Sermon notes:

What Is Sola Scriptura?

Introduction:

730 feet long, 500 feet wide and nearly as tall, this monument attracts millions every year, and no I’m not talking about the new Noah’s Ark creation museum. This enormous structure greets visitors with a facade of giant pillars. As you draw near your are forced to crane your neck back to see the 13 larger than life statues who are perched at the top looking down upon you. Behind them a colossal dome rises into the sky.

Maybe by now you can guess what I’m describing. This is St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, arguably the most important basilica in all of the world and certainly the most visited! St. P. was a feat of architectural genius. At the time it was built it was most likely the tallest and largest building in the world. The main dome was designed by Michael Angelo using new technology to make it the largest dome ever built and to this day the tallest dome.

It truly awes the visitor who seems to disappear as he approaches this immense edifice. Once inside it is overwhelming to take in the works of art that fill every corner and more impressively the colorful underside of the domes, each one detailing Biblical stories.

However, beyond doubt the most impressive of all is the main dome which rises at the end of an extended nave giving the worshipper a clear and unencumbered view of the focus point of the entire building and drawing him in. As he moves towards the dome it slowly comes into view revealing it’s massive beauty!

As you come closer towards the center of the main dome your eyes are at first raised to see the words “Hinc sacerdotii unitas exoritur” “From here the priesthood unified rises.” Then your gaze falls below the dome where stands the 66 foot tall bronze canopy directly over the claimed grave of the Apostle Peter.

And that’s really what it is all about! St. Peter’s Basilica is and was the Catholic Church’s effort to prove their authority, their power, their inspiration, their ordination as the sole keepers of God’s truth, the administrators of God’s grace, and the agents of his mercy.

St. Peter’s Basilica is really nothing more than a 500-year-old propaganda scheme that was meant to impress and overwhelm any who would dare questions the unquestionable authority of the Catholic Church!

And so they made a large pile of stones over Peter’s dead bones and said, “Look, can’t you see, this is where we get our authority!”

Here’s the way they put it in the 2nd Vatican council:

“It is clear, therefore, that Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”

But I say, No! The only thing Peter’s corpse can give you is a guilty conscience, oh and it can get you money too from the millions who believe your claims! But it can no more give you authority to forgive sin, or speak the oracles of God than can the bones of a dead dog can give anyone the right to bark out orders to the canine world!

The warning of John the Baptist still rings true today:

Luk 3:8  Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

The Bible clearly instructs us both in the Old and New Testament that divine authority comes not through

human institutions,

long-held traditions,

monumental buildings,

military might,

Political systems

our own intellectual prowess,

emotions and feelings,