Posted on 10/31/2012 12:52:34 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
A blog post on the First Things web site some time ago was drawn to my attention by a couple colleagues as we were eating lunch the other day. A perceptive remark was made about it. The article, by a LCMS pastor, is rather typical of what the Roman Catholic journal, First Things, loves to publish: hand-wringing articles by Lutherans over the Reformation.
In the article, the pastor opines that the better color for Reformation Sunday would be a color of mourning, rather than a festive red. He laments the Reformation as a tragedy. He is correct, but for the wrong reason.
Must we lament our sin? Indeed. Must we lament our human pride? Yes! Is the Church always in need of Reformation? Absolutely. Is God, by His Most Holy Word and Sacraments constantly reforming you, me and the whole Christian Church on earth? Amen, Amen, may it ever be so! But, should we lament the fact of the Reformation? No, unless we wish to lament God’s gift of the Gospel, which came breaking through with great clarity once more at this time.
Ironically, though, the author of the article misses the actual tragedy of the Reformation; namely, that it was not wholly successful. The Roman Catholic Church, as such, was formed as a direct result of the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent. And at the Council of Trent the door was slammed shut on the very Gospel itself, the good news that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. What was at least an option before Trent, was pronounced to be a damning error.
This is the tragedy of the Reformation!
Well, the Jewish Torah, w'Nebuiim, w'Kethubim were well settled before Jesus began His three years of teaching. The twenty seven NT books & letters were well settled before there was ever such a thing as the RCC (appearing around the end of the 3rd century AD). Thus began the attempted usurpation of authority. Believers, however, were everywhere by the time Rome clammored for first place. The apocrypha is an addition many RCCs did not recognize as the Word of God...notice the distinction in name.
Because they are cults, like Rome. The RCC's denial of marriage by the "priesthood", canonization of "S"aints, sacerdotalism in general, papalism, indulgences, purgatory, sacraments for salvation, and the other 400 creepy traditions foisted on the poor unsuspecting public are just as ungodly as an organization promoting homosexuality. It is clear evidence of their error and disconnection from biblical truth.
Then how exactly does one distinguish true protestants from fake ones?
nope, he didn't...in fact he actually added a word to scripture that wasn't there...the bible says that we are saved by faith...he added "alone". Martin Luther, by leading untold millions away from the true church is probably responsible for the loss of more souls than any other individual in history.
the Catholic church did not supress reading of the bible. If you recall, all bibles, until Gutenberg invented a printing press, were hand copied and therefore extremely expensive. They were found in monasteries, libraries, royal households and very few other places. People would not have access to a bible until the 1600's. Since the Catholic church edited, wrote, saved, etc the bible that we know today, why would she have kept her members from reading it???
It always amuses me when Catholics fail to capitalize the word "Bible", esp. when they demonstrate the ability to capitalize a broad range of other words in the same post.
“The twenty seven NT books & letters were well settled”
By whom? What was the first bible which included all 27? When was it published and by whom?
“The apocrypha is an addition”
Nonsense, Luther tossed books that he didn’t like from the bible, and you hold to his tradition. Why?
We capitalize Jesus.
I had a problem with an old lap top of mine that had a defective left side shift key. I made a few posts with the word Bible with a lower case B and some of the proddys went mad. I think Alex was one of them. It seems that they have mistaken the Word for some words and have made the Bible into some sort of totem subject to their worship. LOL and they accuse us of worshiping objects.
Peace be to you
Since it's a Church of one, well, that condemns everyone else
My, my we have a revisionary historian here. terycarl, I'll address this after you have re-read the real history of the RCC and its hatred for the printed Bible. And, if you believe the RCC actually wrote, saved the Bible, you need more than a history lesson. The RCC has edited the Bible, if by that you mean altered it. No question. But, no RC had anything to do with writing it...please. There was no such thing as a RCC when the Bible was completed. Let go of the propaganda machine.
You have identified yet another tragic characteristic of folks entrapped by Rome...they value the org. more than the Scriptures.
I'd check that new laptop. Your post shows faults that will no doubt be blamed on the keyboard again.
In a highly illiterate world, within which there was often no written language for the hundreds of regional dialects, there was no practical demand for a printed vernacular Bible outside of universities, monasteries, and churches. What few vernacular bibles that existed before the printing presses were produced by the Catholic Church. Those that cropped up outside the Church did not receive the Church's seal of approval and the Church rightly it known to all that the content was at least suspect and often heretical.
In its place was religious art depicting scenes, characters, and stories from the Bible. This art, paintings, stained glass, tapestries, sculpture, icons, music and poetry, taught and inspired many generations and provided a necessary mnemonic to the illiterate masses.
Tragically, much of this unprinted Word of God was destroyed by the reformation in its efforts to undermine the Magisterium, re-brand Christianity and control the hearts and minds of the masses (and the wealth of the Church). This was by far a greater hate crime against God and humanity than any measures taken to preserve the orthodoxy of the Word against heresy.
Peace be with you
No sir, the icons & art were/are not in fact the "unprinted Word of God". They were nothing more than images of errant fanciful thoughts and downright pagan idols. The world is far better off with those errors destroyed.
And perhaps you view the past as a "highly illiterate world", but the fact is that copies of the NT letters, together with the Hebrew texts, existed and were read & circulated in nearly every city of the known world. Your organization survives on an imaginary preeminence the way the emperor who had no clothes pictured his regal robes. We invite you to experience a "reformation moment" and come out of this cultish den into the light of Jesus Christ, alone...if you are permitted.
That is a point on which you and the Islamic world agree, but disagree the vast majority of Christians. I suppose you equally condemn any media other than the written word such as music and movies depicting the Biblical stories. How joyless your world must be.
"And perhaps you view the past as a "highly illiterate world", but the fact is that copies of the NT letters, together with the Hebrew texts, existed and were read & circulated in nearly every city of the known world. "
You are ignoring that there was a lingua franca, Greek that enabled persons to read those writings or that there were many, many fraudulent and heretical versions in circulation at that time. (note that the Septuagint was one such collection in circulation for the majority of the world's Jews who could not read Hebrew and the growing Christian community.) When the need for a new vernacular was recognized the Church produced the Vulgate, whose very name revealed its intended audience.
No it is not the Catholic Church that is in the dark shadow of the reformation.
If I held to the errors of the Reformation I too would rather discuss punctuation than theology.
Peace be with you.
You are free to hold your own beliefs, but the fact that St. Peter, the first Catholic Bishop of Rome and the first Pope was a human author of two New Testament books is the most obvious proof that reality contradicts those beliefs. Other New Testament human authors who were Catholic bishops were St. John who was the Bishop of Asia Minor, and St. James who was the first Bishop of Jerusalem.
Pax et bonem
Stay locked in the closet of ingrown self-righteousness and deception, if you must. Rome has enslaved its millions, the way the Islamic cult has enslaved millions.
The joy and freedom of Jesus Christ, alone, exists now as it has existed since His blood was shed on Calvary. The elect welcomed the rescue and call to those who rely on props...come out, if you can. That one must be chained to men in bathrobes and pointy hats to have hope is not only tragic, but borders on demonic.
I pray for you
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