The Protestant Reformation

1. The Protestant Reformation – 13th
August 2017
“All Scripture is God-breathedandisuseful for teaching,rebuking,correcting and trainingin
righteousness, 17
sothat the servant of Godmay be thoroughlyequippedforevery goodwork.” (2
Timothy 3:16-17).
The ProtestantReformationwasawidespreadtheological revoltinEurope againstthe abusesand
totalitariancontrol of the RomanCatholicChurch.Reformerssuchas Martin LutherinGermany,Ulrich
Zwingli inSwitzerland,andJohnCalvininFrance protestedvariousunbiblical practicesof the Catholic
Church andpromoteda returnto soundbiblical doctrine.The precipitatingeventof the Protestant
Reformationisgenerallyconsideredtobe Luther’spostingof his Ninety-five Theses onthe doorof the
WittenbergChurchonOctober31, 1517.
As a backgroundto the historyof Protestantismandthe Reformation,itisimportanttounderstandthe
Catholicclaimof apostolicsuccession.Thisdoctrinesaysthatthe line of RomanCatholicpopesextends
throughthe centuriesall the wayfromthe apostle Petertothe current pope.Thisunbrokenchainof
authoritymakesthe Roman CatholicChurchthe onlytrue church and givesthe pope preeminenceover
all churcheseverywhere. Because of theirbelief inapostolicsuccessionandthe infallibilityof the pope
(whenspeakingex cathedra),Catholicsplace churchteachingandtraditionona level equaltoScripture
itself.Thisisone of the majordifferencesbetweenRomanCatholicsandProtestantsandwasone of the
foundational issuesleadingtothe ProtestantReformation.
Evenpriorto the ProtestantReformation,there were pocketsof resistance tosome of the unbiblical
practicesof the RomanCatholicChurch,yettheywere relativelysmallandisolated.The Lollards,the
Waldensians, andthe Petrobrusiansall tookastandagainstcertainCatholicdoctrines.Before Luther
everpickedupa hammerand headedtoChapel Church,there were menwhohadstoodupfor reform
and the true gospel.Amongthemwere JohnWycliffe,anEnglishtheologianandOxfordprofessorwho
was condemnedasahereticin1415; Jan Hus, a priestfromBohemiawhowasburnedatthe stake in
1415 for hisoppositiontothe Churchof Rome;and GirolamoSavonarola,anItalianfriarwhowas
hangedandburnedin1498.
The oppositiontothe false teachingof the RomanCatholicChurchcame to a headinthe sixteenth
centurywhenLuther,a RomanCatholicmonk,challengedthe authorityof the pope and,inparticular,
the sellingof indulgences.Ratherthanheedthe call toreform, the RomanCatholicChurchdug inits
heelsandsoughtto silence the Reformers.Eventually,new churchesemergedfromthe Reformation,
formingfourmajordivisionsof Protestantism:Luther’sfollowersstartedthe LutheranChurch,Calvin’s
followersstartedthe ReformedChurch,JohnKnox’sfollowersstartedthe PresbyterianChurchin
Scotland(usingCalvinisticdoctrine),and,later,ReformersinEnglandstartedthe Anglican Church.
At the heartof the ProtestantReformationlayfourbasicquestions:How isa personsaved?Where does
religiousauthoritylie?Whatisthe church? What isthe essence of Christianliving?Inansweringthese
questions,ProtestantReformersdevelopedwhatwouldbe knownasthe “Five Solas”(sola beingthe
Latin wordfor “alone”).These five essential pointsof biblical doctrine clearlyseparateProtestantism
fromRoman Catholicism.The Reformersresistedthe demandsplacedonthemtorecantthese
doctrines,eventothe pointof death. These five importantdoctrinesare the reasonforthe Protestant

2. Reformation.Theyare atthe heart of the Reformers’call forthe churchto returnto biblical teaching.
The Five Solas are justas importanttodayinevaluatingachurch and itsteachingsastheywere inthe
sixteenthcentury.
In relevance toabove subject,we canfind some keyteachingsfromthe gospelin 2 Peter 1:20–21,
“ Aboveall,you must understandthat no prophecyof Scripture came aboutby the prophet’sown
interpretationof things. 21
Forprophecy never hadits origininthe humanwill,but prophets,though
human,spoke fromGodas they were carried alongby the HolySpirit.” Therefore we believe that
scripture isinspiredbyGod. Thisisreaffirmedin 2Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scriptureis God-breathedand
is useful for teaching,rebuking,correcting andtraininginrighteousness, 17
sothat the servant ofGod
may be thoroughlyequippedforevery goodwork.”
Martin Lutheris widelyacknowledgedtohave startedthe Reformationwithhis1517 work The Ninety-
Five Theses.Lutherbeganby criticizingthe sale of indulgences,insistingthatthe Pope hadno authority
overpurgatory and that the Catholicdoctrine of the meritsof the saints had nofoundationinthe
gospel. Accordingtothe CatholicEncyclopedia,Purgatoryis“aplace or conditionof temporal
punishmentforthose who,departingthislifeinGod'sgrace,are not entirelyfree fromvenial faults,or
have not fullypaidthe satisfactiondue totheirtransgressions.”Tosummarize,inCatholictheology
Purgatoryisa place that a Christian’ssoul goestoafterdeathtobe cleansedof the sinsthathad not
beenfullysatisfiedduringlife.Isthisdoctrine of Purgatoryinagreementwiththe Bible? According
Protestants it isabsolutelynot!
The bible tellsusthat Jesusdiedtopaythe penaltyforall of our sins as statedin Romans 5:8, “ButGod
demonstrateshis own lovefor us in this:Whilewe were still sinners,Christ diedfor us.”We can also
learnfromIsaiah53:5, “ButHe was pierced for our transgressions,He wascrushed for our iniquities;
the punishmentthat broughtus peace was uponHim, and by Hiswoundswe are healed.” Jesus
sufferedforoursinssothat we couldbe deliveredfromsuffering.Tosaythat we mustalso suffer inthe
Purgatory for our sinsisto say thatJesus’sufferingwasinsufficient.Tosaythat we mustatone for our
sinsby cleansinginPurgatoryistodenythe sufficiencyof the atoningsacrifice of Jesus whichisclear
whenwe read 1 John2:2, “He is the atoningsacrificefor our sins,and not onlyfor ours butalso forthe
sinsof the whole world.” The ideathat we have to sufferforoursinsafterdeathis contrary to
everythingthe Biblesaysaboutsalvation.
The Protestantposition,however,wouldcome toincorporate doctrinal changessuchas sola scriptura
and sola fide. The core motivationbehindthesechangeswas theological,thoughmanyotherfactors
playedapart, includingthe rise of nationalism,the WesternSchismthaterodedfaithinthe Papacy,the
perceivedcorruptionof the RomanCuria,the impactof humanism,andthe new learningof the
Renaissance thatquestionedmuchtraditional thought.