By the way, it always amuses me that so many have a disdain for "learned men" when it comes to matters of theology, and yet, would you chose a surgeon who had spent many years learning about his craft, or would you chose a surgeon who had picked up a medical book and read through it after his shift at Burger King?
And what "amuses" me (but not a lot) is Rome's entrenched and perpetual disdain for the guy at Burger King who faithfully studies the word of God. Some "learned men" are correct, and some are fools who are condemned by their error.
"Ye shall know them by their fruits." -- Matthew 7:16
The fruits of Rome are ashes, while the fruits of the Reformed faith are assurance and repentance and obedience and joy and gratitude and guidance.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" -- Ephesians 1:4-5"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
This country was built on and by the fruits of the Reformation.
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." -- 2 Timothy 4:1-4"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
Rome has a lot to worry about, not the least of which she is following the wrong "learned men."
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." -- Revelation 13:9-10"If any man have an ear, let him hear.
"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity..."
Praise God, we have been led out of our captivity by His perfect sacrifice, once for all time. After darkness, light.
"...William Tyndale was born in 1493 AD, and died a martyr in 1536. He was educated at Oxford, and became a prominent Greek Scholar. He had obtained a copy of Erasmas' Greek New Testament and vowed before the Lord that "nothing" would stop him from learning the Greek language. He was prominently skilled as a Greek scholar and attempted a translation of the Bible (the NT) from original Greek to English. He sought to publish this translation but was turned down at every corner for the rights to publish; especially since he appealed to the Roman Catholic Church. They did not want the laity to gain hold of a copy of the Bible in their own tongue lest they misinterpret it; the Romans church believed that only the mother church is able to rightly interpret the Bible.Tyndale secretly finished the translation with the help of colleagues, and smuggled the new translation into English hands. During a dinner meeting among priests and bishops where Tyndale was present, he said that he "defied the Pope and all his laws" and vowed that "a plough-boy would know more of the Scriptures than they" so help him God..."