What is Christianity Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Seeds of the Protestant Reformation

Tradition vs. Scriptural Authority


Back to 1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!


By the early 1500s, after decades of blood-stained Inquisition history, it was clear to many the Roman Church was corrupt and scandalous at every level. (But this does not even speak to its scores of deceptive, false teachings.)

In addition to church-sanctioned violent persecution and mass murder, the practices of simony(offices and positions for sale) and indulgences (remission of sin—past, present and future—for a price) proved too much for some of its followers. Many European monarchies had already been drifting away from quiet submission to papal authority. In Germany, anti-Catholic and anti-papal sentiment was growing.

It was at this time that Martin Luther entered the scene. According to most sources, while studying law at the University of Erfurt, Luther was marooned in a severe thunderstorm. Terrified, he vowed to become a monk, and joined the Augustine order of friars. In 1507, he became a priest, and in due time became a doctor of theology. He was then given a professorship at the University of Wittenberg.

Some of Luther’s own theology had developed before any open confrontation with the church. What initially began with rejecting the Catholic definition of “works” (keeping the “sacraments”) eventually led to rejecting the concept of any works (including obedience to God’s Law). He concluded that faith alone was required for salvation, openly dismissing the book of James as an “epistle of straw” because it teaches works alongside faith—“faith without works is dead” (James. 2:20, 26).

In 1517, incensed by a Dominican friar selling indulgences near Wittenberg, Luther began protesting. This was in written form through his “95 Theses,” nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Although he did not intend to cause a revolt, these points of contention appealed to German anti-papal attitudes. Convicted on the matter, Luther was unyielding.

Opposing Forces
But the church confronting him was just as stubborn. Three years of bitter disagreement and confrontation led Luther to condemn the pope, the clergy and the sacraments. Pope Leo X declared him a heretic. Luther countered by torching Catholic documents, including the Canon Law.

In 1521, Luther was put on trial at Worms. His judge was a young Charles V of Hapsburg, along with a gathering of ambassadors, princes and bishops. Luther took the position of elevating, in certain limited areas, the authority of the Bible above papal and church authority. He adamantly held his ground.

Luther was escorted to Wartburg by imperial forces. Most of his countrymen now held him in high esteem. Various princes of adjoining territories promised allegiance to Luther and left the Roman church to follow him, marking the birth of the Lutheran church.

One reason Luther was permitted to question and resist the dictates of Rome was that German emperor Charles V was entangled in a series of conflicts with France. Without the emperor’s participation, the clergy was powerless to enforce its decrees on Luther, now protected by an increasing number of northern German princes.

A series of events bought time for the Protestants. Charles abdicated in favour of his younger brother, and died two years later at a secluded monastery in Spain. The next two emperors supported the Protestants.

Other schools of Protestant thought flourished in Europe and eventually the New World—Calvinism, Methodism, Anglicanism and others. There would be no reconciliation with Rome. There are now thousands of Protestant denominations, with new brands arising daily.

In Rome’s eyes, this affront to its authority must end.

Mother Rome
We have seen that the Bible portrays this end-time church system as a woman (Rev. 17:4-6). The scriptural pattern is that churches are personified as females, while civil governments are characterized in the male gender. The counterfeit church of course is called a “woman,” but also a “whore,” a “mother” and a “queen.” (And she has “daughters.”)

Recall that the extent of her domain and rulership is given in Rev 17:1: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come here; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters.” Recall we saw the symbol “many waters” is defined in Revelation 17:15: “And he said unto me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

History shows that no other single church has reigned over so many “peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.” Neither has any other large church system been “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev 17:6).

Rev 17:2 continued describing this “whore”: “With whom the kings [world leaders] of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” What other large church receives and calls upon heads of state, and has done so for centuries?

Revelation 18:7 shows she considers herself a “queen.” (These sleep with kings.) Rev 2:20-23 personify the universal system as the Gentile Queen Jezebel, wicked wife of King Ahab (I Kings 16-22). Jezebel “stirred up” her husband to adopt evil practices, martyred many faithful prophets, and attempted to kill the prophet Elijah (I Kings 19:2-3). The parallel with a church that persecutes the saints through the ages is striking.

Revelation 12:1-17 depicts God’s Church as a woman of very different character. There are numerous examples in Scripture of righteous women whose faithful, upright character reflected that of the true Church: Sarah, Ruth, Esther, Hannah and Mary (Jesus’ mother).

In the case of Mary, the counterfeit church has deified her as equal or superior to Christ, whom they always portray as either a baby or hanging helplessly on a cross. Millions of Catholics, members and clergy, have signed a petition to declare Mary the co-redemptrix (meaning she works beside Jesus in redeeming humanity).

The adoration of Mary—really Mary worship—originated with Semiramis, the mother-wife of Nimrod. This symbolism was then passed down through the Babylon Mystery religion, and was later adapted into the counterfeit church. Simon Magus applied parts of this symbolism to himself and his mistress, Helen the prostitute.

The rejection by Protestants of such “Mariolatry” has long been among the sharpest distinctions between Catholics and Protestants. But times are changing.

Today’s Ecumenical Movement
Revelation 17:5 described the universal church as the “mother of harlots.” Children generally retain some or many of the characteristics of their mother. Likewise, Protestant churches retained more than 90 percent of the same false, idolatrous observances their mother taught them, such as Sunday, Christmas and Easter observance, rejection of God’s Law as done away and trinitarianism.

Rome’s protesting daughters have now been gone for over four centuries. Today an ecumenical movement is paving the way for reunion. The term “ecumenical” derives from the Greek word oikoumene, meaning “the inhabited world.” How telling of its goal.

The current movement rose to prominence in the 1960s, originating in the Protestant Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The Catholics accepted their overtures toward closer ties, because these groups emphasized emotional religious experience rather than doctrine, on which Rome rarely budges. This “truce” was called the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement and resulted in warmer relations with many Evangelical groups. This led to the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) in 1965. During this time, the Catholics made a few concessions toward the Protestants. For example, instead of “heretics,” they were now officially deemed “separated brethren.”

But if Vatican II slightly softened the Catholic view of Protestants, its conclusions were still uncompromising: “This Sacred Council exhorts the faithful…[that their] ecumenical action must be fully and sincerely Catholic…faithful to the truth which we [they claim] have received from the apostles and Fathers of the Church, in harmony with the faith which the Catholic Church has always professed” (Unitatis Redintegratio).

The Ecumenical movement has gained momentum. More prominent and larger Protestant groups, such as the Anglican Church and its American Episcopal branch, have caught on to this spirit. A much closer association with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, whose main difference is submission to the pope at Rome, has been reached.

Since the Reformation, Rome has added additional dogma that would seem to make reconciliation less likely. These include: Papal Infallibility (1870), the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the Assumption into heaven of Mary, Mother of God (1950).

Yet the daughters are still coming home! Alarms sounded in Protestant circles have less and less impact.

A 2005 Time magazine story shows that adoration of Mary is making inroads in the Protestant world: “A man stands at the lectern at the El Amor de Dios church on Chicago’s South Side reading in Spanish, tears streaming down his cheeks. His text is a treatment of the Virgin Mary from one of the Bible’s apocryphal books. Another congregant follows, reciting his own verses to the Virgin…Flanking the altar are two Mary statues…hanging from the hands of the baby Jesus is a Rosary. The altar cover presents the church’s most stunning image: Mary again, this time totally surrounded by a multicoloured halo, in the traditional iconography of the Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“The church is Methodist.”

Relations with the Orthodox churches are progressing the fastest. Vatican II declared, “These Churches, although separated from us, yet possess true sacraments and above all, by apostolic succession, the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are linked to us in closest intimacy” (Unitatis Redintegratio).

The last Roman leader’s memorial service in 2005 was the first papal funeral in centuries attended by the Patriarch of Constantinople, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

May 2010 saw Vatican City celebrate the “Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality in the Vatican.” Consider its purpose: “The event, which is sponsored by the Moscow Patriarchate, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Culture, includes a photographic exhibition, a symposium and a concert in honour of [the pope]” (Zenit).

The event included a symposium titled “Orthodox and Catholics in Europe Today: The Christian Roots and the Common Cultural Heritage of East and West.”

In July 2010, “Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia…said that he sees eye-to-eye with [the] Pope…on many pressing moral issues” (Interfax).

The Patriarch stated, “‘I must say that the stance of [the] incumbent Pope…gives rise to optimism…on many public and moral issues his approach fully coincides with the approach of the Russian Orthodox Church. This gives us an opportunity to advocate Christian values together with the Catholic Church, in particular at international organizations and on the international arena’” (ibid.).

Luther’s own church is drifting with the current. In a bid to promote unity, the pope visited an evangelical Lutheran Church in Rome on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday during Lent in 2010. According to Zenit, the Catholic leader warned against being content “with the successes of the ecumenism of recent years,” regretting that Protestants and Catholics still “cannot drink of the same chalice and we cannot be together around the altar...This should make us sad because it is a sinful situation…”

During the German-language service, the President of the Lutheran Community of Rome remarked, “May you feel at home here, Your Holiness” (ibid.).

This pope, when still a Cardinal, supported the joint declaration by the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation on spiritual justification signed on October 31, 1999, and has continued to stress unity between the two churches since assuming the papal role.

Is it coincidental that the Greek word oikoumene, mentioned earlier, was often used to refer to the Roman Empire? This is what the Vatican has in mind—all ecumenical roads lead to Rome!


Tradition vs. Scriptural Authority


Back to 1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!