Reformation Day

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Today's Show: REFORMATION DAY

Chris discusses the annual remembrance of Reformation Day, which first happened on October 31, 1517 when the German priest, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. We discuss the backdrop of the Reformation, which had been a series of events dating back to Magna Carta in 1215 A.D. How may the great charter of liberty have played a role? What were the other great events that preceded Luther? And was Luther the first to condemn the papacy as the Antichrist foretold in Bible prophecy? Tune in to find out!

Wycliffe, Luther and Today

Quincentennial of the Protestant Reformation

Larissa Tenorio Gessner

October 31, 2017

Do you know the significance of the Protestant Reformation and why it is so widely commemorated?

This year, 2017, we as a church have been commemorating the quincentennial of the Protestant Reformation, the beginning of which many consider as October 31, 1517, with Martin Luther's 95 theses. Many of our churches worldwide have held conferences and special meetings in celebration (including a few listed below). The subject of this quarter's Sabbath School Lesson is Justification by Faith to further study and better understand a driving topic of the Reformation. This year's Week of Prayer theme will also be the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Do you know the significance of the Protestant Reformation and why it is so widely commemorated? Prior to the Reformation, the Bible was unavailable to all except a very selected few. The conditions in the world were so that, the masses were illiterate, the Bible was only available in languages they did not speak, and the few copies and translations of the Bible were locked away and hidden. Martin Luther himself spent years as a student of theology in ingorance of the Bible's existence.

"Rome withheld the Bible from the people, and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. It was the work of the Reformation to restore to men the Word of God;" (The Great Controversy, p. 388).

Today we commemorate 500 years since God's Word began to be rediscovered. How fitting, then, that our celebration include an earnest study of His word, time and devotion dedicated to His precious gospel, and dedication in working out the prophecies included in His letter to us.

Catholic and Protestant leaders unite to mark start of Reformation

An edition of The 95 Theses printed in Basel in 1517. The academic disputation on indulgences lit the fuse of the Reformation. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Christianity
Catholic and Protestant leaders unite to mark start of Reformation


Archbishop of Canterbury to use service to present joint declaration described as ‘sign of healing after 500 years of division’


Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

@harrietsherwood

Tuesday 31 October 2017 02.00 EDT
Last modified on Tuesday 31 October 2017 02.02 EDT


Catholic and Protestant leaders will stress their mutual bonds 500 years after the start of the Reformation, a movement which tore apart western Christianity and sparked a string of bloody religious wars in Europe lasting more than a century.

A service in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday will mark the anniversary of the date in 1517 on which the German theologian Martin Luther submitted The 95 Theses to the archbishop of Mainz as well as nailing a copy to the door of a church in Wittenburg, lighting the fuse of the Reformation.

The Guardian view on the Reformation: justification through faith
Editorial: Luther’s defiance of papal authority shaped Europe and the world in ways he could never have foreseen

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will present a text by the Anglican communion affirming a joint declaration by the Roman Catholic church and global Protestant bodies described as “a sign of healing after 500 years of division”.

Last week, Pope Francis said Catholics and Protestants were now enjoying a relationship of “true fraternity” based on mutual understanding, trust and cooperation.

He told Derek Browning, moderator of the Church of Scotland, who was visiting the Vatican as part of the Reformation commemorations, that the two traditions were “no longer … adversaries, after long centuries of estrangement and conflict”

The pontiff added: “For so long we regarded one another from afar, all too humanly, harbouring suspicion, dwelling on differences and errors, and with hearts intent on recrimination for past wrongs.”

The 95 Theses, written in Latin, was a backlash against increasing corruption in the Catholic church and, in particular, the highly profitable sale of “indulgences”. These promised a fast-track to heaven and were sold to fund the building of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Luther argued that salvation could not be bought or brokered by the church, but was a matter between an individual and God.

His challenge to the authority and elitism of the Catholic church was translated into German and other European languages. Thanks to revolutionary new printing presses, his message spread rapidly and was taken up by others, including the French theologian John Calvin.

Rome condemned Luther as a heretic and launched the Counter-Reformation, but by the end of the 16th century most of northern Europe was Protestant.

In England, Henry VIII, desperate to dissolve his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in pursuit of a male heir, launched his own, less clear-cut, separation from the Catholic church which involved the destruction of much of the country’s religious heritage.

In 1999, the Catholic and Lutheran churches agreed a “joint declaration on the doctrine of justification” that resolved many of the theological issues at the heart of the schism. This document has now been welcomed and affirmed by the Anglican communion.

A spokesperson for the Catholic church in England and Wales said: “The desire for reconciliation is such that mistakes can be recognised, injuries can be forgiven and wounds healed.

“We give thanks to the joy of the gospel we share as Christians, express repentance for the sadness of our divisions and renew our commitment to common witness and service to the world.”

But despite the warm words of reconciliation issued by leaders, there are issues blocking the prospect of a reunification of the two traditions, not least that of female priests.

Meanwhile, pockets of sectarianism remain in parts of northern Europe, including Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Last year, a document released by an evangelical Protestant group, Reformanda Initiative, drew a distinction between individual Catholics and the “unchecked dogmatic claims and complex political and diplomatic structure … [of the] the institutional Catholic church”.

It concluded: “The issues that gave birth to the Reformation 500 years ago are still very much alive in the 21st century for the whole church.”

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Protestant Reformation Continues 500 Years Later

Reformation's impacts still felt locally after 500 years

Janet Heim 50 min ago



Gathered at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hagerstown are, left to right, Rev. Greg Shook, Rev. Marilyn Hembrock, and Rev. Kevin Munroe.

Joe Crocetta/Staff Photographer



It’s been just shy of 500 years since Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of All Saints’ Church, more commonly known as Castle Church, in Wittenberg, Germany, on Oct. 31, 1517.


“It moved Western society out of the Dark Ages,” said The Rev. G. Stanley Steele of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Hagerstown. “It had a huge political, huge cultural impact.”


Indeed, the impact has resounded locally, where some experts argue it’s impossible to separate the Reform movement from the history of Washington County.



“The Reformation, it’s one reason why Hagerstown is here,” said the Rev. Kevin Munroe of Zion Reformed United Church of Christ in Hagerstown. “You can’t really separate the history of the migration that took place because of the Reformation with why Hagerstown was founded.


Munroe said that a large number of people immigrated to the United States as a result of religious persecution in Europe.


“And as you go forward in Hagerstown,” he said, “the leadership of the town came out of the churches.”


Churches around the world and in Washington County have been celebrating the anniversary in a variety of ways. Besides individual churches marking the anniversary, an ecumenical committee of local church members and pastors has been working behind the scenes to plan ways to commemorate the milestone.


The result is a Reformation 500 Hymn Festival featuring Dr. Wayne L. Wold Sunday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hagerstown at 4 p.m.


The anniversary of the Reformation is celebrated on Reformation Sunday, the Sunday closest to Oct. 31.


It’s a long and complicated history and this story only begins to tell some of it.


Who was Martin Luther and what is the Reformation?


Martin Luther is one of the most influential and controversial figures of the Protestant Reformation movement.


The Reformation, a time of questioning and rebirth, took place during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries during the Renaissance, according to research done by Kent Shaffer of Zion Reformed United Church of Christ in Hagerstown.

THE DAY LUTHER WENT VIRAL; Reformation 500 Blogs Part 7

In 1398 Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz, Germany. God, the author of history, gifted this young man with abilities, that would not only change the world, but prepare the way for the spiritual explosion that was the Protestant Reformation. Johannes Gutenberg must surely rank among the illustrious inventors in human history. He is equal to Stevenson and his steam locomotive, to Ford and the Model T, to the Wright brothers and human flight, to Bell and the telephone, to Baird and the television and in more recent times to Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web. Gutenberg’s contribution to humanity and especially to our Christian Heritage was the printing press. While he did not set out to progress faith through his invention, God was moulding and shaping the gifts of this German, so that the dissemination of theology and, more particularly the Bible, would never be the same again.

As a young boy he entertained himself in his Father’s workshop carving the separate letters of his name out of soft wood. As he was lining the letters up to spell his name the “H” fell from the table into a bucket of purple dye. Retrieving the letter he wiped off the dye and left the letter on a piece of paper. As he removed the “H” and seeing the shape printed on the paper, the impression upon his young mind would never be erased. The concept for the printing press with moveable type was born. It would take forty years before the concept would become reality.

In 1455 the now famous Gutenberg Press issued it’s first print run. It was certainly providential that an invention which would transform the dispersion of words, would first print Bibles; The Word of God. Gutenberg printed between 150 and 180 copies of the Latin Bible on paper. Each page had two columns of 42 lines and each Bible had a total of 1,282 pages. Only forty-nine copies, either complete or substantial, of the Gutenberg Bible remain, and they are among the most valuable books in the world.

Gutenberg, however, while being a brilliant inventor was no business man. Accruing large debts he lost his press and died in 1468 destitute and forgotten. But his invention survived and printing became the technological revolution of the medieval era. Indeed, it was through this technology that medieval ignorance and superstition was overcome. The modern era of mass communication had commenced.

By the time Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg this technology was readily available everywhere, and the stage was set for the message of one man to capture Europe. Luther, however, had no intention of going to the printers with his arguments. In addition to nailing it to the door of the Castle Church he shared it with close friends and colleagues. Crucially he also, sent it, along with a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, to warn him of the activities of Tetzel. Luther anticipated a fair hearing, he was was hoping for considered discussion and he believed that reason would prevail. He was attempting to be helpful as the matter in his judgement, was so clearly demonstrated in Scripture. In later life he would share with the students of Wittenberg:

“I thought I had done the Pope a favour”

We can be certain that Martin Luther never handed his Ninety-Five Theses to a printer. An anonymous person leaked the document. It was certainly not in the interests of the Pope and his Archbishop to promote someone who was exposing their rather sordid business deal, which involved employing Tetzel to sell indulgences for the repaying of debts and for the building of a Cathedral in Rome. The truth was, Germans were growing rather tired of the Vatican’s interference in their affairs. Germany was ready economically, politically and spiritually for someone to challenge the established order. It has been long thought, that someone sympathetic to Luther’s arguments, within the court of the Archbishop, handed the document to a printer, who instantly saw the potential of the monk’s radicalism.

Everything about Luther was appealing to the German consciousness. From his self deprecating description of himself as “an insignificant clod” through to his denunciations of the power of the Papacy in the matter of forgiveness – the Ninety-Five Theses hit a raw nerve. The Augustinian Monk’s words were soon making their way across Germany, with artists embellishing the content with attractive woodcuts, so that even the illiterate could appreciate the import of the arguments. Luther himself, was taken aback by the reaction as he later reported that the document “went throughout the whole of Germany in a fortnight.” In 21st Century language Luther had gone viral. As Tetzel’s sales of the Papal Indulgence dramatically declined, the evidence was incontrovertible, Luther had many supporters. He could not be ignored. Neither could he himself ignore the movement that he had unwittingly produced!

In 1518 he decided to go to print with “A Sermon of Indulgence and Grace”. While the Ninety-Five Theses were written in Latin, to be translated by a printer without the author’s consent, this sermon was printed by Luther in German. In this work he further developed his arguments and the response was electric. In 1518 alone it was reprinted fourteen times with each run producing 1,000 copies. There was an obvious demand for Martin Luther’s writings. He was the small man confronting the power of empire. He was the German asserting the independence of the German peoples. As he did so, however, he gave the people the precious seed, the Gospel of Grace, and God was blessing his endeavours. As he published his second work of 1518, “Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses”, it was apparent that the Wittenberg Doctor was no longer an unwilling leader. He accepted his position, granted by God, with the enormous responsibilities and challenges that accompanied it.

Wittenberg became a major publishing centre, as a result of Luther’s prodigious works. Another book more precious still would be published at Wittenberg; The Bible. A business man by the name of Lufft, would in Luther’s home city, publish 100,000 copies of God’s Word for the German people!

…and so the printing revolution was used by God as the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.

“The LORD gave the word: great was the company of those that published it”

Psalm 68:11

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Pope In Sweden; Apostate Protestants Convince Pope Reformation Is Over; Ha...

A mighty fortress is our God

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;  Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:  For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;  His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;  Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:  Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;  Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us: The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;  His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;  The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:  Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;  The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.

Words & Music: Mar­tin Lut­her, 1529 (MI­DI, score); trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Fred­er­ic H. Hedge, 1853.

This song has been called “the great­est hymn of the great­est man of the great­est per­i­od of Ger­man his­to­ry” and the “Bat­tle Hymn of the Ref­or­ma­tion.”

This hymn was sung at the fun­er­al of Amer­i­can pre­si­dent Dwight Ei­sen­how­er at the Na­tion­al Ca­thed­ral in

Wash­ing­ton, DC, March 1969.

 

In 1720 a re­mark­a­ble re­viv­al be­gan in a town in Mo­rav­ia. Jes­u­its op­posed it, and the meet­ings were pro­hib­it­ed. Those who still as­sem­bled were seized and im­pris­oned in sta­bles and cel­lars. At Da­vid Nitsch­mann’s house, where a hund­red and fif­ty per­sons ga­thered, the po­lice broke in and seized the books. Not dis­mayed, the con­gre­ga­tion struck up the stan­zas of Lu­ther’s hymn,

“And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us;

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us.”

Twenty heads of families were for this sent to jail, in­clud­ing Nitsch­mann, who was treat­ed with spe­cial se­ver­i­ty. He fin­al­ly es­caped, fled to the Mo­rav­i­ans at Herrnhut, be­came a bi­shop, and af­ter­wards joined the Wes­leys in 1735 in their ex­pe­di­tion to Sa­van­nah, Georg­ia.

Sankey, p. 106

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Archbishop welcomes Lutheran leaders to Lambeth Palace

Photo credit ACNS/ Neil Vigers

Friday 28th March 2014

Looking forward to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, a beech tree was planted in Lambeth Palace garden.





Presiding Bishop of the VELKD, Gerhard Ulrich and Archbishop Justin (Photo credit: ACNS/ Neil Vigers)

In the context of the Meissen Agreement, Archbishop Justin welcomed leaders from the Church Council of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) to Lambeth Palace today.

During the visit, in anticipation of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, an English beech tree was planted in the Lambeth Palace garden. A similar tree was planted by representatives of the Anglican Communion in Wittenburg in 2009.

The VELKD delegation included the Presiding Bishop of the VELKD, Gerhard Ulrich; Bishop Martin Lind and Mrs Lind, representing the wider Lutheran World Federation. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion and Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan, Director for Unity, Faith & Order, Anglican Communion, were also present.

Speaking to the group shortly after the ceremony, Archbishop Justin said: “It is crucial that the agenda of our ecumenical relationships is not limited to the status of our churches in relationship to each other. We are profoundly united in the work of Christ.”

The Archbishop noted that the Meissen Agreement was approved by the Church of England General Synod in July 1990 “without dissent”, which remains a “significant achievement”.

Archbishop continued; “In the broader context of Anglican Communion and Lutheran World Federation relationships, I am sure this will meeting will be a further sign of churches growing together and responding to the call of Christ that all may be one that the world may see who Christ is.”

Bishop Ulrich said that the trees which had been planted in the Lambeth garden and in Wittenburg showed how deeply the Lutheran World Federation valued its relationship with the Anglican Communion. “It is a symbol of reconciled diversity,” he said.

Bishop Ulrich went on to say that the Meissen Agreement “gives witness to the good and trustworthy relations between the two churches”.

Archbishop Justin sent greetings last month to the 8th Meissen Theological Conference, saying that the Meissen Process had “made a significant contribution to the reconciliation process between our two nations and has enabled the establishment of a large number of vibrant partnerships and links between our churches”.

Canon Kenneth Kearon and Bishop Martin Lind plant tree in Lambeth Palace garden (Photo credit: ACNS/ Neil Vigers)

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Pastor Leads A New Brand Of Church For 'Sinners And Saints'

by
December 24, 2013 3:35 AM


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Morning Edition
Listen to the Story

7 min 20 sec





Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, shown here officiating civil union ceremonies in Denver in May, wrote a book on faith that recently landed on the New York Times best-seller list. 
Anna Hanel/Colorado Public Radio 



It's Sunday evening, and services are just getting underway at the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver. Nearly 200 worshipers sit in circles of plastic chairs around a simple altar table. Together they follow traditional Christian rites. They sit. They stand. They sing.

The congregation here resembles the crowd at a downtown bookshop — hipsters and college professors, gay couples and Democratic grandmas. But even in this crowd, the congregation's pastor, with her short, moussed hair and armloads of religious tattoos, stands out as she launches into a sermon about Jesus on the cross.

"In our win-lose way of understanding things, it would have made a lot more sense for Jesus to have come and been a superhero — kicking ass and taking names, showing everyone how strong God is by winning at our game," she tells the congregation.

Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber is a bit of a Lutheran rock star at the moment, although the term makes her cringe. Her new book, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, recently hit the New York Times best-seller list.

What she and her church are trying to do, she says, is simple and radical: create an authentic Christian experience without the pretension that can come with church.

"I think people's tolerance for bullshit is at an all-time low," she says.




Members of the church meet at Denver coffeehouses during the week for what they call "office hours" —€” informal and often highly irreverent chats. Jim Smelser/House for All Sinners and Saints 


What people want, she says, is a spiritual community that's beautiful and transformative and maybe even transgressive — and that's not what you find in most churches, conservative or liberal.

"We've been given social conventions, we've been given basically the Elks Club with Eucharist, or we've been given a place to gather on Sundays where basically what we hear is the same as the platform of the Democratic Party," she says. "I don't think the early Christians martyred themselves for either of these things."

Bolz-Weber's path to becoming an increasingly public theologian was rocky, to say the least. Early in adulthood she drifted away from her parents' conservative Church of Christ and into a lost period of drugs and alcohol, only to find God again as she was struggling to get sober. That checkered history is something she talks about openly, trying to help others feel comfortable with their own failings.

"There was a young woman, I took her confession — and it was for real, it was something really heavy — and she was super tense at the beginning, and then she relaxed," Bolz-Weber says. "Then we were kind of laughing, and she goes, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad you're my pastor, because I know you've done much worse than that.' So that's also a service I offer."

The faith that the congregation practices is, for lack of a better word, orthodox Lutheran. Even the congregation's name — House for All Sinners and Saints — comes from Martin Luther's belief that everyone is simultaneously all sinner and all saint.

But "House," as it's often called, does practice its faith differently from most congregations. It offers communion to everyone, regardless of whether they've been baptized, and it opens the liturgy to all who want to participate. That really struck parishioner Stephen Ludwig when he first attended a service after a decade away from the church.

"Everyone that shows up has the opportunity to read scripture, serve communion, participate in the service," he says. "Liturgy is supposed to be 'of the people,' and this really brings it back to that."


Welcoming all is the animating idea behind House, but it can be a challenging one. As Bolz-Weber's popularity has grown, so many people have started visiting that there often aren't enough chairs for the regulars.

Longtime worshiper Stuart Sanks admits that having so many new people stopping in can be difficult.

"Sometimes it feels like House is losing that idea of what made it different. But that's just something we're trying to figure out and work through and make the best of stewarding the responsibility, I guess, that we've been given."

For Bolz-Weber, that responsibility is exciting — rethinking the way the church exists in the world today. She says she's more interested in her congregation having a dynamic, faithful relationship with God than getting hung up on the specifics of what they believe.

And while no single common belief holds the congregation together, Bolz-Weber says certain values are universal: to welcome everyone and take that message out into the world.


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A mighty fortress is our God (Vocals & Organ)

Uploaded by smallchurch on Mar 20, 2009

More hymns sung by Janet on http://www.smallchurchmusic.com/index.php?RPlayer=27 .
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Martin Luther : Men Should Not Speculate About the Nature of God

The Apostle adds to the salutation the words, “and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” Was it not enough to say, “from God the Father”?

It is a principle of the Bible that we are not to inquire curiously into the nature of God. “There shall no man see me, and live,” Exodus 33:20. All who trust in their own merits to save them disregard this principle and lose sight of the Mediator, Jesus Christ.

True Christian theology does not inquire into the nature of God, but into God’s purpose and will in Christ, whom God incorporated in our flesh to live and to die for our sins. There is nothing more dangerous than to speculate about the incomprehensible power, wisdom, and majesty of God when the conscience is in turmoil over sin. To do so is to lose God altogether because God becomes intolerable when we seek to measure and to comprehend His infinite majesty.

We are to seek God as Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1:23, 24: “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Begin with Christ. He came down to earth, lived among men, suffered, was crucified, and then He died, standing clearly before us, so that our hearts and eyes may fasten upon Him. Thus we shall be kept from climbing into heaven in a curious and futile search after the nature of God.

If you ask how God may be found, who justifies sinners, know that there is no other God besides this man Christ Jesus. Embrace Him, and forget about the nature of God. But these fanatics who exclude our Mediator in their dealings with God, do not believe me. Did not Christ Himself say: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”? Without Christ there is no access to the Father, but futile rambling; no truth, but hypocrisy; no life, but eternal death.

When you argue about the nature of God apart from the question of justification, you may be as profound as you like. But when you deal with conscience and with righteousness over against the law, sin, death, and the devil, you must close your mind to all inquiries into the nature of God, and concentrate upon Jesus Christ, who says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Doing this, you will recognize the power, and majesty condescending to your condition according to Paul’s statement to the Colossians, “In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” and, “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Paul in wishing grace and peace not alone from God the Father, but also from Jesus Christ, wants to warn us against the curious incursions into the nature of God. We are to hear Christ, who has been appointed by the Father as our divine Teacher.

Source.

The roots and birth of the Protestant Reformation

The roots of the Reformation lie far back in the High Middle Ages with the rise of towns and a money economy.  This led to four lines of development that all converged in the Reformation.  First of all, a money economy led to the rise of kings who clashed with the popes over control of Church taxes.  One of these clashes, that between pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France, triggered the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism.  Second, the replacement of a land based with a money economy led to growing numbers of abuses by the Church in its desperation for cash.  Both of these factors seriously damaged the Church’s reputation and helped lead to the Lollard and Hussite heresies which would heavily influence Luther’s Protestant Reformation.
Another effect of the rise of towns was a more plentiful supply of money with which humanists could patronize Renaissance culture.  When the Renaissance reached Northern Europe, the idea of studying the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew fused with the North’s greater emphasis on religion, thus paving the way for a Biblical scholar such as Martin Luther to challenge the Church.
Finally, towns and trade spread new ideas and technology.  Several of these bits of technology, some from as far away as China, helped lead toss which helped the Reformation in two ways.First of all, it made books cheaper, which let Luther have his own copy of the Bible and the chance to find what he saw as flaws in the Church’s thinking. Second, the printing press would spread Luther’s ideas much more quickly and further a field than the Lollards and Hussites ever could have without the printing press.
All of these factors, growing dissatisfaction with corruption and scandal in the Church, the religious emphasis of the Northern Renaissance, and the printing press, combined to create a growing interest in Biblical scholarship.  Nowhere was this interest more volatile or dangerous than in Germany.  The main reason for this was the fragmentation of Germany into over 300 states, which helped the Reformation in two ways.
For one thing, there was no one power to stop the large number of Church abuses afflicting Germany, thus breeding a great deal of anger in Germany against the Church.  For another thing, the lack of central control also made it very difficult to stop the spread of any new ideas.  This was especially true in Germany, with over 30 printing presses, few, if any, being under tight centralized control, and each of which was capable of quickly churning out literally thousands of copies of Protestant books and pamphlets.  If Germany could be seen as a tinder box just waiting for a spark to set it aflame, Martin Luther was that spark.
Luther, like all great men who shape history, was also a product of his own age.  He had a strict religious upbringing, especially from his father who frequently beat his son for the slightest mistakes.  School was little better.  Young Martin was supposedly beaten fifteen times in one day for misdeclining a noun.  All this created a tremendous sense of guilt and sinfulness in him and influenced his view of God as a harsh and terrifying being.  Therefore, Luther’s reaction to the above mentioned thunderstorm in 1506 should come as no surprise.  He carried out his vow and joined a monastic order.
As a monk, Luther carried his religious sense of guilt to self-destructive extremes, describing how he almost tortured himself to death through praying, reading, and vigils.  Indeed, one morning, his fellow monks came into his cell to find him lying senseless on the ground.  Given this situation, something had to give:  either Luther’s body or his concept of Christianity.  His body survived.
Out of concern for Martin, his fellow monks, thanks to the printing press, gave him a copy of the Bible where Luther found two passages that would change his life and history:  “ For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)  “ Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”  (Romans 3:28)  As Luther put it, “ Thereupon I felt as if I had been born again and had entered paradise through wide open gates.  Immediately the whole of Scripture took on a new meaning for me.  I raced through the Scriptures, so far as my memory went, and found analogies in other expressions.”  From this Luther concluded that faith is a “free gift of God” and that no amount of praying, good deeds or self-abuse could affect one’s salvation.  Only faith could do that.

The storm breaks

In the following years, Luther’s ideas quietly matured as he pursued a career as a professor, back then a Church position.  Then, in 1517, trouble erupted.  Pope Leo X, desperate for money to complete the magnificent St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome, authorized the sale of indulgences.  These were documents issued by the Church that supposedly relieved their owners of time in purgatory, a place where Catholics believe they must purge themselves of their sins before going to heaven.  Originally, indulgences had been granted to crusaders for their efforts for the faith.  In time they were sold to any of the faithful who wanted them.  The idea was that the money paid was the result of one’s hard work and was sanctified by being donated to the Church.  However, it was easily subject to abuse as a convenient way to raise money.
Indulgence sales were especially profitable in Germany where there was no strong central government to stop the Church from taking money out of the country.  This greatly angered many Germans and made them more ready to listen to criticism of the Church when it came.  The Church’s agent for selling indulgences in Brandenburg in Northern Germany, John Tetzel, used some highly questionable methods.  He reportedly told local peasants that these indulgences would relive them of the guilt for sins they wished to commit in the future and that, after buying them, the surrounding hills would turn to silver.  He even had a little jingle, much like a commercial:  “ As soon as coin in coffer rings a soul from Purgatory springs.”
Luther was then a professor in nearby Wittenburg, Saxony, not far from the home of the Hussite heresy in Bohemia.  When some local people showed him the indulgences they had bought, he denied they were valid.  Tetzel denounced Luther for this, and Luther took up the challenge.  On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed a placard to the church door in Wittenburg.  On it were the Ninety-five Theses, or statements criticizing various Church practices, some of which are given here.

26. “They preach mad, who say that the soul flies out of purgatory as soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles.
27. “It is certain that, when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be
 increased, but the suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone…32. “Those who believe that, through letters of pardon, they are made sure of their own salvation, will be eternally damned along with their teachers.
43.“Christians should be taught that he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man,
 does better than if he bought pardons…56. “The treasures of the Church, whence the Pope grants indulgences, are neither sufficiently named nor known among the people of Christ.
65 & 66. “Hence the treasures of the Gospel are nets, wherewith they now fish for the men of riches...The treasures of indulgences are nets, wherewith they now fish for the riches of men…
86. “Again; why does not the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of the wealthy, build the one Basilica of St. Peter when his own money, rather than with that of poor believers…?

Luther’s purpose was not to break away from the Church, but merely to stimulate debate, a time honored academic tradition.  The result, however, was a full-scale religious reformation that would destroy Europe’s religious unity forever.
Soon copies of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses were printed and spread all over Germany where they found a receptive audience.  Indulgence sales plummeted and the authorities in Rome were soon concerned about this obscure professor from Wittenburg.  Papal legates were sent to talk sense into Luther.  At first, he was open to reconciliation with the Church, but, more and more, he found himself defying the Church.  Luther’s own rhetoric against the Church was becoming much more radical:

“If Rome thus believes and teaches with the knowledge of popes and cardinals (which I hope is not the case), then in these writings I freely declare that the true Antichrist is sitting in the temple of God and is reigning in Rome—that empurpled Babylon—and that the Roman Church is the Synagogue of Satan…If we strike thieves with the gallows, robbers with the sword, heretics with fire, why do we not much more attack in arms these masters of perdition, these cardinals, these popes, and all this sink of the Roman Sodom which has without end corrupted the Church of God, and wash our hands in their blood?”

“…Oh that God from heaven would soon destroy thy throne and sink it in the abyss of Hell!….Oh Christ my Lord, look down, let the day of they judgment break, and destroy the devil’s nest at Rome.”

Luther also realized how to exploit the issue of the Italian church draining money from Germany:

“Some have estimated that every year more than 300,000 gulden find their way from Germany to Italy…We here come to the heart of the matter…How comes it that we Germans must put up with such robbery and such extortion of our property at the hands of the pope?….If we justly hand thieves and behead robbers, why should we let Roman avarice go free?  For he is the greatest thief and robber that has come or can come into the world, and all in the holy name of Christ and St. Peter.  Who can longer endure it or keep silence?”

The papal envoy, Aleander, described the anti-Catholic climate in Germany:

“…All German is up in arms against Rome.  All the world is clamoring for a council that shall meet on German soil.  Papal bulls of excommunication are laughed at.  Numbers of people have ceased to receive the sacrament of penance…  Martin (Luther) is pictured with a halo above his head.  The people kiss these pictures.  Such a quantity has been sold that I am unable to obtain one…  I cannot go out in the streets but the Germans put their hands to their swords and gnash their teeth at me…”

What had started as a simple debate over Church practices was quickly becoming an open challenge to papal authority.  The Hapsburg emperor, Charles V, needing Church support to rule his empire, feared this religious turmoil would spill over into political turmoil.  Therefore, although religiously tolerant by the day’s standards, Charles felt he had to deal with this upstart monk.  A council of German princes, the Diet of Worms, was called in 1521.  At this council, the German princes, opposed to the growth of imperial power at their expense, applauded Luther and his efforts.  As a result, Charles had to summon Luther to the diet so he could defend himself.
Luther’s friends, remembering Jan Hus’ fate, feared treachery and urged him not to go.  But Luther was determined to go “ though there were as many devils in Wurms as there are tiles on the roofs.”  His trip to Worms was like a triumphal parade, as crowds of people came out to see him.  Then came the climactic meeting between the emperor and the obscure monk.  Luther walked into an assembly packed to the rafters with people sensing history in the making.  A papal envoy stood next to a table loaded with Luther’s writings.  Asked if he would take back what he had said and written, Luther replied:

“Unless I am convinced by the evidence of Scripture or by plain reason—for I do not accept the authority of the Pope, or the councils alone, since it is established that they have often erred and contradicted themselves—I am bound by the scriptures I have cited and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.  I cannot and will not recant anything, for it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.  God help me.  Amen.”

Having defied Church and empire, Luther was hurried out of town where he was “ambushed” by his protector, Frederick of Saxony, and hidden in Wartburg castle to keep him out of harm’s way.  However, although Luther dropped out of sight for a year, the Reformation did not go away.

Luther’s religion

Because of his criticism of papal authority and Church practices, Luther had been excommunicated from the Church.  This along with the dramatic meeting at Worms led him to make a final break with the Catholic Church and form Lutheranism, the first of the Protestant faiths.  This was not a new religion.  It had basically the same beliefs about God as the Catholic faith.  However, there were four main beliefs in the Lutheran faith that differed substantially from Catholicism.

1. Faith alone can gain salvation.  No amount of good works can make any difference because man is so lowly compared to God.  In the Catholic faith, penance and good works are important to salvation.
2. Religious truth and authority lie only in the word of God revealed in the Bible, not in any visible institutions of the Church.  This largely reflects what Wycliffe had said about the many institutions and rituals the Church valued.  As a result, Lutheranism tended to be simpler in practice than Catholicism.
3. The church is the community of all believers, and there is no real difference between priest and layman in the eyes of God.  The Catholic Church gave greater status to the clergy who devoted their lives to God.
4. The essence of Christian living lies in serving God in one’s own calling.  In other words, all useful occupations, not just the priesthood, are valuable in God’s eyes.  This especially appealed to the rising middle class whose concern for money was seen as somewhat unethical by the Medieval Church.

The spread of Lutheranism

When the Church burned 300 copies of Hus’ and Wycliffe’s writings in the early 1400’s, this dealt a heavy blow to the Hussite movement.  However, from the start of the Reformation, printed copies of Luther’s writings were spread far and wide in such numbers that the movement could not be contained.  By 1524, there were 990 different books in print in Germany.  Eighty percent of those were by Luther and his followers, with some 100,000 copies of his German translation of the Bible in circulation by his death.  Comparing that number to the 300 copies of Hussite writings underscores the decisive role of the printing press in the Protestant Reformation.
When discussing whom in society went Lutheran or stayed Catholic and why, various economic and political factors were important, but the single most important factor in one’s decision was religious conviction.  This was still an age of faith, and we today must be careful not to downplay that factor.  However, other factors did influence various groups in the faith they adopted.
Many German princes saw adopting Lutheranism as an opportunity to increase their own power by confiscating Church lands and wealth.  Many middle class businessmen, as stated above, felt the Lutheran faith justified their activities as more worthwhile in the eyes of God.  The lower classes at times adopted one faith as a form of protest against the ruling classes.  As a result, nobles tended to be suspicious of the spread of a Protestant faith as a form of social and political rebellion.  Many Germans also saw Lutheranism as a reaction againstt the Italian controlled Church that drained so much money from Germany.  However, many German people remained Catholic despite any material advantages Lutheranism might bestow.  For both Catholics and Protestants, faith was still the primary consideration in the religion they adopted.
Lutheranism did not win over all of Germany, let alone all of Europe.  Within Germany, Lutherans were strongest in the north, while the south largely remained Catholic.  However, Germany’s central location helped Protestants spread their doctrine from Northern Germany to Scandinavia, England, and the Netherlands.

Luther’s achievement

Although Luther had not originally intended to break with Rome, once it was done he tried to keep religious movement from straying from its true path of righteousness.  Therefore he came out of hiding to denounce new more radical preachers.  He also made the controversial stand of supporting the German princes against a major peasant revolt in Germany in 1525, since he saw the German princes’ support as vital to the Reformation’s survival.  This opened Luther to attacks by more radical Protestants who saw him as too conservative, labeling him the “Witternburg Pope”.  However, as the Protestant movement grew and spread, it became increasingly harder for Luther to control.
Martin Luther died February 18, 1546 at the age of 63.  By this time events had gotten largely out of his control and were taking violent and radical turns that Luther never would have liked.  Ironically, Luther, who had started his career with such a tortured soul and unleashed such disruptive forces on Europe, died quite at peace with God and himself.  Like so many great men, he was both a part of his times and ahead of those times, thus serving as a bridge to the future.  He went to the grave with many old Medieval Christian beliefs.  However, his ideas shattered Christian unity in Western Europe, opening the way for new visions and ideas in such areas as capitalism, democracy, and science that shape our civilization today.

Source

Related:

The Roots of the Protestant Reformation

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ReFWuWVPvhsJ:online-history.org/wc1-docs/The-Roots-of-the-Protestant-Reformation.ppt+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi95ch5L1OQal_A59FVaRBtJv_cjci__kRHqEyjSg1fR59SEBzLOHBQi8sOZDANiMuDFAbesCqjIVjcEZs9CYt1aFxuAdX212pm2CuKX9UX5Voenho60bTF0lRzP4roV51Qu_IX&sig=AHIEtbQFXvxMIjdpaQCmoDT2WDYMfuutrQ&pli=1
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Pope to Protestants: Faith is not something that can be negotiated

Uploaded by romereports on Sep 23, 2011

Ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue have been key during the pope's trip to Germany. The most symbolic moment was perhaps, his visit to the convent where Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reform, lived from 1505 to 1511.

The Luther Tour

Martin Luther

We are running two tours in 2010, Luther Tour and Oberammergau Tour

The Luther Tour
11-17 September 2010

This Tour is intended to give each participant a complete overview of the life, work, and importance of Martin Luther. We will visit the important places where Luther lived and initiated the events that led to the Reformation and the new world order in which we live today. Lectures will be given throughout, as well as using local guides where necessary. We believe Luther is the most important man of the last five hundred years, and it would benefit all to learn about his work and influence. No previous knowledge of Luther is presupposed.

This is the third year we have arranged this tour. Please see feedback for the response of people who have attended previous years. This year the itinerary has been increased to include the historic town of Quedlinburg. The tour includes four Unesco World Heritage sites. Germany is not normally on the Tourist Trail, but we believe you will be surprised at what you find!

2010 Prices for the Luther Tour
The cost is £725 per person for double room occupancy (single room supplement £80). A non-refundable deposit of £120 is required when confirming your booking. The price includes flight, all travel and entrance to sites with guided tours, breakfast and evening meal. There may of necessity be small changes to the itinerary.

Source: http://www.luthertour.com/

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How the Reformation Changed the World

How the Reformation Changed the World

Click here for 'Libel Against Luther'

Martin Luther, the German Reformer, is generally remembered as the theological professor, the Bible translator, the writer, even as the composer of hymns. However, Martin Luther was also a husband and a father of six children. He provided the church its first and most prominent example of a pastoral family.

While still a celibate priest, Luther wrote extensively on marriage. He saw marriage as an institution in as much crisis as the church - and no less in need of reform.

Martin Luther was a leading defender of the dignity of women and the foundational importance of marriage. Luther placed the home "at the centre of the universe." His teaching on marriage and the family (and his personal example) were so radical and so long-lasting that it profoundly and permanently altered the home. If his innovations don't seem so radical to us, it is because of his success in establishing these principles as Christian ideals.

For a thousand years, the single, celibate life had been upheld as the Christian ideal. Sex, though grudgingly permitted inside marriage, was not to be enjoyed. As the Church father, Jerome, declared in the 4th century: "Anyone who is too passionate a lover with his own wife is himself an adulterer."Augustine advocated sexual relations within marriage to be without emotion and primarily for procreation. A catechism of the Catholic Church written in 1494, applies the third deadly sin (impurity) to married people enjoying sex within marriage.

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Martin Luther, however, declared war on Greek philosopher Aristotle's depiction on women as "botched males". Luther also criticised Jerome, Cyprian, Augustine, Gregory and other Church fathers for "never having written anything good about marriage."

Luther and the first generation of Protestant Reformers rejected this tradition of over a thousand years, of ascetic sexuality - in both their theology and their lives. The Reformers rejection of the celibate ideal of the Middle Ages was as great a revolution in the home as their teachings were in the Church. Luther literally transferred the praises and esteem that Christians had traditionally heaped upon the celibate monks and nuns, to marriage and the home.

Luther described marriage as the only institution where a chaste life could be maintained. He insisted that "one cannot be unmarried without sin."

"Marriage pervades the whole of nature". Luther taught that nothing was more natural and necessary than marriage, "for all creatures are divided into male and female."

Luther actively encouraged fathers to remove their daughters from convents. Protestant towns and territories dissolved the cloisters and nunneries and freed women from the sexual repression, cultural depravity, dominance by male clergy and Catholic practices. Wherever the Reformation succeeded monks and nuns who wished to marry received automatic permission to do so.

Luther had a high regard for the ability of women to shape society by moulding its youth and civilising its men through the institution of marriage.

"A companionable woman brings joy to life" Luther wrote. "Women tend to and rear their young, administer the household and are inclined to compassion. God has made them compassionate by nature, so that by their example men may be moved to compassion also."
Luther also wrote: "People who do not like children are swine, dunces and blockheads, not worthy to be called men and women, because they despise the blessings of God, the Creator and Author of marriage."

"Love begins when we wish to serve others." There is no better school for humility and for loving sacrificial service than marriage and parenthood.

Luther wrote that his entrance into the monastery was "a cowardly act". He saw marriage and fatherhood as an essential requirement for effective pastors. Luther had six children (Hans, Elizabeth, Magdalene, Martin, Paul and Margaretha).

Luther urged parents to always discipline their children with forethought and caution, taking into account the unique personality of each. He taught that: "no power on earth is so noble and so great as that of parents."

Luther also wrote: " There is no bond on earth so sweet nor any separation so bitter as that which occurs in a good marriage."

"A wife is easily taken, but to have abiding love, that is the challenge. One who finds it in his marriage, should thank the Lord God for it. Therefore, approach marriage earnestly and ask God to give you a good, pious girl, with whom you spend your life in mutual love. For sex alone establishes nothing in this regard; there must also be agreement in values and character."

Because of the importance attached to companionship in marriage the Reformers endorsed, for the first time in the Western Christendom, genuine divorce and remarriage. Although they viewed marriage as a spiritual bond transcending all other human relationships, a marriage could definitely end this side of eternity and a new one begin for separated spouses. "Christ permits divorce for adultery and compels none to remain unmarried thereafter; and St. Paul would rather have us remarry than burn now with lust and later in hell."

The Protestants, in contrast to the Catholics, generally permitted divorce and remarriage on five grounds: adultery, willful abandonment, chronic impotence, life-threatening hostility and willful deceit. The Strasbourg Reformer, Martin Bucer, declared that no proper marriage exists where affection is not regularly shared and where all conversation has ceased.

Protestant marriage courts did not permit divorce and remarriage to occur without first making every effort to re-unite the estranged couple and to revive the dead marriage. However, the Reformers held that the community formed by husband and wife was so fundamental to society, that when all conversation, affection and respect between a husband and wife had irretrievably broken down, it could not be allowed to continue. The marriage bond was so important that one had to fight to save it, and failing success in genuine restoration, the marriage should be recognised to have come to an end.
Never before had women been empowered to divorce abusive husbands. Women from all over Europe fled to Protestant areas, particularly Geneva, to find protection and freedom from abuse.
Luther wrote: "Women have narrow shoulders and wide hips. Therefore they ought to be domestic. Their very physique is a sign from the Creator that He intended them for the home." Luther also wrote: "In domestic affairs, I defer to Katie, otherwise I'm led by the Holy Spirit!"
Luther's wife, Katherine, was smuggled out of a cloister, hidden in an empty herring barrel. She became a model housewife and an accomplished businesswoman. Luther dubbed her: "the morning star of Wittenberg" as her day began at 4:00am. Even in his last will and testament, Luther revolutionised the home by ignoring the prevalent practice of appointing a male trustee to administer the estate. Luther directly designated his wife Katherine "heir to everything."

Luther wrote: "It is impossible to keep peace between man and woman in family life if they do not condone and overlook each other's faults, but watch everything to the smallest point. For who does not at times offend?"

Luther's home was described as "half home, half hotel". The Luthers housed up to 30 people in their home at a time - students, orphans, the sick and former monks and nuns. Even on his wedding night, Luther couldn't refuse a person in need. At 11:00pm, after all the guests had left, the radical Reformer and critic of Luther, Andreas Karlstadt, knocked at the door. Karlstadt was fleeing the Peasants' War and needed shelter. Luther took him in.

Luther not only made the Bible part of the daily routine in the home, but he also made the singing of hymns central. He played the flute and the lute, and led his children in singing hymns of praise.

He also introduced the Catechism to explain the faith to children, incorporating Scripture memorisation in the daily routine.

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Perhaps it is time for us to recognise Martin Luther as the true and original founder of Focus on the Family.

Reforming Worship

Congregational singing remains one of Martin Luther's most enduring legacies.

"Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise," wrote Luther. "I am not of the opinion that all arts are to be cast down and destroyed on account of the Gospel, as some fanatics suggest. On the other hand, I would gladly see all arts, especially music, in the service of Him Who has given and created them."

Luther himself was a well-trained musician with a fine voice. He played the lute, composed intricate hymns and was well acquainted with the work of the leading composers of his day.

"I always love music; who so has skill in this art, is of a good temperament, fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools; a schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him. Neither should we ordain young men as preachers, unless they have been well exercised in music."

Luther insisted that we are to "praise God with both word and music." "God has preached the Gospel through music." The common people need to hear and sing the Word of God in their own language, so that they might be edified. (Before the Reformation such singing as had been done in Churches was in Latin and sung by choirs).

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"Let everything be done so that the Word of God may have free course." Luther loved to cite examples like Moses who praised God in song following the crossing of the Red Sea, and David who composed many of the Psalms. "Music is a vehicle for proclaiming the Word of God" declared Luther.

Urging pastors to write German hymns based on the Psalms, Luther advised "use the simplest and most common words, preserve the pure teaching of God's Word, and keep the meaning as close to the Psalm as possible."

Luther wrote a variety of hymns, intended for Church services and for devotions at home. To teach the Catechism, he wrote two hymns on the Ten Commandments, a hymn for the Apostles' Creed, one for the Lord's Prayer and others for baptism and the Lord's Supper. Through these hymns, Luther demonstrated his on-going desire to teach the Faith, especially to children.
In 1527, during one of the most trying times of Luther's life, (he suffered severe illness for 8 months of that year) with his entire body in pain, the plague had erupted in Wittenberg and he watched many friends die. Then his own son became ill. Even though his wife was pregnant, Luther's house was transformed into a hospital. During that horrific year, surrounded by sickness and death, Luther took time to remember the 10th anniversary of his publication against indulgences. A Mighty Fortress is our God, based on Psalm 46, was composed during this time of severe trial. It has endured as one of the most popular and most translated hymns in history: "And though this world with devils filled, should threatened to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed, His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim? We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure, one little Word shall fell him."

Luther made singing a central part of Protestant worship. He dispensed with the choir and assigned all singing to the congregation. Luther would often call the whole congregation into the church during the week for congregational rehearsals so that the people could learn new hymns.

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." Psalm 150:6


The Reformation and Science

Modern Science as a discipline is a fruit of the Reformation. As Francis Bacon, the father of the scientific method, once put it: "There are two books laid before us to study; to prevent us falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power."

Historian Robert G. Frank points out: "The predominant forms of scientific activity can be shown to be a direct outgrowth of a Puritan ideology."

The great astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), the founder of Celestial Mechanics declared: "My wish is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the external world in like manner within me." Kepler was a "brilliant mathematician and astronomer, he contributed to the scientific revolution with his work on the planetary orbits, laws of motion and the scientific method. Kepler's accomplishments formed the foundation of modern theoretical astronomy."

Kepler saw astronomy as a glimpse of God's glory. Kepler argued: "Truth in religion is based on the Word of God in Scripture, while truth in natural science is based on evidence and reason." Kepler viewed all of science as man attempting to "think God's thoughts after Him." Kepler was the father of the modern satellite, and of modern space travel.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the father of calculus and dynamics, was a scientific genius and a dedicated Christian. Newton formulated the theory of gravitation and the laws of motion. He discovered that white light is composed of the colours of the spectrum. He made vital contributions to mathematics, astronomy and physics. Newton maintained that there were two key sources of knowledge - one revealed in the Bible and the other revealed in nature. Newton believed that in order to "truly know the Creator, one must study the natural order of things." Newton dedicated his life to know the Word of God (the Bible) and to know the works of God (creation).

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) made vital contributions to mathematics and technology that helped with the development of the computer. Pascal invented the first adding machine. In his honour, a computer language is named after Pascal.

Charles Babbage (1792-1871), the father of modern day computer science, described the world as a great computer, and God as the programmer. Babbage was essentially a mathematician and regarded mathematics as the best preliminary preparation for all other branches of human knowledge. He believed that the study of the works of nature, with scientific precision, was a necessary and indispensable preparation for the understanding and interpreting their testimony of the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Author.

Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872) was the man responsible for the development of the modern telegraph and the Morse Code. This was one of the greatest innovations in the world of communication. Samuel deeply absorbed his family's Calvinism, which he eventually translated and applied to all his scientific work. In 1844, he astonished the US Congress, gathered in the Supreme Court chamber, by sending words from Numbers 23:23: "What hath God wrought?" The first inter-city telegraph line in the world communicated these Words of Scripture to inaugurate this great invention. Morse, as an inventor, saw his work as a service to the Lord. He laid the foundations for the development of modern communications.

In the realm of physics, Sir Michael Faraday is acknowledged as one of the greatest scientists of all times. He discovered electro-magnetic induction, without which we could have no motors or engines. He invented the generator. Faraday was a devout Christian who declared: "The Bible, and it alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, is the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all times and in all circumstances. Faith in the Divinity and work of Christ is the gift of God and the evidence of this faith is obedience to the commandments of Christ."

Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest scientists of all times, formulated the metric temperature scale. He formulated the science of thermodynamics, giving us the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Lord Kelvin was the first scientist who used the concept of energy. He declared: "With regard to the origin of life, science positively affirms Creative power."

Joseph Lister, the English surgeon who developed antiseptic surgery and the use of chemical disinfectants, stated: "I am a believer in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity."

Karl von Linnaeus (1707-1778) was the pioneer of modern botany. He laid the foundation of natural history by devising a system of classification whereby any plant or animal could be identified and related to an overall plan. He introduced the method of naming each type of living being with universal terms that could be recognised in any language. He used the Bible to provide the framework for scientific classification of plants and animals.

James Simpson (1811-1870), the founder of gynaecology and anaesthetics, was inspired by the Scriptural passage that God had made Adam fall into a deep sleep before taking the rib from him, to develop chloroform, and pioneer the beginnings of modern surgical anaesthetics. Before this, operations were conducted on conscious patients.

Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), the father of modern oceanography and hydrology, derived many of his ideas from the Bible. He was the first person to chart shipping routes throughout the world, pioneered the establishment of sea-lanes and made possible the laying of electric cables across the ocean floor. Maury was inspired by a verse from the Bible (Psalm 8:8, which speaks of the fish that passed through "the paths of the seas"). Maury declared that: "The Bible is true and science is true … the Bible is authority for everything it touches … God is the Great Architect Who planned it all."

It has been pointed out that science could not have developed amongst those who worship Allah, because of Islam's fatalism. Nor could science have been birthed from Hinduism or Buddhism, because of their belief that the world is an illusion. Neither could modern science have risen in our modern humanistic culture, because of the humanist's belief that life is irrational and illogical. By rejecting the notion of absolutes, humanists reject the very foundation of science. If there are no absolutes in nature, then results in experimentation can only be relative. If everything is relative, then engineering, and other branches of science, becomes impossible.

A proper, philosophical base for investigating the universe was needed, and only the Christian doctrine of Creation has provided that base. The Creator established Laws for people and Laws for the natural world. A created universe was expected to have design, order and purpose. Man using his created, rational mind, could study this ordered universe in a rational way and seek to discover its laws. Modern science is based upon this assumption of scientific law. In addition, the moral laws given by the Creator established the ethical basis for science. Scientists must be honest and truthful. If this universe were not created, if it is merely the product of chance, then no intelligence would be involved. There could be no reason to expect such a universe to operate in a rational or consistent way. Man's mind would also be the product of chance and would not be capable of reason or logic. Hence, a materialistic philosophy could not provide any foundation for science. Many ardent atheists dominate science today, but they are working off the foundations and pre-suppositions of Christianity.
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The irrefutable fact is that Christianity gave birth to modern science. The scientific revolution began in the Protestant Reformation and the Bible played a vital part in the development of scientific discovery. Every major branch of science was developed by a Bible-believing Christian. The Bible essentially created science.

When we get into a car, start the engine, turn on the lights, drive to hospital, receive an anaesthetic before an operation, and have an effective operation done in a germ-free environment, we need to remember that we owe it to the Reformation. As Isaac Watts declared in his great Christmas carol: "Joy to the World", Jesus makes His blessings flow "far as the curse is found."

"No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the curse is found."

The Reformation and Education

The phenomenon of education for the masses has its roots in Christianity. Christianity is a teaching religion. The greatest universities worldwide were started by Christians in fulfilment of the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The roots of education for the common person goes back to the Reformation, and, especially, to John Calvin.

"The modern idea of popular education - that is, education for everyone - first arose in Europe during the Protestant Reformation." (Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld - Is Public Education necessary?)

American educator, Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld, came to Christ through reading Calvin's Institutes of the Christian religion. As Blumenfeld did his research on education, he found that, when it came to the concept of education for the common man, all roads led to Calvin. It was as he read the primary documents, that he came to place his faith in Christ.

"Wherever Calvinism has gone, it has carried the school with it and has given a powerful impulse to popular education. It is a system which demands intellectual manhood. In fact, we say that its very existence is tied up with education of the people." (Dr. Loraine Boettner - The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination).

Calvin's Academy at Geneva was the model for many of the early colleges and universities established by the Puritans and their successors in America.

Calvin advocated that the purpose of education is for people to know God and to glorify Him as God - that in our vocation and in our life we might know "the knowledge of God, the Creator and Redeemer." The content of education must begin with the Scriptures, and continue into God's Creation.

In Geneva, Calvin promoted education for everyone, which has become the pattern for our day. When John Knox fled from Scotland and sought freedom from persecution in Geneva, he declared that Geneva had become the greatest school of Christ since the time of the Apostles.

Calvin emphasised the importance of education having moral relevance. Calvin also was insistent that it was the parents' responsibility to educate their children. Therefore the control of education should remain with the parents.

Of America's first 126 universities, 123 were Christian. This included Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.

The Reformation also produced some of the greatest works of literature. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was one of the world's greatest writers. Scriptural quotes and Biblical images from the Geneva Bible permeate Shakespeare's writings.

Similarly, John Bunyan (1628-1688) gave the world one of the greatest novels ever written - Pilgrim's Progress. This parable of the Christian life is one of the all-time most published and widely read books in the history of the world.

John Milton (1608-1674) author of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained was the secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and also a Puritan.

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Many music critics declare that Bach was the greatest musician that ever lived. J.S. Bach was an unsurpassed genius, and is acknowledged as the father of modern music. He left no musical form as he found it, says one critic. On the other hand, with every form he touched, he seemed to have said the last word. Bach's teaching notebooks and violin books have been the basis for music theory and practice ever since. Johan Sebastian Bach was a Protestant Christian, a Lutheran. Most of his library consisted of Protestant writings, including all of Luther's writings. Bach taught his pupils that music is an act of worship and all musicians need to commit their talents to the Lord Jesus Christ.

As one critic said: "Bach is to music what Shakespeare is to literature. They are both the greatest." And they were both Protestant Christians.


Free Enterprise and the Work Ethic

Along with some of the greatest art and literature, the Reformation brought about the greatest industrial advances and prosperity ever experienced in history.

The Protestant work ethic, which helped to bring about great prosperity in Western Europe and North America, arose mostly through the Protestant Reformers - particularly John Calvin. "The most dynamic businessmen were to be found in Protestant Holland and the most vigorous industrial growth in Protestant England, both states heavily tinctured with Calvinism." (Historian Richard Dunn).

Max Webber, in his famous book: "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1905), attributed the Capitalist Revolution to Calvinism, its worldly asceticism and Protestant work ethic.

Calvin upheld the right of private ownership of property, taught the Biblical concept of stewardship, promoted free enterprise and freed money from the bondage to which it had been held for centuries by the forbidding of interest being charged. By allowing interest and promoting the work ethic, Calvin unleashed all the powers that capitalism has produced. As a result, the free enterprise system has generated the highest standards of living, the longest life expectancy and the greatest advances in industry and medicine ever experienced in history.

For these and so many other reasons, the Reformation in Europe during the 16th century has to be seen as one of the most important epochs in the history of the world. The Reformation gave us the Bible - now freely available in our own languages. The Reformation also pioneered the now-almost universally acknowledged principles of religious freedom, liberty of conscience, the rule of law, separation of powers and constitutionally limited Republics. All of these foundational principles were unthinkable before the Reformation. The Reformers emphasis on God's sovereignty, that Scripture alone is the final authority, that Christ alone is the head of the Church, that justification is by God's grace, on the basis of the finished work of Christ, received by grace alone. Their teachings on the depravity of man, the Covenant and Church government has influenced law and liberty throughout the Western world and beyond. All of us are beneficiaries of this tremendous movement for Faith and Freedom. It is time that we re-examined the history and the principles of the Reformation.

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." Martin Luther

Dr. Peter Hammond
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Source:http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/howreformation_changedworld.htm
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Babylon the Great (Part 2)

Babylon the Great (Part 2)Or, The Coming Destruction of the One World Religion


The Reformation and the Church of Rome

"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH"
(Revelation 17:5).


by Tom Stewart

Preface

In the Apocalypse-- the Book of Revelation-- the Apostle John was directed to align Nimrod's Babylon with the finally destroyed Babylon of Daniel's 70th Week (Daniel 9:27), which indicates a clear line of succession for Babylon the Great. "And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Revelation 17:5). It has always been, is, and will always be right for those who name "the Name of Christ [to] depart from iniquity" (2Timothy 2:19) by separating themselves from Babylon the Great.

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2Corinthians 6:17).

Pastor Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899)-- a former Roman Catholic priest, who for 25 years zealously promoted Catholicism in Canada and the United States of America-- offered us this clue to the identity of Babylon the Great in the Dedication of his book, "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome" (1886): "Rome is the great danger ahead for the Church of Christ, and you do not understand it enough... The atmosphere of light, honesty, truth, and holiness in which you are born, and which you have breathed since your infancy, makes it almost impossible for you to realize the dark mysteries of idolatry, immorality, degrading slavery, hatred of the Word of God, concealed behind the walls of that Modern Babylon [WStS emphasis added]... It is that ignorance which paves the way to the triumph of Rome, in a near future, if there is not a complete change in your views on that subject... It is that ignorance which paralyses the arm of the Church of Christ, and makes the glorious word "Protestant" senseless, almost a dead and ridiculous word. For who does really protest against Rome today? where are those who sound the trumpet of alarm?... modern Protestants have not only forgotten what Rome was, what she is, and what she will for ever be; the most irreconcilable and powerful enemy of the Gospel of Christ; but they consider her almost as a branch of the church whose corner stone is Christ." "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure" (2Timothy 2:19). And, "I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).


[Read in Chiniquy's substantial work, "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome" ---New Window, his firsthand insights into the workings of the Church of Rome, and see if indeed the "leopard [has changed] his spots" (Jeremiah 13:23).]


History of Babylon the Great: Baal Worship Confronts the Early Church

After the Jews returned from their Babylonian Captivity, Baal worship was not one of the sins with which their rebuffed Messiah would later condemn them. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 12:29). Instead, the LORD Jesus Christ cried out against the hypocrisy of a superficially righteous nation. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation" (Matthew 23:14). But, with Israel's rejection of the Messiaship of the LORD Jesus, the attention of the Church was turned to the conversion of the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul stated well the sentiment. "27 For the heart of this people [Israel] is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it" (Acts 28:27-28).

However, the First Century Church was already dwelling in the midst of a superstitious and idolatrous environment, which also traced much of their religious practices back to Babylon. For example, the Church at Pergamos in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) had a conflict with some adhering to the "doctrine of Balaam" (Revelation 2:14)-- remembering that Balaam introduced Baal worship to Israel. [See the "History of Babylon the Great: Baal Worship Plagues the People of God" ---New Window section of our article, "Babylon the Great (Part 1)" ---New Window, to see Balaam's connection to Israel's Baal worship.] "I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast My Name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth" (2:13).

The Church was never intended by its Head, the LORD Jesus Christ, to coexist with the world's religions as simply part of the scenery of a pagan Mars Hill. Jesus affirmed, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6). The Great Commission is to convert the world to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by moral persuasion through the influence of the Holy Spirit. "19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matthew 28:19-20).

Either the Church would convert the world, or the world would convert the Church. "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad" (Matthew 12:30). It was obvious that the LORD Jesus Christ was intended from antiquity to be the Victor. "7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for Thy possession" (Psalm 2:7-8). If the Church would not rely upon the saving and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, then the battle must necessarily be decided in favor of the enemy, which would still be, Babylon the Great. "12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).

James A. Wylie's "History of Protestantism" (1878) observed how the Church began to neglect the "Light unto [their] path" (Psalm 119:105) and slip into the corruption of Babylon the Great. "From the fourth century the corruptions of the Christian Church continued to make marked and rapid progress. The Bible began to be hidden from the people. And in proportion as the light, which is the surest guarantee of liberty, was withdrawn, the clergy usurped authority over the members of the Church" (Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 16). The Apostle John recorded in the Revelation that the Church at Pergamos, which was infected by the pro-Baal worship policies of Balaam, had those who were also tolerating the "doctrine of the Nicolaitans" (Revelation 2:15). "Nicolaitans" comes from two Greek words, nikao (to conquer) and laos (the people), which denote "conquering the people", i.e., through a system of priestcraft, which elevated the "clergy" above the "laity".

The human builders of the Living Body of the Church, which is the "flock of God" (1Peter 5:2), were inevitably tempted into the old, pagan ways of Babylon the Great. "While the, 'living oracles' [Scripture] were neglected, the zeal of the clergy began to spend itself upon rites and ceremonies borrowed from the pagans. These were multiplied to such a degree, that [even] Augustine complained that they were 'less tolerable than the yoke of the Jews under the law.'" (Wylie, "History of Protestantism", Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 18). Though the "cords of the wicked" (Psalm 129:4), i.e., pagan rites and ceremonies, may be inviting; like "whoredom and wine" (Hosea 4:11), "whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1).

As the Roman Empire declined, the power of the Bishop of Rome increased. "The [Roman] emperor saluted him as Father; foreign Churches sustained him as judge in their disputes... till at last the presbyter of Rome... raised his seat above his equals, mounted the throne of the patriarch, and exercised lordship over the heritage of Christ" (Wylie, "History of Protestantism"Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 18). "2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away" (1Peter 5:2-4).



History of Babylon the Great: John Wycliffe Prepares the Reformation

John Wycliffe (1324-1384) was called by James A. Wylie, the "Forerunner of all the Reformers, and the Father of all the Reformations of Christendom" ("History of Protestantism", Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 15, p. 206). "A Good Name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1). Those who are familiar with the name of Wycliffe, associate him with the translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue. "O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the Word of the LORD" (Jeremiah 22:29). In a time in which the Church of Rome, dictated dogma and interpretation of the Word of God, the common man had no access to the Scriptures but what the priests of Rome allowed. "Now for a long season Israel hath been without the True God, and without a teaching priest, and without Law" (2Chronicles 15:3).

Though Wycliffe's name is associated with the return to the Scriptures that characterized the Reformation, John Wycliffe's initial renown was as a skilled debater and a philosopher of scholasticism-- the medieval method of thought that applied pagan Aristotelian ideas to the Church of Rome's doctrine. "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth" (2Timothy 3:7). In 1348, God providentially reorganized the affairs of Europe, England, and Wycliffe through the onslaught of the Black Death-- the bubonic plague that arose out of Asia, swept over Europe, killing as much as half the population by 1350. "I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the LORD" (Amos 4:10). "Bradwardine [mathematician and astronomer, who had embraced the study of the Word of God, and Its doctrines of free grace] had already brought him [Wycliffe] to the Bible, the plague brought him to it a second time; and now, doubtless, he searched its page more earnestly than ever. He came to it, not as the theologian, seeking in it a deeper wisdom than any mystery which the scholastic philosophy could open to him; nor as the scholar, to refine his taste by its pure models, and enrich his understanding by the sublimity of its doctrines; nor even as the polemic, in search of weapons wherewith, to assail the dominant superstitions; he now came to the Bible as a lost sinner, seeking how he might be saved. Nearer every day came the messenger of the Almighty. The shadow that messenger cast before him was hourly deepening; and we can hear the young student, who doubtless in that hour felt the barrenness and insufficiency of the philosophy of the schools, lifting up with increasing vehemency the cry, 'Who shall deliver me from the wrath to come?'" (Wylie, "History of Protestantism", Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 1, p. 104).

In 1205, King John I of England became embroiled with the English representatives of the Church of Rome as to the filling of the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Consequently, both disputants appealed to the Roman pontiff, Innocent III, for resolution. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1Peter 5:8). Pope Innocent III immediately saw the precedent of a secular king appealing to the Papal See for permission to appoint to an ecclesiastical post, a post viewed second in power to only the throne of England. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Romans 6:16). The result was that Innocent contradicted all, appointed an entirely different man, and incurred King John's defiance. Innocent responded by interdicting John and thus, the whole of England. To a nation already wrapped in the superstition of Rome, this was unbearable. After 2 years, on May 15th 1213, King John of England promised unreserved submission of himself to the Papal See.

The English barons recognized that they were now pledged to be the vassals or slaves of the Pope, and they revolted. On June 15th 1215, they forced King John I to sign the Magna Carta-- which was the constitutional restriction of government, and a roadblock to Papal absolutism-- at Runnymede. "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will" (Daniel 4:25). Predictably, the Pope anathamatized the rebels and declared the Magna Carta to be null and void. This resistance to the Papacy was marked by a rise in the power and wealth of England. "When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase" (Proverbs 28:28).

More than 100 years after the signing of the Magna Carta, John Wycliffe found himself a teacher and mentor of many of those who walked in the tradition of the English barons who stood against the absolutism of King John I and Pope Innocent III at Runnymede. "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men" (Proverbs 18:16). He was appointed a royal chaplain of King Edward III, and was singled out to reply to the claims of a monk, who defended the claims of Pope Urban V. The monk argued that "as vicar of Christ, the Pope is the feudal superior of monarchs, and the lord paramount of their kingdoms. Thence he deduced the following conclusions: — that all sovereigns owe him obedience and tribute; that vassalage was specially due from the English monarch in consequence of the surrender of the kingdom to the Pope by John" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 120). Wycliffe responded: "A third and more of England is in the hands of the Pope. There cannot be two temporal sovereigns in one country; either Edward is king or Urban is king. We make our choice. We accept Edward of England and refuse Urban of Rome" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 121). Though Wycliffe's response did not face the nation of England with the sovereign claim of the Almighty over England, i.e., "all souls are Mine" (Ezekiel 18:4), as opposed to the claims of the Papacy, it did give Wycliffe the platform to later promote the Reformation. And, the foundation of that Reformation was the giving of the Scriptures to the common man in his own language, i.e., the "Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2Timothy 3:15).

The closing chapters of John Wycliffe's life belong to the translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue. Wycliffe's "On the Truth and Meaning of Scripture" advocated "'the supreme authority of Scripture,' 'the right of private judgment,' and that 'Christ's law sufficeth by itself to rule Christ's Church.' This was to discrown the Pope, and to raze the foundations of his kingdom. Here he drops the first hint of his purpose to translate the Bible into the English vernacular — a work which was to be the crown of his labours" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 10, p. 174). Today, as the availability of the Scriptures is so common to so much of the world-- and Its value discounted accordingly-- we find it difficult to envision a world without access to the Bible. "Thy Words were found, and I did eat Them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jeremiah 15:16).

As a good Latin scholar, John Wycliffe set about translating into common English Jerome's Latin Vulgate (c. 400 AD). In four years time, Wycliffe completed his work (1382); but, Johann Gutenberg's printing of the first book-- the Gutenberg Bible (1455)-- was yet to be for 73 years. Enlisting the help of many willing and skilled copyists, Wycliffe's English Bible obtained a wide circulation. "So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: It shall not return unto Me void, but It shall accomplish that which I please, and It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent It" (Isaiah 55:11). Though anathematized as a heretic-- to have broken into the sanctuary of God, stolen the sacred jewels, and given them to be trampled under the feet of swine-- Wycliffe lifted the Banner of Truth, which exalts Him Who Is The Truth (John 14:6); and thus, took away from Rome, its monopoly on the Word of God. This enabled the common man to be his own priest. "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous Light" (1Peter 2:9). Thus, John Wycliffe completed his earthly sojourn on December 31st 1384, "in a good old age, full of days" (1Chronicles 29:28). Only after his death was he condemned by the Council of Constance (1415), and his body was ordered exhumed and burned. But, "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).



History of Babylon the Great: The Conversion of Martin Luther

Though Martin Luther (1483-1546) came from the household of a simple working man; his father, John Luther-- a German miner by trade-- saw to it that Martin had the opportunity of education. With great diligence on the part of the young Luther, he eventually attained graduation from Erfurt University as a Doctor of Philosophy (1505). "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). Since Luther had taken the opportunity to avail himself of the University's library, he came into his first contact with the Bible-- an all but inaccessible Book to the common man-- still, It is "able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2Timothy 3:15). His attraction and fascination for the Scriptures caused him to be convicted of his own sin. "He was returning to Erfurt, and was now near the city gate, when suddenly black clouds gathered overhead, and it began to thunder and lighten in an awful manner. A bolt fell at his feet. Some accounts say that he was thrown down. The Great Judge, he thought, had descended in this cloud, and he lay momentarily expecting death. In his terror he vowed that should God spare him he would devote his life to His service" (James A. Wylie, "History of Protestantism", Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 2, p. 365). "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33).

Martin Luther described his life-- prior to his ordination into the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church (1507)-- as an Augustinian monk (1505-1507), thus: "If ever [a] monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works, I should certainly have been entitled to it" (Wylie, Vol. 1, Book 5, Chapter 3, p. 371). "Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the Law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). James Wylie described Luther's monkish struggle to find peace with God: "He shrank from the sight of his own vileness... he trembled when he thought of the holiness of God. It was not the sweet promise of mercy, but the fiery threatening of the Law, on which he dwelt. 'Who may abide the day of His Coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth?' [Malachi 3:2]" (Wylie, Vol. 1, Book 5, Chapter 4, p. 374).

John Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the Augustines in Germany, was unique in that he was one who understood God's Simple Plan of Salvation; and providentially, God led him to counsel Luther concerning that "plain path" (Psalm 27:11) of salvation. "'I cannot and dare not come to God,' replied Luther, in effect, 'till I am a better man; I have not yet repented sufficiently.' 'A better man!' would the Vicar-General say in effect; 'Christ came to save not good men, but sinners. ['They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick' (Luke 5:31).] Love God, and you will have repented; there is no real repentance that does not begin in the love of God ['We love Him, because He first loved us' (1John 4:19)]; and there is no love to God that does not take its rise in all apprehension of that mercy which offers to sinners freedom from sin through the blood of Christ.' 'Faith in the mercies of God!' ['Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost' (Titus 3:5).]" (Wylie, Vol. 1, Book 5, Chapter 4, p. 375). Before Staupitz departed from Luther, he gave him the gift of a Bible. Staupitz said, "Let the study of the Scriptures be your favorite occupation" (Wylie, Vol. 1, Book 5, Chapter 4, p. 375). "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

Wylie continues the account of how Martin Luther came to salvation in "full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22). "Luther's faith was as yet but as a grain of mustard-seed. After Staupitz had taken leave of him he again turned his eye from the Savior to himself; the clouds of despondency and fear that instant gathered; and his old conflicts, though not with the same violence, were renewed. He fell ill, and in his sore sickness he lay at the gates of death. It pleased God on this bed, and by a very humble instrument, to complete the change which the Vicar-General had commenced. An aged brother-monk who, as Luther afterwards said, was doubtless a true Christian though he wore 'the cowl of damnation,' came to his bedside, and began to recite with much simplicity and earnestness the Apostle's Creed, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins.' Luther repeated after him in feeble accents, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins.' 'Nay,' said the monk, 'you are to believe not merely in the forgiveness of David's sins, and of Peter's sins; you must believe in the forgiveness of your own sins.'"

"['12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His Dear Son: 14 In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins' (Colossians 1:12-14).] The decisive Words had been spoken. A ray of Light had penetrated the darkness that encompassed Luther. He saw it all: the whole Gospel in a single phrase, the forgiveness of sins — not the payment, but the forgiveness" (Wylie, Vol. 1, Book 4, Chapter 5, p. 375-376). "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18). "In this cell at Erfurt died Martin Luther the monk, and in this cell was born Martin Luther the Christian, and the birth of Luther the Christian was the birth of the Reformation in Germany" (Wylie, Vol. 1, Book 4, Chapter 5, p. 376). The Kingdom of God that flowered from that Reformation in Germany "is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it" (Luke 13:19).



History of Babylon the Great: Luther vs. the Church of Rome

In 1517, a "Dominican monk, named John Diezel, or Tetzel, the son of a goldsmith of Leipsic" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 8, p. 400) declared: "Indulgences avail not only for the living but for the dead" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 8, p. 402). Pope Boniface VIII had enacted this doctrine two centuries before; but, Pope Leo X was now using it and Tetzel to restore the empty coffers of the Vatican. And, Tetzel went on to make particular application of the dogma of indulgences. "Priest, noble, merchant, wife, youth, maiden, do you not hear your parents and your other friends who are dead, and who cry from the bottom of the abyss: 'We are suffering horrible torments! A trifling alms would deliver us; you can give it, and you will not?'" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 8, p. 402). Tetzel then delivered these chilling words. "At the very instant that the money rattles at the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory, and flies liberated to heaven. Now you can ransom so many souls, stiff-necked and thoughtless man; with twelve groats you can deliver your father from purgatory, and you are ungrateful enough not to save him! I shall be justified in the Day of Judgment; but you — you will be punished so much the more severely for having neglected so great salvation. I declare to you, though you have but a single coat, you ought to strip it off and sell it, in order to obtain this grace... The Lord our God no longer reigns, he has resigned all power to the Pope." (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 8, p. 402). "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (2Peter 2:3).

These indulgences were sold by Tetzel-- "whose damnation is just" (Romans 3:8)-- in the form of a letter: "May our Lord Jesus Christ have pity on thee, N. N., and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by virtue of the apostolic power which has been confided to me, do absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censures, judgments, and penalties which thou mayest have merited, and from all excesses, sins, and crimes which thou mayest have committed, however great or enormous they may be, and for whatsoever cause, even though they had been reserved to our most Holy Father the Pope and the Apostolic See. I efface all attainders of unfitness and all marks of infamy thou mayest have drawn on thee on this occasion; I remit the punishment thou shouldest have had to endure in purgatory; I make thee anew a participator in the Sacraments of the Church; I incorporate thee afresh in the communion of the saints; and I reinstate thee in the innocence and purity in which thou wast at the hour of thy baptism; so that, at the hour of thy death, the gate through which is the entrance to the place of torments and punishments shall be closed against thee, and that which leads to the Paradise of joy shall be open. And shouldest thou be spared long, this grace shall remain immutable to the time of thy last end. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen... Brother John Tetzel, Commissioner, has signed it with his own hand." (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 8, pp. 403-404).

At that time, Luther was a university professor, preacher, and confessor; since, he still ignorantly held allegiance to the Church of Rome. "One day, as he sat in the confessional, some citizens of Wittemberg came before him, and confessed having committed thefts, adulteries, and other heinous sins. 'You must abandon your evil courses,' said Luther, 'otherwise I cannot absolve you.' To his surprise and grief, they replied that they had no thought of leaving off their sins; that this was not in the least necessary, inasmuch as these sins were already pardoned, and they themselves secured against the punishment of them. The deluded people would thereupon pull out the indulgence papers of Tetzel, and show them in testimony of their innocence. Luther could only tell them that these papers were worthless, that they must repent, and be forgiven of God, otherwise they should perish everlastingly" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 9, p. 408). "In Whom [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7). In effect, Luther differed more widely with the Church of Rome than he was aware of.

On October 31st 1517, the day before the Festival of All Saints, at noon Luther strode to the castle-church with the throngs of people, and nailed a document to the church's door-- the celebrated 95 Theses on the doctrine of indulgences. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12). Luther was beginning to contend with the whole Papal system. Briefly,

Article 6 stated: "The Pope cannot remit any condemnation, but can only declare and confirm the remission that God himself has given", i.e., "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine Own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isaiah 43:25).


Article 8 declared: "The laws of ecclesiastical penance can be imposed only on the living, and in no wise respect the dead", i.e., "There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it" (1John 5:16).


Article 37 announced: "Every true Christian, dead or living, is a partaker of all the blessings of Christ, or of the Church, by the gift of God, and without any letter of indulgence", i.e., "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).


Article 51 stated: "We should teach Christians that the Pope (as it is his duty) would distribute his own money to the poor, whom the indulgence-sellers are now stripping of their last farthing, even were he compelled to sell the Mother Church of St. Peter", i.e., "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you" (2Corinthians 12:15).


Article 52 remonstrated: "To hope to be saved by indulgences is a lying and an empty hope, although even the commissary of indulgences — nay, further, the Pope himself — should pledge their souls to guarantee it", i.e., "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers" (1Peter 1:18).
On the night before the very day that Martin Luther affixed his 95 Theses to the church door of Wittenburg, the Elector Frederick of Saxony-- where Luther abode-- had a dream, which he related the next morning to his brother, Duke John. Wylie relates that the dream was "recorded by all the chroniclers of the time" (Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 9, p. 413). "Brother, I must tell you a dream which I had last night, and the meaning of which I should like much to know. It is so deeply impressed on my mind, that I will never forget it, were I to live a thousand years. For I dreamed it thrice, and each time with new circumstances... Having gone to bed last night, fatigued and out of spirits, I fell asleep shortly after my prayer, and slept calmly for about two hours and a half; I then awoke, and continued awake to midnight, all sorts of thoughts passing through my mind. Among other things, I thought how I was to observe the Feast of All Saints. I prayed for the poor souls in purgatory; and supplicated God to guide me, my counsels, and my people according to truth."

"I again fell asleep, and then dreamed that Almighty God sent me a monk, who was a true son of the Apostle Paul. All the saints accompanied him by order of God, in order to bear testimony before me, and to declare that he did not come to contrive any plot, but that all that he did was according to the will of God. They asked me to have the goodness graciously to permit him to write something on the door of the church of the Castle of Wittemberg. This I granted through my chancellor. Thereupon the monk went to the church, and began to write in such large characters that I could read the writing at Schweinitz. The pen which he used was so large that its end reached as far as Rome, where it pierced the ears of a lion that was crouching there, and caused the triple crown upon the head of the Pope to shake. All the cardinals and princes, running hastily up, tried to prevent it from falling. You and I, brother, wished also to assist, and I stretched out my arm; — but at this moment I awoke, with my arm in the air, quite amazed, and very much enraged at the monk for not managing his pen better. I recollected myself a little; it was only a dream."

"I was still half asleep, and once more closed my eyes. The dream returned. The lion, still annoyed by the pen, began to roar with all his might, so much so that the whole city of Rome, and all the States of the Holy Empire, ran to see what the matter was. The Pope requested them to oppose this monk, and applied particularly to me, on account of his being in my country. I again awoke, repeated the Lord's prayer, entreated God to preserve his Holiness, and once more fell asleep. Then I dreamed that all the princes of the Empire, and we among them, hastened to Rome, and strove, one after another, to break the pen; but the more we tried the stiffer it became, sounding as if it had been made of iron. We at length desisted. I then asked the monk (for I was sometimes at Rome, and sometimes at Wittemberg) where he got this pen, and why it was so strong. 'The pen,' replied he, 'belonged to an old goose of Bohemia, a hundred years old. I got it from one of my old schoolmasters. As to its strength, it is owing to the impossibility of depriving it of its pith or marrow; and I am quite astonished at it myself.' Suddenly I heard a loud noise — a large number of other pens had sprung out of the long pen of the monk. I awoke a third time: it was daylight" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 5, Chapter 9, pp. 413-415). Wylie then added, "The elector has hardly made an end of telling his dream when the monk comes with his hammer to interpret it" (p. 415). "What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh" (Genesis 41:28).

Luther the Reformer began to develop doctrinally as he carefully considered the Word of God. "I am a stranger in the Earth: hide not Thy commandments from me" (Psalm 119:19). As many of Luther's old friends began to melt away, new acquaintances came to his aid. When told that Luther's life was in danger, powerful German barons, i.e., Sylvester of Schaumburg, Francis of Sickingen, and Ulrich of Hutten, offered Luther their sword of protection-- as well as opposition to Papal tyranny. Ulrich even proposed to crush the fury of the devil by the force of arms-- to which Luther recoiled. Luther said, "I will not have recourse to arms and bloodshed in defense of the Gospel. It was by the Word that the Church was founded, and by the Word also it shall be re-established" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 1, p. 474). "Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world: if My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight" (John 18:36).

On June 15th 1520, a papal bull of excommunication was issued against Martin Luther. Within the space of 60 days, any town where Luther resided would be interdicted. Luther was to be banished by all princes and magistrates, or sent to Rome. "Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? and there is none upon Earth that I desire beside Thee" (Psalm 73:25). Pope Leo X sent a letter to the Elector Frederick of Saxony, hoping to gain his support against Luther; but Frederick had now rejected Romanism and determined to protect Luther. "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will" (Proverbs 21:1).

While waiting for the papal bull to reach him, Luther published "The Babylonish Captivity of the Church" on October 6th 1520. Luther wrote, "I denied that the Papacy was of Divine origin, but I granted that it was of human right. Now, after reading all the subtleties on which these gentry have set up their idol, I know that the Papacy is none other than the kingdom of Babylon, and the violence of Nimrod the mighty hunter [WStS emphasis]. I therefore beseech all my friends and all the booksellers to burn the books that I have written on this subject, and to substitute this one proposition in their place: The Papacy is a general chase led by the Roman bishop to catch and destroy souls" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 2, p. 489). Luther understood that Romanism is identified with Babylon the Great. "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right" (Proverbs 20:11).

About this same time (October 1520), Luther wrote a letter to Pope Leo X. The following are excerpts of that letter: "It is true that I have attacked the court of Rome; but neither yourself nor any man living can deny that there is greater corruption in it than was in Sodom and Gomorrah, and that the impiety that prevails makes cure hopeless. Yes, I have been horrified in seeing how, under your name, the poor followers of Christ were deceived… You know it. Rome has for many years been inundating the world with whatever could destroy both soul and body. The Church of Rome, formerly the first in holiness, has become a den of robbers, a place of prostitution, a kingdom of death and hell; so that Antichrist himself, were he to appear, would be unable to increase the amount of wickedness. All this is as clear as day... You should perish by poison even before you could try any remedy. It is all over with the court of Rome. The wrath of God has overtaken and will consume it. It hates counsel—it fears reform—it will not moderate the fury of its ungodliness; and hence it may be justly said of it as of its mother: We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed—forsake her [Jeremiah 51:9]" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 2, pp. 491-492).

Girolamo Aleander, a special envoy of the Papal See, was delegated the task of looking after the affair of Luther. Aleander asked for and received an audience from Frederick of Saxony. Quickly, Aleander pointed out the necessity of the Elector punishing Luther. To this Frederick pointed out that no one had yet refuted Luther, and it would be scandalous to punish a man uncondemned. This was reminiscent of the Apostle Paul's case before Festus, i.e., "It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him" (Acts 25:16). The stage was set for Luther to appear before the Diet of Worms.

Luther was summoned on March 6th 1521 to appear within 21 days before the Diet of Worms, the assemblage that had the power to burn him at the stake. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). On his journey to Worms, he passed through Erfurt, the place of his conversion at the Augustinian monastery. To give you an idea of how mature this former monk had become, hear an excerpt of a sermon from John 20:19- "Peace be unto you." He states: "Philosophers, doctors, and writers have endeavored to teach men the way to obtain everlasting life, and they have not succeeded. I will now tell it to you. There are two kinds of works—works not of ourselves, and these are good: our own works, they are of little worth. One man builds a church; another goes on a pilgrimage to St. Iago of Compostella, or St. Peter's; a third fasts, takes the cowl, and goes bare-foot; another does something else. All these works are nothingness, and will come to naught, for our own works have no virtue in them. But I am now going to tell you what is the true work. God has raised one Man from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might destroy death, expiate sin, and shut the gates of hell. This is the work of salvation. Christ, has vanquished! This is the joyful news! and we are saved by his work, and not by our own... Our Lord Jesus Christ said, 'Peace be unto you! behold my hands'—that is to say, Behold, O man! it is I, I alone, who have taken away thy sins, and ransomed thee; and now thou hast peace, saith the Lord." (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 5, pp. 519-520). Amen, and Amen!

Luther entered Worms on the 16th of April, 1521. Some say he sang a hymn as he approached the city, a hymn which he composed two days earlier-- "'A strong Tower is our God' ['A Mighty Fortress Is Our God']" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 5, p. 521). The next day, Luther was summoned to appear before the Diet. "But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak" (Matthew 10:19). Upon entering the crowded assembly of dignitaries of the states of the Holy Roman Empire, Luther was implored to acknowledge his authorship of some 20 books and retract his opinions. Luther respectfully admitted authorship, but he asked for another day to consider his reply. His opponents felt he was ready to recant, but Luther was desirous of circumstances that would make his reply all the more weighty and irrevocable. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

On the April 18th 1521, Luther made his final reply to the Diet of Worms. He began by admitting again to the authorship of his books on faith and morals, on the exposure of papal usurpations and degeneracy, and against the defenders of error. He invited all to point him to Scripture that would or could correct him. "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the Common Salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints" (Jude 3). Luther then turned the tables on his judges. "In conclusion, he warned this assembly of monarchs of a judgment to come: a judgment not beyond the grave only, but on this side of it: a judgment in time. They were on their trial. They, their kingdoms, their crowns, their dynasties, stood at a great Bar. It was to them the day of visitation; it was now to be determined whether they were to be planted in the earth, whether their thrones should be stable, and their power should continue to flourish, or whether their houses should be razed, and their thrones swept away in a deluge of wrath, in a flood of present evils, and of eternal desolation" (Wylie, Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 6, p. 534). Again, like the Apostle Paul, Luther pricked the conscience of his judges. "For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).

To this, the impatient question returned, Would he, or would he not retract? Luther responded: "'Since your most Serene Majesty, and your High Mightiness, require from me a direct and precise answer, I will give you one, and it is this. I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Councils, because it is clear as day they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless, therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or on plain and clear grounds of reason, so that conscience shall bind me to make acknowledgment of error, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything contrary to conscience.' And then, looking round on the assembly, he said—and the words are among the sublimest in history— 'HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER. MAY GOD HELP ME. AMEN'" (James A. Wylie, "History of Protestantism", Volume 1, Book 6, Chapter 6, pp. 535-536). "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in Truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1Thessalonians 2:13).



Conclusion

Historical proofs such as Alexander Hislop's "The Two Babylons: Or, The Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife" (1853) demonstrate to the willing mind the certain connection of Ancient Babylon to the final form of the One World Religion ruled by the False Prophet, who "causeth the Earth and them which dwell therein to worship" (Revelation 13:12) the Antichrist. Hislop's classic work focuses on "Rome [i.e., the Roman Catholic Church] as the Apocalyptic Babylon". He concludes, "Let every Christian henceforth and for ever treat it as an outcast from the pale of Christianity. Instead of speaking of it as a Christian Church, let it be recognised and regarded as the Mystery of Iniquity, yea, as the very Synagogue of Satan." "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (18:4).

However, though Hislop accurately followed the evolution of Babylon the Great through the history of the Roman Catholic Church, his perspective from the mid-1800's did not forsee the modern development of a one world religion in its final form-- the United Religions, a type of spiritual United Nations, whose charter is scheduled to be signed in June 2000. "And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it" (Isaiah 28:18).

To those who can be warned of the coming judgment and destruction of Babylon the Great: "4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. 5 Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of Hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame" (Nahum 3:4-5). Your professed love for the LORD Jesus Christ should plead for immediate separation from Babylon the Great. "15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith He, shall be one flesh" (1Corinthians 6:15-16).

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Source: http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Timeline/Babylon.The.Great.Part.2.html

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Related:

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1. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Timeline/Babylon.The.Great.Part.1.html
2. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Timeline/Babylon.The.Great.Part.3.html

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