The Protestant Reformation Essay, Research Paper

…Since, then, works justify no man, but a man must be justified before he can do any

good work, it is most evident that it is faith alone which, by the mere mercy of God

through Christ, and by means of His word, can worthily and sufficiently justify and save

the person;

…But you ask how it can be the fact that faith alone justifies, and the affords without

works so great a treasure of good things, when so many works, ceremonies, and laws are

prescribed to us in the Scriptures. I answer: before all things bear in mind what I have

said, that faith alone without works justifies, sets free, and saves….

Martin Luther

The Reformation of the 16th century was a movement within Western Christendom to

purge the church of medieval abuses and to restore the doctrines and practices that the

reformers believed conformed with the Bible and the New Testament model of the

church. This led to a breach between the Roman Catholic Church and the reformers

whose beliefs and practices came to be called Protestantism.

The Reformation began in Germany on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther

wrote the 95 theses attacking the “pardon merchants.” He posted his theses on the door

of the castle church in Wittenberg and invited fellow scholars to debate him. The

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papacy viewed this as a gesture of rebellion and proceeded to take steps against Luther as

a heretic. He was excommunicated in 1521. In April of that year, at the Diet of Worms,

he stood before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and the German princes and

refused to recant unless proven wrong by the Bible or by clear reason. He believed that

salvation was a free gift to persons through the forgiveness of sins by God’s grace alone

and received by them through faith in Christ.

What led this strongly religious man to defy the Pope and Church traditions? The

early church at its best in the majestic splendor of saints such as Peter and Paul gave to

early Europe a level of civilization which included monasteries giving food to the poor,

education to young boys, and hospitals for the sick and destitute. Throughout the

fourteenth century, however, this splendor was corrupted by a church whose greatest

interest was self-perpetuation and greed. In the midst of this, a few lone voices cried out.

“Wolves are in control of the church and feed on the blood of the Christian flock!” said

high Spanish prelate Alvaro Pelayo. In England, Edward III stated that “the successor of

the Apostles was commissioned to lead the Lord’s sheep to pasture, not

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to fleece them.” Power also became a tool for the Catholic Church. During this time, the

Pope continued to declare his absolute sovereignty over all kings of the earth. His power

was second only to God’s, and he could dethrone kings and emperors at will. Using this

power to the very extent that they could in an attempt to stop this great truth from being

exposed to the now ignorant subjects of the Pope, the leaders of the Catholic Church put

to death several of the reformers who were threatening their rule. In several other

attempts to quench the now raging fire, they tried to talk their way out of the deep pit in

which they were thrown…but it was too late. In a time when so called “heretics” against

the Pope were killed and tortured for what they believed, brave men were needed to shine

the truth to the world. With the rise of Lutheranism, Calvinism, and several other new

religions, such bravery was brought to the surface. Some efforts were made to reform the

church from within. William of Ockham protested saying “the church is the congregation

of the faithful…” and further stated that a council composed of clergy and laymen chosen

by the people should be formed and have the power to elect, reprove, or depose the Pope.

Such an idea was revolutionary but unfortunately

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brought few real changes in the Church. However, with the invention of the printing

press, the Bible could now be read by all who had the money and will to read it. Within a

few short months, the Bible became the best seller of the time! People could now

develop their own ideas about the Catholic Church, and religion in general. And most

importantly, people now could know the truth as they saw it–that faith alone without

works saves. Overall, the ideas that sprang from the Protestant Reformation changed

Europe and the world, forever.

Martin Luther was born in 1483, and died in 1546. All his life he wished only to

be an obedient, God-fearing Christian. He was a tough man of peasant build, with deep-

set disturbing eyes and a wide-open character for which his friends always respected him.

His mind was always active and alive, his heart always humble. This was sufficiently

demonstrated when Luther explained how he felt toward sin in his life before he realized

the Biblical truth: “I tried as hard as I could to keep the Rule. I used to be contrite, and

make a list of my sins. I confessed them again and again. I scrupulously carried out the

penances which were allotted to me. And yet my conscience kept nagging. It kept

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telling me: ‘You fell short there.’ ‘You were not sorry enough.’ ‘You left that sin off your

list.’ I was trying to cure the doubts and scruples of the conscience with human remedies,

the traditions of men. The more I tried these remedies, the more troubled and uneasy my

conscience grew.” Luther’s position was that the Roman Catholic Church and papacy had

no divine right in things spiritual. He believed that the Scriptures had final authority over

conscience. In his view, men were forgiven of their sins by turning directly to God. Men

were justified by faith, not by good works or ceremony and certainly not through the

purchase of indulgences offered for sale by the Roman Catholic Church. “The just shall

live by faith” was the beginning and end of his thinking. The Bible, according to Luther,

was the inspired word of God. It was a guide for men’s lives. Lutheranism was founded

on God, conscience, and the Bible. The Reformation resulted in a Protestantism with

two branches: Lutheranism with Luther and Melanchthon as leaders; and the Reformed

Church led by Calvin, Zwingli and John Knox. Lutheranism spread from Germany to

Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, France, and

Holland. Later it became the state church

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of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Esonia, and Latnia. Lutheranism came to the

United States from Germany and Scandinavia. Martin Luther’s religious work was

supported by political leaders in Germany who were deserting their own independence

from the authority of the Church. They were, in effect, forming a league of Protestant

rulers.

Born at Noyon in 1509, John Calvin studied Latin and theology at the University of

Paris and law at Orleans. He was a Frenchman who had a legalistic mind and a desire for

freedom. He became the leader of the reformed sector of the Reformation in Geneva,

Switzerland. “Calvin’s whole thought revolved about the concept of sovereignty: of God

in his universe; of Christ in salvation; of the Scriptures in faith and conduct of the

individual conscience in the interpretation of the will and word of God.” Calvin’s ideas

were responsible for the doctrine of the total depravity of man and the doctrine of

predestination. Out of Calvinism came reform in education, liberation of the oppressed

and persecuted, and the establishment of democratic forms of government in church and

state. He gave a new organization to the church consisting of pastors, doctors, elders, and

deacons. In 1536, Calvin published a

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book called the Institutes of the Christian Religion. This work set forth a systematic

Protestant philosophy. The first edition of the Institutes was completely sold out in a

year. Calvin taught that men and women are by nature sinful. By God’s grace, however,

a very few people will be saved from sin. He said that the duty of the few is to rule

society so as to glorify God. Therefore, he taught, the church should dominate the state.

He hoped for a government controlled by church leaders. This was the major difference

between Calvinism and Lutheranism. For Luther preached obedience to earthly rulers.

Calvin’s ideas gave more support for revolt against an “ungodly” ruler.

An obvious result of the Reformation was the division of Western Christendom

into Protestant and Catholic areas. Another result was the development of national

churches. These strengthened the growth of modern national states, just as earlier,

growing national consciousness had facilitated the development of the Reformation. The

Catholic Counter-Reformation gave new life to the old church and was in part a result of

the Reformation movement. Finally, the Reformation introduced much radical change in

thought and in ecclesiastical and political organization

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and thus began many of the trends that are taken to characterize the modern world.

In the present-day world, a Protestant Reformation is sweeping Latin America.

Over the last generation, churches have challenged Roman Catholicism in a struggle for

the souls of the faithful. No one knows exactly how many Protestants there are in Latin

America. Some estimates run from 40 million to 60 million, but everyone agrees the

number is exploding. Everyday, on average, about 8,000 baptized Catholics become

Protestants. By now, Latin America’s Protestant Reformation has become almost entirely

a homegrown movement. “These people embrace Protestantism because it’s like a

liberation,” says Abdias Tovilia, a Protestant pastor.

“Protestant” is the general name for all Christian denominations outside the Roman

Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches. Today Protestants number in the millions and

boast of churches all over the world. Although their beliefs differ widely, their origins

spring from the great Protestant Reformation.