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January 18, 2019 - January 22, 2022
Wicliffe's idea was to give the whole Bible in the vernacular to the people of England, so that every man in the realm might read in the tongue wherein he was born the wonderful works of God.
#reformedtheology
The message of Heaven was now in the speech of England. The dawn of the Reformation had fairly broken. Wicliffe had assistance in his great work. The whole of the New Testament was translated by himself;
#reformedtheology
Without the Bible, what charter has the Church to show for all these? It is you who place the Church in jeopardy by hiding the Divine warrant, the missive royal of her King, for the authority she wields and the faith she enjoins.
#reformedtheology
Transubstantiation, as we have already shown, was invented by the monk Paschasius Radbertus in the ninth century;
Nay, he chose this moment to make a forward movement, and to aim more terrible blows at the Papacy than any he had yet dealt it.
#reformedtheology
The doctrine of the "real presence," understood in a corporeal sense, he declares to be the offspring of Satan,
#reformedtheology
Throughout it Wicliffe unmistakably condemns the tenet of transubstantiation, affirming that the bread still continues bread, that there is no fleshly presence of Christ in the Sacrament, nor other presence save a sacramental and spiritual one.
#reformedtheology
He had but erected a pulpit on the Seven Hills, from the lofty elevation of which the English Reformer was able to proclaim, in the hearing of all the nations of Europe, that Rome was the Antichrist.
#reformedtheology
He acted on the maxim which he taught to others, that "if we look for an earthly reward our hope of eternal life perisheth."
#ReformedTheology
telling us that God's Word in all ages is Light, and that the Holy Spirit has ever been present in the Church to discharge His office of leading "into all truth" those who are willing to submit their minds to His guidance.
#ReformedTheology
"I confide altogether," wrote he to one of his friends, "in the all-powerful God, in my Savior; he will accord me his Holy Spirit to fortify me in his truth, so that I may face with courage temptations, prison, and if necessary a cruel death."
#reformedtheology
He would have escaped the stake, the agony of which is but for a moment, but he would have missed the crown, the glory of which is eternal.
#reformedtheology
They asked him if now he were willing to abjure. "With what face, then," replied he, "should I behold the heavens? How should I look on those multitudes of men to whom I have preached the pure Gospel? No; I esteem their salvation more than this poor body, now appointed unto death."
#reformedtheology
"Most joyfully," said Huss, "will I wear this crown of shame for thy sake, O Jesus, who for me didst wear a crown of thorns."
#reformedtheology
"Both men," says Lechler, "place the Word of God at the foundation of their system, and acknowledge the Holy Scriptures as the supreme judge and authority.
Wicliffe and Huss. #reformedtheology
It is one of the greatest marvels in the whole history of Protestantism that Wicliffe, in the fourteenth century, should have so completely rid himself of this enchantment, and from the very midnight of superstition passed all at once into the clear light of reason and Scripture on this point.
#reformedtheology
One party entirely rejected the authority of the Church of Rome, and made the Scriptures their only standard.
#reformedtheology
'Our creed we hold until we die, Our fatherland we will defend, Though in the fight we meet our end. And though a little band to see, A spoonful small of mustard we, Yet none the less we'll sharply bite, If Christ but aid us in the fight. But be this pact betwixt us twain: Whoe'er's by either army ta'en, Bind him and keep him, slay him not; Expect from us the selfsame lot.' Said they: 'This thing we cannot do; The Pope's dread curse is laid on you, And we must slay in fury wild Both old and young, both maid and child.' The Czechians too same pact did make, No German prisoners to take; Then
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Ho! all ye faithful Christian men! Each lord and knight and citizen! Follow and hold your fathers' creed And show ye are their sons indeed! Be steadfast in God's truth always, And so from God ye shall have praise; God on your offspring blessings pour, And grant you life for evermore!"
#reformedtheology
Conscience can make of the man a coward, or it can make of him a hero.
It is not men clad in mail, but men clad in the armor of truth, wielding not the sword but the Scriptures, before whom Rome trembles.
#reformedtheology
Put the priest out of court as an infallible oracle, and the Bible comes in his room; and the moment the Word of God enters, the shackles of human authority and tradition fall off.
#reformedtheology
"Dr. Martin Luther, a monk from the county of Mansfeld... by his heroism alone, imparted to the half of Europe a new soul; created an opposition which became the safeguard of freedom."
#reformedtheology
The Confessional was called "the place of penitence;" it was, in reality, a seat of jurisdiction.
#reformedtheology
Century after century the evil continued and waxed stronger, till at length the Reformation came and dissolved the spell by which Rome had succeeded in making her enormous possessions inviolable to the arm of the law; covering them, as she did, with the sanctions of Heaven.
#reformedtheology
Against such a power mere earthly force would have naught availed. Reason and argument would have fought against it in vain. Philosophy and literature, raillery and skepticism, would have shot their bolts to no purpose. A Divine assailant only could overthrow it: that assailant was PROTESTANTISM.
#ReformedTheology
now that Luther was in his right place. He opened the New Testament; he selected for exposition the Epistle to the Romans – that book which shines like a glorious constellation in the firmament of the Bible, gathering as it does into one group all the great themes of revelation.
#reformedtheology
"I, Doctor Martin Luther," writes he, "unworthy herald of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith alone without works justifies before God; and I declare that it shall stand and remain for ever, in despite of the Emperor of the Romans, the Emperor of the Turks, the Emperor of the Tartars, the Emperor of the Persians; in spite of the Pope and all the cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks, and nuns; in spite of kings, princes, and nobles; and in spite of all the world, and of the devils themselves; and that if they endeavor to fight against this truth they
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#ReformedTheology
When he turned his back on Rome, he turned his face toward the Bible. The Bible henceforward was to be to Luther the true city of God.
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The Papal key, instead of unlocking the fountains of grace and holiness, had opened the flood-gates of impiety and vice, and men trembled at the deluge of licentiousness which seemed ready to rush in and overflow the land.
#ReformedTheology
those who gathered round the red cross of Tetzel and bought his pardons were cheated of their money and their souls at the same time.
#ReformedTheology
It substituted a Divine for a human agency, the operation of the Holy Spirit for the opus operatum.
Of Rome.
#ReformedTheology
Luther's studies were tending is indicated in a letter which he wrote about this time to his friend Wenceslaus Link at Nuremberg: "The conviction is daily growing upon me," says he, "that the Pope is Antichrist."
#ReformedTheology
Luther, Carlstadt, and the new theologians maintained the negative, affirming that man lost this power when he fell; that he is now morally unable to choose holiness; and that, till his nature be renewed by the Holy Spirit, he cannot love or serve God.
#ReformedTheology
"Man's will before his conversion," says Carlstadt, "can perform no good work. Every good work comes entirely and exclusively from God, who gives to man first the will to do, and then the power of accomplishing."
#ReformedTheology
Poliander, Cellarius, the young Prince of Anhalt, Cruciger, and last and greatest of all, Melancthon.
The Reformers strove to overthrow both, that they might substitute — for the first, GOD, as the sole Author of man's salvation; and for the second, CHRIST as the sole Monarch of the Church.
#ReformedTheology
Rome has made herself supreme over the throne, over the Church, over the Word of God itself!
#reformedtheology
"Hearest thou, O Pope, not all holy, but all sinful? Who gave thee power to lift thyself above God and break His laws? The wicked Satan lies through thy throat. – O my Lord Christ, hasten Thy last day, and destroy the devil's nest at Rome. There sits ' the man of sin,' of whom Paul speaks, 'the son of perdition.'"
#reformedtheology
It is faith that makes men priests, faith that unites them to Christ, and that gives them the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, whereby they become filled with all holy grace and heavenly power.
#ReformedTheology
"Unless with all your hearts you abandon the Papacy, you cannot save your souls. The reign of the Pope is so opposed to the law of Christ and the life of the Christian, that it will be safer to roam the desert and never see the face of man, than abide under the rule of Antichrist.
#ReformedTheology
Luther about this time to the full and matured conviction that the Church of Rome as it now existed was the predicted "Apostacy," and that the dominion of the Papacy was the reign of Antichrist.
#Reformation #ReformedTheology
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.
#ReformedTheology
THE Protestant movement, which, after flowing during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries within narrow channels, began in the sixteenth to expand and to fill a wider area, had two sources. The first, which was in heaven, was the Holy Spirit; the second, which was on the earth, was the Bible.
#ReformedTheology
The most illustrious of the Protestants of that reign was Sir John Oldcastle, a knight of Herefordshire.
Lord Cobham: "Yea, and I wot also that our salvation came not by that material cross, but by him alone that died thereon; and well I wot that holy St. Paul rejoiced in no other cross but Christ's passion and death."
#reformedtheology
It was not the valor of Henry V., it was the grander heroism of Lord Cobham and his fellow-martys that awoke the soul of England, when it was sleeping a dead sleep, and fired it to pluck the bandage of a seven-fold darkness from its eyes, and to break the yoke of a seven-fold slavery from its neck.
#reformedtheology
Lollardism, basing itself upon the Word of God and the rights of conscience, was essentially and wholly Protestant.
#reformedtheology
Whence came those armies of assassins, which times without number penetrated into the Waldensian valleys, carrying the torch into dwelling and sanctuary, and inflicting on the unoffending inhabitants barbarities and cruelties of so horrible a nature that they never can be known, because they never dare be told? History answers, from the Pope.
#reformedtheology
History's verdict is, that with the ascent of the Popes to supremacy came not peace but war to the nations of Christendom.
#reformedtheology
