Well, fellow FReeper, we had a Reformation Service yesterday which gathered several churches in our presbytery to worship together and particularly to celebrate what we see as a fantastic event - particularly, we highlit Calvin’s 500th birthday, which we see as a great bright spot of church history. So there are certainly different points of view on this one.
The food was awesome - our annual “Reformation Buffet.”
That message leads people to Hell...
That article is wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin.
If people like that are teaching that garbage in Divinity schools, I can see how people who do not read and study their Bible’s as often as they should can get misled. Wow! The ignorance is amazing!
Given the number of folks burned for reading scriptures in their own tongue, I’m not surprised there is rejoicing at the Reformation...or better called, Restoration.
After all, the Orthodox had cut loose the Roman Catholic Church hundreds of years earlier.
And while it is sad to see a church slip into apostasy, it is glorious that not all follow!
In contrast, Catholics do not begin with the question of “How much do we need to believe?” but with the attitude “Look at all the wonderful stuff we get to believe!”
He gets it. The Protestant apologetic on this forum has always struck me as minimalist; that Protestants seek to know the absolute minimum required for salvation. They seem to me to obsess over that minimum, and never to look beyond it.
This impression, on my part, is based on almost 10 years of reading Protestant apologetics on this forum.
OTOH, the Catholic attitude with which I grew up, and which I still see in many Catholic parishes, is expansive. "Maximalist", if that's a word. Look at all the wonderful spiritual gifts The Lord has given us, the wonderful friends with which He has surrounded us.
Protestants, particularly of the Evangelical bent, speak often of a "personal relationship with Christ". And that's fine, in so far as it goes.
It's just not the whole story.
It seems to me that Christ wishes to have a familial relationship with Him, His Father, and His Holy Spirit ... and that implies a fraternal relationship with all other believers in this world and the next.
It's not just me-n-Jesus. It's me-n-Jesus and the Father and The Holy Spirit and all the Choirs of Angels and the whole communion of saints at the Wedding Feast of The Lamb. Hurrah!
The reformers were plain and simple rebelling against the Will of God.
And a slight correction needs to be made in this article. Protestantism, as it was originally cast in the Reformation, did not reflect the age of enlightenment. I think one will find ample evidence that the belief in a man-centered view is a Catholic notion that migrated to most non-Reformed churches through Joseph Arminian. Reformers maintained, and still maintain, God works out His plan and He is in control-not man.
Christians are united not because they have a headquarters in Rome. That is absolutely preposterous. Christians are united by their love of the brethren whenever they go. I can travel anywhere in the world and find common bonds with fellow believers.
I, for one, rejoice in the Reformation and God opening up the eyes of the church to the truth. Understanding the Reformation has helped me to see how arrogant mankind, including myself, can be. We are a sinful wretched lot who somehow received undeserved favor by a truly divine and loving God. I can only pray that someday God will help others to cast aside our arrogant and see the divine truth that it is He that saves us-to the praise of His great glory through our Lord Jesus.
Competition is a good thing. It keeps the Bishop of Rome from getting a swelled head.