Sola...

THE CASE FOR TRADITIONAL PROTESTANTISM
By Terry L. Johnson
Banner of Truth. x+182 pages. £6.25
ISBN 0 85151 888 5

This book does exactly what it says on the cover. Terry Johnson is the senior minister of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Georgia, and his aim is to set out and defend the leading gospel principles that were recovered at the Reformation.

At the time, these were summarised in five statements using the Latin word sola or alone: Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone and to the glory of God alone. The first is the claim that the Bible is God's complete revelation to the human race and therefore the final authority for the church; the second, that Christ is the only Mediator, Saviour and Lord, roles which no other man may usurp; the third, that faith is the sole means of laying hold of justification (forensic righteousness), not to be mixed with any self-righteousness or self-confidence; the fourth, that God's attitude of grace (undeserved love) is the only basis of any relationship with him; the fifth, that all life, whether 'religious' or 'secular', is to be lived only for the praise of God.