After the signing of the Augsburg Confession in 1530, it seemed that the Lutheran theologians were in agreement on the doctrines of Scripture. Like everything that human beings touch, even the gains made in the Reformation began to fall apart. After the death of Luther in 1546, the unity of Lutheranism began to disintegrate into factions. This is the scene in which Jakob Andreae found himself in the mid- to late-sixteenth century. He wrote these words to unify “second generation Lutherans” in the late 1570s. It may be the best and shortest explanation of Sola Scriptura. “We believe, teach, and confess that the only rule and guiding principle according to which all teachings and teachers are to be evaluated and judged are the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments alone…Other writings of ancient or contemporary teachers, whatever their names may be, shall not be regarded as equal to Holy Scripture, but all of them together shall be subjected to it.”
