Posted on 10/30/2007 12:47:36 PM PDT by Gamecock
Hello and welcome to another broadcast of the White Horse Inn, and this isn't just any broadcast this is Reformation Sunday, the 490th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. In previous programs of this series we've walked through the history of the heresy known as Pelagianism, so we won't belabor the point a lot. Named after the fifth century British monk, Pelagius who locked horns with Church Father Augustine over salvation, Pelagianism denied original sin, that is that we're born into this world dead in trespasses and sins, and so Adam affects us only as a bad example and Christ affects us as a good example. If we just use our free-will properly we can follow Christ's example and attain eternal life. This is a heresy that has crept up again and again in church history. Already laurelled in his native land and university Thomas Bradwardine expressed what he described as a "conversion." "Early in his studies" he writes, "The school of Pelagius seemed to be the nearest the truth, what I heard day in and day out is that we are masters of our own free acts, that ours is the choice to act well or badly, to have virtues or vices, and much more along this line." Every time I listen to the Epistle reading in church and how Paul magnified grace and belittled free-will as is the case in Romans 9, it is obviously not a question of human willing or effort, but of divine mercy and its many parallels, grace displeased me ungrateful as I was. " And then he goes on to say that when he began to study this ninth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, "The text mentioned came to me as a beam of grace and captured by a vision of this truth it seemed I saw from afar how the grace of God precedes all works. That is why I express my gratitude now to him who has given me this grace as a free gift."
As a result of this shift, Bradwardine wrote a provocative little book, the Case of God against the New Pelagians. His jeremiad against what he regarded as the creeping moralism of his day, wasn't written recently however, nor was it written by a cranky paleo-Calvinist as many today would put it, it was an Oxford don in the 14th century and Bradwardine was Archbishop of Canterbury when he wrote it. Other Medieval churchman fought valiantly against the spread of Pelagianism, including the head of a monastery in Germany Johanne von Staupiz who had a very important impact on one of his monks, Martin Luther. Less than two centuries after archbishop Bradwardine, Martin Luther and John Calvin could not help but see their battle in similar terms of Jesus versus the Pharisees, Paul versus the Judiazing party, and Augustine versus Pelagius. At the same time as the Reformers themselves recognized the Pelagianism of their day was more the practical, working theology although it remained officially condemned. Today, most Evangelicals would probably not sign off on Pelagianism if they saw it written down on paper, and yet it seems to be the assumed working theology of our day.
Benjamin Franklin's line, "God helps those who help themselves" receives an approving nod from a majority of Evangelicals, in fact a majority of the Evangelicals said in a recent survey that it was a quotation from the Bible. This is where we are today, Evangelicals are known for their interest in the Gospel. The very name itself comes from the Greek word for "gospel." Getting that gospel right and getting it out has been the hallmark of any genuinely Evangelical Christianity. But the movement in America that goes by the name "Evangelicalism" is much more diverse, and this is the situation in which we find ourselves today. The diversity that has led to the point where in many instances it seems the light from the Reformation seems to be burning very dimly. In his visit to the United States, Dietrich Bonheoffer, described American religion as Protestantism without the Reformation. As Bonheoffer elaborates, "God has granted American Christianity no Reformation. He has given it strong Revivalist preachers, churchman, and theologians, but no Reformation of the church of Jesus Christ by the word of God. In American theology Christianity is still essentially religion and ethics. Because of this, the person and work of Christ, must for theology sink into the background and in the long-run be misunderstood because it is not recognized as the sole ground of radical judgment and radical forgiveness."
And so this is a very good time for us to remember the 490th Anniversary of the Reformation. Not in order to celebrate the work of individuals, but for us to thank God for that great work and the body of writing concerning the Scriptures that is still available to us today, in the hope that we will be liberated from our American counter-reformation and have a new Reformation by God's Word in our day.
There are not 20000 + Protestant denominations. That has been debunked. If that were true, I think that it ends up something like 40 persons or less per denomination. lol If I get a chance tomorrow, I will look up how ridiculous that number is. Right now it is bedtime.
Why wouldn’t we? In spite of the seemingly unrelated title, the author described is an orthodox Romanist himself. See, we can actually agree on a FEW things, right GC?
What, we're back down to 20,000 again, and no one told me???
lol If I get a chance tomorrow, I will look up how ridiculous that number is. Right now it is bedtime.
I can save you a great deal of time. The history of a million plus "Protestant" denominations starts here... ...and ends here.
The Battle Hymn of the Reformation
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
Turn up your speakers and enjoy!
If God is a Mighty Fortress, then why are all the Protestants scattered about the landscape in little grass huts?
I don’t understand your question - could you elaborate please?
God constructed the mighty earthly fortress of His Church.
The Reformation saw a lot of people walk away and set up their own little theological huts all over the landscape. Some of those huts are being destroyed by the folks within and some of those folks are walking back to the fortress and some are building more huts in the mistaken assumption that it is the fault of the first huts that they are insufficient.
>>God constructed the mighty earthly fortress of His Church.<<
A unified body of believers, who worship in spirit and truth. Not the Roman Catholic Church.
>>The Reformation saw a lot of people walk away and set up their own little theological huts all over the landscape.<<
Truth has a way of separating the weeds from the wheat.
>>Some of those huts are being destroyed by the folks within...<<
Like the catholic church? Men are fallible, and as such, their groups are fallible. Only God and His word are infallible.
He was a Lutheran, but many (including BXVI) have praised him for his Christian life.
They are the lost sheep, Mark.
It should be said though, that traditional Presbyterianism-and-more-radical-protestants (Baptists and many others) have an old tradition of being down on most religious holidays. Even Christmas wasn’t a big deal among such groups until about 150 years ago—and it was banned entirely by the ancestors of Presbyterians, the Puritans, for a while in the 17th Century.
Hence even Reformation Day is not heavily emphasized in the Presbyterian circles I know...
“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” (St. Paul in Romans 14:5)
Probably just because they know God Himself as their Fortress, not castles made by men...
***They are the lost sheep, Mark.***
While you may be attempting to use sarcasm with your little exchange, there is more truth to that than you realize. Eventually, even the Catholics and EO will abandon their man made sandcastles and come to the fortress that has no walls and needs none. Eventually all will join we Calvinists.
We’re not the ones who wandered.
:::Eventually all will join we Calvinists.:
Why, are the puppets coming apart at the joints?
:::Eventually, even the Catholics and EO will abandon their man made sandcastles:::
We’re not the ones who left the Fortress of God and wandered far afield, setting up pale, frail, and man-made imitations of the real deal. You guys have an incomplete, abridged and mutilated Bible. When your Scripture is complete, and adequately translated, we’ll be able to talk apples and apples.
We follow the teachings of Jesus, not a murdering theological thug who imposed an iron despotic rule upon Geneva.
AMEN! Semper Reformanda!
That refers to one of my favorite veres from the Bible...
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." -- 1 Corinthians 10:13
Nothing sanctimonious about it. In fact, Paul says all men are tempted. It's the human condition. But God does not leave us defenseless.
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