Review: Sola Scriptura

I have to flag this up: Sola Scriptura (Amazon US, Amazon UK) by Neal Morse.

What do you do if you're a progressive rock artist who suddenly finds himself believing in Jesus? Well, you write a double-CD concept album of your Testimony. And then you write another concept album about the Biblical theology of redemption. And then a Biblical-Theological album on the tabernacle.

But then what do you do? Well, Neal Morse is back again with a single-CD concept album called 'Sola Scriptura' (by Scripture alone). It is a semi-biographical CD on the reformation, looking at Martin Luther, Sola Scriptura and justification by faith. The lyrics set it in an eschatological framework - borrowing lots of imagery from Revelation, with beasts and whores, and applying it to the situation at the time of the reformation (as did the reformers themselves). Then similar implications are drawn for now, as Morse believes that there are more discoveries to come.

Musically speaking it's everything from Metal to Flamenco, via Gospel and Ballad. If you've heard Neal Morse before - it's not a grand departure from the usual (which is top notch), but it's particularly well put together, and with Paul Gilbert providing some superb guitar soloing, it has a little more edge this time. If you've not heard his stuff before: go here for clips! The music really is excellent.

A few little gripes of mine:

In Luther's voice (within the music) the following lyrics are sung:

'Oh God I seek the glory that's from you and from you only'

Now this is upon Luther's discovery of justification by faith from looking at Romans 1:17:

'For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”'

I feel a little uncomfortable with these lyrics, as the glory really is all his, and in the way that I understand the word 'Glory' - all the glory is Jesus'. But what Morse really means is righteousness - it could so easily have been 'Oh God I seek the righteousness from you' - without wrecking the music and whilst doing away with that misunderstanding.

The other thing that worries me a little is Morse's liner notes: He uses Haggai 2:9 to suggest a kind of perpetual revivalism in the church. He pretty much equates Luther's discovery of justification by faith with Wesleyan sanctification and Pentecostal 'Baptism of the Holy Ghost'. I'd like to argue that Luther had both of those issues a little better than either of those groups, and I'd wonder why the birth of the missionary movement is less important. Still, Morse's point is not to these things. Morse hopes that 'we should all look at the scriptures afresh to see what truth God wants us to restore in THIS generation' (emphasis his).

And that's something we should all be happy to do. Let's study our Bibles and know our God by the Spirit's help better than even Luther, Calvin, Owen and Edwards. And let's buy this excellent album while we're at it. (Amazon US, Amazon UK)