환원운동사 특강(The Church in the Bible and in History)

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PART III THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION (1517-1800)

INTRODUCTION

I. Definition – Reformation – the removal of faults or abuses; the religious movement in western Christendom beginning early in the 16th century, which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant church.

And so now we come to the road back; the Road back: the Protestant Reformation. The very term, Reformation, the definition is the removal of faults or abuses; the religious movement in western Christendom beginning early in the 16th century, which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant churches.

II. Contributing factors – corruption; invention of printing; revival of learning; increased acquaintance with scriptures.

Here was something contributing factors to arise the Protestant Reformation: corruption; invention of printing; revival of learning; and specially the increased acquaintance with scriptures. The first product of printing press we called was the Bible. The Bible had been a chained book. All these centuries' people had not accessed to the Word of God. Do you remember what Jesus said, "For ye shall know the truth, that truth shall make you free"?

III. It actually reformed nothing. It ended in excommunication from or withdrawal from the apostate church; the beginning of Protestantism.

Now actually, however, the Protestant Reformation reformed nothing. It ended in excommunication from the church or withdrawal from the apostate church. That's beginning of the Protestantism. I compare sometimes the reformation to Aspirin. I imagine most of you are taking Aspirin. And you know why you usually take it. You want to get relieved. But notice! Aspirin never treats the cause. Aspirin only treats the symptoms. So the Protestant Reformation never did get back to the cause. It was only treating the symptom. So let's look at the road back.

I. John Wycliffe (latter part of 14th century)

A. The "Morning Star of the Reformation."

John Wycliffe who lived latter part of 14th century was referred to as the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”

B. Was against the supremacy of the pope; the doctrine of transubstantiation and the abuses of the hierarchy.

Ah, even at this early date Wycliffe was against the supremacy of the pope. He opposed the doctrine of transubstantiation. And he specially opposed the abuses of the hierarchy.

C. His greatest work - translation of the Bible into English (1380).

And his greatest work which was hounded to devil's death was the translation of the Bible into English in the year 1380.

II. Tyndale (a martyr’s death - 1536). English translation of the Bible

Long came Tyndale who made a martyr’s death in 1536 and primarily because he too had been guilty of translating of the Bible into English.

III. Luther

A. A monk, sought peace of mind, visited Rome, determined to reform the church.

Then when you come to Pope Leo X whom we've already alluded to and the sale of indulgences, within the church itself there was a violent protest against this repugnant practice and it was a body primarily in the person of an insecure Roman Catholic monk who was also a professor of University of Wittenberg. He himself was under going to tremendous spiritual inner turmoil. And he'd been doing all types of penances, but to no avail. Even he wanted to be the extreme until beginning the fragilely his body, but to no avail. Then one day he was announced to him. Then he was going to have very rare privilege of visit to the holy city of Rome. And he was ecstatic. He thought this was to solve all of problems. And in fact it is recorded that he was so emotionally overcome as he approached outskirt of the city of Rome. Then he literally prostrated himself to the ground and kissed the earth. And as he got up and made an entrance into the city, he was horrified when he began to observe the profligacy, the sinfulness of the holy city. And then he was literally dumbfounded when he began to observe the extravagances of the Vatican. And rather than solving these problems only compounded these problems so much. So he did vow when he got back home. He said, "I'm going to set about the task of reforming, what he called, 'The apostate church of Rome.'"

When he got back home to Germany, the first thing he insisted on securing was the copy of the Bible. Now here all these years, a monk and a professor in the Roman (Catholic) university then never had a Bible. He was warned. He couldn't understand it. That would be a dangerous experience and feat in that all at once. But he took his Bible and began to study it. As the further he read, the more confused he became. The reason for his confusion was the fact that nowhere in the Bible couldn't he find any basis of justification for many in the doctrines and the practices in the Roman church. For many of these we've already seen what had come into existence since the decrees of popes and councils were coping with in intervening centuries.

B. His dogma of justification by faith a reaction to the system of salvation by meritorious works (Romans 5:1). Cf. His struggle with the book of James.

But as he read, the further read, the more aware he became of the great central doctrine of the scriptures. And here were full force what he got here the Book of Romans the fifth chapter and the first verse. And he read these words: “Therefore we are justified by faith, and a peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was astounded. Here all these years he had been taught and had been teaching them, "Man would be justified by system of meritorious works, penance, sacraments and such like." Here the Bible taught them, "Man would be justified by faith in Christ and a peace with God." He's even looking for to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was so moved that he lifted his pen and in the margin of his Bible across the Romans 5:1 he wrote in Latin word, S·O·L·A, 'Sola' and he underscored. Of course, all you Latin scholars here tonight know that the word means. It's the word from which we get out an English word, 'Solo.' It means 'alone' or 'only.' And thus came into existence what today is the most popular and prevalent doctrine in all of Evangelical Protestantism, the doctrine of justification by faith only.

C. Professor of Theology, University of Wittenberg.

Now you have to understand where this man was coming from. I don't get too critical of him at all. I have a great admiration for him. But remember his background. And here was the first study of scripture and in the overreaction began that repugnant doctrine, that system on meritorious works, the things that a man could do to earn a merited salvation. He swam the opposite stream and tacked down that word ONLY. Can you imagine and continue reading to the scripture he'd got back to the Book of James? Now are you familiar enough for the Book of James and know where he ran into? He read this figure of speech, "Even as the body apart from the sprit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." Of the one that hit him between eyes was James 2:24 when he read, “Therefore we are justified by works, and not by faith only.” "Hew," he said, "That is the Epistle of Straw. That doesn't belong here." And at this point in time at least he excluded the Book of James from his collection of the scripture because he thought James contradicted what Paul had written back in the Book of Romans and Galatians and Ephesians.

But again understand where he's coming from. This is the first study of the scripture. And he is not yet aware of the fact that the Bible uses the same word in different way and different place depended upon context. For instance, when the Apostle Paul here is talking about faith, he is not talking about the same faith that James is talking about. And when James says, "Man is saved by works," he is not talking about the same works that Paul was talking about over here. I just thought about works he talked about the works of the law. Any work that man does that he thinks work by he deserves are earned merits of salvation. Now Apostle, because of the law for works justified by man, he gets these seamlessly morally perfectly. Therefore the law instead saving him would condemn him. So you can't be saved by works. But when James over here says, "Man is saved by works," he's not talking about the works of the law. He's talking about the works of faith or works that makes faith. Paul's justifying faith. When James says, "Here man is not saved by faith only," he's not talking about the same faith with Paul's talking about. Remember James says, "The demons believe but tremble." So here Paul's faith is James's works plus faith. But at this point in time he thought he saw an apparent contradiction between James and Paul.

D. Tetzel and the sale of indulgences.

E. The 95 theses - October 31, 1517.

At last he sat down and he wrote 95 theses of propositions. Many of them were dealing with these problems of indulgences. And that a moment of Sunday October 31, 1517 AD, he tacked these '95 Theses' to the church door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg challenging anyone of the entire Roman Catholic Church debating him on public platform on anyone of all 95 these propositions. Thus began, oh we refer to it as the Protestant Reformation. And that man is, of course, Martin Luther.

F. Bull of excommunication; Bull burned - 1520.

Series of trials were held subsequently and efforts to get Luther recant. But he refused. So at last in desperation in 1520 the Pope of Rome issued a bull or a pronouncement of excommunication. Oh Luther got that. He didn't take sitting down. He wanted out in public. And he put the match to it. And he burned it publicly. Oh that just fanned the flame to the Reformation and they swept down into Switzerland. And two men of reformers in Switzerland were Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin.

I just want to pause right here and see how long we've been going. I didn't clock when I began. One hour. I think what we'll do tonight then, hopefully, what's your appetites, and you come back tomorrow night. And we'll take up here and then get on into a new beginning tomorrow night which is the History of the Restoration Movement. We'll be doing that tomorrow night. But we'll begin with Zwingli and Calvin. And I hope you'll be here because Calvin had the most pervasive influence upon the Protestant Reformation than any man to this very present hour. I think what we'll have to deal with more than anything else today is Calvinistic theology. And we'll discuss this and more detail tomorrow night. So we'll conclude at this point with the road back and tomorrow night continue in that and get into the grand theme of a new beginning, exciting story and rehearsal of the movement of true church after New Testament ideal. Shall we bow our heads for prayer?

Closing Prayer

Gracious Father, we thank you for men and women of faith who had their lives across the years and the most adverse circumstances. We thank Father that you have revealed yourself to us and that your truth appeals to man's reason. We thank Father for the fact Jesus told us that the truth would set us free and our thrill we are, Father, to have preached to our hearts the Word of Truth. Help us to handle the right that man might know freedom from sin, freedom from superstition, freedom from guilt and know the joy of freedom in Christ. We pray for your blessing upon our discussion tonight. And Father may it cause us to be like those brilliance to search the scriptures daily to see if these things so. And we asked in Jesus' name. Amen.