Raju Ebenezer

History often had its glaring' 'blunders'!

It was one such blunder the so called 'Church' committed in the 14th century in trying to finish with John Wycliffe, the great man called after 'the morning star of reformation'.

Nevertheless the Roman Church with all her tact and might could not silence Wickliffe or bind his activity Wickliffe over and above enjoying the protection under Edward III, King of England, commended great confidence and respect of the people. He had probably no equals in scholastic eminence in the England of his day.

In 1374 John Wickliffe, a Catholic Priest, became rector of Lutterworth. He declared that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the source of faith. He emphasized the supreme authority of the word of God and called the Church of Rome back from heathenism, ritualism and superstition. To him the whole company of the elect comprised the Church and its only Head being Lord Jesus Christ. He held that salvation is by faith and the proof of faith being a sanctified walk. He taught the indivisibility of faith and works and maintained that the latter is the inevitable outcome of the former.

Those were days when reading of the scriptures was forbidden for the 'laity' and its translation to the local languages a capital offence. And the clergy were themselves notoriously ignorant of the scripture. However the Catholic ecclesiasticism was preserved and protected, and thrived under this ignorance! It was then Wickliffe boldly undertook the translation of the scriptures to English and offered it to the wide reading of the common man.

The apostate Church tried all means to suppress the great move of faith initiated by Wickliffe but it only helped its resurgence. Stalwarts of faith rose up in various parts of Europe contending for the exclusive authority of scriptures and the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

John Huss of Bohemia, another Catholic Priest is one of the greatest of such towering men of the heralds of reformation. Although born of a peasant family he rose through sheer merit to become the rector of the University of Prague, one of the foremost universities of Europe. His undaunted teachings of 'Wycliffian heresies' with fiery eloquence, transparent faith and great conviction brought on one side a powerful and sweeping impact on the Bohemian nation while on the other into direct controversy with the Church of Rome. He was tried at the council of Constance, was indicted of heresy and his books were publicly burned. Finally he was shamefully burnt at stake in l4l5. But it turned to be another historical blunder! Great political turmoil shook Bohemia as its aftermath and the Hussite movement emerged out of the situation. The movement had both a political and a spiritual corollary. The spiritual impact of the movement left a great and lasting legacy in the centuries that followed. Some of those awakened in the 'Bohemian revival' settled in Poland and witnessed Christ all over the country. Another remnant of them became the spiritual ancestor of the Moravian movement of a later age. The congregations known as Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren) who were gathering together throughout north-west Germany and Netherlands in the middle of the 15th century, severing themselves from the authority of Rome was another torch inflamed by the ‘Bohemian fire’.

At last it was sunrise! The second great epoch of Church history- the great reformation ushered in! Reformation is not an event- it is a long story of successive events of faithful men going against the tide. Further it was not the accomplishment of a single great towering man; it is the glorious offspring of the birth pangs of myriads of saints over manifold years. Luther in Germany, Zwingli in Switzerland, Calvin in Geneva, John Knox in Scotland are some of the captains of this great upsurge.

Luther’s reformation
Although we understand reformation as a process yet what is generally meant by reformation is the great event of division that split Christendom into two camps, Catholics and Protestants. Reformation understood in the sense of this division, of all reformers, Martin Luther stands out as the ‘Lion of reformation’ as he was primarily responsible for this historic cleavage.

Luther as an Augustinian monk diligently exercised himself to the salvation of his soul through penances, fasting and prayers. However John Staupitz, the Vicar General of his order, finding Luther in deep concern of his salvation, advised him to read the scriptures and to turn to Christ who alone could save! It was while reading Romans, the scale fell off from Luther’s eyes to see ‘justification by faith’.

Luther found himself at odd with every practices, traditions and teachings of ‘the Church’ in the light of the profound experience he had and the understanding he was gaining from the scriptures. He began teaching the free gift of salvation in the University of Wittenberg where he was a Professor and found considerable influence to his teaching.

It was then Tetzel, a Dominican monk, hawking with the sale of indulgence, a gimmick played at the instance of Pope Leo X to augment the source of Papal income. Luther could no more bear such blasphemy. An outrageous Luther nailed on the door of the Church at Wittenberg his ninety five Theses, assailing the very foundation of the Roman Church. His friends distributed the copies of the theses all over Germany.

There followed a trail of events. Luther was summoned to appear in Rome, then before the Papal legate in Germany and finally before the emperor. There were treacherous plots to finish with Luther but he was supernaturally preserved. More and more treatises on the free Grace and the believer’s liberty started coming forth from Luther’s pen.

Protest needn’t necessarily bring reform. Protest is negative but reform is positive. Luther’s undaunted stand coupled with his brilliance gathered an avalanche of people’s protest against Rome. However it was not easy to imbibe the true spirit of reformation to this ‘Protestants’. Nevertheless Luther’s reformation stands out as a watershed in the history of the Church that opened up the floodgates of the reformation movement far and wide.

It could be said without doubt the Lutheran Church that Luther established is not an expression of the nature of the Church of Luther’s understanding. It carried over a lot many errors from the very system Luther himself vehemently protested. The Lutheran Church was a compromise between his scriptural ideals and his earthly loyalties. Luther is to be seen from a historical point of view as the great champion of the cause of reformation and shouldn’t be judged merely by the ‘Lutheran church’ which is the direct offspring of reformation!

The wave of reformation
The flame kindled by the reformers spread like a wildfire. An awakening began sweeping through across the nations.

The Bible came to the people; in turn people came to the Bible too. The liberty in Christ was preached to the ‘Christendom in captivity’ and host of ‘captives’ came out liberated of the shackles of their traditions and rituals. However all major reformation movements- of Luther, Zwingli or Calvin- carried at its heels a common snare- that is the state Church system. Every child born in a state would be member of that state Church. Thus it was a wide umbrella that could contain any one who professed allegiance to a creed. The civil authority had jurisdiction over the affairs of the Church. Needless to say, this unholy alliance was to essentially corrupt the spiritual nature of the Church and became the primary cause of the disaster of these movements.

Each stream of reformation movements had their distinctive sociopolitical and religious contexts and thereby each had their distinctive patterns and version of truth. Instead of learning from one another each camp became bitter enemies contending for their own perspective of truth. Soon they lost their spiritual mobility and direction.

More than all these, they became so intolerant to those who differed with them and resorted to the same cruel intolerance the Roman Church once maintained against her detractors. Thus practically these reformation movements became the tormentors of the contemporary spiritual movements. Alas, the powerful movements had a very premature death!

But that is not the end of the story. The spiritual progeny of the ‘heretics’ of various times were scattered around and meeting as small groups hidden from the public eye. The ‘protestant’ climate became conducive for these small groups to come to the open. Thus we find groups of Christians, neither Catholics nor protestants, coming into prominence as a powerful stream in the first half of sixteenth century. They were not organized as a group. They called themselves as ‘Christians’ or ‘brethren’. They had great reverence for the scripture and insisted the authority of word of God over their personal walk and Church life. They administered baptism only to those who had an experience of regeneration. Hence they were nicknamed as ‘Anabaptists’ meaning ‘rebaptisers’.

They were simple and godly people with great devotion to the Lord and His word. They devoutly practiced the scripture and applied it sincerely to their personal and Church life. They lived such exemplary lives proving that faith without works is dead. They commented a great following and truly carried the bastion of truth during the ‘protestant’ days.

However they were subject to great torture by the State, Catholics and the Protestants alike to an unimaginable measure. Among the thousands who were martyred thus include eminent men like Felix Manz, Balthasar Hubmaier and Michael Sattler. Although these ‘brethren’ may not seem glaringly prominent to a secular historian, their presence and relevance in the spiritual history of the Church is significant.

The English reformation
To understand the English reformation we need to begin from William Tyndale. He was a contemporary of Luther and a fellow student of Erasmus at Oxford. It was there Tyndale diligently studied the Greek New Testament and felt the great impact of the word of God upon his life. Both in Oxford and later in Cambridge he had friends gathering around to hear his discourse on the supreme authority of the scriptures and its impact on life.

Tyndale continued this discourse with prelates and clerics in his native place and was amazed to see the ignorance of the clergy. It was in one such conversation to a theologian trying to convert him, Tyndale made the famous statement, ‘If God spares my life ere many years I will take care that a plough- boy shall know more of the scriptures than you do’. Tyndale was determined to make the Bible available to the common man. That solemn goal did materialize but only at the cost of his life. The prayer at his burning stake, ‘Lord open the eyes of the King of England’ came true. Henry VIII severed connection with Pope and declared himself to be the ‘Supreme head of the Church of England’. The ban on the English Bible was relaxed. Miles Coverdale in 1535 produced the first English Version of the scriptures basing his translation on the work of Tyndale. By a royal proclamation in 1538, an English Bible was placed in every Church for the edification of all who wanted to read. Although Tyndale was absent in body here, for sure, he rejoiced in heaven seeing the fruit of the travail of his soul.

Following the death of Henry VIII there was a brief spell of six years of official favour for the reformation cause. Those who had fled due to persecution on account of their faith returned home.

Alas with the ascension of Queen Mary, a fanatical Roman Catholic, things got a shocking reversal. A wave of persecution was lashed out against all who refused to conform to the ‘Roman faith’. Scores of godly men were put to death including Bishops Ridley and Latimer who were held in high esteem.

But nothing could stop the move of God.

The tide of the Spirit
The sun was ascending up to its midday shine! The ‘reformed faith’ found great entry in to the hearts of the people at the hands of the learned and godly puritans. ‘Puritans’ was the nickname given to those influenced by the reformed faith. They were men of great scholarship and held some of the highest positions in the land.

Puritans began preaching and teaching outside the meetings of the authorized Church. Such preaching were called ‘prophesying’. Slowly it gave way to large congregations.

Puritans were great Pastors too. They were men of great insight and a large number of Christian classics have come out of their pen. John Owens, Richard Baxter and John Bunyan are just few of those great names.

Puritans moved on from appreciation of ‘free grace’ to its appropriation. To them the new Covenant was the covenant of grace and they came to a deep experience of the ‘work of grace’. They found the heart of the scriptures and took it to their own hearts! They applied it to every detail of life and became living demonstrations of godliness.

Similarly the Quakers came to the scene as a reaction to the dead formalism of the Protestants of the day in the seventeenth century. Another movement that carried over the spirit of reformation was the ‘Pietists movement’. Great names like Jean deLabadie, Philip Jakob Spener and August Hermann Francke are associated with this powerful movement.

Another significant movement that carried the spirit of genuine ‘faith’ and cast a profound influence on all who came in to contact with them was the Moravian movement of the 18th Century. They lived as ‘tent-dwellers’ confessing to be strangers and pilgrims in this world. To them truth was not a matter to contemplate or faith a dogma to believe. Truth took hold of their lives with down to earth application and faith was proved through works. Count Zinzendorf a man of great gift and grace is the most standing out figure of this movement. The Methodist movement of the 18th Century under John Wesley supported by George Whitfield was one of the greatest movements of all times. Tens of thousands of people gathered to listen to their preaching and thousands of people turned in true repentance to the Lord. Amidst great opposition both from unruly mobs and bitter clergy John Wesley travelled on horseback around two lacs fifty thousand miles during his fifty years of commendable ministry and would preach four to five times a day!

Wesley went forward from teaching justification to thorough sanctification. He trumpeted the call of total consecration and total lordship of Christ. He lived and served a long eighty-eight years and died in 1791. The evangelical revival of the 18th century was followed by great missionary outreach. The good news was preached to the nations of Africa, South America and East Asia. Words fail to express the great sacrifices of these ‘lovers of men’. We can sum up their endeavour in the words, ‘every missionary story is a miniature reenactment of the great story of love and sacrifice of the Son of God’.

Another result of the evangelical revival was a spirit of enquiry into knowing the real nature of the Church. It paved the way for God’s people to meet on the basis of individual relationship to Christ and on grounds of Christian unity. They saw more into the corporate life of the Church. Thus many local Churches were meeting far and wide in places like New York, Rangoon, British Guiana and south India that could be named as the Brethren movement. The Pentecostal movement of the 20th century further went ahead to witness the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reviewing through the annuls of Church history we find a constant tendency of aberration from truth and nevertheless God raising up a remnant in all generation to bear testimony to the truth. Thus the Church history is the record of the conflict of truth and lie, of faith and apostasy and of passing on of the ‘torch of testimony’ down to the successive generations.

The eclipse of reformation
By the middle of the 20th century the condition of Christendom was more like a ‘fig full of leaves but without fruit’. It is worthwhile to consider the reason for such a fate.

Reformation is the result of the ‘discovery of the Bible’. Godly men inquired into the word of God and took a stand upon their scriptural convictions even risking their lives. Bible was the tool of reformation. And the greatest legacy of reformation can be said as ‘the availability of and free access to the Bible’.

Consequently there was a great attempt to be ‘scriptural’ in every teaching. But there was little emphasis on its application to life. The preaching of faith was not balanced by preaching of works. The great reformer theologian Calvin said, ‘we are not saved by works yet saved unto works’. However a profession of faith devoid of works became the mark of reformed religion. With the result reformation became more external than inward. The knowledge of the Bible didn’t make the believers correspondingly godly and holy.

The passion to be scriptural made its pursuants servants of the letter than servants of the Spirit. They were taken up more with the letter of the scripture than the spirit of the scripture. The scripture and its doctrines meant to reveal the mystery of Christ became an end in itself. The Lord said, ‘you search and investigate and pore over the scriptures diligently because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these very scriptures testify about me! And still you are not willing but refuse to come to me so that you might have life’ (Jo.5.39,40. amplified). These words of Christ were holding good to the post reformation followers at large. Scripture instead of revealing Christ became a veil over Christ. And Bible the book, substituted the person of Christ, and it became an idol to the zealots of the letter.

Faith in Christ- personal reliance and saving trust in the person and work of Christ turned to be a ‘creedal faith’- intellectual agreement to the doctrines of the Bible. In the fresh atmosphere of freedom anyone could interpret the scripture in his own way and bring out his own version of truth! And in a frenzy of the zeal for ‘truth’ there arose multiple creeds by each one going into hair splitting details of scripture. Thus numerous congregations started meeting on the basis of their distinctive teachings.

Some of them held that a believer receives the ‘sealing of the Spirit’ at the time of regeneration, some others that at the time when one is baptised in the Spirit and still others that as one sees the risen Christ. Some have held that the propitiation was made by Christ on the cross and others that it was done by Christ the High Priest in heaven. Some have maintained that a believer’s ‘standing’ before God and ‘condition’ before God is the same and others that it is distinct. There have been contentions on free will and predestination, post and pretribulation, the implication of baptism to salvation, Church patterns and a host of petty and strange other issues leading to divisions, spites and bitter enmities. This paved way to numerous denominations and factions.

The letter kills. The reality of the Christian life was increasingly missing in those who professed it and its credibility lost at their hands. Reverence of God and to His word was eroding from the hearts of people. The personal and spiritual experience of an encounter with Christ was substituted with a cold theology.

Slowly this absence of spiritual experience and reality, gave way to an irreverential, sceptic and casual approach towards the scriptures. This led to the emergence of Liberal theology. The Bible became an ordinary Book of imagination and fiction to these theologians. They competed one another to disprove the miracles of the Bible and even the very genuineness of the Bible!

Liberalism became the mark of eminence and scholarship in Christendom! These theologians were either pantheists or agnostics or humanists or rationalists! A number of them found Communism to be more reasonable and reliable than the Christianity of the Bible. No wonder, ‘God is dead’ theology had enough acceptance and room in the minds of people.

Liberalistic theology gradually turned out as ‘liberation theology’ to those theologians with a materialistic perspective. The liberation theologians, quoting the ‘cleansing of the temple’, advocated that even violence, if it were for the right cause was justified. Church hierarchy at the clutches of these pseudo- theologians lost their vision altogether and church funds were channelised to support liberation movements even to the extent of supporting ‘guerrilla warfare’.

Churches became increasingly tombs ornated with formalism devoid of any life. People were deserting Churches and the new generation averse and resentful of religion. The pre- reformation era was bound by ‘Christian paganism’ and thereby became superstitious while the postreformation era slowly came under the grip of ‘Christian liberalism’ and became humanistic, materialistic and rationalistic.

However that was not the end. The Holy Spirit, who brooded over the waters in the beginning, was brooding over the barren Christendom. The evening sky was growing black with clouds preparing for heavy showers! A new era was dawning in the history of the Church!