generation must return to the gospel afresh.

    The Reformation was not a moment to be remembered.
    It is a movement that must continue.

    The Five Solas for Today

    The ancient Solas remain true—but to confront today’s distortions, they must be re-articulated for our cultural moment.

    1. Scripture Above Self (Sola Scriptura)

    The original Sola Scriptura asserted that the Bible—not church tradition or papal authority—is the final authority for faith and life. Today, the challenge is different. The rival authority is not Rome; it is the self. We live in a world that teaches us to “live your truth,” “follow your heart,” and treat feelings as ultimate. Many Christians now approach Scripture not to be shaped by it, but to see whether it confirms what they already feel.

    A modern Reformation calls us to place Scripture back above self.
    The Bible critiques our desires, corrects our instincts, and commands our obedience. The church must stop asking, “What do we want Christianity to be?” and start asking, “What has God revealed?”

    Until we surrender personal preference to divine authority, reformation is still needed.

    2. Grace Over Performance (Sola Gratia)

    The Reformers fought a works-based system that told people to earn salvation through religious effort. Today, our works look different—but the impulse is the same. Instead of religious merit, we seek identity, belonging, righteousness, and value through:

    • self-improvement
    • productivity
    • emotional wellness
    • political activism
    • theological correctness
    • ministry success

    We are a culture of achievement-based self-worth. Even in church, people quietly assume, “If I were more disciplined, more bold, more spiritual, God would be more pleased with me.”

    But grace is not God helping us perform better.
    Grace is God loving, rescuing, and restoring sinners who cannot save themselves.

    A modern Reformation must proclaim again:

    Your hope is not your performance for Christ.
    Your hope is Christ’s performance for you.

    Only grace breaks the cycle of religious exhaustion.

    3. Faith, Not Self-Expression (Sola Fide)

    Faith is not merely sincerity, personality, trauma history, or personal authenticity. Our culture has redefined faith as being true to yourself. So Christianity becomes a journey of self-discovery, not self-denial. The cross becomes a symbol of empowerment, not execution of the old self.

    But biblical faith means trusting, obeying, and submitting allegiance to Jesus as Lord.
    Faith does not express who you are—it transforms who you are.
    Faith does not validate your identity—it redefines your identity.

    The church must reject the gospel of authenticity where the highest virtue is “being yourself.” Christ does not affirm our self so much as He crucifies it and raises us into something new.

    To rediscover Sola Fide is to rediscover the call:

    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”

    4. Christ, Not the Brand (Solus Christus)

    We live in the age of the platformed Christian—celebrity pastors, influencer spirituality, church-as-production, and faith-as-aesthetic. Churches measure success by visibility, personalities, energy, and brand identity. The question is no longer, “Is this faithful?” but “Is this impressive?”

    But Scripture speaks directly to this temptation.

    In Corinth, believers were dividing themselves by which Christian leader they preferred. Some said, “I follow Paul.” Others, “I follow Apollos.” It was the first-century equivalent of denominational tribalism, ministry fandom, and pastor-centric identity.

    Paul responds with a thunderclap:

    “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
    — 1 Corinthians 1:13

    In other words:
    No leader died for you. No pastor rose for you. No teacher can save you.

    Paul then explains that Christian ministers are simply servants, not stars:

    “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed…
    I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
    — 1 Corinthians 3:5–6

    The church does not exist to elevate gifted personalities.
    It does not gather to admire Christian leaders.
    It gathers to worship Christ alone.

    A modern Reformation must dethrone our idols of charisma, influence, branding, tribal loyalty, and spiritual consumerism—and enthrone Christ alone as the head, center, message, authority, and meaning of the church.

    No pastor is the point.
    No platform is the mission.
    No personality is the glory.
    Only Christ.

    5. God’s Glory, Not Our Platform (Soli Deo Gloria)

    The glory of God was the heartbeat of the Reformation—and it is the truth most lost in our time. We live in an era of self-display, self-promotion, and self-exaltation. Even spiritual things can be leveraged to build a platform—sermons crafted for applause, ministries built for clout, good deeds performed for recognition, churches measured by optics.

    But the church does not exist to make us impressive.
    It exists to make Christ known.

    When the glory of God fades, something else always rises to take its place: the pastor’s ego, the church’s brand, the identity group’s agenda, the political movement’s mission, the individual’s comfort.

    A modern Reformation calls us back to kneeling posture:
    We must decrease. Christ must increase.

    The Reformation Continues

    We celebrate the Reformation not as nostalgia, but as a reminder:

    The church is always tempted to drift.
    The gospel is always worth recovering.
    And Christ is always worth reforming for.

    Reformation is not rebellion against the church—it is love for the church.
    It is not innovation—it is restoration.
    It is not going forward—it is returning.

    Ecclesia semper reformanda.
    The church must always be reforming.

    Not to become something new.
    But to become once again what Christ intended her to be.

    Always returning.
    Always repenting.
    Always reforming.
    Always Christ.

  • Sola Scriptura and the Problem with Apostolic Succession

    One of the central tenets of the Protestant Reformation was sola scriptura: the principle that Scripture alone is the final authority for faith and practice. This principle emerged in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic emphasis on apostolic succession and the authority of church tradition. While Catholicism argues that the Pope and bishops inherit an unbroken line of authority from the apostles, a careful biblical and theological examination shows why this claim is both unnecessary and ultimately unbiblical.

    Apostolic Succession in Catholic Thought

    Catholics defend apostolic succession by asserting that Christ established the apostles as the authoritative leaders of the church, with Peter as the “rock” (Matthew 16:18-19) and the rest of the apostles commissioned to teach, govern, and safeguard doctrine. From this, they argue that bishops, as successors of the apostles, inherit their authority, and that the Pope, as the successor of Peter, possesses supreme teaching authority.

    Catholic apologists often appeal to passages like 2 Thessalonians 2:15—“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter”—claiming that oral tradition, preserved and interpreted by the church, carries divine authority alongside Scripture.

    The Biblical Problem with Apostolic Succession

    Several key issues arise when comparing this model with Scripture:

    1. Authority is rooted in Christ, not men. While apostles were indeed authoritative, their authority came from Christ Himself. Acts 1:15-26 and 1 Corinthians 9:1-2 emphasize that their legitimacy came from Christ’s calling and commissioning, not from a humanly traceable succession. Once the apostles completed their work—teaching, writing Scripture, establishing churches—the basis for claiming special authority through lineage vanishes.
    2. The apostles themselves foresaw the completion of their teaching in Scripture. Paul repeatedly instructed churches to test all teaching against what he and other apostles wrote (Galatians 1:6-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:21). The New Testament repeatedly stresses the sufficiency of apostolic teaching, implying that no later bishops or popes can add to it.
    3. Tradition is inherently unstable. Unlike Scripture, human tradition is mutable. Popes and councils have historically disagreed, sometimes drastically, on doctrine. Even the claim of “progressive revelation” within tradition is theologically problematic because God Himself does not progress in truth. His character, His commands, and His moral law do not evolve (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). If Scripture reveals God’s eternal truth fully and finally, then any claim that tradition can develop new doctrine risks contradicting that truth.
    4. Scripture warns against elevating human authority. Jesus warned against those who would place human traditions above God’s Word (Mark 7:7-9). Paul rebuked the Galatians for turning from the gospel to human instructions (Galatians 1:6-9). The implicit critique of apostolic succession is clear: no lineage of men can stand above or replace the authority of God’s revealed Word.

    The Misconception of “Progressive Tradition”

    Some Catholic apologists respond by arguing that the Church grows in understanding over time, refining doctrines like the nature of the Trinity, Mary’s role, or moral theology. But there’s a critical distinction: understanding Scripture more deeply is not the same as Scripture itself progressing. God’s truth does not change; His commands are eternal. What the Church discovers in reflection must always be measured against the fixed truth of Scripture. Any claim that papal authority or tradition can create new moral imperatives risks putting the Church above Christ.

    For example, God’s teaching on marriage (Matthew 19:4-6) has not evolved, despite centuries of differing papal interpretations or disciplinary accommodations. To suggest that truth progresses as “tradition develops” undermines the very notion of divine immutability.

    Conclusion

    Sola Scriptura is not a denial of church authority or history; it is a safeguard against the instability and mutability of human traditions. Apostolic succession, when taken as a claim to infallible authority, contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture: authority rests in Christ, His Word is complete, and human intermediaries cannot add to or redefine divine truth.

    Churches may honor the historical apostles and the faithful men who followed, but Christ’s Word alone is sufficient to guide, correct, and preserve the church for all generations. In this light, Scripture is the final court of appeal—not bishops, not popes, and not tradition.