Returning to Sola Scriptura

At the Protestant Reformation, Luther cried out Sola Scriptura. In doing so, he declared the Holy Scripture to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice, the supreme norm that judges all doctrines, preaching, behaviors, and human traditions. Rome goes another way: it confesses the Bible, Tradition, and the Magisterium as normative sources, and from that arise so many conflicts among them. Historic Protestantism, for its part, has always held that a tradition is legitimate only so long as it stays submitted to the revealed Word of God. In today's Brazilian evangelicalism, though, mystical practices, rituals, and customs with no biblical support have kept multiplying. Bit by bit, human traditions climbed above Scripture and betrayed the very Protestant principle that gave rise to our churches. Here, these common practices are placed under the infallible scrutiny of the Scriptures, in an effort to return faithfully to Luther's cry: Sola Scriptura.

EVERY TRADITION SUBMITTED TO THE WORD OF GOD

Over time, every Protestant church ends up producing culture: ways of dressing, its own manner of speaking, musical styles, patterns of behavior that mark the identity of the community. This is natural, it repeats year after year, and in itself it poses no problem at all, provided everything remains under the absolute authority of Scripture. The danger shows up in one particular case: when some tradition, whether local, imported from elsewhere, or handed down from past generations, runs against the Word of God. At that point it becomes a disguised idol, a human yoke that enslaves consciences and nullifies the Gospel.

Jesus Christ confronted the Pharisees for exactly this:

thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do (Mark 7.13, ESV).

The apostle Paul echoes the same warning in Colossians 2.8: "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ" (ESV). As Protestants, we are summoned to the same radical examination Luther carried out against the indulgences and superstitions of his day. Nothing escapes the supreme tribunal of the Bible. Our doctrines, our worship, and our practices must rest entirely on Scripture, with no exceptions and no cultural accommodations. Every deviation at this point is apostasy disguised as piety, and overcoming it takes firmness, so that we may then live the true freedom that is in Christ.

PRACTICES WITHOUT BIBLICAL SUPPORT IN BRAZILIAN EVANGELICALISM

Below, we look more closely at practices common in Brazilian evangelicalism, above all in Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal circles. In each case, we point to the lack of scriptural foundation, setting the practice against the clear teaching of the Word of God, and we call for exclusive obedience to Scripture as the only source of truth.

1. ANOINTED OIL AND CONSECRATED OBJECTS

   Selling or handing out "anointed oil," towels, roses, cups of water, and other objects as automatic channels of power, prosperity, and spiritual protection is a widespread practice. In the Old Testament, oil consecrated priests, kings, and utensils of the tabernacle, working as a prophetic symbol of the anointing of the Messiah, the Christ (Exodus 30.22-33; Leviticus 8.12; 1 Samuel 16.13). Those rituals were ceremonial shadows belonging to the Old Covenant, temporal and typological things that pointed forward to the permanent spiritual anointing of the Holy Spirit upon God's people in the New Covenant:

   And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 1.21-22, ESV).

   In the New Testament, the only normative reference to oil in the life of the church appears in James 5.14-15:

   Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven (ESV).

   Notice that here the oil is merely an accessory element, set within a pastoral context of shared prayer and faith. Nothing hints at magic bound to the object, and there is no call for any "special consecration" performed by leaders. Turning oil, or any material item, into an amulet runs head-on against the first commandment:

   You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them (Exodus 20.3-5, ESV),

   and denies, in practice, the sufficiency of Christ, who suffices for all grace:

   For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority (Colossians 2.9-10, ESV).

   Deep down, this practice reduces faith to a spiritual commerce, and forgets that the power lies in prayer offered according to the will of God, never in material substances.

2. ONE MAY ONLY PREACH IN A SUIT AND TIE

   Requiring the pastor to preach only in a suit, tie, and dress shoes, as if preaching lost its validity without them, means taking a cultural tradition and raising it to obligatory doctrine. Nowhere does the New Testament lay down a dress code for the pulpit or for the ministry of the Word. What Paul does is direct all believers, men and women, toward modesty and good sense in what they wear:

   likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works (1 Timothy 2.9-10, ESV).

   Peter reinforces the focus on the inner self:

   Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious (1 Peter 3.3-4, ESV).

   The suit itself is not the problem; the problem starts when it becomes a spiritual norm. An imposition like that confuses cultural form with spiritual essence, and falls into those commandments and doctrines of men that Paul condemns in Colossians 2.20-23:

   If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations, "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh (ESV).

   The strength of preaching comes from the Word of God and from the Holy Spirit, and it never came from the preacher's clothing:

   because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (1 Thessalonians 1.5, ESV).

   For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1.16, ESV).

   When a specific set of clothes is absolutized, people begin to judge the exterior and forget the interior. In the end, that betrays the evangelical simplicity that marked the early church.

3. CUSTOMS AND CONVENTIONS (PANTS, MAKEUP, TATTOOS, BEARD, TV, ETC.)

   Rigid prohibitions of pants for women, makeup, haircuts, beards, earrings, tattoos, watching TV, or going to the beach and the movies end up forming a "moral code" treated as immutable divine law. Rules like these are born from distorted, out-of-context readings of texts such as Deuteronomy 22.5 or 1 Timothy 2.9, and they ride roughshod over the cultural and ceremonial character of those passages.

   Biblical holiness is primarily internal and relational: the fruit of the Holy Spirit producing a transformed character:

   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5.22-23).

   Paul summarizes the call to holiness in Colossians 3.1-17, for example:

   If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (v.1-3, ESV).

   Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry [...] Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice (combined excerpts from Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4, ESV).

   These human prohibitions

   ...have indeed an appearance of wisdom [...] but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh (Colossians 2.23, ESV).

   They also pull attention away from far graver sins, such as pride, greed, and divisions, and on top of that they enslave consciences that Christ has already freed:

   For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5.1, ESV).

4. MANDATORY VEIL FOR WOMEN IN WORSHIP

   Imposing a veil on every woman as an essential condition for praying or worshiping, with no regard for culture or context, absolutizes a symbol that was cultural, Corinthian. In 1 Corinthians 11.2-16, Paul is dealing with order in the local worship service and honor within that culture. He says, for example:

   Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head (1 Corinthians 11.4-5, ESV).

   The eternal principle in that text is order, modesty, and honor; the form, the veil itself, was cultural. When we turn the veil into a universal requirement, we lose sight of the difference between principle and symbol and end up judging the brethren by outward appearance:

   My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (James 2.1, ESV).

   What Paul highlights is the submissive heart and respect for the order God established. Nothing there makes a fixed accessory into a test of orthodoxy.

5. PRAYING ON THE MOUNTAIN AS "STRONGER" OR SPECIAL

   Treating "praying on the mountain" as a superior prayer, more powerful, almost indispensable for winning spiritual victories, sacralizes geography, as if certain places held power in themselves. Jesus refutes this directly:

   But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6.6, ESV).

   And further, when speaking with the Samaritan woman:

   Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. [...] God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4.21,24, ESV).

   Seeking out an isolated place to speak with God in solitude is valid and biblical. Jesus himself did it when he withdrew to pray. Even so, none of that makes the place, in and of itself, special or superior, since the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer as in a living temple:

   Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own (1 Corinthians 6.19, ESV).

   Praying anywhere, with sincere faith, is enough for us to be heard by God.

6. CLASSIFICATION OF DEMONS AND "SPECIALIZATIONS"

   Cataloging a "demon of adultery," "demon of drink," "demon of poverty," or "demon of city X," each one with its spiritual map and its area of operation, is pure speculation without biblical basis. Scripture describes the spiritual world in a far more sober manner:

   in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2.2).

   For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6.12, ESV).

   Nowhere does the Bible offer a manual of demonic specializations. And the picture gets worse when the names of entities from other religions are used in these classifications, because that stirs up anger and revulsion toward the Gospel in people who see such a posture as offensive and disrespectful.

   The biblical call is simple and direct:

   Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4.7).

   Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith (1 Peter 5.8-9).

   And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6.17, ESV).

   Instead of spiritual maps full of fantasy, the Bible calls us to resist firm in the faith, putting on the spiritual armor and keeping our focus on Christ.

7. JUDAIZING ACTS (SHOFAR, TALLIT, FEASTS)

   Reintroducing the shofar, tallit, candelabra, or Jewish feasts as though they were marks of a superior spirituality ignores the fulfillment that already came in the New Testament. Paul writes:

   Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ (Colossians 2.16-17, ESV).

   And further:

   But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! (Galatians 4.9-10).

   It grows more serious still when failing to perform these Jewish rituals starts being seen as sin, or as a sign of little spirituality. In truth, such practices were ceremonial types that came to fulfillment in Jesus:

   For the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities (Hebrews 10.1, ESV).

   In the New Covenant, the church celebrates the lordship of Christ through the means of grace He himself established. Reviving old shadows and imposing them as obligatory norms moves in the opposite direction.

8. "I DECLARE", "I DECREE" AND THE SUPPOSED POWER OF THE HUMAN WORD

   Phrases such as "I declare prosperity" or "I decree victory" attribute a creative power to human speech, as if merely saying something were enough to legislate over heaven. Many people take the expression "the word has power," or the text "whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matthew 18.18, ESV), tear it from its context, and use it to prop up empty declarations.

   The creative power, however, is exclusive to the word of God:

   By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible (Hebrews 11.3, ESV).

   So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55.11).

   Biblical prayer is submitted to the will of God:

   And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us (1 John 5.14, ESV).

   If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that (James 4.15, ESV).

   The believer does not go about decreeing his own will; he bows to the will of the Father. The idea that our words, on their own, create spiritual reality is nothing more than a rerun of ancient mystical errors, now dressed in evangelical clothing.

9. PERFORMATIVE PROPHETIC ACTS

   Practices such as "digging wells," "marching around the block," "tearing up contracts at the altar," or "stepping on dolls" take Old Testament narratives (such as the fall of Jericho or the staff of Moses) and treat them as universal prescriptions, confusing history with norm. The New Testament church advanced along a different path: through the preached Word and the action of the Spirit:

   And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem (Acts 6.7).

   since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God (1 Peter 1.23, ESV).

   None of this has a New Testament commandment, and in the end these performative acts reduce the Gospel to spectacle. They pull the focus away from what God has determined as the principal means of grace: the faithful preaching of the Word:

   preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4.2, ESV).

10. FINANCIAL CAMPAIGNS (HOLY BONFIRE, STRONG VOW)

    Campaigns that promise miracles in exchange for "offerings of 7 days" or "financial sacrifices" turn faith into a bargain with God. Some even go so far as to say that this way "we will back God into a corner" and "force Him to bless us," a completely unbiblical idea. Texts such as Malachi 3.10 are torn from their historical context, the covenant with Israel, so that what the Gospel says so clearly about grace gets ignored:

    For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2.8-9, ESV).

    In the New Testament, giving is voluntary and joyful, never the fruit of manipulation:

    Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9.7, ESV).

    When money gets treated as a key to blessing, the tithe and the offerings end up becoming spiritual commerce, precisely what Simon the sorcerer tried to do:

    But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!" (Acts 8.20, ESV).

11. APOSTLESHIP WITH CANONICAL AUTHORITY

    Claiming "apostles" today with the same authority as the twelve or Paul, people who bring "new revelations" and "new commandments," ignores the unique nature of biblical apostleship. In the strict sense, the apostles were the foundation of the church:

    built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone (Ephesians 2.20).

    In Acts 1.21-22, in choosing Judas's successor, one of the requirements was:

    one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.

    The canon of the Scriptures is closed, as Revelation warns:

    I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book (Revelation 22.18-19, ESV).

    The moment we leave room for anyone to declare himself an apostle, claim he has seen an angel, and show up with a "new commandment," we are already treading on ground that the Bible itself condemns. There is, yes, a legitimate sense in which we can speak of "apostleship" today: that of mission, missionaries sent out to proclaim the Gospel, yet with no extra canonical authority.

12. SPIRITUAL COVERING AND SPIRITUAL FATHERS

    Hierarchies of "spiritual covering" or of "fathers in the faith" with power over personal decisions raise up pyramidal structures with no biblical basis. The only head of the church is Christ:

    For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior (Ephesians 5.23, ESV).

    And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent (Colossians 1.18).

    Elders and pastors exist to care for the flock, never to dominate it:

    Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account (Hebrews 13.17).

    To the elders among you [...] shepherd the flock of God that is among you [...], not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock (1 Peter 5.1-3).

    When the title of "pastor" becomes a kind of magical status, what gets created is a narcissistic and oppressive culture. To be a pastor is a calling of service and sacrifice, far removed from any notion of absolute control. In the end, all of us, pastors and members alike, stand under the same God and the same Bible.

13. SPIRITUAL NUMEROLOGY (21-DAY CHAINS, 40 NIGHTS)

    Campaigns of "7 seeds," "21 days of fasting," or "40 nights" treat God as if He responded to numerical formulas. It is true that the Bible uses numbers with symbolic meaning, such as seven, so often tied to fullness. Yet at no point does it attribute magical power to any number. God's action is sovereign:

    The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3.8, ESV).

    And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8.28, ESV).

    Reducing the spiritual life to numerical chains is, deep down, to exchange trust in God's providence for trust in techniques.

14. HYPER-ESCHATOLOGY (EVERYTHING IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST)

    Labeling vaccines, chips, or any technological advance as the "mark of the beast" goes far beyond what Scripture reveals. Revelation 13.16-17 describes a specific and symbolic scenario that opens no room for unbridled speculation:

    Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

    Many eschatological fears come from the lack of serious biblical teaching. God himself says:

    My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4.6, ESV).

    Paul instructs us not to fall into alarm:

    Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed [...] Let no one deceive you in any way (2 Thessalonians 2.1-3).

    Rather than seeing the "mark of the beast" in everything, our calling is to live prepared and firm in Christ, awaiting his return with sobriety and hope.

A CALL TO PROTESTANT REPENTANCE

Sola Scriptura is a continuous call to repentance: weigh every practice in the light of the Word, holding fast to what is good and rejecting human traditions that offend the holy Scriptures:

Test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5.21-22).

We, as Brazilian Christians, need to make this analysis with honesty before God and abandon, once and for all, the syncretic mysticisms that have infiltrated our midst. The way forward runs through a return to the simple and faithful preaching of the Word, the correct use of the sacraments, and a healthy biblical discipline. May the Protestant churches echo Luther: Scripture, on its own, suffices for faith, for life, and for the glory of God.

And if you who are reading this are a pastor, a teacher, or someone of influence in your community, this change needs to begin with you yourself. Be the first to place your practices, your traditions, and your whole ministry before the Word, willing to abandon anything that is not biblical. May we return to the simple and pure gospel of Christ, with no human adornments, trusting only in the grace of God revealed in the Scriptures.