The Reformation Still Matters Because Biblical Doctrine Taught Centuries Before the Reformation Still Matters

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The Reformation has gone from its 500th year to its 501st year. There is one truth about Church history - you really need to study its important events to show that the gates of Hell can't prevail against the march of the Church! Though the Reformation is only 501 years old today no Christian can deny that there were already pre-Reformation Christians, that the true Church founded by Jesus Christ couldn't be the Roman Catholic institution and that the need for revival is always there. That's what the Reformation is all about - it's one of the many great events of 2000 plus years of the Church's history that boldly proclaims the truth in Jesus' name!

Personally, I don't consider myself a Protestant and I don't agree with everything Martin Luther writes (and the early Reformers did believe Mary didn't have other children besides Jesus) because he's but human. I may be somewhat of a Calvinist now but only when it comes to accepting TULIP while acknowledging John Calvin himself has his shortcomings. Before the Reformation, there were already Christian groups that opposed Rome itself. Some of them are Baptists. Although the Baptists didn't descend from John the Baptist (and that idea is still ridiculously promoted by the Baptist Brider movement) but I don't want to miss out on the real idea that the Reformation indeed still matters for this reason - Biblical doctrine still matters!

The Reformation itself started out with the event when the Roman Catholic institution managed to overshadow the true catholic or universal Church founded by Jesus Christ on 33. A.D. in Jerusalem. The Popes have claimed to be Peter's successors when they weren't. They claimed that they were the true Church founded on 33 A.D. to be holy, catholic, and apostolic yet they were teaching many doctrines that weren't found in the Bible or the history of early Christianity (except it be their revisionist history that they tell their opponents to study as "truth"). The consequences were heavy for its opponents. Many of the early Christians who preceded the Reformation and kept the true apostolic doctrine were executed. Accounts of groups such as the Baptists and Mennonites as well as heroes like Girolamo Savonarola and Jan Hus were executed brutally by the now hushed-up Inquisition which was founded in the 12th century - centuries before the Reformation. The Church never apostatized because the Roman Catholic institution wasn't part of the Body of Christ, to begin with!

The Reformation was a big event for this reason - it severely weakened the Dark Ages! Luther himself had a great shock of discovery in the Tower of the Black Cloister experience. He was soon shocked to find out about the righteousness of God while he read Romans 1. He was seeing all the abuses done in the Roman Catholic institution. It was more of an empire than a church! It brought kings up and dethroned kings. It was a sinister huge empire that declared the priests and sacraments were vital to the salvation of men and to reject them meant to forever burn in Hell. Johannes Tetzel was now promoting the sin of indulgences and the heresy of Purgatory. What Luther soon declared that salvation was not for sale! This event caused thunder yet again! All he had was a Roman Catholic Bible and it was most likely a Latin Vulgate yet he was able to refute Roman Catholicism with a Bible used by the same institution to justify the latter's heresy!

The Reformation also honors other men who were actually executed prior to Luther and during Luther's time. One person was the Christian theologian and Bible translator William Tyndale. He was burned for translating the Bible into English. Luther knew the importance of reading the Bible and decided to translate the Bible from Latin to German. The Reformation also meant standing up for Biblical truth. Luther had his famous quote that says, "Since then your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of Popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.  God help me. Amen."

The important event of the Reformation was this one. It upheld the apostolic doctrines and traditions. Whoever says Sola Scriptura isn't Scriptural or that the apostles "supposedly never carried a Bible with them" need to think twice. By what authority did the apostles appeal to when they wrote the New Testament canon? The Scriptures. To say that Jesus only built a church but never gave a Bible is another heresy. Jesus quoted from the Scriptures and not from the Talmud or any heretical Jewish books. The doctrine of the five Solas which are Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Fide (faith alone), Sola Gracia (grace alone), Sola Christus (in Christ alone) and Sola Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone) are all in the Bible. Unfortunately, the doctrine of the Five Solas is very offensive to fallen man who wants to work their way to Heaven or to do good works as to brag rather than to do good works by God's grace.

The Reformation had also exposed whatever filth that the Roman Catholic institution had. Sadly today, these are considered but "myths" to keep the average Roman Catholic today ignorant. Luther's discovery of all the debauchery in Rome showed that it was anything but the "Holy" See that he imagined it to be. The brutality of the Inquisition (which today Rome lies that she had nothing to do with it or that it supposedly never existed) was so open. It involved brave Christian men and women who weren't afraid to continue speaking up, others came out of hiding and many more came to start a new stage in the history of the Church. The Reformation upheld the very doctrine that came before it namely the doctrine of having the Bible as one's final authority and guidebook of the true apostolic, catholic (universal) and Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ around 2000 years ago!

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