At which stage did it stop being “opening the door” and become “opening Pandora’s box”?
Seriously
Of course, with your background and beliefs, you see it as a pandoras Box.
And you lay it at Luthers feet.
Not surprisingly, I see it differently, since every movement in history has a context and an antecedent that energizes the movement.
In this case, you can lay the energy that launched this at two sources:
1. The long-term corruption of Rome, a whitewashed tomb on the outside, but filled with corruption and bones on the inside.
Luther tried to bring Rome back to Gods Word and did not start out wanting to separate. Rome doubled down on its heresy and did not even want to discuss the Scriptures at the hearing. All they wanted was blind obedience.
Rome had multiple occasions to repent and move back to scripture. They did not. It would have stopped there.
The same can be said for Romes prideful breakaway from the original orthodox churches. Rome could have prevented a split, but they insisted on their own supremacy.
As Rome trod down the road of seeing themselves as a superior kingdom that must be obeyed, *they wound the energy that eventually led to the split during the Reformation.*
2. There was also the large context of the Renaissance, that set free mankind to re-examine everything. And so they did.
Through it all, God has preserved for himself a small group who havent bowed their knee to Baal. It has always been this way.
The wheat grows with the tares until the harvest.
And we have had the same heresy to deal with in the beginning as we do today.
The only real difference is that Rome used to just slaughter any believer who disagreed - man woman or child.
Thankfully, they have been confined to a historical kingdom of a few acres in Rome.
In the meantime, The Roman Rooster continues to crow, pridefully believing his actions make the sun rise- just as corrupt, and now we see the depth of Romes corruption with children.
The orthodox churches avoided many of Romes errors, but preserved many.
And Gods plan marches on outside the old wine skins.
Best to you FRiend
You do realize that the Jehovah's Witnesses are a rehashing of what Arius taught right? This was one man who impetuously became a priest and then didn't read through the earlier heresies who opened up the pandora's box
What Renaissance? The Carolingian renaissance? What do you see as the "setting free mankind to think" as opposed to what came before?
Don't fall for the idea that the Middle Ages were the Dark Ages (a term first used by Gibbon).
During the Middle Ages people like Dante Alighieri and Bede lived. The great art of the Gothic period was present and scientific discoveries. What makes you think that mankind suddenly started discovering thinks anew?
Firstly you are wrong to say "mankind" as the Renaissance never affected the Greek world which had the same as before. It never went to the Islamic lands or India or China
What new thinking do you see in the 1400s that people didn't think in the 1300s?
Yes, that was Christians as a whole. This logic that "oh, there was corruption and some fell away" is exactly what Muslims use to justify -- they say "the Injil was corrupted, but some people remained true Muslims" -- and so too do Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons use that logic.
it's flawed logic. God said that His word would not die away, He gave His promise to protect His people, His Church and He hasn't failed
The proof is in the way how the various entities that broke away from orthodoxy died out and never survived.
If God was not with orthodoxy, it would not have survived.
Btw orthodoxy = Catholic+Orthodox+Oriental+Assyrian Churches.
and so on and so forth. Oriental Churchs as well