They're Lying About Sola Scriptura
Nearly every single critique of Sola Scriptura that I see online is based on a straw man fallacy.
And it is tiresome (not to mention at odds against the testimony of the fathers themselves).
Sola Scriptura doesn’t mean that truth may not be found elsewhere but in Scripture. It doesn’t mean we read only the Bible and nothing else (Nuda Scriptura). It doesn’t mean that a Lutheran mechanic is underneath his car armed not with wrenches and a Chilton manual, but is rather flipping through the pages of his Bible. That is not what “Scripture Alone” means - and our detractors themselves know better. For even our Confessions themselves approvingly cite creeds (and our confessional documents are themselves creeds), church fathers, popes, councils, canon law, and the writings of reformers. What Sola Scriptura means is that the Scriptures are sui generis. They are in a category unto themselves. They are the Word of God, which places them in a category without peer or equal. It is in that sense that they stand alone.
It is analogous to when we say, “Christ Alone,” we are not denying the Father and the Holy Spirit. When we say “Grace Alone,” we are not denying faith.” To conclude otherwise would be straw-manning.
We Christians are called to confess, that is, to say the same thing, as God says in His Word. We are not called to uncritically confess the words and opinions and decretals of mere fallible mortals, and treat those words as sacred, as if they are on the same plane as God’s infallible Word. And this is especially true when competing authorities contradict the Scriptures. Moreover, not even the most brash of popes and councils has dared to add their own words as new books in the Bible. And in that sense, they too concede to Sola Scriptura.
Nothing else is the Word of God: not the writings of popes, councils, the fathers, canon law, or claims of visions; not the Book of Concord, dogmatics texts, writings of reformers, synod bylaws, minutes from the latest district convention or the congregational voter’s assembly. The Holy Spirit delivered to us the written oracles of God preserved for the church - and yes, preserved by the church as servants of, and not masters over, these writings. And these infallible books protect us even from corrupted church officials, hierarchs, and heretics who would claim supremacy over them, rather than place themselves in submission to them. Scripture is the canon, that is, the measuring rod by which everything else must be measured. And every tyrant sings the same tune: normal Christians cannot understand the Scriptures, but conveniently (for the tyrant), God’s Word must be filtered and interpreted and explained by, of course… the tyrant.
No, they don’t.
So yes, we Lutherans do read other texts besides Scripture (and accept them to be true) - especially our Book of Concord (which we consider binding and authoritative). But every other text must bow before, and conform to, Holy Scripture - and Scripture Alone holds this place of primacy. It is the norma normans, the “norming norm,” and is so alone: Sola Scriptura. By contrast, all creeds and confessions are norma normata, “normed norms” - which are normed by God’s Word.
It is desirable for all Christians to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the Holy Scriptures. The last thing any faithful pastor or bishop should ever do is to discourage the laity from doing so. Either you believe the Scriptures are God’s Word, or you don’t. We do. That is what Sola Scriptura means. And we don’t just hand out Bibles to people and refuse to teach them. For the Scriptures teach us to teach the Scriptures, as we see in Scripture, such as the example of Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8:30-31).
So next time you hear someone claiming that Sola Scriptura is wrong, ask them if they believe Scripture is sui generis - because that has always been the church’s confession. There is a reason why we read the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistles of Ignatius, 1 Clement, etc. - but do not consider these works canonical. They are simply not the equal of the Old Testament, the Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, the Catholic Epistles, and the Revelation. They are not the canon, not the measuring stick. And it is interesting that no-one was ever burned at the stake for translating the church fathers into the vernacular languages. But men have been tortured and executed for translating the Bible. So it is only for translating Scripture, that is, Scripture Alone, that the Roman Church has condemned translators to death.
Maybe our Sola Scriptura detractors would be so kind as to explain that. It suggests that they too, deep down inside, confess Sola Scriptura along with us.
Chilton manuals and the Bible are both true. Both are helpful, useful, and good to read (though, again, no-one was ever burned at the stake for translating a Chilton manual into the vernacular). But only the Bible, is the very Word of God. Scripture is sui generis - standing alone as authoritative texts that may never be contradicted without grave theological error.