Luther: The Rest of the Story, Part V: The Road to Chaos
The logic of
sola Scriptura began to work its way out such that, beginning with Luther, Christians within the various Protestant traditions came to think of themselves as possessing the right to decide for themselves what they believed the Bible to be teaching and to live in accordance with that teaching — without being
bound by any authority on earth.
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Luther, who always had a way with words, put the principle even more succinctly: “In these matters of faith, to be sure, each Christian is for himself pope and church” (
Werke, Weimar: 1898, 5:407, 35).
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Luther himself foresaw what would come of his teaching and example.
There will be the greatest confusion. Nobody will allow himself to be led by another man’s doctrine or authority. Everybody will be his own rabbi; hence the greatest scandals (quoted in O’Hare, The Facts About Luther, p. 209).
As the Protestant movements began instantly to splinter and division and chaos ensued, Luther complained:
There are as many sects and beliefs as there are heads. This fellow will have nothing to do with baptism; another denies the Sacrament; a third believes that there is another world between this and the Last Day. Some teach that Christ is not God; some say this, some say that. There is no rustic so rude but that, if he dreams or fancies anything, it must be the whisper of the Holy Spirit, and he himself a prophet (Ibid, p. 208).
Luther lived to see those he had personally instructed in the faith reject his teaching and run off to preach their own doctrine.
How many doctors have I made through preaching and writing! Now they say, “Be off with you! Go off with you! Go to the devil!” Thus it must be. When we preach they laugh …. When we get angry and threaten them, they mock us, snap their fingers at us and laugh in their sleeves (Ibid, p. 207).
Luther even admitted that the chaos was
directly related to the rejection of the Catholic Church’s authority.
Since the downfall of Popery and the cessation of excommunications and spiritual penalties, the people have learned to despise the word of God. They no longer care for churches; they have ceased to fear and honor God … After throwing off the yoke of the Pope, everyone wishes to live as he pleases (Sungenis, Not by Scripture Alone, p. 365).
This article is part of an ongoing series from Ken Hensley. Part I Part II Part III Part IV Between the years 1513 and 1516, Martin Luther came to his new view of
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