I was raised in the Conference Baptist denomination, an evangelical Protestant denomination. For my first 47 years, I was also involved as a member in the following evangelical denominations: Christian church, Southern Baptist, Christian and Missionary Alliance, and Evangelical Free Church in America. For two years, I was a member of a non-evangelical Protestant denomination, the Reformed Church in America (RCA); this Calvinistic denomination is what is called “mainline” among Protestants.
In all of these churches, including the RCA, I lived sola Scriptura on a daily basis. It was the entire basis of my entire life and that of all my fellow church members and friends.
To those Christians in the evangelical churches and to a certain extent, the RCA, sola Scriptura means “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”
Or, another simple way to put it is, “It’s in there!” meaning that everything we need to know for life here and hereafter is in the 66 books of the Protestant Bible.
Back when I was in 5th grade, my Senior pastor, H.L. Christenson, the husband of the great evangelical writer and prayer warrior, Evelyn Christenson, presented the class with a Bible (KJV), and included the following message pasted into the front of the Bible: "My dear young friend, You have been given the most precious earthly gift that your Church can give. Within these pages in recorded earth’s greatest message, “that you may know him.” Not only that you may know Christ as your personal savior, but there is also recorded here a plan for living that will bring you happiness and blessing throughout your entire life. Remember that this book is “the power of God unto salvation,” and “a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.”
We believed that everything we needed to know was in the Bible. That’s what sola Scriptura is.
Here is an excerpt from the Statement of Faith of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) International (a member of the church I grew up in, Steve Douglass, is the President of this organization):
The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God’s infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.
I think the OP is splitting hairs in trying to arrive at The Definitive Definition of sola Scriptura. The name says it all–Scripture alone. That’s what I grew up with. All of the different variations of this definition from the different Protestant denominations and parachurch organizations like CCC basically say the same thing–that Holy Scripture is the SOLE authority for the Christian.
This is what the OP has to decide whether he/she believes or not. The variations in the definition do not matter two hoots or even one hoot and to continue to argue that because there are variations in definition, a person cannot make a decision about the teaching, is rather silly and childish. Those of us who were born and raised in sola Scriptura know exactly what this teaching means–sole authority of the Scriptures, not man or church. The OP has to decide whether the Bible is the supreme and final authority in all matters in which it speaks."
BTW–just an off topic side note–this is one reason why most evangelical Protestant denominations do not consider masturbation or artifical contraception sinful–it doesn’t say so in the Bible. It is not really even implied. If it’s not in there, it’s a freebie!
