A Survey Of Post-Reformation Church History (part 1)

Well, we'll be starting a two -part series this morning on church history the history of the church since

Really the Reformation forward a lot of us have maybe you've heard a lot of these names.

Maybe you've heard of the Reformation before.

But it's all a blur to you.

You know Martin Luther and that's about it.

Or maybe you know a little bit more.

Like some of you have taken courses and done some reading.

Hopefully today what we'll do is we'll give you a good overview of the Reformation Due to time constraints unless you

want to stay Through the morning service, which I don't think is going to happen.

We have to go move quickly Really through the major reformers from Martin Luther to the English Reformation.

So I'll open us in prayer.

If you didn't get a handout, by the way, there's handouts on the table and we'll We'll just work through the handout this morning.

Let's let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning Heavenly Father.

Thank you for our time together this morning Lord.

Thank you that we we do get to study the men and The issues of

the Reformation this morning and Lord.

I I do.

Thank you that it shows us Your providential care of your church throughout the ages.

Lord, thank you that you move the church from a dark period into your light Through the study of your word and the preaching of your

word.

I pray this morning that as we go over this would be edified by it and Lord that we would perhaps be better informed

to live for you today, and I do pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Okay, if you take your hand out the first verse I have up there is From

Romans 1 16 and 17.

And it reads for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

Many of you have memorized this for I am not ashamed of the gospel for is the power of God for salvation to everyone who

believes.

First to the Jew and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

But the righteous man shall live by faith this is the verse that God

used to awaken Martin Luther the Lightning rod if you will of the Reformation.

Martin Luther Was is the first person we'll go over today, but first what I want to do is go over some

background precursors if you will to the Reformation.

And what had happened pretty folks some of you were here a month or two ago and pretty did the history

from The death of Christ of the church the death of Christ up until this period

now.

Just by way of review.

I won't ask you to give those back to me, but doctrinal and moral corruption of the church

the the moral corruption basically your Popes were nothing more than Renaissance

princes they had become patrons of the arts they had become

Political figures and they had moved away from being the spiritual leader that the original Apostles and

a lot of the early Popes were you think of.

Some of the great church fathers you think of men like Athanasius and the Arian heresy and how they battled heresy and they were

true spiritual leaders true men of the Word of God true men of character.

But what happened in the Middle Ages is you started to move away from that?

And it became political and actually some of the Popes were quite corrupt.

He'd be shocked at some of the things that some of the Popes had done.

Throwing parties that we'd be ashamed to discuss in polite company at the at the actual

headquarters in Rome.

Also the doctrinal corruption you probably some of you are aware.

I went looking for a book by Lorraine Bettner some of you familiar with it's called Roman Catholicism in that

I couldn't find it in that he gives a list of all the doctrines in the years that they became

Doctrines things like celibacy of priests things like praying to the Saints worship of Mary

use of relics.

Or these are things that people believed were bones of Saints or little portions of hair

or clothing.

That they would use they felt had spiritual power.

Of course the doctrines of purgatory and other things you can each date these hundreds and hundreds of years.

After the New Testament that the church decided by their own tradition.

That we would add and this now becomes a part of belief so that by the end of the Reformation which ended up with Was

a works righteousness in the Catholic Church.

I think pretty did a great job of discussing that several weeks ago.

And I was a several historical developments that were key in getting ready for the Reformation.

One of them I've mentioned the medieval Roman Catholic Church when I when I do RC that's Roman Catholic or RCC.

That's Roman Catholic Church if you see that in the notes Economy of space and so

what you had one thing and this is in light of today's current events.

Should strike home in Constantinople fell in 1453.

And it might not ring any bells with you, but what happened there?

You had pretty much all of the Greek manuscripts and a lot of the ancient manuscripts were kept in modern -day

Turkey in a place called Constantinople also known as

Constantinople what's that Istanbul today, but it went from Forget the name it

changed from Constantinople.

I believe a Byzantium.

Yes.

And so those manuscripts especially the New Testament manuscripts from there known as the Byzantine Byzantine manuscripts,

but what happened that the Muslims Conquered in 1453 Constantinople

all of these scholars what they did was they took all their manuscripts from Aristotle Plato New Testament

you name it all these works of antiquity in Greek and and they they came to

Europe with them and so this is one of the things along with the next item there Guttensberg

printing press in 1455 I mean these are almost at the same exact time.

That you had an explosion of learning you had really what we call the Renaissance and what the Renaissance was

the Renaissance was a Increase in learning not only in learning of biblical

manuscripts and so forth in the biblical text in a return to the text, but also of a lot of these works

of Ancient philosophy and history and so forth.

So this is very key in getting people aware of of these sources

and allowing them to go back and And just explore the roots of a lot of what they believed

and it was quite eye -opening.

That is said the printing press allowed people to Instead of handwriting all these Manuscripts or

if you want to attract you'd have to handwrite every one you can now print it and it was you could disseminate anything

Widely, but that this was not available before.

Very very important development there a lot of political upheavals a rise of nationalism.

Explorers you think of Columbus was 1492.

This was just prior to 1500 all of these events and they were very very important.

They're also in addition to these historical developments or a key early reformers that I want to bring to your attention

one is John Wycliffe.

He died in the 1300s.

He lived and died in the 1300s.

Died of a natural death the Roman Catholic Church decided years later when they

Had John Huss of the Hussites.

They had martyred him and later William Tyndale when they martyred Jan Huss

Leader of the Hussites, they also excavated Wycliffe's bones and Burned them.

So it wasn't enough to burn a live guy.

They had to excavate the bones of somebody they hated and burn his bones as well so they were really

committed to squelching any kind of Reformation or any kind of reform or Anything that would challenge their

authority the Roman Catholic Church.

You had William Tyndale is very important.

He had translated the New Testament for the first time into English.

Now, this wasn't from the original sources.

This was from England.

I'm actually from the Latin Vulgate.

The entire Bible into English for the first time some people had done portions or the Psalms or other things.

It's the first time Tyndale is very important figure and his followers are known as the Lollards.

You see right there and they continued throughout Europe this all is happening in Europe, by the way, just to give you a

sort of a geographical orientation the Waldenses Followers of Peter Waldo

also a European leader more evangelical than the Catholic Church at the time and They

were early reformers.

Finally biblical and classical learning as I mentioned earlier just a little bit more on that that term there add font

s you see there.

That's a Latin term.

What that means you think of font s sounds like fountain font.

It means back to the sources and this was the the cry of the Reformation whether you were a secular scholar.

A humanist or whether you were a Christian the goal was to get go back to the sources

go back to the original Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament particularly in a Christian

arena so that you could find out Is this what the Bible really says.

Is our translation reliable and are the practices of our church?

Consistent with what I'm seeing here in Scripture very very important are the early Bible translations I've just mentioned and

finally in Erasmus is Greek New Testament in 1516 Erasmus was a Dutch humanist

the illegitimate son of a Roman Catholic priest and I believe his

first name was Dead or desirous to read desirous.

That's what it was desirous Erasmus Dutch and he Translated the whole Greek

New Testament for the first time with a printing press.

They were able to print these and scholars were finally able to study them.

And that's exactly what Martin Luther and if you go down your list there of major reformers all of those major reformers had

access to their own Greek New Testament, thanks to Erasmus very important

figure in the Reformation.

Well, let's discuss the major reformers any questions on that in the early Reformation precursors.

John hard to say.

Probably he was the one in fact who Martin Luther when he wrote his bondage of the will he was writing in response to Erasmus.

So if I would say probably he was not a believer, but God used him.

And that's another big lesson from church history is God uses people Who aren't necessarily believers?

He did through the whole you scribes who probably weren't even believers to preserve the manuscripts.

And preserve the original text through all of ancient time so very important to know.

You know that even God uses unbelievers.

I would say Erasmus was probably not okay.

Let's move to Martin Luther.

Martin Luther was born in 1483 and He was a German monk.

What happened was a great scene where he's caught he's studying to be a lawyer his dad wanted to be A lawyer, I'm sure we can relate to that a

lot of us.

Who've spent more time doing ministry things and our parents would rather have us be rich and famous and powerful.

But you know he At this time that's what his dad wanted he wanted to be a lawyer.

He had secular goals for him.

Well Martin Luther was caught in a thunderstorm a violent thunderstorm, and he prayed

to st. Anne he said st. Anne deliver me help me and I'll become a monk.

Well st. Anne didn't deliver him, but God did and he did become a monk.

It's exactly what happened and he he studied and he became a

Initiate to become a monk at that time you you withdrew from society and you went into these

monasteries.

That's exactly what he didn't and Luther was scrupulous.

He was incredibly Zealous to do the things you're supposed to do the good works.

You were supposed to do and Pretty much like Paul said you know he was a Pharisee of Pharisees if anybody was a better Jew than Paul.

You know show him to me that was his attitude in Philippians right well here.

That was the same thing with Martin Luther.

Basically nobody was a better monk than Martin Luther, but still he was convicted of his own sin he knew

down deep.

That he could not measure up, and he viewed God as as vengeful and Hateful and spiteful,

and he couldn't get over that at first and so what he would do you see this name there Stout pits.

That was the man who Luther confessed to that was what we call a confessor.

And he would spend I'm sure you've heard pastor and others say six hours at a time.

Confessing he would go walk away remember.

Oh, I forgot this one come back and confess for another half hour an hour.

Completely drove him crazy.

I would stop it said he said well bring something that really is worth confessing.

Martin don't obsess over these little things.

Well.

He also is the one who assigned Martin to become University of Wittenberg Bible teacher.

And that was key because what he was able to do then to teach books like Galatians and Romans.

He had to get into and study and meditate on the actual text the Greek text of Scripture and on the

Bible and what that led To was his awakening and he came across this verse, but the righteous man shall live

by faith and what that prompted in Luther was a What we call?

Being born again, or he was regenerated because he understood at that point that a justification by faith.

And if we look at Martin Luther his main contribution to the Reformation is that he recovered Biblical

theology and the understanding.

Well, he was converted and continued to teach at the University of Wittenberg and

There was a man named Tetzel a lot of you've heard of Tetzel.

Tetzel was a basically a salesman of Indulgences for the Roman Catholic Church.

And let me give you a quick view of what what indulgences were.

Indulgences were.

The selling of the merits of the Saints for people on earth and people who'd already died.

To shorten or get you out of purgatory.

We say well, what are the merits of the Saints.

Well these were?

People like the Apostles like the Saints that had been canonized.

They had gotten enough righteousness for themselves again.

This according Roman Catholic doctrine.

So they had extra to give to everybody else and all this extra good stuff.

And good works was put in what's called the Treasury of Merit.

So if you have let's say I'm good enough I have my Treasury of Merit is maxed out it goes into the

bank account in Rome.

I Will loan it to somebody else.

So that's exactly what indulgences were where the church was officially selling to you these extra good works.

So that you could either get to heaven earlier or not spend any time in purgatory.

Which is the Roman Catholic doctrine of punishment after death between death and heaven to work off these bad

things.

You did well Tetzel was a seller of indulgences, and

I'm just I'm sure you've all heard the the phrase the minute.

The coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory Springs.

Well.

This is Martin Luther's here I stand any if you want to learn about the Reformation read this book.

It's really really good, and it gives in here.

He gives I'll just briefly read a passage to you.

This is actually Tetzel sermon and let me let me give you the context of that coin in the coffer phrase.

Imagine having this preached to you and.

By the way before I read this the reason they were selling these indulgences so aggressively is That they wanted to

build st. Peter's Basilica in Rome if any of you have been to st. Peter's Basilica beautiful beautiful structure.

But it was it's kind of like the lottery.

You know it was built on the backs of the poor people who wanted to get their loved ones out of out of purgatory.

Let me read this this passage.

This is Tetzel's actual sermon.

Listen now God and st. Peter call you consider the salvation of your souls and those of your loved ones departed.

You priest you noble you merchant you virgin you matron you youth you old man.

Enter now into your church, which is the church of st. Peter visit the most holy cross erected before you and ever

imploring you.

Have you considered that you are lashed in a furious tempest amidst the temptations and dangers of the world and that you

do not know?

Whether you can reach the haven not of your mortal body, but of your immortal soul.

Consider that all who are contrite and have confessed and have made Contribution will receive complete remission

of all their sins.

Listen to the voices of your dear dead relatives and beseeching you and saying Pity us pity

us.

We are in dire torment from which you can redeem us for a pittance.

Do you not wish to?

Open your ears hear the father saying to his son and a mother to her daughter.

We bore you nourished you brought you up talk about a guilt trip, huh?

Left you our fortunes and you are so cruel and hard.

That now you are not willing for so little to set us free.

You let us lie here in flames.

Will you delay our promised glory?

Remember that you are able to release them for as soon as the coin in the coffer rings the

soul from purgatory Springs.

Will you not then for a quarter?

Receive these letters of indulgence through which you are able to lead a divine and immortal soul into the fatherland of

paradise.

What a great salesman.

Come on.

Excuse pastor Mike's phrase.

Come on.

Would you after that guilt trip?

How could you not give something?

And so this is what Tetzel was doing and in fact he due to Frederick the wise I

mean it breaks my heart to read that even because.

You know people are believing that they're actually helping when it's doing no good and it's just getting money to build a great

structure.

Well, he was preaching this and Martin Luther was incensed right understandably so and

He was.

Tetzel wasn't actually allowed to go to Wittenberg because there was other people there but he was across the border.

It's kind of like when people go to buy law.

You know whatever tickets in Rhode Island here people go to Rhode Island buying these super jackpot tickets.

He had to go across the border.

Well, you had to go outside of Wittenberg, but still Luther knew of him and he was preaching against him and What

he wrote was his 95 theses you see there, October 31st Halloween or all

Hallows Eve all Saints Day Eve 1517 very important date and a

lot of what he wrote in these 95 theses these are 95 points for debate is really what they were and he

nailed him to the church door at Wittenberg and At that point the die was cast the Reformation was

begun and Because the reaction to the theses were swift

because his followers copied them and sent them all over the place.

So the people had these writings and and they started to question.

Wait a minute.

This is not right.

He talked about things like repentance.

Repentance does anybody know what repentance was and still is today in a Catholic Church?

Do penance that's exactly right.

It's it's a the Latin was mistranslated when Jesus and John the Baptist said repent.

It was translated to repentance.

And so what you do and you do it today.

I did it as a young child in Catholic Church.

You would go to confession.

You would be given these prayers to say as your punishment.

Imagine saying prayers as punishment, but you would have to do your our father and your Hail Mary's and all these other

things as punishment and so.

That was.

One of the things that Luther said was no, it means a change of mind and heart.

This is what repentance truly is biblically because he studied the word and he knew that that's really what it meant.

Well, you had the diet of worms.

There is the next thing on the on the outline that refers to a diet.

Worms was a place.

It was not worms.

It was place in Germany and a diet was called by the Pope in order to debate or in

order to Take up an issue formally and Luther was called there and here's where he issues is famous.

That they said repent recant of your statements Martin Luther.

And he said unless I am convinced by the Word of God and consciousness.

I Cannot repent here.

I stand I can do no other and that's the name of his biography here by Roland Bainton is here I stand

and that's where that comes from.

And so he did not repent.

He had the support of Frederick the wise one of his one of the folks in Germany

at that time who was Was a civic leader and he was able to be preserved and and

really these church and state.

The state actually helped the church survive at that time.

It was a very important part of allowing the Reformation to Continue without being

attacked directly by the Roman Catholic Church and everybody like Tyndale and Wycliffe burned and taken away.

But that didn't always happen as we'll see with the English Reformation later Philip Melanchthon

was an important helper.

He was sort of Luther's right -hand man and he took over the Lutheran movement after

after Luther Frederick the wise is there again?

He's the patron.

He was the person who protected Luther and at first he was reluctant to do so.

But eventually he he understood what was at stake and he supported Luther fully and was very key in

getting the Reformation in Germany.

Not only started but also preserving and keeping it going.

His key contributions of Martin Luther again, I wish we had time to spend a whole day on Luther, but

Let's let's just quickly move through these his 95 theses.

You should know that that's something fundamental to any Protestant.

That's really what started the Reformation a Bible translation.

He translated the entire Bible into German and the common tongue for the first time.

Prior to this it was only available in Latin and if you didn't know or understand Latin you were lost.

You couldn't read the Bible.

Biblical preaching that's one of the marks of the church, you know, the Roman Catholic Church built up these seven sacraments.

They still have today including penance.

In infant baptism for regeneration but here he said That biblical preaching is one of

the marks of the true Apostolic Church.

We believe that here all Protestant churches believe the preaching of the Bible or at least believing Protestant churches is

Central to what the church is and what the church should do.

He also had the doctrine of justification by faith alone for which Luther is best

known and rightfully Recognized as recovering that monergism

what's monergism that means justification by faith alone that God does a sovereign work in a person's life

and That the reception of that work is passive.

It's it's a one -way.

It's not you do your part God does his part and you kind of work it together.

It's nothing like that at all.

And that really recovered Augustine's what we call that word.

They're soteriology or the doctrine of salvation.

Augustine had a wrong view of the church quite honestly, he really developed the Church

form and a lot of the doctrines of the Middle Ages and the Roman Catholic Church.

But he had an exact right view of Salvation.

Augustine didn't so what Luther did he went back to Augustine's writings and he understood?

Yes, this is what I'm seeing in the Bible too, and he recovered that after hundreds of years of being

really buried.

He started the Lutheran Church as I said earlier.

He had the doctrine that next item there of what we call Consubstantiation and it's it's it's kind of a hybrid

doctrine.

But basically what it means instead of the transubstantiation Roman Catholic doctrine.

What you have is that the body of the wafer and the wine actually turn into the real body and blood of Christ?

They didn't have modern science, but they believe this is actually Christ's body this little piece of bread right here

and What Luther said?

Transubstantiation was well, it doesn't become the body and blood but the body and blood of Christ are in and

under and around These elements, so it was sort of a just where is the body, but it's still the body and blood of Christ.

They still believe that today.

It's called consubstantiation, so that was a doctrine.

We disagree with him on in effect the other reformers also disagreed with him on.

Finally the priesthood of believers and the singing of hymns a lot of our great hymns Mighty fortresses our God and many others he

brought congregational singing back To the Christian Church whereas before you had paid performers

up front here.

That's all you had the rest of you would all be sitting there.

And you'd have Charlie and the rest of them doing their thing and you just sit there and listen.

That's all they had, but he returned the congregational sing so we can thank Luther for that as well.

All right, let's move on to the next person major reformer Ulrich Zwingli fun name to say

Ulrich Zwingli.

He was he lived in Zurich Which is part of Switzerland he was a Swiss Swiss priest,

and he became converted and became a past.

He became a pastor after his conversion in other words again like Luther and Calvin and the others.

He had studied the sources he had gone back to the Greek New Testament, and he understood What the scriptures

really said and as he studied them he began to understand that the the Roman Catholic Church had gone astray.

And so he personally became converted.

He says he wasn't into influenced by Luther necessarily.

But he was a little later than Luther in terms of his conversion.

And it's pretty certain that he was had some influence or some knowledge of Luther's teachings anyway

he Became convinced won a bunch of debates in Zurich against very

very worthy Roman Catholic debater opponents.

Debating opponents, and he outlawed the mass in Zurich.

He had the blessing of the local civic leaders.

And he outlawed the mass and icons and relics.

Zwingli had a Very important role because he actually applied these things

In a very direct and straightforward manner to reform the church in in Zurich.

He was more politically involved.

Luther was too politically involved, but he believed that the church should

have Really overtake the government and and

reform society through government.

But basically the church should run the government almost so he was very politically involved.

He had a memorial view of communion, which is the view that basically we have although he modified it somewhat

later and Was closer to Luther but not quite but he modified Luther's position on

communion and the Lord's Supper a little bit.

He was killed in war versus Roman Catholic forces because he believed in in being involved in society more than maybe a

Luther.

He was actually part of commanding forces.

He rode out on a horse and there were Roman Catholic forces that that came in and he was killed.

Not only was he drawn and quartered which is a violent death.

But he was burned and then his bones were mixed with cow dung.

So that people wouldn't be tempted to use his the ashes were mixed with cow dung so people wouldn't be tempted to use his bones for relics.

Very very strange people these middle -aged Roman Catholic persecutors.

But they really meant business and they they went all the way.

So that was that was Zwingli.

He his follower was Bollinger if you ever hear that name Bollinger.

He was Zwingli's proto protege.

Key contributions he rejected more or less couldn't consubstantiation.

He was an ally of Luther, but at the Marburg colloquy or what we call as a meeting with Luther and

Melanchthon.

They agreed on fourteen and a half out of fifteen points.

This was obviously before his death.

Fourteen and a half out of fifteen points and this one sticking point was that Luther wouldn't budge on this idea of consubstantiation.

Unfortunately, and it was one of these unanimous things either we agree unanimously or I can't sign this.

So even though they agreed 90 whatever it is percent of the time here.

They wouldn't they could not agree and they didn't sign it and so but he had a more

appropriate biblical view of the Lord's table and Biblical scholarship.

Zwingli was a great scholar as I said, he was a great debater.

Well, let me ask is anybody in here ever memorized?

I'm sure we've all memorized a verse of scripture.

Let's assume that anybody ever memorized a chapter of the Bible.

You have to raise your hand.

I Don't know if anybody's ever memorized the whole book of the Bible.

That's pretty impressive.

Does anybody ever memorized the whole New Testament?

I know I've heard there's some Protestant Men today who maybe have memorized the whole New Testament.

Well Zwingli had the whole New Testament memorized but the incredible thing about that is that it memorized in Greek

pretty incredible stuff.

Well, so you had Martin Luther you had Ulrich Zwingli and the third figure we'll discuss this morning is John

Calvin.

We have to sort of whiz through the end of this outline a little bit, but let's let's cover what we can.

He was born in France.

He was a French scholar and his father wanted him also to become a lawyer.

But he was willing to say you could become a lawyer and a priest.

And so he really began his study of the Bible early.

He wrote the Institutes his Institutes were in four volumes.

He revised them about four or five times as he went along in the version we have today of Calvin's Institutes are actually

a Are actually his fourth or fifth revision of those but a very important

person in Developing Christian doctrine and he wrote these for the king of France Francis the first he

was exiled and he went to Geneva and the Switzerland and Strasbourg.

He was a very studious pastor and theologian after his conversion.

He became converted wrote the Institutes.

That next names on there you see Farrell and Busser.

This man Farrell was very important because he had Calvin question Daniel.

Yes.

He was he was.

It's unclear whether he was exactly sent or whether he went on his own, but pretty much he knew either.

It's kind of one of those, you know, he the acquitted get fired kind of things, you know, he knew he had to leave and so

he Farrell Farrell not Colin Farrell.

But Farrell I can look up his first name if you'd like but he he was very important because Luther arrived in Geneva and his intent

was to have the life of a Solitary scholar to have a quiet life didn't want any controversy.

While he was in Geneva and Farrell heard that Calvin was there and he'd already heard of him.

Well Farrell comes in and says we don't want you to go to Strasbourg.

We want you to stay here and work with us in Geneva and Calvin basically politely refused he said no, I don't think so and

Farrell pretty much got in his face big man.

Calvin was a little guy got in his face and said pronounce the curse said if you leave

I pronounce a curse on you and Calvin was shaken by this.

He didn't know what to do with it and Farrell basically in his preaching to Calvin to

stay Talked Calvin into staying and he stayed in Geneva for a number of years and led the

Reformation there he He started what's called the consistory.

Basically.

He he was in Geneva first.

Just give you a little bit he.

The government there was very fickle and he ended up going to Strasbourg for a little while.

But came back you've heard pastor Mike talked about how Calvin was preaching for a few through a few through Ephesians.

He left for a few years when he came back.

He picked up right where he left off in the next verse.

Well, this is that period he left to go to Strasbourg for a few years, but they realized they needed him and called him back

and so you had consistory what that was that was basically the Presbyterian form

of church government not only within the church.

We have Elders leading the church but outside the church so you would have a bunch of like -minded churches like us

and one representative from each of those churches would meet in a form of representative government and It was really a

very great great influence in our governmental Formation and form John Calvin and his idea

of representative church government.

And you also have there that consists after the consistory of surveyed us.

This is Michael surveyed us.

He was a heretic.

He was one of the radical reformers and the Roman Catholic Church was after him and the reason I put his name in there

was he was Executed in Geneva when Calvin was there and he's pretty much blamed

for Surveyed us his death.

It's really not fair because what he did was was pretty much he realized

that surveyed us was teaching heresy and In in our view if we had somebody who had killed hundreds of

people Murdered hundreds of people even in our day.

We'd say yeah put him to death, you know remove that hazard from the community.

Well in in Calvin's view and the Reformers view of church and state they believe that guys like Michael surveyed us were

committing spiritual mass murder.

By that I mean they were sending hundreds and thousands of people to hell by their teaching.

So although he didn't order John Calvin wasn't that involved in the government.

Even though he didn't order it he gave approval to the death or didn't protest but in his view it was justified.

Michael surveyed us was leading so many astray and leading them to an eternity without Christ.

And so that's sometimes used if you hear that name to besmirch the name of John Calvin, but don't buy it.

It's not true.

By the way, let me just as an aside.

This is why we look one of the reasons we learn church history is you get a lot of people make statements like that.

Well, he had this guy surveyed us Executed and you know, he was just you know, bad

man.

Well, if you know church history you can say well actually no, I know History and

here's something different and that's not true.

So you look at the the What's the book out now the Da Vinci

code and they make all sorts of twisting and turning and made -up history.

So you have to be aware that this is one reason that we learn church history.

Yes Lewis.

Right, right,

right,

right exactly, correct.

Good point.

Good point ad hominem attack ad hominem argument does not address the issue at hand at all.

That's correct.

And so people take the low road and try to undercut somebody's character by doing that well

Calvin's Bishop Satellito there is the one who talked him into coming back from Strasbourg.

It's another name to be aware of a key contributions of Calvin.

He wrote the Institutes and a lot of commentaries today if any of you've used Calvin's commentaries Phenomenal.

They are just so on track.

They are very devotional and Right to the point he De -simplifies things apparently his preaching was

not in his commentaries.

What he would do is he would preach more devotionally and he would say if you have questions on the doctrine of predestination

Check my commentary 15 Paragraphs II and he would just go on he wouldn't spend

time all that much time.

But if people really wanted to go deep he showed him any any help pastors Be able to study the Bible and

no biblical doctrine just a great man a godly man.

Physically had some some issues that he worked through but we are much richer for having John Calvin

Church government again, I mentioned the Presbyterian Church government.

He was very important in Constituting that a theology of regeneration.

That was one important thing.

He even though Luther understood justification by faith.

The other reformers hadn't quite yet worked out.

Well, how does regeneration work?

How does the Holy Spirit regenerate someone?

Well Calvin did work that out and You had a predestination his study of predestination

the biblical doctrine.

He really developed that well and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

He's kind of known as a theologian of the Holy Spirit how the Holy Spirit worked.

He encouraged people to be Understand what the Bible had to say about the

Holy Spirit was the others were more practical.

They were all born again.

They're all godly men, but the Calvin really wanted people to understand What is the Holy Spirit's role in salvation

and in sanctification and he developed that and we can be thankful for that social reform and

and his ideas.

Pretty much in Scotland and America were taken and applied the church got to civil government and a

lot of church governments as well the Presbyterian Church is pretty much Calvin's idea and Those

ideas were used and applied and we can thank Calvin again for our form of government.

The next point on the outline we had Luther's wingly Calvin who moved to the Anabaptists and the radical reformers and I'll quickly

move through This but some key people were Menno Simmons or Simons.

I'm not sure how you pronounce it.

My professor didn't even know him in seminary, but most people call him Menno.

So we get the Mennonites came from this group he was born in 1496 and

Some other reformers were Felix Mann's Felix Mann's Conrad Grebel hub Meyer

Blaurock.

It was kind of a small Bible study group and they became convinced that

Baptism was for believing people only up to that time.

You had all the other reformers kept the idea of infant baptism that we had this sort of covenant community.

Because it was so entrenched in the church 1 ,500 years they fought and they won a lot of battles.

This is not a hill.

They wanted to die on however on infant baptism, so they kept infant baptism.

However, the Anabaptist and radical reformers we call radical some of them were more radical and others

decided that they were going to die on this hill and they Stood their ground and Felix

Mann's Was the one who had a child he had a little baby and he decided I'm not going to baptize this

baby totally scandalous act.

Because the baptism also made you a person in that society.

So what he was saying not only in the View of a lot of the people in that society was

you're gonna damn your child to hell because you didn't baptize them and They're an outcast from our society.

So that was basically an act of treason if you think about it and This man Felix Mann's

Decided not to baptize his child.

After study of the scripture in a Bible study and with these other folks decided that he needed to be baptized.

He asked himself to be baptized.

They didn't dunk them back then.

They poured or they sprinkled it wasn't till a bunch of years later that they actually did immerse people

for baptism.

But this is a step in the right direction baptizing believers, which is what baptism is supposed to be and so you

had He baptized the others and they were persecuted.

They were Orthodox in their belief evangelical.

But they scandalized society at that time the four main groups.

You had your revolutionary Reformers you're really revolutionary wing of the radical Reformation.

I Believe was Felix Munzer.

He wanted to overthrow the government and become king very radical violent man and He was

killed and a lot of his followers were also killed.

You had the quietists who basically they had the opposite tact the

Revolutionary reformers, by the way, you know the people that say they have a word from God.

Well, he's revolutionary ones instead of the Bible as their authority the Holy Spirit the word of you know.

We'll bring me the word and that's why this guy this Find him a man Munzer.

This is why Munzer Believed what he did is that God had told him I need to overthrow the government.

Well, he's other folks the quietest had personal contact with God.

They believe that was their main authority.

But they believed in separating.

You know your Quakers and your shakers and folks like this were quietists you had your rationalist.

This is Michael Cervantes was a rationalist.

He put his rational mind not the Holy Spirit like these other folks, but his rational mind above

biblical authority and He was he was a heretic plain and simple and so Sineas if you've heard of the the heresy of host

so Sinean ism again, these are these are mixing and rationalistic thought with the Bible and you come up with something

completely different and He led basically if you think of so Sineas he was probably one of the earliest liberal

theologians out there.

And there were evangelicals.

I was a fourth group of the radical Reformation now the Anabaptists.

Why were they called the Anabaptist comes from the word meaning to rebaptize?

They didn't believe they were rebaptized and they believe this was the real baptism.

But from the outside looking in the Anabaptists were rebaptizing people who are already baptized.

The key key ideas of the Anabaptist and radical Reformers they rejected what's called a magisterial Reformation on the

magisterial Reformation was.

The Reformation should take place with the assistance basically arm -in -arm with the civil government.

That's what a magisterial Reformer is.

The Anabaptist weren't like that Calvin was Zwingli was Luther was but the Anabaptists were not in fact,

they believed in a separation of church and state.

That's where we get that term today.

And the idea was we don't want your interference.

We don't want your help state.

Thank you very much.

We'll be over here.

You'll be over there and kind of separated themselves from society.

They believed again in believers baptism rather than infant baptism, and they took a memorial view of the Lord's Supper.

They didn't bend on that whereas Luther and even Calvin to a certain extent and Zwingli

did believe there was a spiritual significance and spiritual nourishment in the supper.

The Anabaptist took a pure memorial view of the Lord's Supper.

They believed in recovering church primitive church faith and practice things like church discipline the ban it was called they

practice this to people who would to who would Fail morally

who they felt needed to be put out of the church.

They would do that.

They weren't as strong theologically and this is one of the reason even today the Mennonites and others.

Theologically, they're they're what we would consider a little bit off in many ways.

They're not as as biblically strong as we might like.

We have yes.

Yes,

yes.

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

That's correct.

Yeah.

Correct.

Yeah pacifists.

That's a very important point.

That's right.

Yeah, they they them if you've seen the movie witness back in the 80s.

You get an idea the big verse has come out from them and be separate right from the Old Testament.

And that's what they practice a key events persecution.

They were the most highly persecuted Reformation group by the government many were martyred by drowning in an irony.

They'd say okay.

You want to be baptized?

Here you go.

Stay under for about a half hour.

They would hold them under and that's how they would execute many of these Anabaptists very cruel and and very

Awful way of dying, but that's how they were executed.

Let's quickly whiz through the English Reformation in about five minutes and Finish up here the early leaders.

Henry the eighth was the leader of the English Reformation.

Basically, he wanted to be married his way and live his own life.

Catholic Church didn't like that.

So he said fine.

I'll start my own church.

That's how the English Reformation started and because of that you had a very different Reformation than in the other

countries this was sort of started by the state and you still had the king as the head of the Christian Church in

England and more or less today with with some modifications with Charles or whomever.

Who knows what he's the head of?

He's indicated.

He wants to be the head of Mosque or something.

I don't know.

He's very very off there.

But see that illustrates the problem though, because when you had a Protestant believing King or Queen

Great Protestants were happy.

The Catholics were running for their lives when you had Bloody Mary Mary the Queen

she was Roman Catholic that she was the daughter of Henry the eighth and The Protestants and

running for their lives like Knox John Knox out of Scotland.

He went to Geneva met Calvin study with him translated the Geneva Bible and that's what the Pilgrims brought with them.

They didn't like the King James Bible because King James translated it.

They took the Geneva Bible with him and that was translated by John Knox.

But you what you saw was whoever was in charge.

Whatever their religion was was what?

Was in favor at the time and that led to a lot of up -and -downs.

Which is why the English Reformation was something that was a lot more topsy -turvy than

a lot of the other Reformations you had Thomas Cranmer.

He was really the spiritual architect of the Reformation England Cranmer.

He's the one who was responsible for the 39 articles.

He didn't have the Westminster Assembly, but that was kind of the precursor to it.

He had the common book of prayer was Thomas Cranmer.

He really wanted people to become Spiritually reborn and Spiritually

built up that was Thomas Cranmer.

So he was Henry's advisor, by the way.

But he was the spiritual side of that.

It was kind of a two two -pronged English revival.

You had he was the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He was martyred if you read Fox's Book of Martyrs you read about Cranmer you read about Latimer Hooper and Ridley.

They met at the White Horse Inn and really started the English Reformation.

You had Cranmer actually signed a recantation of his faith before he died and when he was

martyred burned at the stake.

He said he wanted to put his right hand in first because that is the part of his body that had denied the Lord

by signing that recantation and so these others.

Said that they're being burned at the stake would lead to a flame which would never be extinguished in England.

And you read that Fox's Book of Martyrs.

You can read all about that.

Just an incredibly faithful group of men that that we can be thankful for today in

Scotland.

You had John Knox.

He was a little bit later.

I should also mention that John Calvin was a second -generation reformer.

It's out of order here.

But he was really you had the Anabaptist Zwingli and Luther at the same time and Calvin was sort of a second -generation

Reformer and so was John Knox.

There were contemporaries.

You had as I said Bloody Mary and you had King James who's the author of the King James Bible?

He he was so controlling on the church in certain points that

We had your separatists and your Puritans who wanted to separate from the church and purify the church.

Different groups wanted to do different things, but they were prompted to do so by King James.

And I put here the English Reformation was the most magisterial.

Magisterial of all with great impact on the course of the Reformation events.

Well, let's summarize here.

Out of this Reformation you have what are called the five solas of the Reformation.

Those are sola gratia.

Sola fide sola Christus sola scriptura and sola deo gloria.

And I've put what those mean behind them by grace alone through faith alone.

Through Christ alone.

Scripture is the alone authority and to the glory of God alone.

And those those were the main ideas that came out of the Reformation.

Five points of Calvinism tulip they actually came out later.

They're from what's called the cannons of Dort.

It was a meeting I get a kick out of some of these names.

They sound funny, but the cannons of Dort were a response to Arminius's points of remonstrance.

He had his five points so Calvinist second third generation Calvinist came up with their points and They

were in opposition.

It's important to remember that these five points of Calvinism are a biblical response to this challenge the sovereignty of God

and salvation.

And we need to understand that context sometimes we.

We try to apply them more broadly than they're really meant to apply.

But if you if you study them, they do speak to the character of God and salvation in his sovereignty.

My third point there the first generation of Reformers returned the church to a more biblical pattern of faith and practice.

That phrase there that Latin phrase semper reform and or semper reform and uh, I mean it's always

reforming.

So what it means is we have to continue to test all things by Scripture and each generation has to do that.

I can't have my father's faith.

This church has to always be reforming if we find we're out of line somewhere.

We have to always be willing like the Reformers to reform our faith or our practice to bring it in line with Scripture.

And finally the Reformation would eventually lead to England and American from there would reach the uttermost parts of the earth through missions.

And we are their spiritual descendants and we owe them a debt of gratitude.

For returning the church to its biblically ordained roots.

Any questions on that we'll be covering part two next week and Hopefully that's given you a

brief overview of the first part of the Reformation and I trust that God will

use it to encourage you and edify you and and help us to be reminded Of what it is.

We really are fighting for Biblical faith Biblical practice regeneration

through Christ and a biblical church and that's what we strive for and I think we are.

Let's pray.

Let's close in prayer Heavenly Father.

Thank you for this this time together Lord.

I pray that the men that we've studied that Fought for you

your faith the faith once delivered to all the Saints.

The study of their lives would inspire us in some small way.

To duplicate what they did here in our 21st century, Massachusetts.

Lord, I pray that you would spur us on that your Holy Spirit would remind us of

their courage and their bravery to Live and teach biblically

that that we also Lord might do that for your glory in Jesus name.

Amen.