Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, scripture alone, and the glory of God alone. These five solas are the pillars of the Protestant Reformation, heroically restored from the pages of Holy Scripture by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other 16th century formers. As we prepare to remember the 501st anniversary of the Reformation on October 31st, it's important that we hold these men in the proper biblical perspective and judge their teachings according to the perfect rule of Scripture. As much as we might appreciate and respect the Reformers, we realize that only God's Word is true from the beginning to the end. Hello again friends, I'm your host, Wayne Shepherd. We're in the midst of a special emphasis on the Reformation this month here on Encounter God's Truth from Whitcomb Ministries. Today we'll conclude a two-week mini-series called Ever Reforming with special guest speaker, Dr. Andy Woods. He's the author of a book on the Reformation by the same title, the Senior Pastor of Sugar Land Bible Church in Sugar Land, Texas, and the President of Schaeffer Theological Seminary. From his perspective as an attorney, he loves studying history in the light of Scripture, as well as leading travelers to visit historic sites firsthand. If you missed Part 1 last week, you can always hear it again at sermonaudio.com slash Woodcombe. You'll also find more encouragement on these topics at facebook.com slash Woodcombe Ministries. But right now, here's Dr. Woods with Part 2 of the message, Ever Reforming. As we prepare to celebrate yet another anniversary of the Protestant Reformation that occurred just a little over 500 years ago at the end of this month, we need to put that movement in its proper historical perspective. What did that movement accomplish and what did it not accomplish? And I think really the problem with the Protestant Reformation is it took the wonderful progress that it had made in the area of literal interpretation of the Bible and fossilized that progress. It assumed that there was no further progress to be made. It assumed that there were no further hills to climb. It assumed that there was no further ground to be regained from the allegorical method of interpretation which had so dominated the church throughout the Middle Ages and throughout the Dark Ages. The fact of the matter is the Protestant reformers were highly selective about their literal method of interpretation that they so heroically used to reclaim the great reform doctrines of the Christian faith. Martin Luther was selective in that sense. Roy Zook in his book, Basic Bible Interpretation, makes this observation of Luther. Zook writes, though Luther vehemently opposed the allegorizing of scripture, he too occasionally allegorized. For instance, he stated that Noah's Ark is an allegory of the church. Part of this selective nature of the Protestant reformers is their general failure to deal with eschatology in depth. Eschatology of course is that quarter of the Bible that reveals the future. To understand it properly you have to understand it literally. Yet the Protestant reformers themselves failed to do this. They failed to apply their literal method of interpretation to the whole field of eschatology and Bible prophecy. For example, The great reformer John Calvin wrote a commentary on virtually every New Testament book except the little books of 2 John and 3 John in the New Testament as well as the book of Revelation. And this is the selective nature of the Protestant reformers. It's interesting that Martin Luther, the great church reformer, failed to acknowledge the book of Revelation as even part of the New Testament canon. He wrote in his preface to the New Testament back in 1522, quote, I miss more than one thing in this book. and this makes me hold it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic. I think of it almost as I do the fourth book of Esdras and can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it close quote, he made that comment concerning the book of Revelation. One of the things that the Protestant reformers retained from the Middle Ages was Augustinian amillennialism or the belief that we are in the kingdom now because all of the kingdom promises of the Old Testament need to be spiritualized and symbolized and allegorized and de-historicized and de-literalized in order to understand them properly. In fact, John Calvin admits his dependency on Augustine. John Calvin in his treatise on eternal predestination of God says, quote, Augustine is holy with me that if I wish to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings." And therefore it's no great surprise that John Calvin and his institutes of the Christian religion deliteralized the doctrine of the Millennial Kingdom. Calvin writes, for the number 1000 in Revelation 20 verse 4 does not apply to the eternal blessedness of the church, but only to the various disturbances that awaited the church while it is still toiling on the earth. Those who assign the children of God a thousand years in which to enjoy the inheritance of life to come do not realize how much reproach they are casting upon Christ and his kingdom." Consequently the Protestant reformers in essence failed to see any real future for the nation of Israel. Notice the words of John Calvin as he commented on the future of the Jewish people which is clearly predicted in the pages of God's word. He wrote, quote, now the Jews are cut off like rotten limbs. We, in other words that is the Gentiles, we have taken their place. Close quote. You see, the weakness of the Protestant Reformers is they failed to take the same careful, literal, grammatical, historical approach that they had so carefully used to rescue the church from allegorization in the area of the five solas. and they failed to apply that same careful literal approach to Bible prophecy. In fact, they were somewhat sloppy in their method of interpretation when it came to the subject of Bible prophecy. For example, it was very common for Luther and Calvin to say that Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18 and the beast of Revelation 13 is none other than the Pope. In fact Martin Luther wrote a tract entitled Against the Roman Papacy an Institution of the Devil and in that particular track he calls the Pope the Antichrist and so as Luther and Calvin were polemicizing against their theological adversary Rome they simply took prophecies that the Bible reveals concerning a future Babylon. and a future antichrist and they simply redirected those prophecies to make it seem as if those prophecies really are all about the pope and the papacy. That's an interesting perspective but it really lacks the careful exegesis, the careful method of interpretation that the reformers used to rescue the church in the area of reform doctrine. They simply failed to deal aggressively and with similar depth to the whole subject of Bible prophecy or eschatology. Another weakness of the Protestant Reformation as they carried over into the new reformed faith, infant baptism. One scholar says this concerning Martin Luther. He notes how he believed that, quote, such sacraments could generate faith and hence baptism could generate faith of an infant." In fact, Luther himself baptized children in his new reformed church. And it's also interesting that the Protestant reformers took the whole idea of transubstantiation, which is the idea that the elements at the Lord's table represent the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ, which is the Roman Catholic position. And they simply took that doctrine of transubstantiation and put sort of a lighter gloss on it, and they called it consubstantiation or the real presence idea of the Eucharist or the Lord's Table. Again, another scholar says this concerning Luther, quote, Luther denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, rejecting any molecular change of the elements. Consubstantiation, although a term never employed by Luther, is used to explain his view that the body and blood are present in, with, and under the bread and the wine. You see, the biblical position on the Lord's table is the memorial view. After all, Jesus in the upper room said, do this in remembrance of me. The elements have no power to save souls. They certainly don't represent the physical body and physical blood of Jesus Christ. They don't even represent a special presence of Christ in the service in a way in which he is absent in other parts of the service. So they took this doctrine of transubstantiation, put a lighter gloss on it called consubstantiation or real presence, failing to go back to the biblical position which is the memorial view. The Protestant Reformers were also very aggressive in their belief that the church, the Reformed church, is the present kingdom of God upon the earth. Remember once again what Luther said, he said, Augustine is holy with me that if I wish to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings. Of course it was Augustine who also taught that the church represents the kingdom of God upon the earth. It was Augustine who advised an African governor to punish the Donatists, a Christian sect who objected to church practices, as quoted here as follows, quote, not by stretching them on the rack, nor by furrowing their flesh with iron claws, nor by scorching them with flames, but by beating them with rods, close quote. You see, the Roman Catholic Church taught that the Roman Catholic Church is the present extension of the kingdom of God upon the earth. The Protestant reformers carried that belief with them into their new reformed movement, and consequently they began to see their own churches as the present manifestation of the kingdom of God. And sadly, if the church is the present manifestation of the kingdom of God, it has the ability to punish objectors. One writer puts it this way, Calvin sought to reconstruct a society through the imposition of the mosaic law which he tried to imitate as much as possible in his new Christian public in Geneva. Another writer says a measure of legalism became apparent in Geneva as the consistatory put the lives of church members under continuous review and applied discipline to offenders. Church attendance was compulsory. Eating fish on Friday was forbidden, as was attendance at theaters, dancing, card playing, and criticisms of pastors. All heretical teaching was deemed subversive and subject to penalties under criminal law. Flagrant infractions could lead to banishment, imprisonment, and extreme cases death. Judicial torture was common procedure. One writer puts it this way, the execution of Servetus is the greatest blot on Calvin's life and reveals that vindictive streak which sometimes disgraced the character of the reformer. Dave Hunt writes this, in February of 1555 Calvin supporters gained the absolute majority on the council in Geneva. On May 16th there was an attempt of uprising because Calvin had excluded certain libertarian civic officials from the Lord's table. Leaders of the rebellion who fled to burn were sentenced to death in absentia. Four who failed to escape were beheaded, quartered, and their body parts hung in strategic locations as a warning. Evoking the phrase, henchmen of the state, which he had used years earlier against the Anabaptists, Calvin justified the barbarity by saying that those who did not correct evil when they do so and their office requires it are guilty of it from fifteen fifty four until his death in fifteen sixty four no one any longer dared to oppose the reformer openly you see this is a negative aspect of the protestant reformation this sort of carrying over if you will the idea that the church is the kingdom of god upon the earth and has a right to punish religious objectors. This is what Augustine promoted. This is what was practiced by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages and we see that also happening in Calvin's Geneva. The Protestant reformers certainly did not invent anti-semitism. Anti-semitism ran rampant throughout the Middle Ages but the Protestant reformers oftentimes carried it over into their new reformed faith. Notice the words of Martin Luther in his tract entitled the Jews and their lies. Luther writes first their synagogue should be set on fire, secondly their home should likewise be broken down and destroyed, Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmud. Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under the threat of death to teach anymore. Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from charging usury. or interest on loans. Seventhly, let the young Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, the spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses. We ought to drive their rascally lazy bones out of our system, therefore away with them. To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then let them find a better one so that you and that we may be free of this insufferable devilish burden the Jews." It was not just Martin Luther who made anti-semitic statements towards the end of his life. The church reformer John Calvin similarly made such statements. In his commentary on the book of Daniel, he writes these words, He says, God has so blinded the people that they were like restive dogs. I have had much conversation with many Jews and I have neither seen a drop of piety nor a grain of truth or ingenuineness. Nay, I have never found common sense in any Jew. Once again, the Protestant reformers did not invent antisemitism, but it's quite clear that many of them carried that over into their reformed faith. And so, sadly, what exists in many reformed circles today is perhaps not antisemitism on the level that I'm speaking of here, but that same old, tired, allegorical method of interpretation continues to exist in Reformed churches at least in the area of Bible prophecy and eschatology. One particular Reformed writer writing in the tradition of John Calvin and Martin Luther says this, quote, the proper understanding of the thousand-year time frame in Revelation 20 is that it is representative of a long and glorious era and is not limited to a literal 365,000 days. The figure represents a perfect cube of 10 which is the number of quantitative perfection. You see the problem with the Protestant Reformation is it assumed that all progress that they had made needed to be fossilized and there was no further progress to be made. And so what did God do? He reached outside of the Reformed tradition and He began to raise up a body of men who would take the Protestant Reformers method of interpretation and apply it to Bible prophecy and the whole Bible. Names like these, John Nelson Darby, Sir Robert Anderson, Cyrus Ingersoll Schofield, William Blackstone, Harry Ironside, Lewis Barry Chaffer, all figures in the 19th and the 20th century who took the Reformers hermeneutic that they used selectively and they began to apply it to the whole Bible. And what began to emerge is the concept of dispensations. That the kingdom of God is yet future. That Israel and the church are separate. The church is not the manifestation of the kingdom of God upon the earth. And that Bible prophecy is not being fulfilled today, at least Israel's prophecies are not being fulfilled today. It will be fulfilled in the future through a literal Israel reigning over planet earth. And when the church moves in that trajectory and begins to take the Reformers' hermeneutic and apply it to the whole Bible, we discover that the church continues to reform, is rescued from anti-Semitism, and is rescued from many of the excesses of the Protestant Reformers. So the Protestant Reformers accomplished quite a bit, but they didn't accomplish everything. and God later raised up others to complete the job initially started by the Protestant Reformers, and that's why we have entitled this series, Ever Reform. The work of reforming the Church was not completed in the 16th century. Indeed, it will continue until Christ returns for her. In the meantime, we must be ever reforming. That's the exhortation we've heard over these two special programs from guest speaker Dr. Andy Woods. Now, Dr. Woods, I have a question for you. You touched on some of the weaknesses of the Reformation in your message today, telling us that it was incomplete in its time. Why do you think that the Reformers failed to take their movement any further? Thank you again, Wayne, for the question. Yes, why is it that the Protestant Reformers failed to take their movement further than they did? Why is it that so many weaknesses remain with the Protestant Reformation and the Reformers? I think part of it is fatigue. They had already risked their lives to accomplish so much in retrieving from the Dark Ages what they did, at least in the area of the five solas, the crux of the Reformed faith. They had already completed, under God's power, a superhuman feat. And to ask them to do more, I think, would be unrealistic. Something else that comes to mind is Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 where the Christian is called upon to do as follows. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will. The fact of the matter is the Protestant reformers were mere sinful human beings and their minds came with them a great deal of baggage from the past and I believe that if they had allowed the scriptures to wash their minds in all areas, as they had effectively done in some areas, then a lot of these excesses in the Protestant Reformation would have been corrected. But the Protestant Reformers were simply men of their times. They didn't invent some of the problems that they carried with them into their Reformed faith, but they simply carried them over. things like selective literalism, a failure to deal with eschatology, a dismissal of the book of Revelation, a retention of Augustinian kingdom now amillennialism, a rejection of a future for Israel, a misapplication of Bible prophecy to the papacy, the carrying over of infant baptism, the embracement of consubstantiation, kingdom now theology, and even anti-semitism itself. Once again, these are things not that the reformers invented, but they were a product of their times, and because their minds had not been completely renewed through the washing of the scripture, they carried with them into their new reformed faith many of these inappropriate and unbiblical concepts. And this is why it's important not to idolize the Protestant reformers. They did a wonderful heroic task, but they're not to put on too high of a pedestal because they carried with them into their new reformed faith a lot of bad ideas and baggage, if you will, from the Middle Ages. And that's why we need to be in a posture of ever reforming, taking the reformer's spirit and method of interpretation and applying it to the whole Bible. thereby allowing us to correct all of these problems. So all of us are ever-reforming in the attitude and the spirit of the Protestant Reformers. Thanks, Dr. Woods, for that very challenging response. Certainly, all of us need to be ever-reforming. Next time, we'll return to a classic broadcast from Dr. John Whitcomb, in which he presents the choice, Reformation or Halloween? Until then, stay in touch with us at WhitcombMinistries.org. I'm Wayne Shepherd, praying that the Lord will bless you this month as you encounter God's truth.