Each
year on this date, two groups of people celebrate. One group celebrates
Halloween, which I think is a despicable and spiritually desensitizing practice
that cultivates a casual attitude toward spiritual conflict, turning it into a
game. At the same time, the other celebration remembers the Protestant
Reformation.
Vastly
oversimplifying an ongoing discontent across Europe and the British Isles, the
Protestant Reformation can be described as igniting when an Augustinian monk
named Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg door, challenging
indulgences, papal authority, and salvation by works.
If
we confine our attention to Western Europe, without having to deal with the
Greek Orthodox movement in Eastern Europe, here is what happened over the
course of two thousand years. I paint a verbal picture using very broad-brush
strokes.
The
Lord Jesus Christ established His Church about 33 A. D. For almost three
centuries, Christianity spread, Churches were established, and the constant
tendency to deviate from doctrinal purity and practice in churches was
addressed. In 312 A. D., Constantine I, Roman Emperor from 306–337, who is
often credited with ending persecution of Christians and legalizing
Christianity in the Roman Empire, was supposedly converted, a pivotal and
debated moment in church history. As a consequence of Constantine’s conversion
and the empire’s changed attitude toward Christianity, overwhelming numbers of
unsaved people flooded into congregations, and the development of Roman
Catholicism, centered around the congregation in Rome, began in earnest.
I
will leave it to you to research church history to trace Catholicism’s changes
over its centuries of degradation into apostasy. Still, I can recommend Loraine
Boettner’s Roman Catholicism as a great place to start.[1] Catholicism
became so debauched that the Protestant Reformation erupted into a
back-to-the-Bible, back-to-the-Gospel movement that swept across Western
Europe, leading to wars and the establishment of a number of Protestant
denominations, such as Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, and Anglicanism.
Since
the Protestant Reformation, several denominations have sprouted, including
Methodists, Nazarenes, Plymouth Brethren, Church of Christ, Pentecostals around
1900, and Charismatics in the early 60s, besides the cults of Jehovah’s
Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists, and Mormons.
What
about Baptists? My view agrees with Charles Spurgeon’s in the essentials.
“Charles H. Spurgeon, the famous 19th-century Baptist
preacher, strongly rejected the idea that Baptist churches originated with the
Protestant Reformation ... Instead, he advocated a ‘spiritual succession’ or
‘Landmark Baptist’ view, arguing that true Baptist principles—particularly
believer’s baptism by immersion and local church autonomy—have existed in every
age since the time of Christ, even if not always under the name ‘Baptist.’
Key Spurgeon Quote (from his sermon ‘The Perpetual Standing of
the Church,’ 1862): ‘We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We
did not commence our existence at the Reformation, we were reformers before
Luther or Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were
never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves.’ Another
direct statement (from a lecture on Baptist history): ‘The Baptist Church has
existed in all ages of the world, under different names, but always holding the
same principles.’
Context of His View: Spurgeon traced Baptist distinctives
(especially credobaptism) back to New Testament churches. He pointed to groups
like the Waldenses, Paulicians, Donatists, and other pre-Reformation separatist
movements as evidence of a continuous ‘trail of blood’ (a phrase later
popularized by J. M. Carroll). He dismissed pedobaptist (infant baptism)
denominations as departing from apostolic practice ...
Summary: Spurgeon taught that Baptist churches did not begin at
the Reformation but have existed in principle since the apostles, preserved
through a spiritual succession of Bible-believing, immersion-practicing
congregations in every era.[2]
My
understanding of history, then, is that the first three centuries of the
Christian era were centuries of beliefs and practices of Baptist Churches. When
Constantine came on the scene, an unknown number of Baptist congregations were
destroyed with an influx of unconverted members (I greatly oversimplify). Then,
in 1517, Martin Luther led a movement that voiced loyalty to God’s Word and a
commitment to the rediscovered (among the Protestants) doctrine of
justification by faith.
But
they were Protestants, meaning they protested against the Roman Catholicism
they had separated from. That said, their departure from the Church of Rome was
not so clean. Without seeing every issue clearly, great and godly as so many of
them were, the Protestants who departed Rome were nevertheless loaded with
baggage from the Church of Rome.
The following are a few of the numerous topics, of varying significance, that distinguish Roman Catholics from Protestants and Baptists.
First, THE FOUNDING OF THE MOVEMENTS
Though
the Roman Catholic Church claims a first-century founding, history, beliefs,
and practices reveal the Church of Rome to be the offspring of Constantine’s
so-called conversion to Christ and the flooding of the Churches with unsaved
Romans.
As
for Protestants, no one claims that Protestantism originated earlier than the
16th century.
As for Baptists, though not all Baptists claim an ancient heritage, I am in accord with Charles Spurgeon and Dr. Paige Patterson, former president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in maintaining a first-century origin for Baptists.
Next, THE POLITICAL POSTURE OF THE MOVEMENTS
For
three centuries, Christians had a relationship with governments that recognized
Rome’s role in Christ’s crucifixion and the Savior’s declaration that “my
kingdom is not of this world.” However, when Rome’s emperor claimed he was a
Christian, the separation of Church and state so prized in our country ended so
far as Roman Catholicism was concerned.
When
the Protestant Reformation began, Protestantism as a movement fully embraced
the union of church and state, with Anglicanism being the Church of England,
Presbyterianism being the Church of Scotland, the Reformed Church and
government of Geneva being one, and Lutheranism being the state Church of
Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and so on. In our colonies before the
American Revolution, each colony had a state church, be it Presbyterian,
Congregationalist, or Episcopalian (the American version of the Church of
England).
What
about the present consideration? Consider the COVID-19 lockdown. Though some
Protestant congregations resumed worship services after acceding to Governor
Newsome’s lockdown order during the COVID crisis, the only congregations I know
of that never interrupted their worship services in California,
steadfastly refusing to comply with the government’s directive, were Baptist
Churches (but, sadly, not all the so-called Baptists).
Baptists
have never been state churches, even though the offer was once made and
refused. And those Baptist congregations that chose to comply with California Governor
Newsom’s illegal and medically unwarranted lockdown order.
It should also be noted that Baptist congregations have never been governed by an authoritative denominational hierarchy but have steadfastly maintained local congregational autonomy. Protestants, while never submitting to the type of control Roman Catholicism has over their subjects, are influenced to a degree quite foreign to Baptists throughout history.
Third, THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSTURE OF THE MOVEMENTS
Rome’s
attitude has always been that if you live in a place that it controls,
you are required to be a Catholic. So, in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Germany,
the Netherlands, England, and Scotland, until the Protestant Reformation. And
you recall the Pope dividing South America between the Spaniards and
Portuguese.
Did
you know Protestants did the same thing? Before the American Revolution, New
England was divided between Presbyterian and Congregationalist territories. Such
practices are related to their failure to embrace the separation of church and
state, as do the Baptists.
Baptists have always ignored geographical considerations and have spread wherever the lost are located, regardless of any geographic or political situation.
Fourth, THE ANTI PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY POSTURE OF THE MOVEMENTS
It
is one thing to raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, on
one hand, and to decide for them without their knowledge or approval what their
future spiritual obligations will be. One’s relationship with God, with Christ,
and with your Church is supposed to be a matter of conviction, consideration,
and personal commitment rather than any decision your parents have made in
place of your free moral agency. But Rome denies that to infants when they are
christened without their permission or awareness, wrongly persuading youngsters
that they have thereby been spiritually blessed when no such thing has
happened.
Protestantism
has, until the last century or so, done the same thing with its commitment to pedobaptism.
I wonder how many Protestant kids have grown up thinking their spiritual
concerns had already been addressed, only to learn moments after their death
that they were still damned?
Though we have many flaws, Baptists are not guilty of that offense. We embrace the notion that baptism is for believers only, that it is by immersion only, and that one becomes a Church member voluntarily.
Fifth, THE ANTI MEMBERSHIP POSTURE OF THE MOVEMENTS
How
important is church membership when you have no say in the membership matter,
and when nothing you say or do affects your membership? Is it not that way with
Catholics, who can commit adultery, promote and obtain abortions, identify as
Lesbians or homosexuals, and who knows what else, without it in any significant
way impacting your church membership?
Is
it not the same with Protestants, with millions of members in their churches
who might never have attended a single service after their christening, and who
immerse themselves in all sorts of sins without any membership consequences? On
top of that membership neglect, some Protestants ignore church membership
altogether. To them, I would recommend Peter Masters’ wonderful Church
Membership In The Bible.[3] Is
membership important? Membership faithfulness in a rightly constituted New
Testament Church of Jesus Christ is the Lord’s basis for rewards at the
Judgment Seat of Christ.[4]
Baptists
only voluntarily welcome members into a congregation. And even though so many
Baptist congregations do not dutifully practice church discipline as they
ought, some do. I have never been made aware of a Protestant congregation
exercising discipline over a member.
Let
me conclude by being very clear about the Protestant Reformation. I am
convinced it was an excellent work of God that resulted in many coming to
Christ, where the Gospel was clearly proclaimed. I sadly acknowledge that many
Baptist brethren utterly deny that God had anything to do with the
Reformation. However, I am persuaded they are tragically mistaken.
When
Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and Greek manuscripts were
transported into Europe, well-trained men who had never seen a Bible had access
to God’s Word for the first time. Over the next half-century, they studied
Scripture, and their lives were transformed.
Justification
by faith in Christ, plus nothing and minus nothing, was reclaimed by Martin
Luther and other Reformers, and praise God for that. That they carried the
spiritual baggage of numerous unbiblical practices into their new life in
Christ, however, is not to be denied.
I
have mentioned several features of Romanism, Protestantism, and the Baptists. I
have not mentioned the Gospel, not found anywhere in Romanism, found but
sometimes seriously skewed in Protestantism, and seriously compromised in too
many Baptist congregations.
Let
us celebrate the Protestant Reformation, a celebration that Baptists can
embrace while not being Protestants.
[1]
Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey:
The Presbyterian And Reformed Publishing Company, 1962)
[2] https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1984368187119714328
[3] Peter Masters, Church Membership In The Bible,
(London: The Wakeman Trust, 2008).
[4] John S. Waldrip, The Church of Jesus Christ: 28
Truths Every Christian Ought To Learn, (Monrovia, CA: Classical Baptist
Press, 2019), page 339-347.
