REFORMATION 500 WEEK 5: LUTHER’S 95 THESES

Reformation 500 WEEK 5: Luther’s 95 Theses

     Now that Luther’s soul was finally filled with peace, having been set free from slavery of trying to earn his salvation, he began to see the many abuses in the Church and boldly spoke out against them. The first abuse he addressed was indulgences.

     To understand indulgences, we need to understand the Roman Catholic sacrament of penance. Those who commit a mortal sin and lose the saving grace they received in baptism can be restored to a state of justification through penance. When one confesses his sins to a priest, he receives absolution (pardoning of sins and release from eternal punishment only), after which he must perform works of satisfaction (e.g. prayers, fasting, giving alms, going on a pilgrimage) to remove the temporal punishments of sin and be restored to a state of justification. If the faithful die without satisfying all the temporal penalties of sin, before they can enter heaven they must satisfy those penalties by suffering the purifying fires of purgatory.

     To make penance easier for people, and as a way to raise more money for the Church, the Pope signed letters of indulgences, which the penitent could buy to give himself and his loved ones a shorter stay in purgatory. The granting of indulgences was based on the doctrine of works of supererogation – works done beyond the demands of God’s law – which earned extra-merits and were laid up in heaven. Christ by His perfect holiness had done more than was necessary for the salvation of man. The saints also had added much to this overflowing treasury of merits. By drawing upon this fund in heaven, the Pope, as the treasurer, dispensed indulgences for money.

     Johann Tetzel (1465-1519), a Dominican friar and preacher, was the Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany. He was in the neighborhood of Wittenberg, shamelessly selling indulgences to help raise the equivalent of millions of dollars needed for Pope Leo X’s project to rebuild Rome’s Cathedral of St. Peter. Luther could not be silent. As a preacher, a pastor, and a professor, he felt it to be his duty to protest such abuse, for the people were being deceived for eternity!

     On October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints’ Day (one of the most frequented feasts), Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the bulletin board on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg. Out of love for the truth, he was inviting his students and other professors to debate the virtues of indulgences.

     “The first Thesis strikes the keynote: ‘Our Lord and Master when he says, Repent, desires that the whole life of believers should be a repentance…. Luther distinguishes, in the second Thesis, true repentance from the sacramental penance and understands it to be an internal state…rather than isolated external acts…. [Thesis 62] ‘The true treasury of the church is the holy gospel of the glory and grace of God’” (Schaff, 7:159). “Why doesn’t the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church?'' (Thesis 82).

     No one accepted Luther’s challenge, and no discussion took place. But the Theses, written in Latin, were copied, translated, and spread throughout Germany and Europe in a few weeks. “They had a tremendous and immediate effect. They almost stopped the sale of indulgences” (Kuiper, The Church in History, 165).  Almost.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Martin Luther's 95 Theses

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 5

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts.

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 5: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, QUESTIONS 12-15

Reformation 500 WEEK 5: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 12-15

Question 12: Since, then, by the righteous judgment of God we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how may we escape this punishment and be again received into favor? God wills that His justice be satisfied; therefore, we must make full satisfaction to that justice, either by ourselves or by another.

The only way for sinful man to escape God’s just punishment of sin and be restored to God’s favor is “if satisfaction be made on the part of man by a sufficient punishment for his disobedience,” a punishment which “is equivalent to that which is eternal” [Daniel 9:24; Hebrews 9:12]” (Ursinus).

Question 13: Can we ourselves make this satisfaction? Certainly not; on the contrary, we daily increase our guilt.

We cannot satisfy God’s justice because “we sin continually, and in sinning we increase our guilt and the displeasure of God toward us.” Plus, “our guilt being infinite, deserves an infinite punishment – one that is eternal, or that is equivalent to everlasting punishment…. But we cannot make satisfaction by a punishment that is eternal, because then we would never be freed from it [Psalm 130:3]” (Ursinus).

Question 14: Can any mere creature make satisfaction for us? None; for first, God will not punish any other creature for the sin which man committed; and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin and redeem others from it.

Man sinned; and therefore, man must be punished. It would be unfair if other creatures, whether angels or animals, should be eternally punished for something of which humanity is guilty (Heb. 2:14-18; 10:4). Furthermore, no creature, not even a sinless creature, could endure and survive the heavy weight of God’s wrath against sin. “God is a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24). If the creature being punished in our place cannot survive the punishment, then how can that creature deliver us from the punishment?

Question 15: What kind of mediator and redeemer then must we seek? One who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.

The only substitute capable of fully satisfying God’s justice for us, is one who must be a perfect man and yet more than a mere man. He must be God also. Our substitute must be a person who is both God and man, so that he may truly be a middle person, and mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5); one who will bring it to pass that God loves men, and men love God, so that an eternal peace or agreement is established between them (Isaiah 54:10). As we will see, Jesus Christ the God-Man has offered the all-pleasing sacrifice to fully satisfy God’s justice.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Heidelberg Catechism QAs 12-15

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 5

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 4: MARTIN LUTHER’S CONVERSION

Reformation 500 WEEK 4: Martin Luther’s Conversion

     Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born at Eisleben, Germany, and grew up a pious catholic in a world whose headlines featured such monumental people as Columbus, Cortez, Machiavelli (1469-1527), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Copernicus (1473-1543).

     In 1505 Luther was shocked by the sudden death of his friend, who was killed in a duel, or struck dead by lightning at Luther’s side. Shortly afterward, he was overtaken by a violent thunderstorm near Erfurt, and was so frightened that he fell to the earth and cried out, “Help, beloved Saint Anna! I will become a monk.” He became a monk, in spite of the bitter grief and anger of his father.

     At the monastery at Erfurt, Luther “took the monk’s habit in 1506 during a ceremony which culminated in Luther’s prostrating himself before the abbot. Ironically this was over the very slab that covered the grave of a principal accuser of reformer John Huss” (Stephen Nichols, Martin Luther, p.28).

     In the monastery, Luther “lived a life of strict asceticism. With all his might he tried to earn salvation by his good works. He cheerfully performed the humblest tasks. He prayed and fasted and chastised himself even beyond the strictest monastic rules. He wasted away until he looked like a skeleton.... He was oppressed with a terrible sense of his utter sinfulness and lost condition, and this cast him into the deepest gloom of black despair. No matter how hard he tried, never, it seemed to him, had he done enough to earn salvation” (Kuiper, The Church in History, 162). 

     On May 2, 1507, Luther was ordained to the priesthood, and said his first mass. “He was so overwhelmed by the solemnity of offering the tremendous sacrifice for the living and the dead that he nearly fainted at the altar” (Schaff, 7:125).

     In 1510, Johann Von Staupitz, Luther’s spiritual father, sent Luther to Rome, hoping that the Holy City would help him make his peace with God. Luther “ascended on bended knees the twenty-eight steps of the famous Scala Santa (said to have been transported from the Judgment Hall of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem), that he might secure the indulgence attached to this ascetic performance since the days of Pope Leo IV. in 850, but at every step the word of the Scripture sounded as a significant protest in his ear: ‘The just shall live by faith’ (Rom. 1:17)” (Schaff, 7:129).

     After he returned from Rome to Germany, Staupitz sent Luther to study and teach at the university of Wittenberg (in Saxony). “He pondered night and day over the meaning of ‘the righteousness of God’ (Rom. 1:17), and thought that it is the righteous punishment of sinners,” but he finally realized “that it is the righteousness which God freely gives in Christ to those who believe in Him” (Schaff, 7:122). The sinner is justified by faith alone, without works of law (Romans 3:28). Good works are not the cause of salvation but the fruit of salvation. “Here I felt,” he said, “that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.”

     Luther finally had peace as he realized that salvation was earned on his behalf by Jesus Christ and therefore cannot be earned through good works, penance, or indulgences.                   “Now,… where did I put my pen.”

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Martin Luther's Conversion

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 4: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, QUESTIONS 9-11

Reformation 500 WEEK 4: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 9-11

Question 9: Does not God, then, do injustice to man by requiring of him in His law that which he cannot perform? No, for God so made man that he could perform it; but man, through the instigation of the devil, by willful disobedience deprived himself and all his descendants of this power [to obey perfectly].

God is not unjust to continue to require fallen man to obey Him perfectly, because God created our first parents with the ability to obey Him perfectly. But they lost this ability for themselves and also for their posterity: “in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22). If a prince were to give a nobleman a piece of property and he were to rebel against him, he would lose the property not only for himself but for his posterity also; and the prince would do no injustice to the nobleman’s children by not restoring to them what was lost by the rebellion of their father. God’s demand for perfect obedience should make us admit and be sorry about our inability and seek His salvation in Christ (Rom. 3:19-26).

Question 10: Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy [falling away from the truth] to go unpunished? Certainly not, but He is terribly displeased with our inborn as well as our actual sins and will punish them in just judgment in time and eternity, as He has declared: ‘Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them’ [Deut. 27:26 in Gal. 3:10].

Our inborn sin (original sin) is our sinful nature which we inherited from Adam through our parents; and is the root cause of our actual sins – sinful thoughts, words, and deeds: “out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,” etc. (Mark 7:21). Every sin is a violation of God’s law; and, therefore, according to God’s justice, deserves eternal punishment and banishment from God (Gen. 2:17; Gal. 3:10). God’s punishment of sin begins in this life (Rom. 1:18). It includes all the miseries of this life, together with death itself. The small punishments of this life are warnings to the unrepentant that a greater and more complete punishment is still to come (Luke 13:5). As for the righteous, though they suffer many of the same things the wicked suffer, the afflictions of the righteous are not to be regarded as punishments; but they are merely the chastisement of a loving father (Heb. 12:6).

Question 11: But is not God also merciful? God is indeed merciful, but He is likewise just; His justice therefore requires that sin which is committed against the Most High majesty of God, be punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of both body and soul.

God is exceedingly merciful, but he will not exercise his mercy in a way that does violence to his justice. A crime committed against God, who is infinitely good, demands infinite “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46). And when God does execute his justice, “he does not delight in the destruction of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11); and has also shown his mercy and compassion toward us, by laying the punishment which we deserve upon his own Son” (Ursinus). Next week we begin to see how we escape the just punishment of our sin.  

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Heidelberg QAs 9-11

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 3: THE NEED FOR REFORMATION

Reformation 500 WEEK 3: The Need for Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a reformation of the Western Roman Catholic Church, not the Eastern Orthodox Church (the Western and Eastern Churches have been divided since the year 1054).

The Reformers were all born, baptized, confirmed, and educated in the Roman Catholic Church, and most of them had served as priests at her altars with the solemn vow of obedience to the pope on their conscience (Schaff, History, 7:13).

                “At the beginning of the sixteenth century everyone that mattered in the Western Church was crying out for reformation” (Chadwick, The Reformation, 11).

The Roman Catholic Church desperately needed reform. Tradition had replaced Scripture as the church’s supreme authority; and the church’s leadership was corrupt. “The papacy was secularized [more interested in Renaissance than religion], and changed into a selfish tyranny [seen especially in the crusades] whose yoke became more and more unbearable. The scandal of the papal schism had indeed been removed, but papal morals…became worse than ever during the years 1492-1521.” The writings of contemporary scholars “are full of complaints and exposures of the ignorance, vulgarity and immorality of priest and monks. Simony [the practice of buying and selling ecclesiastical positions] and nepotism were shamefully practiced. Celibacy was a foul fountain of un-chastity and uncleanness [the popes had their own prostitutes and some flaunted their illegitimate children] …. Whole monastic establishments and orders had become nurseries of ignorance and superstition, idleness and dissipation…. Education was confined to priests and nobles. The mass of the laity could neither read nor write, and had no access to the word of God except the Scripture lessons from the pulpit [which taught that salvation is communicated through the priesthood]. The priest’s chief duty was to perform, by his magic words, the miracle of transubstantiation [the Latin phrase Hoc est meum corpum, “This is my body,” was used as a magic formula and shortened to “Hocus Pocus”], and to offer the sacrifice of the mass for the living and the dead in a foreign tongue (Latin)…. Saint-worship and image worship, superstitious rites and ceremonies obstructed the direct worship of God in spirit and in truth. Piety which should proceed from a living union of the soul with Christ and a consecration of character, was turned outward and reduced to a round of mechanical performances such as the recital of Paternosters and Ave-Marias, fastings, almsgiving, confession to a priest, and pilgrimage to a holy shrine [part of doing penance]. Good works were measured by the quantity rather than the quality, and polluted by the principle of meritorious-ness which appealed to the selfish motive of reward. Remission of sin could be bought with money; a shameful traffic in indulgences (the selling of forgiveness to remove the temporal penalties of sin especially those suffered in purgatory] was carried on under the Pope’s sanction for filthy lucre as well as for the building of St. Peter’s Dome” (Schaff, 8-10).

The most famous peddler of indulgences, Tetzel, unashamedly claimed, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”

Enter Martin Luther. “Erasmus says that when Luther published his Theses [against indulgences] all the world applauded him” (Schaff, 7:98). 

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Heidelberg QAs 6-8

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world. 

Reformation 500 WEEK 3: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 6-8

Question 6: Did God create man thus wicked and perverse? No, but God created man good and after His own image, that is, in righteousness and true holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him.

Question 5 told us that mankind has a natural tendency to hate God and neighbor. Question 6 tells us that God did not create man in this sinful condition. Rather, on the sixth day of creation, God created man good, without any sin at all. “Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God created man’s body out of the dust of the ground [Adam means ground]. “And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). “God created man in His own image… male and female” (Gen. 1:27). Mankind is as much like God as a creature can be – which makes man different from animals and angels. We were created with a mind to rightly know God (John 17:3), affections to heartily love God (1 Peter 1:8), and a will to praise and glorify God in “righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24) – to imitate God in all of life (Eph. 5:1), to work six days for His glory and to rest one day for His glory just like He did (Exodus 20:8-11).

Question 7: From where, then, does this depraved nature of man come? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise, whereby our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.

Though God created Adam and Eve good, He created them changeably good, which means they could fall from goodness if they disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the forbidden tree (Gen. 2:16-17). By their fall and disobedience, they separated themselves from God, who was their true life, having corrupted their whole nature. This corruption of the whole nature [original sin] is a hereditary disease which extends to all mankind. We are all conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12).

Question 8: But are we so depraved that we are completely incapable of any good and prone to all evil? Yes, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.

The corruption of our whole nature is totally depraved, completely incapable of any good in the eyes of God. “There is none who does good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:12); “every intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5; cf. Jeremiah 17:9; Eph. 2:1). Fallen man is still made in God’s image. A shattered mirror is still a mirror: a corrupt and distorted image is still an image. Fallen man still has a mind, affections, and a will; but his mind is darkened, his affections hate God and his neighbor, and his will is not free to obey God but is “a slave of sin” (Rom. 3:22); he can give money to the poor, but not of love for God (1 Cor. 13:3). Only God can cause us to be born again (regenerated), making us spiritually alive, so that our eyes are open to believe the truth, our hearts are clean to love the truth, and our wills are set free to practice the truth (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26-27). 

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Heidelberg QAs 6-8

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world. 

The PLAN of Reformation 500 Year Celebration Blog

Reformation 500: 

This year we join the reformed family of churches throughout the world in celebrating the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which began on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses Against Indulgences to the bulletin board on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg, Germany.This was the beginning of the church’s return to the Bible as the supreme authority and its gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

“Most of the economic, political and personal freedom and prosperity that people enjoy today is rooted in the Reformation. Before it, people were enslaved to an all-powerful Church with a false teaching about salvation, and were at the mercy of government that ruled mostly according to the laws of men than of God. The basic biblical principles were: 1) The primary authority of God’s word in the Bible, 2) Justification of sinners only through faith in Christ, and 3) The priesthood of all believers no matter what their office or occupation in this world” (Rev. Robert Grossmann, The Protestant Reformation and World History).

The Reformation spread through Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden; and eventually led to the founding of the United States of America – which at first was 98% Protestant.

Our goal is to celebrate the Reformation all year. Each Sunday’s bulletin insert will focus on the main history of the Reformation, and on one of its best creeds: The Heidelberg Catechism. We will also be using the Catechism for our public confession of faith. The 129 Questions and Answers are divided into 52 portions, one for each of the 52 Sundays of the year. 

We subscribe to three reformed creeds: The Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort. A free copy of our book of confessions is available upon request.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 2: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 3-5

Reformation 500 WEEK 2: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 3-5

Based on how the book of Romans is divided, the Heidelberg Catechism is divided into three major sections: (1) SIN (Questions 3-11); SALVATION (Questions 12-85), and SERVICE (Questions 86-129). Today we begin the first main section.

Question 3: From where do you know your misery? From the law of God.

The Bible defines sin as “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Therefore, the law of God (summarized in the Ten Commandments) reveals to us the knowledge that we are sinners: “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet” (Romans 7:7). “The Law speaks first to our hearts, and demands purity of love and obedience there; for without a pure heart that seeks only God’s glory, neither our words nor our actions will be pure” (Jones, Study Helps).

Question 4: What does the law of God require of us? Christ teaches us in sum, Matthew 22: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Question 4 quotes from Matthew 22:37-40, where Jesus Himself quotes from the Old Testament. The command to love the Lord with all your heart is taken from Deuteronomy 6:5; and the command to love your neighbor is taken from Leviticus 19:8. The phrase law and prophets is another way of referring to the entire OT. The entire OT hangs on these two commands: love God and love your neighbor. Everything God commands has to do with either loving Him or loving our neighbor.

Question 5: Can you keep all this perfectly? No, for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor.

The law demands whole-hearted love to God and to our neighbor, but we are prone – we have a natural tendency – to hate God and our neighbor; “the fleshly mind is enmity [hostile] against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). We show our hatred of God by disobeying or disregarding His law – which is also written in our conscience (Romans 2:14-15), leaving us no excuse for our disobedience. We do not love our neighbor as our self. We naturally hate our neighbor. Prior to salvation, we live “in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Our hatred does not always openly show itself, but it is still there. “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart” (Psalm 55:21). We lie to ourselves, thinking we are not a bad person. But the Bible tells us the truth: we cannot keep God’s law perfectly because by nature we are prone to hate God and our neighbor. This truth is designed to make us see our disease and our need for the Great Physician, who came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17).

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert: Heidelberg Catechism QAs 3-5
   

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation and praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.  

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 2: JOHN HUSS (1369-1415)

Reformation 500 WEEK 2: John Huss (1369-1415)

     The views of John Wycliffe quickly traveled beyond England, crisscrossing Europe. Around 1400 his ideas began to take root in Bohemia (a region now known as the Czech Republic), where Wycliffe was called the fifth evangelist. 

     Roman Catholic bishops in Bohemia banned Wycliffe’s writings. But John Huss (Jan Hus), a brilliant Bohemian professor and priest, had already embraced Wycliffe’s ideas and was regarded as their chief defender. Through his preaching, Huss won almost the whole of Bohemia to his views.

     Huss taught many ideas which later became the main teachings of the Reformers. He taught that the Holy Catholic (Universal) Church is the total number of the predestined; and Christ alone is the Head of the universal Church. He taught that one could be in the visible Church and yet not be a real member of it. Huss denied the sacerdotal power of the priesthood to open and shut the kingdom of heaven. The Church can exist without cardinals and a pope, and in fact for hundreds of years there were no cardinals; and before emperor Constantine, there was no pope. Through ignorance and the love of money the pope may err, and has erred. Therefore, the people should obey the church only when the church agreed with the Bible.

     This was the time of the Great Schism, when there were two popes, John XXIII in Avignon, and Gregory XII in Rome. Pope John promised indulgences to all who would come to his aid against the king of Naples who was the protector of Pope Gregory. When Huss condemned the selling of indulgences, Pope John excommunicated him. Huss declared his excommunication null and void.

     In 1415, an imperial herald asked Huss to defend himself at a church council (hoping to end the Schism) in the German city of Constance. The Holy Roman Emperor (Sigismund) promised to protect Huss on the way to and from the council. Huss accepted his offer, but a few weeks later he was put into prison by Pope John, who applied canon law that heretics have no rights; so, it is okay to deceive them.

     Huss was left to languish in prison for more than eight months. Still, he refused to retract his teachings, saying, “I appeal to Jesus Christ, since He will not base His judgment on false witnesses and erring councils but on truth and justice.”

     Then, without being given an opportunity to defend himself, he was brought from the dungeon to the cathedral in Constance. There, on July 6, 1415, his birthday, in the presence of the bishops and the emperor he was stripped of every article of priestly attire with curses. The cardinals drew demons on a paper hat and jammed it on Huss’ head. Huss was led forth from the cathedral to a place before one of the city’s gates. As soldiers tied him to a pole and prepared to burn him alive, Huss prayed: “Lord Jesus, please, have mercy on my enemies.” He died singing psalms.

     In addition to burning Huss, the Council ordered that the writings of Wycliffe should be burned and that his body should be dug up and burned.  A crusade was organized against the followers of Huss, and for many years Bohemia was ravaged by war. But the spirit of reform lived on, and when the Reformation began in Germany, opposition to the Roman Church was still strong.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:    Reformation 500 John Huss

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation and praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world. 

Reformation 500 Week 1: Heidelberg Catechism, Questions 1-2

Reformation 500 Week 1: Heidelberg Catechism, Questions 1-2

The Heidelberg Catechism, published in 1563, was the work of two men, Zacharias Ursinus (a seminary professor) and Casper Olevianus (a minister) who lived in Heidelberg, Germany. They were asked by Frederick III, a ruler of a German state called the Palatinate, to prepare a catechism “to help the churches in his land to be Reformed in their doctrine rather than Roman Catholic or Lutheran or Baptist” (Rev. Norman Jones, Study Helps on the Heidelberg Catechism). Frederick “wanted a book that showed the heart of the gospel to men, women, boys, and girls who needed the comfort that only God can give” (William Boekestein, The Quest for Comfort: The Story of the Heidelberg Catechism).

Question 1: “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him.”

The catechism begins with the clear and simple testimony of a pardoned soul: the only comfort in life and in death is belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who loves us so much that He shed His blood for us on the cross. He fully paid for all our sins, so that we are forgiven of all our sins, and adopted into God’s family as His beloved children. The Holy Spirit lives in us to assure us that we are God’s children (Romans 8:15), and that “nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39); “whether we live, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8). The Holy Spirit also makes us willing to live for Him who died for us (2 Corinthians 5:15). 

Question 2: “How many things are necessary for you to know, that in this comfort you may live and die happily? Three things: First, the greatness of my sin and misery. Second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery. Third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption.”

Based on the three main sections of the book of Romans, Question 2 gives the three main things every true Christian knows: (1) the greatness of their sin and misery; (2) how they have been saved from their sin and misery; and (3) how to show themselves thankful to God for salvation. Every Christian knows sin, salvation, and service – in that order. Sin, like a terrible disease, makes us seek the Physician’s remedy of salvation; which produces a life of thankful service.

The rest of the Catechism will explain these 3 things:

·         sin (Questions 3-11)

·         salvation (Questions 12-85)

·         service (Questions 86-129)

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:   Heidelberg Catechism 1-2

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 1: JOHN WYCLIFFE

Reformation 500 Week 1: John Wycliffe

This year we join the reformed family of churches throughout the world in celebrating the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which began on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses Against Indulgences to the bulletin board on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. This was the beginning of the church’s return to the Bible and its gospel of salvation by grace alone.

Preparation for Reformation

Martin Luther was not the church’s first reformer. In the latter part of the Middle Ages there arose many individuals who criticized the doctrine and government of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most important was John Wycliffe (1320-1384).

Wycliffe was born in England in the year 1320. He studied at the university of Oxford, and later became professor in that institution. Wycliffe believed the plague known as the Black Death was the judgment of God on a faithless people and a corrupt church. He charged his audience to turn back to the Bible and to God in repentance. Catholic doctrine taught that the teachings of the church were equal to the Bible, but Wycliffe insisted that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is the only infallible authority; and, therefore, it is superior to the Church, its hierarchy, and its traditions.

Wycliffe taught that individuals need to establish a direct and personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. No priest or pope could serve as a mediator between God and man. Wycliffe denounced the worship of images, relics, the sale of indulgences, masses for the dead, processions, and pilgrimages. Wycliffe also denounced the Pope as Antichrist; and he condemned the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, the belief that at the Lord’s Supper the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus.

The Bible at that time was written in Latin and could not be read by the people. In order that Christians in England might be able to read the Bible for themselves, Wycliffe translated it into the English language. He was the first to translate the Bible in the language of the people. Since few people could read, Wycliffe tackled this obstacle through a massive literacy campaign to teach people to read God’s word without the need of the clergy. Wycliffe’s followers called the “Lollards” carried his teaching and the newly translated Bible into many parts of England.

The pope and the clergy “did all they could to destroy Wycliffe. But a large portion of the English people and among them many powerful nobles were in hearty sympathy with the reformer. These nobles protected him so that he did not fall into the hands of his persecutors. Wycliffe died in peace on the last day of the year 1384” (Kuiper, The Church in History, 144).  

Because of his influence, Wycliffe helped to prepare the way for the Reformation, and for this reason has been called the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”



NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Wycliffe 

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.