“Sola Roma”

My main objection to Catholicism is their replacement of the Reformation’s “five solas” (sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, soli Deo gloria, and solus Christus) with one sola, which I call “Sola Roma,” the Catholic Church alone is the only authority of God’s truth. To whit:

I’ll start with “sola Scripture,” Scripture alone, because it establishes the authority on which all the other solas are based. This sola is sometimes called the formal principle of the Reformation since it is the source and norm of the material cause or principle, the gospel of Jesus Christ that is received “sola fide,” by faith alone, “sola gratia,” by God’s grace alone. Catholicism rejects sola Scriptura because, over the centuries, through its belief in sola Roma, the Catholic Church has added various traditions to the Word of God as recorded in the Holy Bible. The Church believes it has the authority to add such extra-biblical traditions as the concept of purgatory, the veneration of Mary, and five more sacraments, and many other traditions, which are presumed to be equal to, or greater than, the authority of Scripture. The majority of these traditions are not supported in Scripture, but Catholics are told that Scripture is secondary to its authority, sola Roma.

“Sola Fide” and “sola gratia” are interconnected because they both relate to our justication. Justification is one of the steps in the Order of Salvation Paul presents to us in his letter to the Romans. Paul is saying that, through his grace, God justifies us to enable us to exhibit a true, saving faith. We acknowledge our justification through the expression of our faith and our performance of good works. Catholic teaching reverses this order in stating that our faith as exemplied by our confession and good works precedes our justification. This is why the concept of justification, how Luther understood it versus how the Catholic Church understood it, was the key issue which led to the Reformation.

As I said, sola fide and sola gratia interrelate; they refer to us being saved solely through our faith in Christ and solely through God’s grace and not by any works we have performed. Our faith is not a good work since it too is a gift from God. We who believe in sola fide and sola gratia believe that faith yields justification and good works. Catholicism teaches that faith and good works yield justification. Catholics support their belief in quoting James 2:14–17. “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled’, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” They also point to James 2:24; the only place in scripture where the phrase is used. “See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” We understand this verse to be asking the rhetorical question “What kind of faith is saving faith?” In considering what Paul is clearly saying in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we are saved through grace alone and not by works and that God does not contradict himself, the obvious point James is making is that faith without works is a dead faith. To be understood as a true, saving faith, a person will perform good works. Catholicism includes works in God’s plan of salvation to promote dependency on the Church to offer a platform for its followers to do good works in obedience to its dogma. A devout Catholic follows Catholic dogma, and in following Catholic dogma, Catholics perform the good work required to effect our salvation. The Catholic Church is therefore to be considered by Catholics to be necessary to demonstrate good works and acts of charity. Sola Roma.

“Soli Deo gloria” is the teaching that all glory is to be due to God alone. It is related to the sola fide and sola gratia because we give God all the glory when we acknowledge that our salvation rests on what he has done for us and not on what we are to do for God. In rejecting the other solas, Catholicism effectively rejects soli Deo gloria as well because it robs God of some of his glory in believing that while God indeed does offer salvation to us through his grace, we must cooperate in receiving that grace, and demonstrate our cooperation by performing acts of charity and other good works. The reformers correctly believed that we glorify God when we understand that our salvation is accomplished solely through his will and action – not only the gift of the all-sufficient atonement of Jesus on the cross but also the gift of faith in that atonement, created in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit. The reformers objected to what they perceived to be Rome wishing to reserve glory for itself (sola Roma). They believed that human beings – even saints canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, the popes, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy – are not worthy of the glory that was accorded them; that is, one should not exalt such humans for their good works, but rather praise and give glory to God who is the author and sanctifier of these people and their good works.

“Solus Christus,” the belief that Christ is our only mediator between man and God, is accepted in theory by the Catholic church because Catholics are Christians and accept Christianity’s main premise that salvation comes through no other than Christ; but Catholic tradition includes other necessary mediators like dead saints and Mary, the mother of Christ, as mediators in prayer and also establishes the priesthood whose role is to act as a required intermediary between God and man in performing the sacraments, five of which are defined in the Bible as rituals not sacraments. These rituals were added through the Catholic Church tradition for the explicit purpose of requiring dependency on the priesthood. Catholicism thus rejects solus Christus in practice by requiring the priesthood to act as an intemediary in addition to Christ; yet another example of sola Roma.

In reviewing the Catholic position on the five solas of the Reformation, we can see that with Catholicism, it’s really all about the church. Sola Roma.