The Reformation

Setting: The setting of Western Europe and the Church prior to the time of the reformation was bleak. Peter Erb states, The average citizen could not read, nor could he take the time to learn to read. With the barbarian invasions, civilization waned; and with the conquest of the Mediterranean by the Moselms, trade with the East came to an end. There was no time for universal education. All available energy had to be devoted to the simple necessities of providing food and protection. Even for those who could read, books were not available. It was not a day of offset presses, Xerox machines, and copious supplies of paper. It took one man one year to copy a Bible on carefully tanned animal skins.[1]

As Dr. Drake mentioned several weeks ago, at the time of the Protestant Reformation, the church was experiencing a tremendous amount of upheaval. Can you remember some problems mentioned concerning the church at the time?

Some of the concerns surrounding the time were the following:

1. Corrupt clergy. Dr. Drake mentioned those priests who were responsible for congregations that they had never shown up to conduct the mass. One priest attended but one time- at his own funeral.

2. Another concern was wanting worship. In other words, the services were done in Latin, where the populace spoke German. This robbed the worship experience of its value. The Reformation put the laity back in an important place.

3. Bankrupt of Beliefs. People in Medieval times had forgotten what to believe in. The church was in disarray doctrinally. It had moved away from its foundation. Alister McGrath states, The fundamental conviction motivating the magisterial reformers was that Christianity could best be reformed and renewed by returning to the beliefs and practices of the early church. The first five centuries- often designated ‘the patristic period’- tended to be regarded as the Golden Age of Christianity.[2]

4. Any others?

There are five tenets which defined the unified theology that came out of the Reformation, that period of time in Western Europe from 1519 to 1650. Its principle proponents were Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, Theodore Beza, and some argue, Caspar Schwenckfeld. These five tenets are oftentimes referred to as the solas.

The term sola comes from the Latin that means alone. When we use them in this context we are talking about valuable truths which stand alone, apart from any ill treatment. These are oftentimes looked at as pillars upon which the Reformed church stands. Stephen Nichols writes of the solas, These doctrines encompass the richness of Reformation theology and its legacy to the church. They signal a return to the primacy of Scripture and its teaching concerning God, humanity, and salvation. And, they continue to be the hallmark of Protestant theology, expressing the heart of an orthodox theology.

In large manner, this theology was historically representative of the denominations we know today as Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church, Baptist Church, Methodist Church, the Christian Church, and the Episcopalian Church. And I would argue- the Schwenkfelder Church. Schwenckfeld was a follower of Martin Luther for a time, but eventually parted ways over the issues of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The following originally defined Protestant theology in the 15th and 16thcenturies:

1. Sola Scriptura or Scripture alone. This is the belief that the Bible alone is the authority for our faith. Luther’s testimony at the Diet of Worms in 1521, Unless I am overcome with testimonies from Scripture or with evident reasons- for I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils, since they have often erred and contradicted one another, I am overcome by the Scripture texts which I have adduced, and my conscience is bound by God’s Word.[3] This was in the context of a church that affirmed that religious authority came from Scripture and church tradition. What popes and councils had decided in the past, defined what the Roman Church would teach. Ben Merkle comments, In the midst of an increasingly unchecked Papal authority and a Bible that was unavailable to the lower classes, it is easy to see how the sixteenth century was in need of a call to anchor itself again the Word of God.[4]

Against the background of human authority, the Reformers saw the Bible as divine authority. The Reformers believed we needed to get back to the Scriptures as the guide for our faith. Alister McGrath states, Scripture was seen as embodying the commands and promises of God, thus giving it a status over and above any purely human document. The phrase sola scriptura, ‘by Scripture alone’ expresses the basic Reformation believe that no source other than Scripture need be consulted in matters of Christian faith and practice.[5]

This emphasis was new, or the age-old view being restored. McGrath states, Sola Scriptura became one of the great slogans of the reformers as they sought to bring the practices and beliefs of the church back into line with those of the Golden Age of Christianity. If the doctrine of justification by faith alone was the material principle of the Reformation, the principle of scriptura sola was its formal principle. If the reformers dethroned the pope, they enthroned Scripture.[6] Historic interpretation was replaced by a view holding church tradition as a separate and superior source of truth. It was faulty in that it put man as equal with God.

Some Scriptural Support of Sola Scriptura is found in Deuteronomy 4:2, Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. 6 Do not add to His words Lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. The term there is qeo,pneustoj( on which, according to the Friberg Greek Lexicon, means, of the Scriptures as communication that has been ordained by God's authority and produced by the enabling of his Spirit; strictly, God-breathed; hence, divinely inspired, inspired by God.

2 Peter 3:15 …and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Q:Why make the Bible divine? Didn’t men write it?

A: God used human agents to write the Scriptures, and used their gifts and personalities, but the Scriptures themselves come from God. We believe this due to Scripture’s testimony of itself, Christ’s testimony of the Scriptures (John 10:35), their durability 2nd millennium BC), and their availability (it is the single, most popular book throughout human history, translated in 2,355 languages).

From Sola Scriptura, or the belief in the authority of Scripture, comes the belief in what it teaches that Christ is the object of our faith. This is found in that tenet known as Solus Christus or Christ alone. This tenet teaches that Christ and His death alone is the atonement for our sins. Contextually, this was a reaction to the Roman doctrine of other things which aided our redemption such as the doctrine of purgatory or the belief that Mary aids in one’s salvation and is an object of prayer. The Reformation affirmed that Christ was the focal point.

Some Scriptural Support of Solus Christus is found in John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Q: Did Christ ever claim exclusivity? What about other world religions?

A: Other religions might contain truths, but not the uniform truth. Christians believe in Solus Christus for two reasons: what Jesus said and what He did. He said He was the Messiah and He was raised from the dead. Although other religions have claimed Messiahship, or endorsement from God, none of their leaders ever came back to life after he was killed.

3. Sola Gratia or Grace Alone speaks of God’s activity in drawing, enlightening the mind and heart of the believer, giving him the ability to trust and obey.

ADD QUOTES AND EXPLANATION

Scriptural Support:

Ezekiel 36:25-28 states, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

John 6:65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father."

Acts 16:14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Q: Don’t I have the ability to obey God?

A: Imperfectly at best. The nature in which we were born impedes our ability to serve God to the extent He requires. This is why we need the Holy Spirit, who indwells us as a process of conversion. Through grace, we can obey God.

4. Sola Fide or Faith Alone. Catholics at the time of the Reformation, held that justification included sanctification, and that man had a part in both. In contrast, Luther taught that it is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, that we can be made righteous (justified) in God’s eyes. In a sermon in 1519, Luther stated, Through faith in Christ, therefore, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that he has becomes ours; rather he himself becomes ours.[7] Peter Erb comments, For Luther, however, faith alone made a man righteous before God, without hope or charity. Luther believed that as a man one is always a sinner, always falls short of divine demands; in faith, however, we know that God accepts us, considers us righteous for Christ’s sake, despite our sin.[8]

Ben Merkle states, Again, like sola scripture, we can see the immense need for this sola in the sixteenth-century Church. A works-oriented salvation had become the norm and needed to be rooted out by the Reformation.[9] Sola fide would be in contrast to the Roman Catholic system of sacraments, of which one could store up grace for themselves as they participated in each one (baptism, marriage, last rites, etc.) The infamous quote from the Roman cleric is reticent of this. As the coin in the coffer rings, so a soul from purgatory springs. Buying your loved one’s passage out of an unscripturally founded place in the afterlife irked the reformers. Luther’s hingepin was from Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."

Heinrich Bullinger wrote in 1554 of Luther’s idea, The grace of God that justifies us for the sake of Christ through faith alone, without good works, while faith meanwhile abounds in good works. McGrath adds, God offers and gives; men and women receive and rejoice. The doctrine of justification by faith alone is an affirmation that God does everything necessary for salvation. Even faith itself is a gift of God, rather than a human action.[10] In other words, Good works are the result, not the cause of justification.

Q: Don’t my works count for something?

A: They count only as the product of true faith, never the cause thereof. We are saved by faith alone, but our faith is never alone.

Scriptural Support:

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.

5. Soli Deo Gloria or To God Alone Be the Glory. This teaches that God does not exist for our desires and agendas. He is the uncaused cause, the one who exists for Himself. He is worthy of our worship. We exist for Him, He does not exist for us. The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches, The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.[11]

Scriptural Support:

Ephesians 3:21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Romans 11:34 Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Q: Aren’t we making God out to be arrogant?

A: If God really be everything the Bible teaches Him to be: infinitely sinless, infinitely compassionate, infinitely righteous, infinitely omnipotent, infinitely omniscient, infinitely omnipresent, then it would be sin not to glorify Him as such. To avoid glory to the One who defines everything good and pure, makes us to be infinitely wrong.

What did Caspar Schwenkfeld believe?

What did Caspar Schwenkfeld teach?

Pertaining to Sola Scriptura, he stated in A Discourse On Freedom of Religion, Christian Doctrine, Judgement, and Faith (Page 1, Paragraph 6).

Pertaining to Solus Christus, he stated in A German Theology for Laity, (Page 1, Paragraph 4 and page 6 under Proper Foundaton)

Pertaining to Sola Gratia, he stated in A German Theology for Laity, (Page 7, Paragraph 4 or Schwenkfeld’s answer to the question, How May I Come to the rebirth?, page 28)

Pertaining to Sola Fide, he stated in A German Theology for Laity, (Page 1, Paragraph 4)

Pertaining to Soli Deo Gloria, he stated in A German Theology for Laity,

[1] Peter C. Erb, Schwenckfeld In His Reformation Setting, 16. [2] Alister McGrath, Reformation Thought, 20. [3] http://www.5solas.org. [4] Ben Merkle, ”Remembering the Solas,” found at http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/topic/fivsolas.html [5] McGrath, 61. [6] McGrath, 145. [7] Stephen Nichols, Martin Luther: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought. Found at http://www.antithesis.org. [8] Erb, 15. [9] Merkle [10] McGrath, 113. [11] The Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English, trans. Douglas Kelly and Philip Rollinson, Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1986, 5