Restoration and apostasy are constants; one or the other is underway at all times. There is never stasis for Christ’s gospel. Apostasy loses, deducts, and subtracts truth. That process of losing light changes truth to error. To prevent salvation, it is not necessary for religion to become utterly corrupt; it is only necessary to change the ordinances and break the covenant.
https://youtu.be/tbspakv2Fyo?si=kjMvaUvZZkMYTBGZ Mormonism started and, in the last years of Joseph Smith’s life, returned to restoring a religion older than Christianity. The Apostle Paul wrote to
Because both Campbellites and Mormons shared the ideal of restoring a pure religion, they were destined to intersect. Campbellite ministers Parley Pratt and Sidney Rigdon began the contact. Rigdon was a dynamic preacher and a trusted follower of Alexander Campbell. Rigdon met the first Mormon missionaries as they passed through Ohio and was impressed enough with their message and the Book of Mormon to investigate the claims. He traveled to New York, met Joseph Smith, and was entirely satisfied. He not only joined the movement but quickly became one of the leaders of the new Mormon church.
Joseph Smith sought to restore primitive Christianity through divine revelation. At the age of 14, he had a divine experience in the woods, similar to Moses and Paul. He claimed that God and angels appeared to him, guiding him to translate an ancient book, the Book of Mormon, by divine power. Smith founded a church, translated new scriptures, and organized communities, all with the goal of restoring what he believed was lost Christianity due to apostasy.
While Roger Williams was patient, awaiting a restoration, Thomas Campbell aimed to actively cause one. A Scottish Presbyterian Minister who migrated to the United States in 1807, Thomas disagreed with Presbyterian teachings, leading to a split. He published a tract in 1809 titled “Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington,” emphasizing the promotion of simple Evangelical Christianity and rejecting human authority and opinions in matters of faith.
The Protestant fathers achieved a great deal of good, but certain elements required for original Christianity couldn’t be reformed back into existence. Reforming a corrupt institution and recovering the original requires more than human effort – it demands God’s involvement and someone sent by God to undertake the work.
The Protestant fathers were able to protest against institutional Christian corruption, reform and improve Christianity, and publish the scriptures to allow the common man to read the words of Christ, prophets, and apostles for the first time. However, what they couldn’t achieve was the restoration of what had been lost. Between the close of the New Testament and the 16th century, Christianity had not merely declined; it had perished. It had become an institutionalized belief system with fixed forms of conducting that system. Professional clergy supported by the tithes and offerings of the believers was universally accepted before and after the Reformation. The church owned property and exercised control, with no separation between Christianity’s right to preach morality and the right to enforce morality. The Protestant Reformation fathers assumed that this was entirely proper.
The Protestant Reformation dramatically impacted the world. Even the target of the protest, Roman Catholicism, was improved by the rebellion. Unchallenged Catholic hegemony over political, economic, and religious life in Europe led naturally and inevitably to abuse. When Protestants gave people a choice, it forced Catholicism to compete. An early result was the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Although The Counter Reformation also had abuses, including the Spanish Inquisition, it also made needed reforms. Catholicism attempted a much-needed return to its spiritual foundation.
Luther’s 95 Theses. Zwingli published his 67th thesis, or criticisms of Catholicism. Unlike Luther’s specific topic of the sale of indulgences, Zwingli attacked Catholicism generally. His first statement directly rejected the 1302 Catholic claim that there was no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church. Zwingli declared, “All who say that the gospel is invalid without the confirmation of the church err and slander God.”
John Calvin was a contemporary of Martin Luther. Calvin’s teachings developed into five Calvinist principles to summarize the core of Christian theology. These five principles are, first, the total depravity of man; second, God’s unconditional election; third, a limited atonement; fourth, irresistible grace; and fifth, the perseverance of the saints. The meaning of these principles can be briefly summarized.
One of the remarkable things throughout history, is the timing of who lives at the same time. It seems as if when God chooses to change the course of human history, His most effective means to accomplish that is to send into the world the right people at the right time to facilitate a revolutionary change in the course of human history. We see that at the time of the American Revolution when there was a gathering of intellectual and moral giants in one generation living in the American colonies: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe, and many others were contemporaries in the British colonies of America. These men agreed it was necessary to both rebel against a distant and unsympathetic monarch and also to replace an unresponsive government with a form of government that guaranteed individual freedom. Every one of them were needed for the revolution to succeed.
The Protestant Reformation is dated from a specific event that happened 500 years ago this coming October on Sunday, October 31, 1517. Martin Luther publicly published his list of 95 criticisms of the Catholic practice of selling indulgences. This document is referred to as the 95 Theses. The 95 Theses are a list of 95 specific criticisms about the corrupt and unscriptural practice of selling indulgences.
Martin Luther displayed his extraordinary courage when he publicly criticized the Catholic Church. Only before his courageous act, Catholic critics had been burned at the stake in Czechoslovakia and in Florence. When Martin Luther decided to openly criticize the church, his decision put his life at risk. This extraordinary courage was a strength shared by the other Protestant Reformation fathers. They all opposed a monolithic political, economic, religious, and even military power regarded by the European continent as the moral guide God had provided. When they opposed it, they confronted the entire culture of their day.
There’s a backstory to the commencement of the Protestant Reformation that, while it runs all the way back to the time of the post-apostolic fathers and following them, the events between the close of the New Testament and the Council of Nicaea. There were more immediate events that showed the obvious need to reform Catholicism. So, this is to discuss those more immediate events.
