Sola Scriptura: 4. Scripture + "X" = God's People Oppressed

A denial of sola Scriptura necessarily entails the conclusion that people need something instead of or in addition to Scripture in order to persevere in life and godliness. The person who rejects sola Scriptura believes that God's words must necessarily be supplemented by human words; the commands of people are thus added to the commands of the Holy Lawgiver and Judge.

We see the project of adding to God's commands initiated during the first temptation. Whereas God had said, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:" (Gen 2:17a), in relating God's command to the serpent, under pressure, Eve added to God's command and said, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it" (Gen 3:3b, emphasis added). By adding to God's words, the sufficiency of what God had said was called into question. The addition of "neither shall ye touch it" seemed to be a good idea (it is certainly hard to eat fruit off of a tree if you never touch the fruit), but such a prohibition added an extra burden to the conscience, and thus the woman had been placed in a position to do exactly what the tempter desired: namely, to question the goodness of God.

Burdening people with additions to God's Law was widely practiced by the religious leaders of Jesus' day, and thus He declared,

Woe also to you experts in the law! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, yet you yourselves don't touch these burdens with one of your fingers. (Luke 11:46, HCSB)

Today, due to a neglect of sola Scriptura, there are many Christians similarly burdened by rituals, requirements, and religious programs that are never found in the Word of God.