Why I Believe in Celebrating and Continuing the Reformation

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I am confident that the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation is proof that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church. The gates of Hell have formed in many ways and among them are the Dark Ages. The Roman Catholic institution ruled the world claiming to be the one true Church that Jesus founded on 33 A.D. The Pope was viewed as one who not only succeeded St. Peter's throne but also as one who had authority over kings. To do so and to challenge its false claims meant death. Everywhere where the Roman Catholic institution was dominant made them all colonies of the Vatican. 

Before the Reformation, there were already people who opposed the Vatican's false claims. Some of them were the early Baptists and the more radical Anabaptists and Waldenses. Many opposed Rome openly like Girolamo Savonarola who used a Latin Vulgate Bible to protest against Alexander VI's immoral lifestyle. Jan Hus was another martyr before the Reformation who was burned alive for preaching the Gospel. People who gave copies of the Bible to Roman Catholics were brutally tortured and murdered. Later, the Inquisition was created before the Reformation by the Dominicans. The Roman Catholic institution may claim that they have given the Bible but why did they forbid people from reading it? How can the true Church forbid the people from reading the Bible? What was even worse was that people who gave out copies of the Bible were all murdered in God's name.
John 16:2 - They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

The early Reformers played an important role

What started the Reformation was the rude awakening of Martin Luther. I could remember reading through John F. MacArthur's book "The Gospel According to Jesus" and I read more about Luther. In page 195, I can remember reading the Tower Experience of Martin Luther. He was reading through Romans to prepare a sermon. He spent more time in the confessional than anyone. He saw that nothing could do anything. What was so interesting was that Luther's encounter was a rude awakening. He thought he could reform the Roman Catholic institution. When I was newly saved I thought I could reform it but I was dead wrong.

When facing his trial on 1521, it was amazing to see Luther's famous statement:
Since then your majesty and your lordship desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convinced by Scriptures 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 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 Roman Catholic institution thought it could do everything but the true Church was just expanding. If they couldn't exterminate the pre-Reformation Christians then what made them think they could stop the Reformation? Condemning William Tyndale a Christian for translating the Bible did not stop the Bible from being spread. Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German for the common people. Later, we have John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli and John Knox in the Reformation. Calvin soon got associated with Calvinism which hatched the Reformed Baptist movement, the Puritans and eventually all this gave way to the Authorized Version of 1611 which is alternatively known as the King James Bible. Many hymn writers themselves were also Calvinists such as John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace. 

The challenge of Luther was played many times. Do you remember the 95 Theses and the burning of the indulgences? The five Solas of the Reformation were not invented by the Reformation. The Reformation was not a quest to "restore" the Church from apostasy. Maybe, Luther once thought the church apostasized and he was to restore it. Instead, the Reformation verified the Bible's claims. The five truths that the Reformation declared are (1) Scripture alone to dictate Christian tradition, (2) salvation is by faith alone, (3) salvation is by grace alone, (4) salvation is in Christ alone, and (5) salvation for the glory of God alone. To summarize it is salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone for the glory of God alone. This is not an inventor of Luther but it is biblical to declare that the Scripture dictates the Christian life.

The Reformation further strengthened the challenge against Rome's fake claims. Many Reformers called the Pope as Antichrist and the Papacy is the seat of the Antichrist. You can think of how Reformed Theology shook the Roman Catholic theocracy. To try and defeat it there was the Counter-Reformation. We have Charles Borromeo and Ignatius of Loyola. Loyola himself founded the Jesuit Order which while it appeared to be a gentle group of priests became more deadly than the Dominicans. The Jesuit Order also got famous for the August 24 massacre in Paris. The Jesuits arranged many activities with other governments to counter the Reformation. All of these failed and today one of the biggest ways to continue the Counter-Reformation is through the Evangelicals and Catholics together movement as supported by the Second Vatican Council. The other is to keep the average Roman Catholic today from knowing about the brutal truth of the Inquisition. 

It wasn't only declaring salvation was by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone but also warning about what authentic faith is. What was amazing was that while Luther declared faith alone but he stressed this was a faith that was not alone. He also verified the truth in James 2:14-26 that faith without works is dead. Although he once called James an epistle of straw but he would later recant it after he examined it further. Luther defended the biblical stand that true faith results to good works. He also was an opponent of Antinomianism. Later, Calvin in a debate against Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto further defended that while good works do not save but they verify salvation. The Reformation fought for the truth that while good works do not save but they indeed are inevitable after salvation. It is not a manmade doctrine. If you do not believe me then try reading 1 Corinthians 6:11-14, Ephesiasn 2:8-10 and Titus 2:11-14 to get a head start. 

It wasn't just a misunderstanding, it was a battle for the truth that the Church founded by Jesus on 33 A.D. upheld and that Church is not the Roman Catholic institution

I would never dare say that the Protestant Reformation was just a misunderstanding. It was more than just a misunderstanding. It was a Truth War that had to be fought for the sake of souls. Although this is not a call to physical bloody warfare but a spiritual war for the truth must be fought. Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees was not a mere misunderstanding. The salvation of many was held. The biggest example of Pharisaical hypocrisy today is the Roman Catholic institution. The Pope's seat is not the Chair of St. Peter but symbolically it is the Chair of Caiaphas. The Pope and his Pharisees fit the descriptions that our Lord Jesus gave in Matthew 23. The Pope's Pharisees love salutations in the market places, publicly display their prayers and have a strong stench of hypocrisy.

For one, I have no reason to even accept Pope Francis' "offer of peace" this 500th anniversary. I would not call Roman Catholics as my separated brethren. Rather, they are people that I must reach out with the Gospel. There is no way I can agree with the ongoing devilish doctrines of Rome such as passing through Mary before I can approach Jesus, that salvation must be maintained by my own good works rather than my good works spring out of salvation, a celibate priesthood where 1 Corinthians 7:31-35 are woefully taken out of context, that the Pope is the supreme authority on Earth, and that the sinful priests take part in saving the eternal souls of men - such nonsense not found in the Bible. 

Here's what I can say as the preacher Charles H. Spurgeon declared this truth:
We must have no truce, no treaty with Rome. War! War to the knife with her! Peace there cannot be. She cannot have peace with us - we cannot have peace with her. She hates the true Church and we can only say that the hatred is reciprocated. We would not lay a hand on upon her priests; we would not touch a hair of their heads. Let them be free but their doctrine we would destroy from the face of the Earth as a doctrine of evils. So let it perish O God and let that evil thing become as the fat of lambs. Into smoke let it consume; yea into smoke let it consume away.

Right now, God is still calling His Elect out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4). The more I read that verse, the more I believe that I could not get out of her if God did not call me out of her first. He says, "Come out of her My people." This is already making me believe in the doctrine of Election all the more. John 6:44 says that no man can come unto Jesus except by the power of the Father. The call is still there and when all the Elect are out of her then shall her judgment come.  

The modern-day Reformation is not just against Rome but against everything wrong

The Bible commands in Ephesians 5:11 that Christians should have no fellowship with the workers of darkness but rather to reprove them. The Christian should not focus only on the Vatican but on every evil to speak against. The world right now is in an even bigger mess than before. I see immorality spread out faster than a radiation leak or a forest on fire. The New World Order is just around the corner. While Christians cannot stop the New World Order from forming but they should fight it at a daily basis. The New World Order cannot be completed as long as the Church is around to fight it. 

I believe that the problem is not only Rome but some Evangelical and Baptist churches are held by apostates. They no longer cater to the the Church, the Bride of Christ but are catering to false converts. It upsets me and I could no longer count the number of times that I am excited to meet a Baptist pastor but he turns out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Other incidents also had a Presbyterian pastor who supports homosexual marriages by taking the New Testament out of context and other Evangelicals who are pro-Vatican. If Nero could set up trap door churches and if the Jesuits could set up trap door churches then why am I surprised that there are trap door Evangelical churches? 

There are also the anti-Roman Catholic cults that are merely diet Catholicism than Biblical Christianity. These quack churches claim that the Church supposedly apostasized and they have come to revive it as the last messenger sent from God. I could think of some of them are like the Watchtower Society where members call themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons who also call themselves as Latter Day Saints of the Church of Christ, the cult that calls itself Church of Christ, the Iglesia ni Cristo which is Filipino for Church of Christ and others that are anti-Roman Catholic but they themselves rely on their human authority than the finality of God's Word. 

The Reformation today must still go on in the last church age. This is the age of Laodicea and that is why I think there may not even be a hundred or even fifty years left. The signs of the times are showing like never before. The biggest sign of the times is soulwinning. Matthew 24:14 says that the Gospel will be preached and then the end shall come. Evangelism is happening faster in this day and age that the prophecy will be easily fulfilled.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

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