Summary: This 85th episode of CS, is titled, Dawn. We’ve come now to 1 of the most significant moments in Church History; the Reformation. Since the Reformation is considered by many to be the point at which the Protestant church arose, it’s important to realize a couple things. First – The student of history must remember almost all those who are today counted as the first Protestants were Roman Catholics. When they began the movement that would later be called the Reformation, they didn’t call themselves anything other than Christians of the Western, Roman church. They began as an attempt to bring what they considered to be much needed reform to the Church, not to start something new, but to return to something true. When the Roman hierarchy excommunicated them, the Reformers considered it less as THEY who were being thrust forth out of the Church as it was those who did the thrusting, pushed themselves out of the true church which was invisible and not to be equated with the visible religious institution HQ’d in Rome & presided over by the Pope. It’s difficult to say for certain, but you get the sense from the writing of some of the Reformers that they hoped the day would come when the Roman church would recognize in their movement the true Gospel and come to embrace it. Little did they envision how deep and wide the break between them and Rome would become, and how their own movement would shatter & scatter into so many different sects, just as the Roman hierarchy worried & warned. (more…)
