Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door at All Saints in Wittenberg,
Germany, 498 years ago. The Roman Catholic Church had grown more and more
corrupt in both worship and fidelity to the Word of God. She began to assert her own Word took
precedence over the Bible. Sins could be bought and paid for through
indulgences. Luther had seen enough. His familiarity with Holy Scripture,
somewhat rare for a Roman clergyman, told him the Pope was wrong, and the
errors of the Papacy flowed downward to infect the entire church. Luther was a
man of courage - but not his own. He relied upon the courage of the Holy Ghost
in taking an uncompromising stand for Holy Writ.
If Luther were here today, he would doubtless be one of those committed
Christians of the Levant whom the Islamist are beheading if they fail to
renounce Christ. Luther would not have done so. He would have stood on the
Foundation of Truth and not consider otherwise. There are many Christian
children of Syria today who have been beheaded because they refused to renounce
their Christian faith. I wonder if the pulpit dandies of our day in America
would demonstrate such faith and courage. I wonder if you and I would do so.
There is a trend today to disregard everything that is negative. All are
supposed to have a positive outlook and always to expect the best. How far
would such an attitude benefit the martyred Christians of the Reformation, of
China, of Africa, of South America, etc? The Scriptures do not teach such
foolishness. Eight of the Ten Commandments are negative, and there cannot truly
be positives in the absence of negatives. Without both negatives and positives,
electrical current could not be generated. God promises blessings for
certain behaviors, and curses for others. As we read them from Holy Scripture,
I hope you will ask two questions - how does this relate to me? and secondly,
How does this relate to my country.
God's promised blessings for
those who honor His Word
1 Ye
shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image,
neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it:
for I am the LORD your God. 2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and
reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3 If ye walk in my statutes,
and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 Then I will give you rain in due
season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall
yield their fruit. 5 And your threshing shall reach
unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye
shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 And I will give peace in the
land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid
evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 7 And ye shall chase your enemies,
and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 And five of you shall chase an
hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your
enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 For I will have respect unto
you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with
you. 10 And ye shall eat old store, and
bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my tabernacle
among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and
will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, which
brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their
bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. (Lev
26:1-14)
God's assured curses for those
who dishonor His Word
14 But
if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if ye shall despise my
statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my
commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16 I also will do this unto you; I
will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that
shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed
in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against
you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign
over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18 And if ye will not yet for all
this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of
your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 And your strength shall be spent
in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of
the land yield their fruits. 21 And if ye walk contrary
unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues
upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts
among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and
make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23 And if ye will not be reformed
by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary
unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon
you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered
together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall
be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff
of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall
deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27 And if ye will not for all this
hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto
you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of
your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high
places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of
your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will make your cities
waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the
savour of your sweet odours. 32 And I will bring the land into
desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the
heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate,
and your cities waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy her
sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even
then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lieth desolate it
shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36 And upon them that are left
alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their
enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee,
as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. 37 And they shall fall one upon
another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no
power to stand before your enemies. 38 And ye shall perish among
the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And they that are left of you
shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the
iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. (Lev 26:14-39)
Since God's blessings are of greater potency than His curses, the curses
outnumber the blessings by far. Of course, to summarize the blessings: If we
have the FAVOR of God, we have all others of His blessings. If we have the
DISFAVOR of God, we are devoid of hope.
The answer for Sin
40 If they shall confess their
iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they
trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41 And that I also have walked
contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if
then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the
punishment of their iniquity: 42 Then will I remember my covenant
with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham
will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of
them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and
they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because
they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. (Lev
26:40-43, see also 2 Chron 7:14)
Perhaps our churches are reaching the proliferation of error and wickedness as
the Roman Church prior to the Reformation. It is likely that another
Reformation is in order - not to introduce a new worship and a new Word, but to
return to the ancient worship of the early Church, and the inerrant and
immutable Word of God that was first given to the saints in the remote shadows
of ages past. That is what our Reformers did, and we can do no less.
Jerry L. Ogles, Presiding Bishop
Anglican Orthodox
Communion Worldwide
Chancellor, Faith
Theological Seminary
Latimer Hall School of
Divinity
The Reformation
The Reformation, sometimes
referred as the Protestant Reformation, was a movement which attempted to
correct the deviations from Scripture of the Roman Catholic Church. When it made no progress, churches
formed separate from the Church of Rome.
The reformation was initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrych
Zwingli, Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and other early Protestant Reformers in
the 16th century Europe and England.
Although there had been
significant earlier attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church before Luther
— such as those of Jan Hus, Peter Waldo, and John Wycliffe — it is Martin
Luther who is widely acknowledged to have started the Reformation with his 1517
work The Ninety-Five Theses. Luther began by criticizing the selling of
indulgences, insisting the Pope had no authority over purgatory[1]
and the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the
gospel[2].
The Protestant position was based solely on Scripture, nothing which is not
clearly contained therein is to be required for salvation and that which is
contrary is not to be accepted.
The core motivation behind these
changes was theological. The Roman
Church did not want the Bible translated into the language of the people, it
was only available in Latin and its distribution closely contained. When the Bible was translated into the
language of the people, such as the Geneva Bible, the Tyndale Bible and the Coverdale
Bible, people and clergy found how far from the Truth the Roman Church had
grown and how corrupt it had become.
The church in England had become
a national church in the early 1530s under the leadership of King Henry VIII. It was reformed, but not completely. That took place under King Edward VI,
setbacks happened under Queen Mary and the church reached its more or less
final form under Queen Elizabeth.
[1]
In Roman Catholic
doctrine - Purgatory - a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of
sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven. It must be clearly noted that the Bible
does not teach or even mention purgatory.
And, it must also be equally clearly noted that the Roman Church made
huge profit from sales of Get out of Purgatory Free cards.
[2]
In point of fact,
Jesus tells us not even to pray to Him, but to pray to the Father in His Name,
thus it seems quite contrary to pray to Saint Bob.
