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March 7, 2010 |
| When Good Turns Bad | ||
All Christians should expect to experience some persecution because of the faith they hold. These events usually come at the hands of non-believers. But what do we do when the persecution comes from the leaders of our church?
This may seem like an odd question but it has been a recurring theme throughout the church's history. In this lesson we will look at some examples where church leaders have drifted from the truth and persecute those who try to bring them back. When the leaders are the problem the followers are the only ones to correct it, and so they become leaders.
"After Jesus Christ's ascension into heaven, no Christian had ever heard of the 'Catholic' [(meaning all-inclusive / all-embracing)] or the 'Protestant' church. Christ's church was the Church."1 In time it became centered in Rome and became known as the Roman Catholic Church. It grew to be a powerful force in the world and gained the right to enforce its laws, even with the punishment of death when required.
"As time passed, however, the Catholic church strayed from the teachings of Christ and the Bible." This ultimately led to splits in the church that resulted in the creation of the Coptic and Armenian churches in the 5th century and the Orthodox Church early in the 2nd millennium. "The events leading to schism were not always exclusively theological in nature. Cultural, political, and linguistic differences were often inextricably mixed with the theological"2
Originally the gospels and epistles that would become the New Testament were written in languages the people knew. "As time went on, Latin became the language of scholars, and so the Bible was translated into Latin. The common people had no way of reading the Bible and searching for Truth on their own, which meant that most people believed whatever the Pope or their local priest said. This led to a mass deception of the Christian community. It started small, but over time the heresies added up, until Popes were preaching salvation through works, [the doctrine of] Purgatory, the practice of indulgences, transubstantiation, and others. The common people could not challenge the church leaders, because the people themselves did not know what the Bible says."3
"Indulgences, which were granted by the pope, forgave individual sinners not their sins, but the temporal punishment applied to those sins. These indulgences had become big business in much the same way pledge drives have become big business for public television in modern America."4 Many of the great Catholic Church buildings were paid for by the sale of indulgences.
Martin Luther was "a priest and theology professor"5 of the time. He managed to get his hands on a Bible, an item which was rare and valuable at the time. To us it seems strange that a priest would not have a Bible, but that shows the scarcity, a scarcity due to the difficulty of publication at the time. In his readings he came to the realization that many practices of the church were unscriptural, especially indulgences. "Because of [these false teachings], Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to a church door, telling the people the ninety-five reasons why he disagreed with the Roman Catholic Church's practice of indulgences among others."6 It's important to understand that nailing something to the door was the equivalent of posting a message on a bulletin board. It was not an act of defiance.
Luther, as he is usually called, finds himself with a problem similar to the one that Jesus found. Most of the religious elite of Jesus' time, the Pharisees and Sadducees, had become very corrupt. In addition to many other sins and bad behaviors, Jesus accused the Pharisees of living for money.
Luke 16 13"[…] You cannot serve both God and Money." 14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.
In Luther's time we see the same naked desire for money in the church leadership. Luther quoted an indulgence salesman as saying "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs."7
Jesus' approach to confronting the straying Pharisees was as different as possible from Luther's. Because Jesus knew the hearts of the Pharisees, he was able to criticize their motivations and thoughts. Luther could only criticize the actions he saw.
1. What is "Salvation by Works"? What is Purgatory?(Answers on last page)
2. Knowing the power of the church of that time, how would you have felt if you were Martin Luther?
3. What actions would you take to ensure that your interpretation of the scriptures was correct before presenting your reasons why the religious authorities were wrong?
4. How is it that church leaders, the ones who are to be the shepherds, can go so far astray?
"Luther was not a person you would want to have dinner with; he was temperamental, peevish, egomaniacal, and argumentative. But this single-mindedness, this enormous self-confidence and strident belief in the rightness of his arguments, allowed him to stand against opposition, indeed, to harden his position in the face of death by fire, the usual punishment for heretics."
Luther was not alone and he was not the first to recognize the errors of the church and try to get the church to reform. In fact Luther's reforms were only a small part of what many reformers wanted to achieve. "Luther still believed in transubstantiation, a practice that some [had begun] to question. [Other reformers] firmly believed that the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper were symbolic, and did not actually change into the real blood and the real body of Christ"8
"Hans Hillerbrand, [a scholar on Luther], writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly 'searching, rather than doctrinaire.' Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: 'Why does the Pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus [(a wealthy Roman family of note)], build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?'"9
The archbishop of the church where Luther had posted his theses did not respond. Instead he checked them for heresy and forwarded them to Rome, to Pope Leo X. A heresy case was drafted against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. But the Pope was persuaded to have Luther appear in a court at Augsburg, Germany instead, in October 1518.
In the time between the posting of his theses and his appearance in court, Luther became progressively more anti-Papal. During the hearing "Luther informed Cardinal Cajetan that he did not consider the papacy part of the biblical Church, and the hearings degenerated into a shouting match. Cajetan's original instructions had been to arrest Luther if he failed to recant, but he lacked the means in Augsburg, where the [city leader had] guaranteed Luther's security. Luther slipped out of the city at night, without leave from Cajetan."10
On June 15, 1520, the Pope warned Luther with a papal edict that "he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including the 95 Theses, within 60 days."11 That autumn, the edict was proclaimed into force in the town where Luther lived and other nearby towns, but Luther publicly set fire to the edict on December 10, 1520, an act he defended in a later book. As a consequence, Luther was excommunicated by Leo X on January 3, 1521.
On April 18, 1521, Luther appeared before a general assembly of the Holy Roman Empire. Luther refused to recant his writings. Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. The final draft of the decision on May 25, 1521, declared Luther an outlaw, banned his literature, and required his arrest. "It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence."12
Luther was as flawed a man as any, but there are still interesting parallels to the life of Jesus. Though Luther did not die at the hands of the church that rejected him and his teachings, the life he had known was over. Jesus' attempts to set things straight in the church ran into the same problem. Those in control of the system that he tried to reform were not interested in his message or efforts. In fact it interfered with their control of the system. Rather than trying to confirm if the message matched the scriptures, it was compared against the understanding of the leaders and their desires and summarily rejected, as was the messenger.
5. What was the Holy Roman Empire?
6. What does it mean to recant?
7. Can God use our short-comings to achieve his purposes?
8. What is excommunication?
But Luther had friends and the Pope had enemies. On his way home, Luther was intercepted and escorted to the security of the Wartburg Castle. During his stay at Wartburg, which he referred to as "my Patmos" Luther translated the New Testament from Latin into German. This had "a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation into English of the King James Bible. His hymns inspired the development of singing in churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry."13
While there were reformers prior to Luther, he was the one that broke the gates down. As a result the Lutheran church came into being. But Luther was not prepared to go as far as other reformers. "The reformed movement split into two parts. Lutherans, who kept the hierarchy of the church, but instead of having a Pope, priests were accountable to princes. The more extreme reformers stripped everything from their Churches [for which] they could not find scriptural basis."14
This thinking was the basis for the concept of Sola Scriptura ("Only Scripture") that guides the protestant churches. In adopting this view, the churches rejected a mass of traditions with dubious foundations and significant paganisms that had crept in to the Catholic Church. In this view, it became impossible to know which traditions were valid but it was known that some were not. In effect, the Protestants started over, using the only source they could rely on, scripture.
Luther's affect on the Catholic Church was also profound. "By the mid sixteenth century, [about 40 years later] the Catholic Church had mostly stopped the practice of indulgences, many Catholics themselves being outraged knowing that their 'indulgence' money was being used simply for the Pope's pet schemes. Although many people left the Catholic Church, some stayed behind and tried to reform the Catholic Church itself."15 Not much later the Catholic Church would lose its authority under law.
The parallels to the results of Jesus' death and resurrection are also interesting. Just when it appeared the church leaders had gotten their way, their dominion was shattered and their power reduced. In Jesus' time this meant the end of the covenant that gave the leaders their authority. About 40 years later their center of power, Jerusalem, was destroyed and their people were scattered across the globe, homeless. But this brought in the new and better covenant and the Spirit as guide.
9. What does Luther mean by "my Patmos"?
10. What other Catholic beliefs were dropped in the reformation?
There are some points from this lesson that we can take home:
1. Both good men and corruptible men are attracted to leadership roles and Satan will work on them both
2. All organizations, including churches, build up traditions over time. We must be vigilante in checking that our traditions are in line with scripture
3. We need to follow God's word and the leading of the Holy Spirit, whatever the cost.
Some of the questions in the study above have answers that depend on the student. Others have specific answers. Those are answered here.
1A. What is "Salvation by Works"?
Salvation by Works is an unscriptural belief that salvation
can be achieved by doing enough good things.
1B. What is Purgatory?
Purgatory is an unscriptural place in the after-life. There
are variations in the belief but essentially it is a waiting room where those
who were not truly bad nor truly good are sent for punishment until they are
prepared for heaven. Part of this is a belief that prayers of priests are able
to shorten the time spent in Purgatory.
2. Knowing the power of the church of that time, how would
you have felt if you were Martin Luther?
???
3. What actions would you take to ensure that your
interpretation of the scriptures was correct before presenting your reasons why
the religious authorities were wrong?
???
4. How is it that church leaders, the ones who are to be the
shepherds, can go so far astray?
???
5. What was the Holy Roman Empire?
The Holy Roman Empire was a combination of government and
the Catholic Church. The church's authority validated the rulers of the empire
and the church's edicts had the force of law. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was crowned in 962. The Empire
was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor
abdicated.
6. What does it mean to recant?
It means to rethink and reject something that was previously
said or written.
7. Can God use our short-comings to achieve his purposes?
Of course! Luther is a fine example of a less-than-perfect man who God used to return
the church back toward its roots
8. What is excommunication?
Excommunication is the severing of a person's communion with
the church. An excommunicated person cannot participate in the church. Since
there was only one church at the time, being "kicked out" was serious. Also the
excommunication was generally for heresy and was followed by charges that could
end in execution.
9. What does Luther mean by "my Patmos"?
Luther is drawing
a parallel to John, who wrote the Book of Revelation from the island of Patmos
where John was exiled by Nero Caesar. Luther is conveying his frustration at
being unable to leave the castle and doing nothing but writing.
10. What other Catholic beliefs were dropped in the reformation?
- Neither a priest nor the pope acts as an intercessor
between the Christian and God
- Neither a priest nor the pope has a role in confession nor
may they dictate punishments for sins committed.
- The Catholic practice of displays of wealth, statuary, and
pictures in the church is considered too close to idolatry.
1 http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm
2 http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/history.html
3 http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm
4 http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/LUTHER.HTM
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
6 http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm
7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther
8 http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
14 http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm
15 http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t2w08countereform.htm