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"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6 |
Study of the Reformation Movement of the 15th Century
An understanding what the Reformers did, it is necessary to understand the times in which they lived. The Roman Church was supreme from a period of about 538 A.D. until around 1800 A.D. It sprang out of a crumbling Roman Empire. Popes enthroned and deposed kings, interpreted doctrine, went to war with "infidels", and generally ruled the political and religious world. The practice of "Divine Right" was also very strong until around 1200 A.D. This meant that kings were entitled by God to be on the throne, and their "subjects" were subservient to them in every way. So, the reformers, starting with John Wycliffe in the 1300s, were really fighting the entire political and religious world.
Any study of the Reformers would have to start with Martin Luther. There were others, but Luther really broke the back of the belief system of penance, indulgences, and the idea that the pope actually controlled the entrance to heaven itself. In fact, it was Luther's fight against this idea that started the Protestant Reformation. How does a person get right with God? How does someone who is weak and stumbling actually claim the right to enter heaven and have eternal life?
The Church had (and still has) the mistaken belief that it could intercede between an individual and his or her God. The Sacraments and the priest are the only way to have forgiveness with God, they say. Luther rebelled and protested against this idea, and that paved the way for others. To him, the individual had the freedom to believe in God without interference from anyone. These have been the central beliefs of the Protestants.
Luther wrestled with this question, and his ideas crystallized when a man named Tetzel, commissioned by the pope himself, sold indulgences in a nearby town. Indulgences were papers sold by the Church, promising forgiveness and absolution from sin from the pope. Parishioners brought these papers to Luther, and he refused to acknowledge them. He said only God could forgive sin. His pivotal text was found in Romans 1:17 The just shall live by faith. This caused him to be brought before the "Diet of Worms". In this day and age we can't imagine what went through Luther's mind on his way to Worms, Germany. He knew he could be killed for his faith.
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This was an imperial court which met at Worms, Germany, to decide religious and political matters. This is where he said that the Bible and the Bible alone is the only rule of faith and practice. The stone marker indicates the approximate place where Luther said "Here I stand." He could not violate his conscience and say things that he didn't believe. He was sent home to await his sentence, but, through a fake abduction by friends, he was kept in hiding to save his life. He lived in the Wartburg Castle, in Germany and translated the entire New Testament into German in about 3 months. By God's providence, the printing press with moveable type had been invented by Gutenberg in nearby Mainz, Germany, and within a few months Luther's tracts were all over Europe. This was the death nell for the Church's hold on people's consciences.
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The Gutenberg Bible was the first Bible every printed with moveable type. This revolutionized printing, and it paved the way for mass printing of books. Thus, the individual parishioner had access to a Bible. This broke the control of the church over the masses because the people could read and study for themselves. |
Others followed, saying that the Church had no right to interfere with a person's relationship with God. John Calvin, John Knox, Zwingli, John and Charles Wesley, to name a few. Some are better known than others, but all agreed that the Bible and the Bible only should be the only rule of conscience for a Christian. Everything else, including the Church itself, should be secondary. The Church never agreed with this. This is why the Reformers had such a hard time. The Church said they interpreted doctrine and their version of truth and their traditions were to be followed. The resulting splits and schisms, as well as spiritual waywardness and misinterpretation of Scripture, has led us to the situation we have today-hundreds of Protestant churches differing in their beliefs. The best course to follow at any age is to simply study the Scriptures for yourself! Don't let anyone tell you what is true and accept what they say without studying for yourself.
We need to remember that the word Protestant simply means a church that protested the formalism and centralized control that the Church had. The Protestant Reformation had three main beliefs. In Latin, they are Sole Fide, Sole Christos, Sole Scriptura, which means we are saved by faith, by Christ, and by Scripture.
In fact, the settling of the New World is just a natural progression of the ideas that started in the Protestant Reformation. When offshoot beliefs began, these Protestant churches began persecuting other Protestant churches the same way the Catholic church persecuted them. The move to the United States was an attempt to move away from persecution. The rallying cry with this movement was "A country without a king and a church without a pope!" In these days when nobody seems to care what you believe, it is important to remember how and why the term Protestant began, and what it might mean in the future.
With this brief history, we will continue our study of Daniel. However, when we study Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 we will continue this idea of religious liberty. Remembering that there are several sections to this study, let us begin by clicking here to go a study of the remnant of God.
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