The Protestant Reformation gave us sola scriptura, because the reformers believed like many today that the scriptures...not the church, and not anything else...are the ultimate authority for mankind. This is why they were so adamant about making copies of the scriptures and getting them into the hands of the people. The church saw it as a threat because if everyone had the scriptures, and no one took the church and its traditions seriously, the church would lose its power. But unfortunately, the scriptures...due to ‘by scripture alone’...became the same thing that papal authority was before. It became a weapon; people were now armed with scriptures and they did exactly what the church had done before. And consequently they split into over a thousand different denominations; they weren’t divided because some loved better than others, or because some loved differently than others; they were divided because of their interpretation of the texts. And they each were telling other people how to live, and what would get them into Heaven. And Protestants have been beating people over the head with the Bible ever since.
Were the likes of Peter and Paul guilty of beating people over the head with the Bible? True that our sinful nature comes out in our best intentions, but I don’t think we should stop standing for truth as best we can.
