When the Reformers were protesting the corruption of the then State Church, their pursuit was to return (‘reform’) the Church to something closer to the Biblical prescription. Luther had protested the Roman Catholic practice indulgences, and Catholic Church’s sacerdotal practices such as, Confession, Penance, Transubstantiation. Calvin had systematised Biblical Christianity into four categories: God the Creator, God the Redeemer, The Grace of God, The Holy Catholic (‘universal’) Church, in his four volume series, The Institutes of The Christian Religion. In what might be a summary of these Protestant works, the “Five Solas” were developed as brief and easy-to-remember statements of what the Bible taught about God and Salvation.

Sola Scriptura

Solo Christo

Sola Gratia

Sola Fidé

Soli Deo Gloria