What happened to sola scriptura...

I wrote yesterday about the issue of ordination of gays and lesbians as leaders in the Church. I was reflecting on this a lot more in the last couple of days, and I wonder if this issue, like so many others we are facing now or will be facing soon, might just be symptoms of an even larger problem… (here’s where your comments are welcome…)

Perhaps the real underlying issue is our view of Scripture. I wrote yesterday that there are many, even in the church, who deny that the Bible is truly inspired by God. Instead they hold the view that it is a book about how people lived their faith years and years ago, and we have much to learn from them, but it’s not authoritative.

We didn’t have these conversations 100 years ago, because we saw the Bible as God’s inspired Word. The Bible says no, so the answer is no. No room for conversations. Now that fewer people still hold that view, we are forced to begin to address these issues.

The problem for me in all of this is that it leaves things rather unsettled. There is nothing concrete, and everything becomes open for discussion. Everything is in flux and open for differing interpretations.

It seems to me that from the beginning, there were two primary ways that we find authority in religious matters. From the early church right up to the reformation, Scripture and tradition were the primary standards for finding authority. They looked at Scriptures, and they looked at the way the church had done things in the past. During the reformation, there was a push to remove tradition. The charge was made that the Church had gotten it wrong, so we can’t use them as a guide to how things should be done. Martin Luther was known for saying sola scriptura (by scripture alone). It reflects the idea that the Bible is the only authority needed for Christian faith, and that it contains all the knowledge necessary for our salvation. It’s all we need.

Lately, perhaps in the last 50 years or so perhaps, a second authority has been introduced, that of the Holy spirit. As believers we all have equal access to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will speak to us. What is the Holy Spirit telling us? I agree that this is a valid question.
To me, I believe this still needs to be balanced by Scripture. The Holy Spirit will never tell us anything that doesn’t agree with Scripture. To me, Scripture is the reference point that helps discern that what we feel the Spirit is telling us is really from God, and not a worldly voice, or even a satanic voice.

Without a reference point, how do we know if the voice we hear is from God, from the world, from the devil, or just from that burrito we had last night?