Bible, NT-18, Acts-2-History: Part 2

LESSON 18

ACTS 2

CHURCH HISTORY

PART 2

By Rev. G. E. Newmyer

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THE HUMANIST EXPERIENCE

The term Humanist is defined as Placing the emphasizes on the personal worth of the individual, with the central importance to human values as opposed to religious belief, or as Paul put it, placing the emphasis on the spirit of man. It’s primarily assumed the Humanist element didn’t surface until the 1500’s; however, we find the same temptation from the fruit of the same tree, by the same serpent. Adam became the first humanist when he said, “it was the woman You gave me”, Eve the second when she said, “it was the serpent, he beguiled me”. Both used natural reasoning to define the event, each made their humanist nature their center of importance.

The manifestation of the Humanist thought became prevalent after the invention of the printing press, but so did the knowledge of God. We also know of the importance of the printing press for the Christian; the very first printing press introduced to the Colonies was for the purpose of printing Godly documents. In 1640 the “Bay Psalm Book” was the very first book published in the American colonies, it was prepared by New England clergymen, including Richard Mather and John Eliot, it was printed at Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the only work of its kind in New England, churches for more than a century used it; however, the early editions gave no music, but the 1690 edition contained 12 tunes. The Bay Psalm Book is still considered the most valuable of all American printed books because of its rarity and historical importance.

Before we can understand the Reformation, or the events thereafter we must examine this thing called The Humanist Experience. The 1935 Webster’s defined Humanist as One versed in the knowledge of human nature. There are three types of humanist, one is secular, or worldly in thought and concept alone, another places the will of man above the will of God, the last uses the soul of man to make change, the latter two are found in the concept of Humanistic Thinking, it does not relay, use, or consider the “Mind of Christ”. Paul told us how the Holy Ghost teaches by comparing spiritual things with spiritual (I Cor 2:13). The Humanist thinks man is the ultimate creature, leaving little or no room for God. Humanist scholars of theology began by telling us what the Scriptures should say, rather than what they did say. Some made their own translations, leaving out verses to promote their theology.

The Italians called this period of time La Rinascita (Renaissance), since it appeared to them to be a resurrection from the barbarous dark ages of the past thousand years, but it wasn’t a resurrection, rather God was using this time to resuscitate the Body. God doesn’t leave us, neither will He force change. We must be willing to be changed, before God will make a change in us. The same is true with society, the times when local churches are filled, are the times when man is faced with destruction, or despair. Sad as it may be, it’s still opportunity for the “fishers of men” to cast the net.

The humanist saw reformation as a time of intellectual change, or human learning. The concept of the Church Board, rather than Spirit filled leaders was first derived by the humanist. The emphases of humanism were; 1) a confidence in the human nature, which John called the Pride of Life; 2) a belief in toleration, due less to conviction about fundamental human rights than to theological indifferentism; 3) a critical view or the use of skepticism to study the Bible. This latter element began a nightmare, man would no longer seek to find Faith, rather he would seek to find fault in the Bible by using critical thinking. Causing the Bible to prove itself, which it was not intended to, it was intended to define itself, or give information and knowledge regarding God, as God’s Plan for Redemption.

Man saw this time as the flowering of letters (writings) and the arts, but Daniel saw it as the beginning of the end. Our lesson in all this projects God’s longsuffering on one hand, but it also shows there is a point where even God says, Enough is Enough. Our Time has a Timing, we are either going to fit the path to become a part of God’s plan, or sit on the Tower of Babel theology becoming targets of the enemy, the choice is ours, the result is in God’s hand.

The leaders of the church all had the warnings, the Scriptures, with the conclusive evidence of their folly. Yet, like the Pharisees, they rejected the obvious for a self-based, self-serving theology attempting to make God servant to their cause.

A connection between the Italian Renaissance and the humanist movement could best be seen in the life of Francesco Petraraca, generally known in the English speaking world as Petrarch; who was born in Arezzo in 1304, his father was a Florentine notary in political exile, who moved the family to the French city of Avignon in 1312. Petrarch attended the University of Bologna, in 1327 while in the church of Santa Clara he fell in love with a woman called “Laura”, but whose real name still remains uncertain. Laura became the focus of Petrarch’s love lyrics, found in his Songbook (1342). In 1353 he returned to Italy, to associate with the Visconti family in Milan, where he undertook several diplomatic missions. His works emphasized the humanist concepts, in his work Petrarch’s Secret (1353-58) he displays a conflict between flesh and spirit of man which troubled him throughout his life. The work is a dialogue in Latin between himself as the poet, and his second self as Saint Augustine. In the pitiless analysis the Augustine impression berates Petrarch’s ability to resist earthly temptations of love and fame, and urges him to “save his soul”. The dialogue ends in a stalemate; however, when the poet was ready to renounce his earthly goals, he turned from the power of the human, to the power of God. Petrarch embraced the humanist movement, since it allowed him to end his conflict between world and religion, unfortunately he never made the separation between religion and Christianity.

According to the Bible, the Love of Money is the root of all evil, according to the men of the Renaissance, money is the root of all civilization. Man’s purpose in the Renaissance was an advance of commerce, or independent ideas. It made it’s home first in Florence (City of Flowers); one could speculate the “blooming of the seed of corruption” was coming forth into the Blade of corruption.

Cosimo de’ Medici offered his own resources to the delegates of the Council of Florence (1439); the purpose being to reunite the Eastern and Western Christian fractions. When Constantinople fell to the Turks, many Greeks ran to Florence. It would be the Greeks who supplied many ancient texts and manuscripts, but they also included many texts from Greek poetry and philosophy. The concept became known as The Medici, but it was based in man’s reasoning, rather than the Mind of Christ. The bankers, merchants, manufacturers, skilled workers and professionals organized into Guilds representing their own interests. As the self nature was also building in society, the Body was given the opportunity to make a decision, If God be God follow Him, but if humanism be your god, follow it.

The Humanists turned religion into philosophy, then inserted pagan art into their theology. The birth of Humanities (more human letters) came to the front, Peter’s warning of “no private interpretation” became prophecy unfolding. Leonard Bruni, secretary to four Popes (1427-44) translated several dialogues of Plato into Latin for the use of the clergy, yet few had time to translate the Bible for the masses. Paul warned the Colossians, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy”; which he termed “the tradition of men” (Col 2:8). The word Philosophy means The study of wisdom, but it’s limited to two things, man’s study centered in man’s wisdom.

The humanist introduced the words of Socrates and Plato as uncanonized saints,  using them to repute the Pauline Theology, yet at the time few knew the Truth of Pauline Theology. The introduction of Many Ways To God became the rule, man was able to be like the Most High through intellect. Paul advocated No Salvation Outside Of Jesus; whereas the church turned his statements to mean No Salvation Outside Of The church.  The reasoning was Jesus would build the Church, but they confused “church” with Church.

The humanist saw the time between Constantine and Dante as a waste; however, they viewed it from the eyes of man, void of the Spirit. The humanist for the most part termed Christianity a myth, they saw signs and wonders, except the sign they saw was Simony, causing them to wonder how God could allow the Body to continue? They failed to see the Precious, for the most part there were those doing the work of the ministry, there were those who had the Spirit, but they were not seeking the headlines.

It was a time when the fault was obvious, standing in the forefront, the Precious saints were still around, but not as prominent. History is a Warning Sign to those in the present; the humanist sought to mix Christian doctrine with Greek philosophy, thus removing the Holy Ghost. Simply using the concepts doesn’t make the doctrine Christ Like, it takes the Holy Ghost to bring the doctrine into the realm of Life. The Scriptures without the Spirit and Faith will be twisted into a self-serving dialog, at times used to control the people. So it was, the people were told what the leadership wanted them to know, thus Peter’s warning to “watch over the flock” was cast aside, for “control the flock” (I Pet 5:1-4).

The humanist had their Platonic Academy, a place where the “faithful” could study minds of men. Marsilio was one of those who spent his life translating Plato into Latin; for a time he cast away his religious faith, seeking Platonism, which seemed to him to be superior. He addressed his students with the phrase “beloved in Plato”, rather than the usual “beloved in Christ”. Today we find the humanist moving further from religion, but in Mersilio’s day the idea was not to replace Christianity with another faith, but to reinterpret it in terms a philosopher could accept. They wanted God to condone to their way of thinking, rather than change their thinking toward God. Of course, their example was the hierarchy of the Body, what else could they think? The humanist devised their own concept of creation, with their own words for creation. Instead of the Genesis account they assumed, “I created thee as being neither heavenly nor earthly…that thou mightiest be free to shape, and to overcome through the self”; becoming man attempting to save his own soul, the  thing Jesus said was impossible. Instead of saving their souls, pride, ego and arrogance hit new heights. In all this it still stands, God saw it from the foundation of the world, He made a Way of escape for those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose.

There was the Wheat, men like Lefevre (1455-1536) who published his work on the Psalms. John Colet (1467-1519) who sought the literal meaning of the Pauline Epistles, rather than the mystic method used by natural theologians of the day. Colet was among those who felt Paul’s tongue in cheek remarks about wives went further than gender, he felt Paul was using allegories in more places than Paul said he was. Colet used various areas of Paul’s writings to give meaning to the allegories and metaphors.

Reuchlin and Erasmus were the more influential of the humanists, John Reuchlin (1455-1522) was a Hebrew scientific scholar, who combined Hebrew grammar and the Hebrew dictionary in his text Of The Rudiments Of Hebrew. Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was the most out spoken against the abuses of the Roman Catholic church, especially in his books, The Praise Of Folly, and Familiar Colloquies, he used satire to point out the evils of the priestly order. The humanists satirized, the Reformers denounced the evils of the church, but both were seeking Reformation rather than dissolution. When Luther came on the scene Erasmus agreed with him, but later Luther opposed him for not breaking with the church, as did Luther. Moreover the theology of Erasmus differed from Luther’s on some issues. The biggest enemy to the Faith was the naturalist thinker, the one who wants to appear moral and correct, but rejects the Spirit of Truth. Natural intellect is not the same as Holy Ghost knowledge. The Author is still the Holy Ghost, until the time when He who now let’s, stops letting, it’s still the case.

THE REFORMING COUNCILS 1409-1449

With Wycliffe and Hus working for Reform from the outside and Savonarola working on the inside, the people being disenchanted in the middle, the decision for complete reform was evident. Reform is like Revival, they needed to be Revived, but revived to what? The traditions of men taught as Doctrine? The doctrines of devils? Or the Doctrine of Christ? The Doctrine of Christ of course.

In 1378 the Great Schism took place when Urban VI and Clement VII both claimed to be the legitimate successor to Peter. Europe was caught in the middle; however, instead of seeking God’s favor, the leading theologians begin to hold councils using the form of the ecumenical councils from 325 to 451 as models, but they used the guidelines as they saw them while lacking spiritual insight. The Council of Pisa (1409) was held in the spring when Benedict XIII was in control of Avigon, at the same time Gregory XII retained the chair in Rome. The council arrived at a solution, they disposed both Benedict and Gregory and elected Alexander V, now they had three Popes instead of two. Again none of them heard, “separate unto Me”, what they heard was “I’m the one, I’m the Pope, pick me, pick me”.

The Councils of Constantinople consisted of eight councils held at Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) from 381 AD 1341 AD. In the Western church, only four of these councils are recognized as ecumenical, they include the first three and the sixth, which is called the Fourth Council of Constantinople.

FIRST COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (381)

This council was really the second ecumenical council, convened by Theodosius I, the emperor of the East. The 150 bishops meeting at the council condemned various religious sects as heretical, reaffirmed the resolutions of the first ecumenical council of Nicaea (325); defining the Holy Ghost as consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son in the Trinity, they proclaimed the bishop of Constantinople second in precedence to the bishop of Rome. The ratifying of the Trinity by this council was based on  the beliefs of the church fathers and apostles, not their own opinions.

SECOND COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (553)

This meeting at Constantinople was really the fifth ecumenical council of the church. It was convoked by Justinian I, Byzantine emperor, in order to consider the writings of the Greek theologians Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ebas of Edessa. These writings, known as the Three Chapters, had been approved by the fourth ecumenical council, held at Chalcedon in 451. The council of 553, however, condemned the Three Chapters as heresy, then anathematized their authors. This type of endeavor shows how the “Rock” was infiltrated by carnal leadership, yet the Church was still in the process of construction.

THIRD COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (680)

The third council held at Constantinople was the sixth ecumenical council, called by the request of Constantine IV the Byzantine emperor (reigned 668-685) in order to condemn Monothelitism, a doctrine declaring Jesus Christ had only one will, even though He had two natures (human and divine). Their thinking was Jesus had a human will and a divine will, thus the will Jesus held in the Garden was the human will, but if it’s the case, then Jesus didn’t have the same mind as the Father.

FOURTH COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (691)

The fourth meeting held at Constantinople was called by Justinian II, Byzantine emperor (reigned 685-695; 705-711) to enact a legislative code for the church. This code later became part of the canon law of the Orthodox church, but was largely rejected by the church in the West. The council of 691 was regarded in the East as supplementary to the previous ecumenical councils (the fifth and sixth), it is therefore known as the Quinisext (Latin – fifth-sixth) Synod. This council was also sometimes called the Trullan Synod from its meeting place in the Trullum (“dome”) of the emperor’s palace.

FIFTH COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE  (754)

The fifth council at Constantinople was called by Constantine V, Byzantine emperor (reigned 741-775), to deal with the problem of image worship. The council condemned the worship of images; the position, however, was rejected by the seventh ecumenical council, held at Nicaea in 787 saying the council of 754 was not recognized as ecumenical in the West. The worship of “images” later turned into the worship of saints, but in either case it’s still idol worship according to the first two Commandments.

SIXTH COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE  (869-870)

The sixth meeting at Constantinople was the eighth ecumenical council, yet considered the Fourth Council of Constantinople by the Western church. It was convened by Basil I, Byzantine emperor of Constantinople to recognized him, and confirm his deposition of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople. Photius, who was the principal instigator of the 9th-century schism between the Eastern and Western churches, was formally deposed. The council of 869-870 was not recognized by the Eastern church.

SEVENTH COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE  (879)

The seventh assembly at Constantinople was recognized in the East as the eighth ecumenical council. It was called by Photius, who had been reinstated as the patriarch of Constantinople in the previous year (see above information on the Sixth Council). This council, which repudiated the council of 869-870, was not recognized by the church in the West.

EIGHTH COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE  (1341)

The last council held at Constantinople was recognized in the East as the ninth ecumenical council. It was held to deal with the problem of the Hesychasts, a sect of Charismatic monks living on Mount Áthos. The council condemned the Greek monk Barlaam as a heretic for his opposition to the sect.

From all this we can see what happens in the Body when natural man, with his natural will is found in the place of authority. If the gates of hell shall not prevail, how come they did? Ahh, these Councils are related to the Body, not the Church. Simply because we see the term “church” doesn’t mean it is the Church.

The Council of Constance (1414-1418) was called by Sigismund, the emperor of the Roman Empire, and John XXIII the successor to Alexander V. It was called the Constance Council since they fashioned it after the Constantine Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. John wasn’t going to be left without a voice, he attempted to fill the voting number with his Italian followers. In order to stop John’s attempt at takeover, it was decided no matter how many showed up, each nation was allotted one vote. Any five nations would give a quorum for a binding action. Pope Gregory XII resigned, after a great deal of negotiation both Benedict XIII and John XXIII were disposed in 1415. The council also declared the ideas of Wycliffe heresy, then burned Hus at the stake. They discussed the problems of Schism and Heresy, as they saw them. They decided Schism could only be solved by the use of councils, heresy would be determined by the councils. Both are error, Schism can only be solved by the Unity of the Spirit and Faith, Heresy by the Holy Ghost granting us God’s knowledge.

The Councils of Basel and Ferrara (Florence – 1431-1449) were called to settle the unrest in Bohemia, after the martyrdom of Hus (noted above), they found it was growing into a theological nightmare. The council began in Basel but the plague outbreak caused it to be moved to Florence, thus the name “Basel and Ferrara”. The Seven Sacraments of the Roman church were declared by this council. The Council attempted other endeavors, but ended in defeat by dissolving itself in 1449. Puis II issued a bull entitled Execabilis which condemned any future appeals for general councils. The French clergy joined with the French ruler under the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges in 1438, thus making the French church independent of the Pope, but also placed it under the power of the state. The councils failed at reform, but kept the Great Schism from dividing the church further. A “Bull” is an official document issued by the Pope, then sealed with a “bulla” (a round seal  marking the official document, it comes from the word for “blister”).

The history wasn’t a waste, it showed how any of us can fall into certain religious aspects which seem Godly on the surface but are self-based in intent. The councils went back to the same old Acts 1 meetings; casting lots to determine what God desires, this is still using the mind of man to turn the stones into Bread. The truth remains spiritual things are foolishness to the natural minds, since natural man is still run by the spirit of man.

History has many points where we gain if we have ears to hear. Any leader can become so busy they forget who is the Head of the ministry, their forgetfulness results in voting to determine what they think God desires. We can center on indulgences, or sell the Dove, or we can preach the truth in Love. The Indulgences were used to gain money for the treasury, it seemed right to those who did it, but it was nonetheless selling the Dove. History has to show us one thing, which was confirmed in the Book of Revelation, the Body is in our hands, what we do, we do. Jesus by the Holy Ghost will make suggestions, but we must be Born Again to, “hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.

After all this, there has to be the Precious, in 1054 Michael Cerularius spoke out to wake up Rome, and bring clarity to a dark cloud. Not desiring to turn the boat over, but merely waking up the inhabitants, he pointed out several minor errors, including the use of unleavened bread, eating meat strangled, or allowing singing during Lent, all of which had little to do with salvation. His concern over the use of unleavened bread was not the bread but why they remain leavened while using something unleavened?

On July 16, 1504 Michael was excommunicated, then Michael followed suit by excommunicating the Pope and the Pope’s followers. The real concern of Cerularius was the government intervention into the church. He wanted to either have the church remove itself from the civil government, or dispose the emperor. Both Michael Cerularius and Photius became known as the Schism Patriarchs, although their concerns were valid.

One of the noted Charismatics in the medieval age was Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153 AD). Not only was he Charismatic, but he was also a doctor of theology, a degree not easy to come by in those days. We read how his conflict with Abelard was healed at Cluny, but there is more to the man than his understanding of Abelard’s writings. He was a leader in the Western church, he became a Cistercian monk in 1113, he was chosen abbot of Clairvaux. Although Bernard did not reject the idea of rationalism in theology, he did become one of the major opponents of rationalist theologians who, in his view, mistreated religious orthodoxy (the concept of study discipline wherein one seeks truth, rather than using critical thinking). Bernard contributed to the rules for the Order of the Knights Templars, which he hoped would become a model of Christian chivalry. His many writings, which have been collected and translated into six volumes, show his grasp of biblical studies, spiritual theology with one of his works based on the Charismatic, which was canonized in 1174. He even has a feast day named after him (August 20), but his real work was in the area of allowing the Holy Ghost to guide and instruct. He was not in favor of any “rational” thinking on the part of man to interpret the Bible.

Along came the Cathari, who like Barnard knew man in and of himself was dualistic (body and soul). They rejected everything they considered worldly as evil in general. However, theologically they believed Christ was an angel, not human, thus He couldn’t be raised from the dead, because He couldn’t die. We are called angels or messengers of God, Paul told the Galatians they received him as an angel, even as Christ (Gal 4:14), yet we die. John said if we are Born Again we have moved from death to life (I Jn 3:14), but the context sees us free of the Second death (Rev 20:6), it’s still appointed unto all men once to die, then comes the judgment. The Gospel is based on the death of Jesus for us, without His death, there is no way we can impute the flesh dead. Denying His Resurrection is also denying our ability to live again by the Spirit, notwithstanding the removal of our hope, as the same Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us. Also we know Paul said we must believe God raised Jesus from the dead in order to fit, “shall be saved”.

John Wycliffe (1328-84 AD) was termed the Morning Star of the Reformation. He felt everything belonged to God, and everyone was called to be a servant of God, but it nonetheless depended on their acceptance of the call. By this time there were many things going on wherein Wycliffe saw error, masses for the dead to move them from purgatory; immorality for the priesthood; the indulgences, just to name a few. Wycliffe said, no man, not even the Pope had permanent lordship. He also felt, simply because a group of men made a man a Pope, didn’t mean the Pope was holy, or simply because someone called someone else a bishop, didn’t mean the person was a bishop. He joked about purgatory, as he felt if one couldn’t make it now, surely they would be like the Rich Man, remaining as the same hardhearted person in hell, or purgatory. He believed, and held to the Bible, he said the Bible must be available to all men, thus man would find his Creator in the Bible, not in the traditions, or rites of Rome.

Wycliffe made a pin hole in the Veil, the Light did shine. He traveled with a group called the Lollards (Mumblers). The term had two meanings, depending on which historian one reads; one said the term referred to their constant mumbling about the church, the other said the term had to do with their strange language during prayer. Wycliffe died in peace in 1384; however, in 1401 the bishops passed an act against heretics, based on their conclusions of heresy being anything they didn’t like. The same old carnal, envy filled meetings to bring about a heresy trial to condemn the Just. A Pharisee is a Pharisee, regardless of the time in man’s history: beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. The bishops saw the Lollards as a threat to the Pope, the teachings of Wycliffe as dangerous to the papacy. The Council of Constance in 1413-14 found Wycliffe guilty of 260 counts of heresy, of course by this time Wycliffe was dead. The defense of Wycliffe was not conducted by him from out of his grave, but by the Holy Ghost, Who is not bound by death or graves. Although the Council burned all of the available books of Wycliffe, then ordered his bones removed from the consecrated ground, they burned his bones, and tossed the ashes into a nearby stream, nonetheless Wycliffe’s testimony followed in men like John Hus. While they were burning Wycliffe’s bones, his soul was still under the Altar of God, a place where no devil, or child of the devil can reach.

In 1326 Meister Eckhart was found guilty of heresy, for teaching how man should be immersed in God, he felt being immersed in water was a bath without repentance. He termed repentance as a vow to reject unbelief, and be immersed in God by the Spirit of Christ. This went directly against infant baptism, as Meister said, “feet, and hands, and mouth and eyes, the heart, all man is has to become God’s own”. He was speaking in reference to being subject to God by becoming Born Again, yet to the bishops being Born Again meant water baptism, they taught once a infant was water baptized, they were filled with the Spirit, saved, and in the Kingdom of God. It would be heresy, since it negates choice, belief, it also opposes the Doctrine of Baptisms. The bishops took circumcision, water baptism, and the baptism with the Holy Ghost, then put them into one pot of Pig Theology, all under their control. They didn’t present anyone to the Lord, they felt they were the Lord. They went about killing others for heresy, when they were up to their self-deceived ears in it. The saddest of all this is how the six rudiments of the Doctrine of Christ pointed out the their errors (Heb 6:1-2).

Pope Calistus III (1455-1458 AD) found Joan of Arc free of heresy, and completely removed her death sentence; however, Joan was put to death at the stake by fire in 1431, some twenty-five years prior. What was Joan’s heresy? She heard from God, during the time church dogma stated no one, not even the Pope could hear from God. The dogma claimed the ability to hear God passed with the last Apostle; the church dogma was the heresy, not Joan’s ears.

Joan said God told her when to enter battle and when not to; history shows she gave God the Glory, not the church, it caused the Council to proclaim she as a heretic. They couldn’t hear from God if He stood on the Council seat, thus if they couldn’t hear from God, no one could. They didn’t take into consideration, Joan was giving God the glory, she was humble before the Lord, it was obvious she served the Lord. However, the bishops were mad because Joan refused to bow or become humble before them. She refused to give them service, she refused to follow their heretical dogma, thus they allowed pride and anger to rule them, they put her to death on a burning stake.

There were other saints as well, they didn’t have any problem with the world, it was the worldly minded in the Body, who became the problem. History was once termed, “something we know, but learn little from”, it should not be so, God wants us to learn from history. When the church entered the Renaissance period, all they should have learned went into the same “all has passed away” bucket. They were about to make the muddy water, more muddy than before. It need not be the case in our Time, in this Season, we can learn, then enter God’s purpose for us.

THE BODY OF CHRIST DURING THE RENAISSANCE

As we found the Word Renaissance means Revival or Rebirth, but it doesn’t mean New Birth. The Renaissance was prophecy opened, but it didn’t end the prophecy. Daniel was told “But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Dan 12:4). Daniel was also told, “but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (Dan 12:10). Therefore, the prophecy is two fold, first the knowledge of God shall open up, which includes the Bible being printed for the masses, but the second area shows the wicked will be more wicked, which came to pass, yet at the same time the only ones to see it would be the Wise.

During this time of “re-birth” there was another movement, one called the “Black Death”. Between 1347 and 1351 the bubonic plague devastated Europe, it picked up the name Black Death from the black spots appearing on the bodies of the victims. The plague was carried by fleas feeding off the blood of infected rats, then infesting people. It is estimated to have killed from 25 to 50 percent of the European population. Panic was widespread, many groups of “flagellants” roamed from place to place hoping to stay the disease; however, rather than laying hands on the sick they used another means. The “flagellants” subjected themselves to ritualized whipping as “atonement for sin”, which we know is not only a fruitless effort, but completely self-righteous in nature. This same false concept captured the mind of Martin Luther for a period, until he found the truth of “the Just shall live by Faith”. Nonetheless the act shows us the teaching regarding the Stripes of Jesus fell away, but it had not passed away, only twisted into the stripes on the people.

Individual flagellation had become a common form of ecclesiastical punishment around the 14th century, several monastic areas allowed voluntary group flagellation as a form of penance. It seems the flagellants made their appearance in Europe in the mid-13th century, the major factors stimulating this phenomenon seem to have been famine and war, seen in the words of Joachim of Fiore (1132-1202), as a sign of divine displeasure at the sinfulness of the world. Jesus said we would have wars, rumors of wars, pestilence, and famine in the world, but we were not to be terrified (concerned to the point of attempting to change the world), for these things must be (Luke 21:9). The world wasn’t the problem, it was the place to cast the net, the problem was the he in the world used by leadership. The act of  flagellation is self-penance stemming from a lack of faith in God’s forgiveness. Like validation, the person wants some assurance from humans, or they want to pay for their sins by their own efforts. To the natural mind simply asking God to forgive seems far too easy, yet we also know the method does call for us to do something: forgive as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us.

The city of Florence was the starting place for the Renaissance, with the Medici family as it’s leading benefactor. The Medici were humanist in nature, but the humanist in this stage of the game was a mixture of humanist and Christian thinking, but lacking Christian Faith. A painting by Benozzo Gozzoli showed Lorenzo Medici (1449-92, also known as Lorenzo The Magnificent) as the leader of the Magi pointing the way to the birth of Christ. Hardly the case since Lorenzo came on the scene some 1500 years later, but the painting shows how the humanist placed himself as the center of attention, rather than God as the center of all things.

We’re not going to indulge in some history lesson on all the Popes, their families, wrongs or rights so we can judge them, we will be searching for the lesson to find the Hand of God reaching toward His people. Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this earth, thus when the church turned to political means to capture lands in the feeble attempt to make the Kingdom of the earth, the Body lost Power, but retained it’s authority. Bankers became the power behind the church, the Turks were a threat, the kings of the lands were threats, the inner structure of the church was the biggest threat of all, none of the leaders considered any of these people potential converts.

Since they lacked Christ in Power, they decided to paint Him on walls, or place self-promoting pictures of Jesus about them to give an air of holiness. As in times past God would send a prophet, or a reformer would surface, or someone would bring Truth, yet they would not hear. The history of the Jews proved little to the Body, the wicked could not understand, but the wise did. Boccaccio was not a dogmatic Christian, but a writer who simply saw the errors of the church, but approached them in a somewhat different manner. In his humor we see God had a plan, whether man knew it or not. In The Decameron, a novel by Boccassio who used the fictitious Jew name of Jehannat who was in the stages of being converted to Christianity by the argument, “Christianity must be divine, since it has survived so much clerical immorality and Simony”. Boccaccio made fun of every aspect of the carnal activities of the church, he left none uncovered; whether nuns, the confession, priests, monks, friars, asceticism, or the canonization of saints, he made jokes of them all, but he didn’t joke about God. One of his popular satires was about a friar who promised to display a true and priceless relic if the people gave much money. The relic was suppose to be one of Gabriel’s feathers, which remained in the Virgin Mary’s chamber after the Annunciation. Boccaccio wrote stories of the hidden chambers, the acts of the religious who lacked the Christ nature, the immoral behavior, some so vivid they could not be told in mixed company. How did the church view this? They laughed, thus missing the exposure; God was still using whatever means would benefit His people, if they would listen.

As strange as it seems some of the same acts drifted into some Protestant circles, the selling of prophecies, give in order to be blessed, selling items, while at the same time saying they are not. Sob stories to pull at the strings of the emotions, money to support a new window, having ones name enshrined, all going on back then. Because of these factors, as well as other carnal activity they lacked the Power of Christ, ending misusing authority, especially the authority of the Offices. These things need not be so.

After 313 AD the church entered a political era, thus instead of being subject to government, the church began to establish an earthly government kingdom. In 1309 Pope Clement V moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon, which became known as the Babylonian Captivity. Clement was a Frenchman, he wanted the seat in his country, but he didn’t consider the House of God being Spiritual in the heart of the Believer.

From Gregory VII (1073-85) to Boniface (1294-1303) the goal of the church was to develop a complete European world under the hand of the Pope; however, for the most part it failed; nationalism of mankind won over the theocratic federalism of the Church. The Papal States were divided into four provinces, the Latium, the Umbria, the Marches and the Romagna. The method was not “repent, prepare ye the way of the Lord”; but “accept us, be one of us, or die”. The use of the Sword changed from the Sword of the Spirit to the sword of steel.

The war against the Turks and Islam cost the church a great deal of money, leaving it three choices. First to determine if their means were of God, or of man; second to pray for God to meet their need, third to sell the dove and meet their own need. They picked the third, when Boniface was harassed for funds, he sold ecclesiastical benefices to the highest bidder. It’s interesting to note the seat of the Pope was also called “Peter’s Seat” yet it was Peter who said, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; Not For Filthy Lucre, but of a ready mind: neither be lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” (I Pet 5:2-3). When the Body becomes the blunt of the world’s jokes, it has lost it’s Power by separating itself from the Head of the Body (I Cor 11:1-7). Jesus said they would hate us, not laugh at us.

The term “Indulgence” means to grant forgiveness of sins based on money given, but the concept of Simony means to purchase a position. Simony was written about long before the Indulgences, yet both were active elements of the church during this time in history. Clement V reorganized medical schools, he didn’t lay hands on the sick. He placed his trust in the medical arts, he died of a painful disease in 1314.

Since 1274 the election of Popes was done behind closed doors (conclave or with a key), the cardinals were the only ones who could place a Pope in position, thus it was the cardinals who ran the church, the Pope was merely a figure head. It’s even stranger since there is no office for a “cardinal”, rather the term means “hinge”, coming from the Latin. In the beginning the term was attached to those who had permanent church attachments. Nonetheless there is no provision in the Bible for any board to appoint Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists, Prophets or Apostles. The leaders appoint Deacons, Bishops and Elders, but those appointed by leaders do not appoint leaders.

The sign was clear, the leaders determined the church was the Master, the Pope the head of the church, but the Cardinals were the head of the head. The church became cardinal possessed, the election was based on what the Pope could do for the cardinals, rather than what the Pope could do for Jesus. Each Pope had their names changed to reflect the position, but it didn’t mean their hearts were changed by the Power of Christ. The method of election was casting lots, the same method used by Peter and the disciples before the Holy Ghost brought the Spirit (Acts 1:26). The cardinals were unable to hear the Holy Ghost say, “Separate unto Me — for the work I have” (Acts 13:2). The church had moved to the natural, becoming another worldly religion. The lesson is written for us, not for their sakes.

During this stage of the history of the Body there were many carnal theological stands, or as Luther called them, Pig Theology. The twisted concepts of the End Times surfaced again, they wanted Jesus to come and clean this mess up, they wanted Jesus to make it right, by giving them complete control over the masses; however, this was the same error the Pharisees held. Jesus told us to Go Ye, teach, baptize and teach all to observe whatsoever He has commanded us, not whatsoever man has commanded us, or whatsoever the Law of Moses commanded (Matt 28:18-20). The prelude to the command was, Tarry until you be endued with Power from on high (Luke 24:49). Neither concept was included in the theology of the cardinals. The church dogma replaced the awareness of the Rock; it all looked like it was going to crumble, but it didn’t.

The Italians wanted the Pope back in Rome, but only six of the twenty-four cardinals were Italian. The cardinals waited for nearly two years until the majority of the cardinals were Italian, then they turned right around and picked John XXII, a Frenchman, the son of a cobbler. John followed suit by selling benefices; his success was not a sign of his holiness, rather he felt he could serve God best by winning Mammon on his side. His social endeavors seemed good in the eyes of man, he founded a Latin college in Armenia, fought against magic, yet died suspected of heresy. He claimed no one, not even the Pope could have direct contact with God, nor could anyone have a vision, rather he said, no one could hear God until the Last Judgment. This same thought is around today, there are those who say God does not speak anymore, yet the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirit (Spirit that is of God) we are children of God.

The University of Paris condemned the Pope’s view and Philip VI of France ordered him to change his theology, instead of changing his theology, he died in 1334. Benedict XII followed John, but instead of selling benefices, he demanded they be given on merit only. He repressed bribery and corruption in the church administration, but the leaders turned on him when he demanded for them to reform. They all rejoiced when he died early in 1342.

Clement VI followed, instead of Clement running out the whoredoms, he wanted them around him in the form of many women. Rome sent news to Clement making him an offer to restore the Popes in Rome. The catch was complete submission to the Popes and the renewal of political power to the seat of the Pope. Clement packed his bags, and moved to Rome. The political machine and offices were filled with political minded personal, who knew how to use political power to their advantage, but didn’t have a clue to the Ways of God. All this was seen by God well before the time, yet God allowed the Body Choice, they could be vessels of honor or dishonor. The letters in the Book of Revelation depict these problems, the Doctrine of Balaam, and the such. It’s clear the Predestination was not based on God’s A list or B list, since the Book of Revelation repudiates the assumption. There would be no reason for Jesus to tell the churches to repent, or hear what the Spirit says, if the Spirit wasn’t saying anything. There would be no reason to tell them to repent if they couldn’t sin. The Book of Hebrews tells us God speaks to us by His Son, meaning one has to be Born Again to hear (Heb 1:2).

Needless to say, Protests came from every corner, the Good Fish saw the corruption of political power in the hands of those called by God. Alvaro Pelayo was loyal to the papacy, but wrote in his booklet On The Lamentation Of The Church, “Whenever I entered the chambers of the ecclesiastics of the papal court, I found brokers and clergy engaged in weighing and reckoning the money which lays in heaps before them”. Pelayo concluded, “Wolves are in control of the church”. Edward III, king of England, who himself was no stranger to taxation reminded Clement, “the successor of the Apostles was commissioned to lead the Lord’s sheep to the pasture, not fleece them”. The truth remained, the Net contained both Good and Bad, it was the Bad in control, the Good calling out to God for help.

The Charismatics surfaced again, as they did during many church lapses throughout the history of the Body. They desired direct contact with God through the Spirit, they believed in a spiritual awareness. Before every out pouring of God on the Body we will find the Spirit filled saint as the prelude; God needs leaders who are Spiritual in nature, it would do little good to have revival, if the only leaders were carnal minded. This concept of direct contact with God was unheard of, for years the only way the congregation could make contact was through leadership, or at least they were told so. The Body became fashioned after the Law of Moses, a human standing between God and His people. However, here would come the “Spirit filled people” saying one could have direct contact with God, since God was willing to have contact with them. Who has heard of such a thing? Anyone who is Born Again.

After the Black Death took its toil of the total population of Europe, some wanted to find out if God was still God, or had the devil won the battle. Added to this was the Peasants’ Revolt in England (1381); people were frightened, the death took many, the government was controlling those who remained, it appeared as if all was lost. The Babylonian Captivity and the many errors caused the faithful to question their leadership, thus the Lord allowed the evil to bring a desire in the people to seek their God, face to face; thereby producing those who would seek out the Holy Ghost.

The Charismatics in this era fell into two groups, the Latin and the Teutonic. The Latin were more emotional, they tended to use the gathering; whereas the Teutions sought a more quite personal experience with Christ. Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century would be classed as a Teutonic, he emphasized a personal experience with Christ, a oneness in the will of God, rather than a oneness with man. Oneness is not heresy, yet it can be. Jesus said we are to be One with the Father and Son, as the Son is One with the Father, but we are not to be One with the world. Barnard is proof to show there was the Precious who sought God, there were those who were baptized with the Holy Ghost, and walked in the Spirit.

Catherine of Siena was born, lived, and died in a modest room. At fifteen she joined the Order of Penance of St. Dominic, then lost herself in prayer. Her family felt she was crazy, or would end praying herself to death. In order to make her cease, they engaged in manipulation, forcing her to do all sorts of chores, even placing the heaviest of burdens on her just to keep her busy and away from prayer. She submitted and remarked, “I make a little corner apart in my heart for Jesus”. No matter what she was doing, Jesus was with her, thus her Character was always full of joy, regardless of the event; it was her joy in the Lord sustaining her. It is written of her, “Other girls sought joy and ecstasy in worldly acts, Catherine found joy in Christ”. The general feeling at the time was prayer was so private it could only be done in a private place. Catherine made it known the “prayer closet” was within, thus a person could talk to Jesus no matter where they were.

Catherine often said Christ was her heavenly lover, she spoke of a relationship, she thought so long on the Five Wounds of the Cross, she could feel them as if she were being Crucified with Christ. When she appeared on the scene, she didn’t have to say, “watch your mouth, I’m a Christian don’t you know”; men would curb their own tongues, many were convicted of their sins whenever she appeared. She concluded all evils of human life were the result of human wickedness, but all sins of mankind could be swallowed up and lost in the sea of God’s love. Luther was the Faith preacher, Catherine the preacher of God’s love.

Catherine was horrified at the condition of Italy and France, she said Rome was filthy and desolate, a sign of the hearts of the men who ran Rome. Confident in her divine mission, she denounced the religious carnal minded, and pontiffs to their faces: she not only convicted them of their sins, but told them only decency could save the church. She presented the choice, not the means, the pontiffs and cardinals had to make the choice, seek God, or find themselves in the same condition as their filthy streets. She failed as a statesmen, but won the people.

Catherine’s heart was broken, she felt the pain of Jesus, the breaking of His Body appeared to be taking place in her day. The religious leaders never saw Catherine as a sign of Jesus reaching out to them. Catherine of Siena firmly believed God spoke to her in visions; history shows she used the Visions for Good. She fearlessly denounced clerical evils, as any Prophet would, yet she never called herself a prophet, rather her Witness spoke for her. Like Elijah, she marched into Pope Gregory XI with the Name of Jesus as her shield, she persuaded him to return to Rome from Avignon to end the Babylonian Captivity. God wanted to begin again in Rome, thus He sent a prophet to speak the Word.

Catherine died in 1380 and went home to meet her Lord face to face. In the year and city of her death St. Bernardion was born. Since he was born in the same year, the false tradition of her forming him started, which was not the case at all. St. Bernardion had a heart for the sick and dying, but his heart was formed by God, not Catherine. He joined the order of the Franciscans (Brethren) becoming an example of what they were suppose to stand for. Bernardion used the Gospel and persuaded Roman men and women to toss away their vices, and receive the Lord. Bernardion was a strict persecutor of heretics, but used Truth to convince them of their errors, not burning stakes.

The Charismatic movement in Germany centered in the Dominican order; Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) studied at the University of Paris, but believed only the Divine was real; he said the world is a illusion. He taught all who use the title Christian should be in Union with the Spirit of Christ by a Fusion of the human essence with the divine, something we call the Engrafted Word. His teaching centered on the will of man submitting to the Will of God to enter the experience. He understood the soul of man and how the soul had to seek Unity with the Spirit. He said, “God must become I, and I God”; however like all who seek the face of God in the den of thieves, he faced charges of Pantheism (Emotions Only). There is a difference between emotions controlling us and enthusiasm based on the Spirit of God motivating us.

After the death of Eckhart a group known as The Friends Of God carried on his teachings. One of the followers, John Tauler (1300-1361) became more evangelical than Eckhart. This is the true mark of a teacher sent by God, none of us expect our children in kindergarten to be smarter than their teacher, but God expects the students of His teachers to be Wiser than the teacher. A true sign of an anointed teacher of God, is his students, not his theology. The progress is thirty, to sixty, to hundred, not a hundred to sixty to thirty. An Anointed Teacher plants and waters, God brings the increase. Tauler with the Friends of God made their headquarters in the Rhine Valley, by uniting the Charismatic with the Evangelical, the way it should be.

Heinrich Suso (1295-1366) was the poet of the Friends of God, or as they called him “the Psalmist”, then a banker named Ruleman Merswin (1307-1382) furnished a religious house where the members lived. The work entitled Theologia Germanica (German Theology) has been associated with the Friends of God. Luther found this book a great help in his struggle to find the way of salvation, it pointed him to, The Just Shall Live By Faith; therefore, the teaching went on and increased to bring about the Luther Movement. Although the Luther Movement was based in faith and mercy, the intent was to find the purpose of the Charismatic. It was the prayers of the Charismatic foundation  producing the Protestant, a point often overlooked. Therefore, we find the Evangelical and Charismatic joined to bring about the result of Revival. Not a bad way to go.

There were a few who thought the Charismatic rejected the theological approach to the Bible for the emotional experience; however, the teachings show they rejected man’s reasoning of the Bible for the Interpretation by the Holy Ghost coupled with a relationship with God by the Spirit.

Others like Wycliffe, Hus, and Savonarola were interested in bringing the church back to a Bible based institution, which included all the aspects of the Spirit, Pentecost and other functions noted by Paul and the other apostles. John Wycliffe (1328-84) wanted to reform the Roman church by the elimination of immoral clergymen, by stripping the church of all it’s property. In his work entitled Of Civil Dominion (1376) he preached for a moral basis for ecclesiastical leadership. He noted how God gave His children blessings and property, not to use as a possession, not for the use of church leadership, but to be a blessing to others. He called for the leadership to Trust in God and Be Used for the Glory of God, rather than the supposed glory of the church.

Wycliffe was rejected by the leadership, yet God used him as a rebuking prophet. God’s approach extends a hand to recover, when the hand is rejected, then comes the Exposing Rebuking Finger of God by the prophets. In 1379 Wycliffe insisted in his writings Christ not the Pope was the head of the church. He said the Bible instead of church dogma, or the church was the sole authority for the Believer; thus the church should model itself after the New Testament by becoming as God intended. However, he also noted in order to reach the state, one had to repent and receive the Spirit, a move the leadership denied.

Wycliffe also brought a blow to the church leadership rocking their foundation, but they still refused to repent. He felt the elements of the Lord’s Supper were indestructible,  Christ was spiritually present in the Sacrament, obtained by faith, rather than the Bread becoming the actual Body, or the Wine becoming the actual Blood within the person. The church at this time held absolute control over the elements, twisting Paul’s teachings, and calling everyone unworthy if they didn’t receive at the hand of one appointed by the church. The church said salvation was obtained in the Sacraments, yet the priests also said they were the only ones who could give the Sacraments, thus they also controlled salvation. If Wycliffe’s view was accepted, the priests could no longer hold the threat of taking one’s salvation from them by withholding the Sacrament. Although the church’s outlook on the Sacrament was false, as well as their view of how one obtains salvation, it also tended to negate the Covenant upon which the Sacrament stood. The opposite approach would be considering Salvation as the Gift obtained on earth which can never be lost. Both extremes are heresy, neither brings us into the Gift of Grace by The Faith of Jesus.

The Sacraments are symbols of the Covenant, they are for us to Remember, making them Belief centered. A Jew doesn’t run back to Egypt and allow God to deliver them every Passover, nor are they circumcised every eight days, they would consider it foolishness. We don’t call Jesus down from heaven, we don’t dominate the Cup of the Lord, we partake to remember the Covenant as we judge ourselves to the Body and Blood, thereby avoiding being condemned with the world. The Body represents the Mercy of God, the Cup the Grace of God, both are reflective on what Jesus gave us, not what we give Jesus.

John Hus (1373-1415) was another forerunner to the Reformation, he was a pastor of the Bethlehem Chapel in Bohemia after Richard II of England married Anne of Bohemia. Hus wanted to reform the Church in Bohemia along the same lines as Wycliffe desired. Hus wrote a book entitled De Ecclesia (1413) which projected many of Wycliffe’s views. Hus was ordered to the Council of Constance under “a safe-conduct pass”; however, the Pass was false, he was to stand before the Council. Like all Council’s who are motivated by carnal motives, or Pharisaical premises, they attacked Hus’ book. When Hus refused to recant, they burned him at the stake. They may have destroyed his body, but the Words didn’t come from Hus alone, they continued on.

The Taborites followed, rejecting everything in the church which couldn’t be proven by Scripture. The Utraquists were another group who felt, only what the Bible forbade should be eliminated, the laity should receive both the Bread and Wine at mass without the restrictions of the priests. Their conclusion was simple, the person should know if they are worthy or not, or if they need the Bread and Cup; Jesus has made us kings and priests.

The leadership of the church twisted the Table concept, considering a person worthy if they followed church dogma, rather than knowing a person is worthy when they respected the Table. The movement would bring the Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren, or Bohemian Brethren) around 1450, who would develop into the Monravian church a Charismatic Group instrumentally used by God to bring John Wesley to a spiritual understanding of the Lord. The teachings of Hus also influenced Luther, thus Wycliffe, Hus and the Charismatics stirred the ground to bring the Reformation; God surely brought the increase.

Savonarola (1492-1534) was more interested in reform within the church, whereas Hus and Wycliffe made the Bible the standard of authority for those inside or outside who were seeking God. Savonarola purposed to replace the Medici with Christ, an unpopular view among the leadership. As a youth he studied many humanist concepts, but thought the works of Thomas Aquinas more absorbing; however, his parents wanted their son to be a doctor, or such. Savonarola wrote home often, complaining of the naturally minded people around him, his distaste for the carnal came from his desire to have the Spirit of Christ. He often said, “to be considered a man here, you must defile your mouth with the most filthy, brutal and tremendous blasphemies…if you study philosophy and the good arts you are considered a dreamer; if you live chastely and modestly, a fool; if you are pious, a hypocrite; if you believe in God, an imbecile”; Savonarola became an imbecile in the eyes of man, a prophet in the eyes of God, the latter is better.

It was assumed the eschatology of Savonarola was patterned after Joachim of Flora; but the two differed in some important aspects. Joachim felt Jesus Himself would set up the Kingdom on earth, Savonarola felt Christ (as the Body) should be set up on earth; Joachim felt the Kingdom was of virtue, Savonarola felt the Kingdom was Power within a person. Savonarola taught the spirit of antichrist was already among them, just as John (I Jn 4:1-4 & 2:18-19). He felt Satan was already reigning in the world, and had made inroads to the Body, just as Paul taught (II Cor 11:13-15).  He felt the time was nearing for Christ to reign on earth (kingdom of heaven, or Body). Savonarola prophesied about Christ (Body of Christ) being the element of Great Power before the end of this Age, his prophecy has been twisted to some degree by confusing the Body of Christ with Jesus the Christ. Paul used the title Christ in different ways, depending on the subject, as did Savonarola. To both men Christ could be the Body, or the Anointing, or Jesus, but more often than not the reference was the Body.

Savonarola didn’t think the church would rule, rather he was convinced the Power of Christ would rule, in truth it does. There is no greater Power than the Power of Christ, the confusion over the term “rule” draws the problems. To man “rule” means to control, but to God it means the world, darkness, devils, the things of the world have no power or authority over us. Someone run by the spirit of disobedience can say “no”, but it does little good, a Born Again believer says “No” with power and authority, it does good. The early disciples understood this, thus the Romans had no power over them, just as Jesus said Pilate had no power over Him.

Savonarola began by teaching in the churches in San Marco and San Lorenzo, his sermons tended to be spiritual in nature, yet proved too much for the humanist to take. The truth of spiritual matters being foolishness to the naturally minded became the case. Savonarola became bold in the Lord, he preached against immorality, gave prophecies of doom, but he also provided the means of escape through repentance. Thousands came to hear him, so much so the buildings couldn’t hold them. Savonarola equated the Glory of God as the Glory of Christ as the purposed Glory for the Body. He desired to see the Glory within manifest for all to see, but he knew for it to happen there would have to be major changes in the leadership.

When Savonarola was a young man before he found the Lord, he used debate and argued his point, but now he stood with vivid descriptions, truth upon truth exposing the self nature. One such sermon began with, “Ye women, who glory in your ornaments, your hair, your hands, I tell you, you are ugly. Would you see true beauty? Look at the pious man or woman in whom the Spirit dominates matter; watch when they pray, when a ray of the divine beauty glows upon them when their prayer is ended; you will see the beauty of God shining in their face, you will behold it as it were the face of an angel” (Savonarola, 28th Sermon on Ezekiel).

He explained the pious were faced with the corruption of the leaders, but it didn’t stop others from seeking God’s Glory, or a touch from the Master, or a Ray of Divine Beauty. The Savonarola sermon on Ezekiel exposed the corruptness of leadership, “in these days there is no Grace, no gift of the Spirit, that may not be bought and sold. On the other hand the poor are oppressed by grievous burdens; when they are called to pay sums beyond their means the rich cry onto them Give me the rest”. He pointed his prophetic finger at the bankers and priests; “You have found many ways of making money, and many exchanges which you call lawful but which are most unjust”. He had a word for the self-serving, “Tyrants are incorrigible because they are proud, because they love flattery, and will not restore ill gotten gains”. He didn’t leave out the humanist, “the humanist merely pretend to be Christians… their art is an idolatry of heathen gods, or a shameless display of naked women and men”. Could he mean men like Michelangelo or Marsilio Ficino? Both were members of the Platonic Academy, both followed the mixed views of the humanist and papal authority, both painted naked men and women.

In the early church the Feast of Pentecost was called Ascension Day, in 1497 on Ascension Day Savonarola gave one his striking sermons, but it was interrupted by a riot when some of his enemies attempted to seize him; however, their plans went astray when Savonarola’s friends came to his aid. With all this going on Pope Alexander VI was becoming deeply concerned over the preaching of Savonarola, what would happen if the people really believed him? It didn’t matter to Alexander if the people were repenting, what mattered to him was his position, regardless of the truthfulness of the sermons. Like the Pharisees of old, Alexander wanted to know, “By what authority do you say these things?”. Alexander feared another French invasion, assuming Savonarola was attempting to unite Florence with France against the seat of the Pope.

The fears of Alexander were fueled by three letters written by Savonarola to Charles VIII, in which Savonarola called Alexander “an infidel and heretic”. Savonarola was seeking help to reform the church from the top down, which included disposing Alexander. Alexander had the faith of a marshmallow, he sought to protect his position by killing Savonarola, but without a confession of treason there was no way he could accomplish his demonic task. On July 21, 1495 Alexander sent a brief note to Savonarola asking him to visit; Savonarola knew, first they invite you, then they beat you into confessing, even if there is nothing to confess.

The request was triumph for the enemies of Savonarola, they knew the Pope’s motives were political, provoked by self-interests, but they didn’t care, they wanted the mouth of Savonarola closed. On the advice of his friends, Savonarola wrote to Alexander and said he was too ill to travel to Rome. This caused Savonarola to stop preaching for almost a year, but in the mean time the Council changed. Alexander then appointed a Dominican bishop to examine Savonarola’s published sermons for evidence of heresy. Alexander made the mistake of picking an honest man, the bishop reported, “Most Holy Father, this friar says nothing which is not wise and honest; he speaks against Simony and the corruption of the priesthood, which in truth is very great; wherefore I would rather seek to make him my friend”. Instead of beheading Savonarola, Alexander was moved to offer him a red hat (cardinal seat), this was not Simony by any means, Savonarola really didn’t know how to answer. He told Alexander’s emissary, “Come to my next sermon and you will have my reply to Rome”.

Savonarola being anointed preached as he was moved by saying, “the Pope may not give any command opposed to charity or the Gospel. I do not believe the Pope would ever seek to do so; but were he so to do I should say to him, Now thou art no pastor, thou art not the church of Rome, thou art in error”. Alexander was doing what he was not suppose to, by refusing to do what he was called to do, he was in error, but now he was in error and extremely angered. Savonarola didn’t stop there, he returned to the pulpit the next week and said, “One thousand, ten thousand, fourteen thousand harlots are few for Rome, for there both men and women are made harlots”. This didn’t mean harlots were hanging around Rome, it means the Pope was making the called men and women of God harlots by selling out their faith.

Alexander used Padre Giacomo in an attempt to move Savonarola to some small village; today we would say Alexander was “taking Savonarola’s papers”. Savonarola refused the order by taking his case to the people; this wasn’t rebellion, since he also preached for the Body of Christ, not the Pope. He wrote a pamphlet entitled, An Apology Of The Brethren Of San Marco, adding the Lenten Sermons by Savonarola. The pamphlet caused many people to follow him around singing hymns and praising the Lord, they found they could touch God, they didn’t need a middleman, or strict overseer. In the Lenten Sermons, Savonarola moved into a prophecy by saying, “The LORD says, I gave thee beautiful vestments, but you have made idols of them. You have dedicated the sacred vessels to vain glory, the sacraments to Simony. You have become a shameless harlot in your lusts; you are lower than the Beast; you are a monster of abomination. Once you felt shame for your sins, but now you are shameless. Once anointed priests called their sons nephews, but now they speak of their sons (a reference to Alexander VI’s candor about his many illegitimate children). Thus, O prostitute church, you have displayed your foulness to the whole world, you stink unto heaven”. This he spoke in 1497 on the heels of the Protestant Movement, thus this prophecy did come to pass when Luther, and others were moved by God to a place outside of the corruption. The warning to change came again and again, then God did a New Thing, He brought to pass, “come out of her My children”, but only after the warnings were completely rejected.

The reference to the illegitimate children of Alexander was not something hidden under the rug; Alexander made public displays of his children and grandchildren, although they were the products of illicit affairs. Other Popes had illegitimate children, but at least they called them nephews attempting to keep it silent. The people didn’t care, after all the example was the example for years, corruption breeds corruption. Men like Savonarola were never asked by the cardinals to become Pope, mainly because the cardinals couldn’t control them; therefore, the Good Fish preached among the people, there was a Precious to be found.

One would think Savonarola was done with prophecy, but God had more to say. On February 11, 1498 while Savonarola was preaching in San Marco he said, “Therefore, on him who gives commands opposed to charity let them be accursed. Where such a command pronounced by an angel, even by the Virgin Mary herself, and all the saints let them be accursed. And if any Pope has ever spoken to the contrary, let him be declared excommunicate”. For nearly 1,200 years God heard how the church hid the Bible, how the church was the only means for salvation, how the church was the master of God, how the church was the center of all spiritual endeavors, but He also saw the Good, those who loved Him and were called according to His purpose. God always has a people of love and mercy, His mercy endures forever.

Savonarola continued to preach, but only in his monastery in San Marco. Rome hated Savonarola so much, no Florentine citizen was safe in Rome. Instead of repenting they attacked, the result of a soulish reaction to God’s call for restoration. Surely God would be done with this bunch, but God is longsuffering, Savonarola would speak again, but this time it would be in writing. Savonarola wrote to the sovereigns of France, Spain, Germany and Hungry, begging them to call a general council to reform the church. The contents of the letter is still available in Villari page 645. Some of the contents read: The moment of vengeance has arrived; The Lord commands me to reveal new secrets and make manifest to the world the peril by which the bark of St. Peter is threatened: the church is all teeming with abomination: Where the Lord is greatly angered and has long left the church without a shepherd: this Alexander is no Pope, nor can he be held as one; inasmuch as, leaving aside the mortal sin of Simony, by which he has purchased the papal chair, and daily sells the benefices of the church to the highest bidder, and likewise putting aside his other manifest vices, I declare he is no Christian, he believes in no God”.

Savonarola was a Protestant (Protester) before Luther, like Luther, Savonarola first called for reform within the church, but unlike Luther, Savonarola was restricted to the confines of the church. Luther called him a saint, a Prophet Sent By God, his record shows it was the case. Did Savonarola make a difference in Italy as Luther did in Germany? A moral revolution transformed what had been immoral Florence: the Medici was overcome by holiness, people sang hymns, they freely gave alms to the poor, local churches were filled to the brim, some of the bankers restored illegal gains. Luther who stood on the premise of the just shall live by faith in God, Savonarola said, Your reform must begin with the things of the Spirit. Both show us the Just can only be Just by having the Spirit and maintaining ones faith in God.

On the matters of government, he was faced with a government claiming God as its leader, thus he said, “If you desire a good government you must restore it to God”. Some historians assume Savonarola called Utopia over Florence, but he was merely calling for reform to restore a Christ nature to the Body, it was also based on what could have been, not what was going on. Savonarola said, “O Florence! then will you be rich….”; we stopped here to show the phrase “then will you be rich” clearly points to what could have been, since Savonarola predicated this by saying, in order to achieve Florence must have Christ as the Head, not Rome, but the result was a people who failed to make Christ the Head, what little they did have, they lost; thus some historians assume Savonarola missed the mark, when in fact he was on target, the people missed it. Savonarola continued by saying, Florence couldn’t remain rich with temporal riches, they had to be secure in the riches of Christ, If they would move to the path of the Spirit they would spread Greatness over the world; however, the result shows the prophecy didn’t fail, Florence failed to enter in.

Another Good Fish, Guillaume Durand, Bishop of Mende not only called out to God, but reported to the Council of Vienna, “The whole church might be reformed if the church of Rome would begin by removing evil examples of itself”. The finger of the prophet pointed to the source, calling for the source to change in order to bring a different result. The method used by the cardinals was not to bring change to their order, but to change all those below them. Durand knew the corruption at the top filtered down to the masses, attempting to force change in others, without being changed yourself was no change at all.

Petrarch added the second witness, by concluding, “the impious Babylon, the hell on earth, the sink of vice, the sewer of the world. There is in it neither faith nor charity nor religion nor the fear of God”. Petrarch spoke as a prophet, he exposed the heart of the matter, then added, “all the filth and wickedness of the world have run together here”. Petrarch concluded, the examples of the church were more corrupt than the witness of the world, they didn’t glory in the Cross, they gloried in their flesh, they were feasting at the expense of Christ, they were fornicators, drunkards, rapists, adulterers, who played lascivious games. At times we find the prophet tends to make the matter clear by removing any mistaken content.

The concept of a Cheerful Giver was out of the question, the Tithe was enforced to provide for the treasury, but they also added the Indulgences to extract more money out of the people. Anyone who failed to Tithe to Pope Gregory XI was considered a heathen; not only were the people to Tithe, but each group along the ladder was to Tithe as well, each increasing in the amount until the last was nearly ninety percent, rather than ten. In 1372 the Abbots of the Archdiocese of Cologne refused to Tithe to Gregory, one point they used was Tithes were for the House of God, not the Pope’s personal endeavors. They added, “the Apostolic See (bishop’s office) has fallen into such contempt the Catholic faith in these parts seems to be seriously imperiled. The laity speak slightingly of the church because, departing from the custom of former days, she hardly ever sends forth preachers or reformers, but rather ostentatious (uses money to attract attention) men; cunning, selfish, and greedy. Things are such few are Christians in more than name”. The warnings were before the Seat of Rome, those who truly loved the Lord were calling out for reform to begin at the highest level. The Yoke had to be removed from the shoulder of government before the congregation could be free indeed (I Cor 11:1-7).

The cardinals blamed the people for the division of the Papal States, they wanted Clement VI to reunite the order by using the guise of the “unity of the faith” as the purpose; unfortunately their concept of the unity of the faith was so twisted they assumed it meant uniting with dogma, rather than be united in the Faith of Jesus. Clement engaged an army to recapture the Papal States, his successor Innocent VI made what he felt was restoration by stopping the use of nepotism, corruption and putting an end to the epicurean splendor and waste of money given to the church. Nepotism is the favoritism shown by giving advancement to relatives; but Innocent VI advanced his own relatives, which was Nepotism, then said No more, hypocrisy is still hypocrisy.

Innocent VI claimed to be a man of peace, but concluded the only way to win back the Papal States was war. He had a choice to fall on his face before God, toss out tradition with his Pig Theology then receive with meekness the engrafted Word, or find someone to battle in the name of God against the people of God. He picked the latter and found Gil Alvarez Carrillo de Albornoz, who took the name Cardinal Egidio d’Albornoz, he soon persuaded  the republic of Florence to advance him funds to organize an army. Instead of using the Godly premise of spiritual warfare, he picked the warfare of the world by using forced negotiation to dispose of one leader after another until he came with the Edigian Constitutions in 1357. The Edigian Constitutions became a workable compromise between government and the allegiance to the papacy, but nonetheless it was compromise.

The history of the Body was divided into periods, thus allowing one group to disassociate from another, yet not disassociating from the Body. Jesus was Jewish, came for the Jews, picked Jews to begin the Body, then on Pentecost the birth of Church came as the door to the Kingdom of God was opened. Later Philip water baptized a Gentile, turning the knob to the door. Peter than cracked the door with Cornelius, then the Holy Ghost busted it wide open with Paul and others. Did it mean no more Jews could enter in? No, we know better, the progression was to Increase the Body, so the Church could be Increased. From the Day of Pentecost anyone who was baptized in water became a member of the Body, they could not reject it, yet they could deny it. Even the Protestant movement can’t divorce itself from the Body, we are all members in particular, we can’t say, “Look at them, they are not of the Body”, nor can we say, “Well, I want no part of it, I separate myself from them”, assuming we have left the Body. On the same note, we can separate ourselves from the Spirit, as Jude shows. Therefore, one can divorce their self from Christ remaining an independent rock, but they are still in the Body.

The third period of the church began with Pope Sylvester around 1280, who added more corruption and errors, all centering on the love for money, or the lust for control. The church historian, Dolcino spent many hours recording the history of the Body; his conclusion was not nice or kind, rather he noted from Sylvester all the Popes with the exception of Celestine V had been unfaithful to Christ. History did show how Benedict, Francis, and Dominic had attempted to bring the church back to Christ, but failed.

Under Boniface VIII the comparison between the church and the Whore in the Book of Revelation was so close, it confused the Good Fish, they assumed the end was at hand, or perhaps they wished the end would be at hand. The Whore in the Book of Revelation has 12 stars as her crown, pointing to the 12 tribes of Israel, the Sun as her covering as a metaphor for Israel (Jacob), with the Moon as her foundation, showing Zion of the earth,  only one city on the earth matches the premise, Jerusalem of the earth. Rome may have come close, but not close enough. Nonetheless, it doesn’t excuse any of the corruption, rather it all becomes a sign and a warning to us: remain spiritual, trust in God, and allow the Holy Ghost to run the ministry. We have the Holy Spirit in us for the Manifestation of the Spirit, for the saving of our souls, but the Holy Ghost has anointed ministries for the work of the ministry, thus Jude tells us to pray in the Holy Ghost regarding the masses (Jude 20-23). Our ministry is Holy Ghost operated, we are Holy Spirit operated, putting the two together we find spiritual to spiritual, but if we remain carnal, we miss the teaching.

1378 – 1447

In order to understand why there seems to be so many Popes at the same time during this period, we must view the schism, also known as the Papal Schism running from 1378 to 1447. The cardinals picked the Pope, but they found there are times when their picks can turn on  them. Urban VI shocked the cardinals when he announced reform, from the top down. He condemned the morals of the cardinals publicly, he forbade them to accept pensions, simony or any gift for their office. When Cardinal Orsini protested, Urban called him a blockhead. On August 9, 1378 the cardinals issued a manifesto declaring Urban’s election invalid, they said the decision was the peoples choice then acquired a Roman mob to apply pressure on them, making it appear as if it was the choice of the people, in truth they simply didn’t like their appointee. They proclaimed Robert of Geneva to be Clement VII, the true Pope, thus Urban remained in Rome, Clement in Avignon, the papal was split. This sign had two sides, the division and strife showed how the leadership was yet carnal, but God was still using their folly to show how He wanted to break the yoke, if they would only let Him. It also displayed how the appointed Cardinals were picking the head, something completely out of order. This would be the same as Stephen and Philip picking apostles, after the apostles picked them. There is no office for Cardinal, rather it comes from a term meaning an high Bishop, thus it’s still helps, not governments.

Clement  VII was called a Judas; St. Vincent Ferrer applied the same term to Urban VI. Urban found seven cardinals who plotted against him, he arrested them, tortured them until they confessed, then put them to death in 1385. Urban’s own death didn’t heal the division, rather the fourteen cardinals in his camp made Piero Tomacelli Pope Boniface IX a Pope. When Clement VII died in 1394, his cardinals in Avignon named Pedro de Luna as Pope Benedict XIII as their Pope.

Just like today, the Christian community was becoming weary of the division, strife and envy. Charles VI of France called for both Popes to resign, but Benedict refused. In 1399 Boniface IX proclaimed a jubilee for the following year, with a premise based on the fifty year jubilee wherein the debts were forgiven; however, Boniface took it two steps further. Instead of material debts being forgiven, man could pay money to gain remission of sin, if they gave more money they could buy the remission of sins for the entire family. Money became the god of salvation, the more money one could give, the greater the forgiveness, or so they thought.

The premise being, if one came to Rome they could be forgiven in person, but if they couldn’t come to Rome they could pay the price of travel and still be forgiven. This formed the Indulgence heresy, which branched to other areas as well. If someone knew they were going to sin, they could pay in advance, thus be forgiven before the fact; if they died in the process, they were already forgiven. So much for Repentance and having a change in heart. This evil came with many hats, but centered on money; the love of money is still the root of all evil.

Bonifice’s secretary admitted the man had a thirst for gold which couldn’t be filled. Peter’s warning regarding the Flock of God had little effect, rather the opposite was true, the wolves were taking the wool from the Sheep, using constraint and manipulation. The wicked changed the meaning of Faith to Intelligentsia, but God would prevail as Faith would again surface in the 1800’s, Faith always prevails.

Innocent VII took over when Boniface died in 1404, but revolt broke out in 1405, causing Innocent to run to Viterbo for protection. This time there was a mob led by Giovanni Colonna, they sacked the Vatican, threw the religious registers and Bulls (Pope written decrees) into the street. The people thinking Rome would be without a Pope made their peace with Innocent, who returned to Rome where he died in 1406.

Gregory XII was after Innocent, he used his head and invited Benedict XIII to a conference to settle the division. With this the king of France again urged Benedict to resign to save the church, but Benedict was more interested in saving himself, thus he refused, based another division between Benedict and his cardinals, Benedict ran to Spain, his cardinals ran to Gregory. On March 25, 1409 a Council was held at Pisa, the same place where the leaning tower is found.

The Council Of The Popes lasted from 1409 to 1418, this division was not in accordance with the Bible, neither was the Council. Jesus told us to lay our gift on the altar and make amends with our brother, during this time the gift on the altar was the head of one’s enemy. Not only was Grace and Faith pushed aside for self-indulgence, but they removed Mercy as well. Paul tells us the difference between a vessel of honor and one of dishonor is Mercy (Rom 9:21-23).

Many years prior William of Occam protested against identifying the Body as the clergy; he said the Body is the congregation of All the faithful; the whole has authority superior to any part; thus the Faithful were to identify with Christ to become the Church, rather than identify with the clergy to become members of a church.

The introduction of the leadership being the Church produced confusion, the assumption of the Body and Church being one in the same soon followed, adding to the confusion. All this took away from Jesus being the Head, to the seat in Rome being the “head of the church”. It removed the very premise the Cross produced, the one on one relationship with God by the Spirit through faith in Jesus. Nonetheless, God would reach through the hardened wall of religious conceit to touch someone to bring the Word of the Lord.

The Council wanted power to elect, reprove, punish or depose the Pope, any Pope, they used Scripture to prove their point, but they lacked Faith, thus the Scripture again was used as a weapon against people, rather than unto Salvation and Righteousness. This is an element of what we call the “Deacon Board”, a faction appointed by leaders, to be over leaders. The elders were to speak on behalf of the people, but when there are no elders, the voices of the people fall short. Of course by this time no one heard, “Separate unto Me…”. Their acts were completely out of order, the Council became so carnal their concept of ending division was not the unity of the Spirit, but by killing the Pope.

Heinrich von Langenstein the German theologian from the University of Paris wrote a tract entitled Concilium Pacis in 1381. He stated the Popes were men under authority to God, yet men with authority from God. Only a power outside the Popes and superior to the cardinals could rescue the church from the chaos overtaking it. Although the Council did meet as scheduled it had the added problem of neither Benedict or Gregory recognizing if it had any power to decide anything. The Council summoned Benedict and Gregory to appear before them, of course they did not, thus the Council placed the Cardinal of Milan as Pope Alexander V in 1409, now they had three Popes. Rather than solve the division, they added to it. Alexander was a great help, he died in 1410; then his cardinals picked John XXIII, who became the most unmanageable man to occupy the seat since John XXII.

Then would come Baldassare Cossa, the vicar of Bologna, a man of great wealth. He dominated and controlled, he didn’t govern, he used absolute and unscrupulous power. He taxed everything, including prostitution. Whatever made money, he taxed, whatever didn’t make money he taxed. According to his secretary, he seduced over two hundred virgins, matrons, widows and nuns. He was a man of politics and war, a man who would put a stop to the division by ungodly means. His plan was to take the Papal States from Gregory reducing him to nothing. In 1411 a man by the name of Sigismund became the uncrowned king of Rome, this man was considered by the people as the head of the Holy Roman Empire. He compelled John to hold a Council to stop the division; on November 5, 1414 the Council was held with many cardinals, abbots, archbishops, doctors of theology and others, making it  the largest Council in Christian history. On April 6, 1415 they produced the most revolutionary official document, they claimed to be legally assembled in the Holy Ghost, but never claimed to be assembled By the Holy Ghost. They made the false assumption of the church as the Head, rather than Jesus being the Head, instead of building the saints to do the work of the ministry, they used the saints to build the treasure chest of the leadership. They ended the document by saying, “and if necessary, recourse shall be the aid to justice”; their intent was clear, stop the Schism or die. They sent a committee to John XXII asking for his abdication, by May 25th they had yet to receive an answer from John, thus on May 29th the Council deposed John XXIII, and Sigismund ordered him confined. John was released in 1418, then found asylum with Cosimo di’ Medici.

Gregory saw the handwriting on the wall, he resigned on July 4, 1415. The Council confirmed the validity of all his appointments for the sake of peace, but Benedict continued to resist. On July 26, 1417, the Council deposed him, he ran to his family’s estate near Valencia, where he died at the age of ninety, still proclaiming he was the true Pope.

On November 17 1417 the Council electoral picked Cardinal Oddone Colonna as Pope Martin V. All Christendom accepted him as the Pope, after thirty-nine years of division the Great Schism ended. One element the Council set out to do, they felt was accomplished, yet their concept of Reforming the Church was to end the Schism, rather than holiness. Before the Body was able to regain a spiritual position, the papacy started to rebuild its political power.

THE PAPACY REBUILDS ITS POLITICAL POWER

Martin V being a Roman wanted to the Seat of the Pope in Rome, but when he arrived in 1420 he found the city a wreck. The capital of Christendom was one of the least civilized cities in Europe, the division took its toll, the corruptness from the top had reached the people in the streets. When a nation calls itself of God, yet the religious leaders fail to be run by God, the nation will soon become corrupt. Martin was faced with many problems in the reconstruction of the church, but instead of seeking men who knew God, he picked men of intellect, or who were renown in the community. He sold offices to get money, his conclusion was, God helps them who help themselves to the money.

In 1430 a German envoy came to Rome with a letter of rebuke; some of the contents of the letter pointed to the greed in the Roman Court; the exhorting of money from Germany, while refusing to bring Christ to the people, yet it also indicated there were a people whose hearts were burning because of a lack of Christ. It was obvious, the papacy had become a government, not a religion, void of spiritual endeavors.

Eugenius IV succeeded Martin, he appeared to be a saint, yet more of a politician, than a Pope. He first faced the cardinal rulers by signing the Capitula, promising the cardinals freedom of speech, guarantees of their offices, the ability to control over half of the revenues, and consultation with them over important matters. Martin called for the Council of Basel, Eugenius called for it to dissolved, but it refused (1431). The Council of Basel wanted to gain supremacy of the Councils over the people, the cardinals wanted equal power with the Pope, the Pope wanted all the power. Power became the issue, but none of them had the display of having the Authority of Christ (Rev 12:10-11). There are all sorts of Power; however once we receive the Authority of the Lord, we must tarry until we receive the Power from on high. It was not the type of power these leaders were seeking, they wanted power over the people. The title Nicolaitanes means Power over the people, whereas Nicodemus means Power of the people. The church had entered the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing Jesus hates (Rev 2:15)

The Council of Basel was still in session when the Colonna saw a chance for revenge; they attacked Eugenius by making war with him, but they were defeated. The Council of Basel was mainly comprised of Frenchmen, their aim was pronounced by the Bishop of Tours as “either to wrest the Apostolic See from the Italians, or so to despoil it so it will not matter where it abides”. The Colonna seized the city, set up a republican form of government, now the church was faced with division from the lower ranks.

Eugenius fled down the Tiber River in a small boat, as he was leaving the city he and the boat were pelted by arrows, spikes and stones, he nonetheless found refuge in Florence, then in Bologna. With Eugenius out the picture, the Council gained control, but started giving Indulgences, dispensations and benefices in abundance. The Council also demanded for any money paid to it, not the Pope. With Eugenius in exile the Council assumed it had complete control, but Eugenius again ordered the Council dissolved. They countered by disposing him, then naming Amadeus VIII of Savoy as  Antipope Fleix V; the Schism renewed itself in 1439. Where there is division and strife, there is every evil work, and so it was.

To make matters worse, Charles VII of France convened at Bourges in 1438, proclaiming the supremacy of Councils over the Popes by issuing the famed Pragmatic Sanction Of Bourges. Henceforth the ecclesiastical offices were to be filled through election by the local chapter of clergy. This only had effect in France, but then Germany followed a year later with the Diet at Mainz.

The Bohemian church had separated itself from the papacy during the Hussite revolt; the archbishop of Prague called the Pope “the Beast of the Apocalypse”. Further letters of the archbishop explain how he saw the Pope as the Beast of the Earth. In all this Eugenius would be rescued by the Turks, thus the Muslims saved the Pope from the Christians.

Christianity was strong among the people, but weak in the leadership. As a means to resolve the matter Emperor John VIII called for the unity of the church; Eugenius agreed, the two of them also agreed to a Council at Ferrara. The Council at Basel lingered on, but since the majority of its funds were now being withheld, it declined in prestige. The Unity of the Body was a useless endeavor, unless they seek the Unity of the Spirit in the Faith of Jesus.

The news of the Greek and Roman joining together caused all of Europe to stir with excitement; along with the other divisions, this division had lasted since 1054. On February 8, 1438 the Bysantine Emperor, the Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople, several monks, Greek metropolitans, scholars and bishops arrived at Venice. The Council appointed several commissions to reconcile the differences in theology, the major differences were: the primacy of the Pope, the use of unleavened bread, the nature of the pains of purgatory, the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and/or the Son. None of these issues relate to a relationship with Jesus, but the theology of natural man looks for the needles in the hay stack. The Greeks said, The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father through the Son; the Romans said, The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. Neither looked at the purpose, or the difference between the Holy Ghost in the Record, or the Spirit in the Witness, nor were they concerned with their lack of spiritual ability (I Jn 5:7-8). Mundane points of theology are the weapons of the Pharisee, the legalist truly swallows the camel, but chokes on the gnat.

There were other matters regarding the split, the worship of icons and the such, which didn’t address the question as to why people even worshiped the icons to begin with. On July 6, 1439 they came into agreement on some of the issues, one giving this, the other giving that, except when it came to the Orthodoxy view being subject to the Roman view. The agreement was one of compromise to a point, but not unity. The decree was read in Greek by Bessarion, and in Latin by Cesarini. Many accepted Eugenius as the Pope, except for the Muscovites in Russia, since their church remained Orthodoxy. Some of the Orthodoxy moved to Moscow to join the Muscovites, along with the Patriarch of Orthodoxy.

For the first time Christendom was joyful, then came the offense, no Root, they had points of theology, but lacked the Root. Without the Root good intentions tend to become carnal, yet to be carnally minded is death. When the Greek Emperor and his council returned to Constantinople, the people came with insults, the populace of the city refused to submit to Rome. Mohammed II simplified the situation by making Constantinople a Turkish capital in 1453. Mohammed allowed the Christians freedom of worship, but the city was nonetheless Muslim. This came after the Florence Council in 1439, thus the Orthodoxy moving from Constantinople to Moscow, made Moscow the Third Rome.

When Eugenius was in exile in the city of Florence he became involved in the humanist movement, adding several humanists to his secretariat. He also brought Fra Angelico to Rome, having him paint the Chapel of the Sacrament at the Vatican. Angelico was a humanist, not only did he give his impression of Christ, Mary and the Apostles, but he added Mars, Roma, Hero and other Greek gods and goddesses, even Leda the swan and Cupid (Eros) as figures of angels. The same use of the Greek god Cupid as a reproduction of an angel of God is seen today as the little child with wings and a harp, but in Greek mythology he was Eros, the god of the flesh. From the Greek Eros we gain the English word erotic, thus the one Greek word for love not found in the Bible is Eros.

Pope Nicholas V began to reign in 1447, Rome was hardly a tenth of what it used to be when it was enclosed by the walls of Aurelin in 270-75. The surrounding seven hills had been without a reliable water supply, causing many of the people to drink from the Tiber. During this time the papacy held to the Donation of Constantine as the papacy authority, although Nicholas admitted it was a papacy forgery by Pepin, later confirmed a forgery by Charlemagne it remained as the authority. The Popes coined their own money as far back as 782, as well as using money changers since 800. Nicholas became Pope seven years before Gutenberg printed his Bible, thus the control of the Bible was still in the hands of hierarchy. The people were rarely given quotes from the Bible, but many from church dogma. From time to time a Good Fish would surface with Bible quotes and Truth, but  for the most part the people heard only what pointed to the dogma of the church. Such was the case with infant baptism, the premise being if one was baptized in water, they automatically received the Holy Spirit, thus they need not seek any other baptism. Of course Acts shows it’s not the case, the Book of Hebrews tells us there is a Doctrine of Baptisms (Heb 6:1-2). The next step was making water baptism the means by which one is saved: of course the only ones allowed to water baptize were the leaders, which put salvation in the hands of man. Adding membership through water baptism, it’s true one’s water baptism is a token regarding entrance into the Body, but it’s not a token for entrance into a sect, denomination, or a fragment of the Body. This elevated water baptism to baptizing infants, which gave them the false security of being saved, without the need to accept the Gift of Grace, Faith, repent, or believe. It also placed them under authority of the church, subject to leadership. The Commandment of Teach before we Baptize was not taken into consideration, the issue would be the fuel for the Anabaptist movement in the 1500’s.

The rule of the Popes applied to their seat; therefore, they used secular rules and church dogma to rule as absolute monarchs. Nicholas spent nearly all of his money on books of all types, or manuscripts. This was before the printing press, thus any book or manuscript was handwritten, making them worth a great deal of money. His ambition was to establish the Vatican Library; Nicholas had three aims, be a good Pope, to rebuild Rome, and to restore classical literature and art. It’s obvious there are many things missing from the agenda, but he nonetheless wanted to be a good Pope, it was his definition of Good causing him problems. Prior the Popes used Indulgences to finance war, Nicholas wanted to finance his goals, thus he used Indulgences again. Many rumbled at the influx of gold into Italy, some saw the riches as corrupting the church, others saw their income and businesses being taken from them. Whatever, they saw their leaders as thieves.

On the Feast Of Epiphany while the Pope and his cardinals were at Mass in St. Peter’s there was an attack made on the Vatican, the treasury was seized under the guise of supplying funds for the Republic. Just prior to the attack a man by the name of Porcaro secretly left Bologna on December 26, 1452, his absence was discovered, and a warning was sent to the Vatican. The revolt was overturned, some were beheaded, this caused the Republicans to denounce the executions as murder, the humanists condemned the plot as monstrous infidelity to a benevolent Pope. Why would the humanists side with the Pope? Nicholas was building a library with all sorts of books, including the humanist view,  witchcraft, and other sorted material within the Vatican.

In 1453 the Turks entered Constantinople over the corpses of 50,000 Christians, turning St. Sophia into a mosque. Nicholas sought support for another Crusade; however, all the other Indulgences caused the rejecting of his notion. Nicholas bowed to reality, thinking he had failed as a good Pope, he died in 1455. He did restore peace within the church, avoided nepotism, loved the church and his books, but it was never recorded if he Loved the Lord. There is a difference between Loving the Lord, Trusting in the Lord and having Faith in the Lord, a good leader needs all three attributes by the Spirit in order to rule in a Godly manner.

In 1455 Pope Calixtus III took over, he had a legalist mind which he used. His prime purpose was A Crusade Against The Turks; Calixtus made friends in the College of Cardinals with the purpose of making the papacy a constitutional order, as well as an elective monarchy. Later Popes overcame this movement, just as the kings of the world defeated the nobles.

Calixtus died while attempting to stir Europe to come to his aid in defeating the Turks. The thought of converting the Muslims was now out the window, not because they were so hard, but because of all the failing Crusades. The Muslims believed God was on their side, after all they had the land, the victories, and what appeared to be the Power. However, God also placed His people under the hand of Babylon, yet Nebuchadnezzar made the mistake of looking about and saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of my kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” (Dan 4:30). His reward was eating grass, with his mind taking a trip without him (Dan 4:31-34). Good men had an idea outside the confines of Scripture, and did something, the result was terrible. Whether men do nothing, or do something is not the question, whether they did nothing, or did something based on what God tells them is the issue.

Pope Pius II took over in 1458; however, he studied at Florence under Filelfo, a devout humanist. He had several illegitimate children, he managed to excuse his behavior as “being no holier than David or Solomon”. He never considered neither David or Solomon were privy to the Spirit, had the responsibility of representing Jesus to the world, thus self-deception was still self-deception. He was noted as “the young devil”, yet he could quote and use Scripture to suit his purpose, but failed to live by it. His qualifications to become a Pope were listed as a man of wide experience, a successful diplomat, a scholar who could bring luster to the papacy. Not one note on his beliefs, on his love for the Lord, or his spiritual ability to sit as a shepherd of God’s heritage. The humanist loved him, he talked like them, had the same interests, read the same books, sought after the same concerns with the same carnal thinking. Nonetheless he did seek reform, but found no one else in Rome wanted it.

In 1463 he addressed a final appeal to the cardinals, he acknowledged the people knew they lived for pleasure, were arrogant, if the truth be known, the luxury and pomp of the court was far too great. He looked to the predecessors to determine how they obtained their authority, but his concept was based in one having temperance, chastity, innocence, and a zeal for faith. His concept of Faith was defined by the humanist mind as faith being a self-means to acquire what the person desires, not faith in Christ to reach a purposed goal. His suggestion was rejected, but he didn’t hold to it either.

His means of being a Christian was revealed in his attempt to convert the Sultan in 1461. He promised the Sultan, If he would become a Christian, their would be no prince on earth who could equal his glory, he would be the emperor of the Greeks, perhaps the world. The Sultan never replied, he considered the Muslim faith more moral than the Christian. In the face of no righteousness, self-righteousness does seem superior.

Pius turned to using the clerical tithe, then in 1462 rich deposits of Alum were found at Tolfa. Pius felt God was meeting the need of the church, or God giving His approval of the papacy for killing all the Turks. The Papal States were now the richest in all Italy, Pius began his war against the Turks. Venice promised to send its navy to help him; however, when he reached Ancona he found most of the crusaders deserted, those who remained lacked food, or wanted to go home. Brokenhearted by the vanishing armies, and the nonappearance of the Venetian Armada, Pius became sick and near death. Then the fleet was sighted, but by this time he was so sick and weak he fell dead on August 14, 1464.

Since Pius was dead, the venture was no longer at issue and Venice recalled her vessels, the remaining soldiers went home, the Crusade fell completely apart. So much for the blessing of God to defeat the Turks. Pius viewed everything from the eyes of the humanist mind, he never saw the blessing was to provide for God’s people, not to kill. When we misuse the blessing, it becomes a cursing. If only they would have read the Scriptures, Jesus came to bring Life, not take it. Conversion to these people was not persuasion by the Holy Ghost, but forced by the sword of unrighteousness.

Paul II became Pope in 1464, he was Very Proud, he held his appearance higher than all men. When elected Pope he wanted the name Formosus (good-looking), but settled for Paul, since it was also the name of the Apostle, but really wanted to be Paul I, rather than Paul II. Like Pius, Paul II vowed to fight the Turks, but he also wanted to limit the number of cardinals to twenty-four to match the ruling Elders noted in the Book of Revelation. Finally someone read the Scriptures, but they also twisted them to their own glory, missing the point by miles. The twenty-four elders cast their crowns before God, and worship God, thus Paul II wanted the twenty-four cardinals to worship him. Rather than identifying with Christ, Paul II wanted Christ to identify with him.

The bad fish appeared to be in control, nonetheless the Good Fish were still holding the Faith. Choice was before each person, whether Pope, cardinal, mock or commoner, what they did with the choice determined the result. These examples are still written for us, not for them. Some of these people loved not their lives to the death, they lived their lives, died, and were buried. Therefore, God still provided hope for the Good Fish, although the bad fish were in control of the pulpit, the treasury, and the house of God, the time was coming when God would remove the Good Fish and establish a move yet to see its pinnacle. The truth was evident, God allowed the vessels of dishonor to show His Mercy on the vessels of honor (Rom 9:21-23).

The pride of Pope Paul II was evident, he wore a tiara outweighing a palace in price. He loved jewels, medals and cameos; however, he also refused to stoop Simony, repressed the sale of indulgences, but didn’t stop them. He governed Rome with Justice, void of Mercy, he lacked the ability to apply Mercy, thus it shouldn’t be expected of him.

Pius loved the humanist, Paul II quarreled with them making them his enemies. The leader of the humanist in Rome was Iulio Pomponio Leto, who gathered great crowds with his rhetoric. Leto despised the Christian religion as it appeared to him at the time, he denounced the preachers as hypocrites, but he also trusted in the mind of man to save man. The members of his following took pagan names for their children at baptism, he also exchanged the Christian Faith for a religious worship toward the genius of Rome. Baptism? What say thee? Oh yes, he felt he was of the Body, and baptized in the Name of Jesus, but he judged the Christian by what he saw in the leadership. The “word of their testimony” is the same as the word of our testimony, it’s what people say about us.

Early in 1468 a citizen reported Leto and his Academy was plotting to arrest, and depose the Pope. It was all Paul II needed, he decreed the dissolution of the Academy as a nest of heresy, then stopped the teaching of pagan literature in the schools in Rome. This wasn’t done to further Christ, it was done to stop the humanist. Paul II successor allowed the Academy to reopen, although reformed. Leto’s assistant, Platina was given charge of the Vatican Library, thus Platina found riches of history in the Library as he wrote his biographies of the Popes in his book, In Vitas Summorum Pontificum. When it came to Paul II, Platina didn’t waste any time taking out his revenge: Paul II supplied more than enough sordid information to pick from, Platina left none out.

After Pope Paul II came Sixtus IV from 1471 to 1484. When Sixtus IV was elected fifteen of the eighteen cardinals were Italian, later one participant would describe the election as a mass of intrigue and bribery. Sixtus IV was a product of the Franciscan and Minorite Orders, he studied philosophy and theology at Pavia, Bologna and Padua. When he was elected Pope his reputation was based on intellect and learning, not on Godly ability. Almost overnight he turned into a politician and warrior, many claimed this was a transformation of his inner self to the surface. Sixtus IV set out  to establish two points, first to restore order to Rome, next to bring Italy under the rule of the Pope. Sixtus IV appointed many of his nephews to positions of power, Pietro (or Piero) was one of his favorite, whom he made a cardinal at the age of twenty five. Piero had a taste for gold, his salary would be equivalent to  $1,000,000 a year, yet he spent it all on things made of gold, silver, and fine cloth. Not only did Piero have a taste for gold, he also had a taste for women. He often displayed his mistresses in flamboyant attire without any shame for his sordid activity. He made plans to become the next Pope but died in 1474 at the age of twenty-eight.

The Medici, more specifically Lorenzo de’ Medici schemed to get the treasury and bank of the papacy to Florence in order to control both the papacy and the bank; however, Sixtus IV outguessed him, replacing the Medici with the Pazzi (bankers for the papacy). Of course Lorenzo didn’t take this laying down, he attempted to ruin the Pazzi, they in turn attempted to kill him. Sixtus IV knew of the conspiracy to kill Lorenzo, but he didn’t want to have the blood on his hands, thus he told the Pazzi, “go and do what you will, provided there be no killing”. Like Pilate, he knew the plan was to kill Lorenzo, but he didn’t want the responsibility of the blood on his hands. The result was a war lasting for two years, it was only stopped when the Turks threatened to overrun Italy. Sixtus IV began hoping for European peace, but ended with Italy at war.

When Sixtus IV wanted money, he devised a plan to hold the monopoly on the sale of corn. He sold the best aboard, the rest to his people at a great profit. He based his conclusions of success on the worldly adage, “the price of the product depends on the gullibility of the purchaser”. He was able to excuse his sin of merchandising by blaming the purchaser, but he nonetheless fleeced the sheep. Sixtus IV became known as the first Renaissance Pope whose chief interest was to establish the papacy as a strong political power in Italy.

The failure of Sixtus IV brought chaos to Rome, after his death mobs sacked the papal granaries, broke into banks, or attacked the palaces. A conclave (cardinals behind locked doors) was hastily assembled in the Vatican, again they elected a Pope based on promises of self-importance and bribes. They picked Giovanni Battista Cibo of Genoa as Pope Innocent VIII (1484-92). Was he holy man? He had at least one daughter and son, probably more, he viewed the vow of celibacy as a means to gain control, not a way of life. Whether one believes in the vow of celibacy or not really doesn’t matter, if they take the Vow it does. Like any Vow before God, He expects us to keep it, making foolish vows before God produces failures, not victories. Few Romans held Innocent’s immorality against him, not because the tone of the day was such, it was because the tone of the church was such. Although the people excused his sexual behavior, they were shocked when he celebrated the marriages of his children and  grandchildren.

Innocent would be caught in a plan to help the Turks instead of killing them. When Mohammed II died in 1481 his two sons fought a civil war to gain control of the Ottoman throne. This war went on until one son, Djem faced certain defeat in the face of the Knights. The Sultan agreed to pay for the maintenance of Djem, it he was kept out of the picture; however, the problem was where to keep him? Innocent then appears on the scene with a plan; Djem was not only housed, but given a great entrance into Rome as the Grand Turk on March 13, 1489. In exchange for the housing, Djem’s brother Bajazet (the Sultan) gave Innocent what was assured to be the head of the lance that pierced the side of Jesus. Accordingly the relics were of more importance than He who hung on the Cross, and Innocent added it to the treasure of the collection of artifacts.

The Sultan (Bajazet) supplied Innocent with a great deal of money to care for Djem, but it wasn’t enough; Innocent sold offices and appointments. Innocent found it so lucrative, he made new offices and new appointments, then sold them. Everything in Rome seemed purchasable, from judicial pardons to the papacy. The secularization of the papacy, its zeal for politics, its love for war and desire for money filled the college of cardinals, yet from the cardinals would come the Popes. This doesn’t mean all of them were greedy or evil, some were very saintly, but few indeed. The majority who purchased their positions were secular in nature, humanist in thinking, they loved the feeling of religion, but they didn’t love God. They loved the power of politics, the authority of being a diplomat, above all they loved the feeling of being superior over people. This had a great effect on Rome, which was now filled with thievery, rape, bribery, conspiracy and all sorts of open vices. If money was needed, simply accuse someone of heresy, then allow them to buy their way out. This was done to over 500 families, as well as many others who were not within the inner circle of the college of cardinals. On September 20, 1492 Innocent VIII died, opening the way for the famed Borgia Reign.

Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was brought up in the age of freedom of expression, his parents were cousins, he was among the college of cardinals; his concept of the gifts of God were not spiritual, but something one could spend and wear. He had prosperity down to a fine art, it was Mercy, Love, Faith and Grace he refused to understand or enter into. In 1464 Rodrigo accompanied Pius II to Ancona where he acquired some minor sexual disease, the cause was reported by the doctors as “he had slept alone, we know not what happened”. In 1466 he found a more permanent attachment to Venozza de’ Catanei, unfortunately she was married, but it meant little to Rodrigo. Venozza bore four children, one of which was called Cesare (Caesar) who later would become the very subject to expose the affair between Rodrigo and Venozza.

Caesar was made a cardinal, but clearly he was not cut out for the ecclesiastical order. Caesar wanted to be free of the position to engage in politics, the problem of releasing him, yet not excommunicating him introduced another canon law, No bastard can be a cardinal. Rodrigo was now Pope Alexander admitted Caesar was the bastard child of he and Venozza, thus releasing Caesar from being a cardinal; but making the admission a matter of record. This was made easier since Sixtus IV had reported how Caesar was the son of  Rodrigo in a bull written on August 16, 1482.

This abuse against the clerical celibacy was not uncommon, Pius II fathered children, Sixtus IV had several children, Innocent VIII brought his into the Vatican. On August 10, 1492, the same year Columbus would discover the Americas, Rodrigo would be elected as Pope Alexander VI. Not only did the cardinals want Rodrigo as Pope, so did the people, they loved the pride of the man, his power to control, they hoped he would take control of Rome, they were of “one mind”, but it was not the Mind of Christ. The people desired a leader, but much like the people in the days of Saul, they were moved by what they saw. When Samuel saw David he knew God looks to the inner person, not the outward one.

Alexander had a swift manner in handling crime, he would hang the violator with the violator’s family. All Italy was glad a strong hand was now running the church, but this hand was one of cruelty, not Mercy. He reigned by using the spirit of fear over the people, do wrong and your entire family will die. He also censored publications, saying no book could be published without approval of the local archbishop, but he allowed a wide birth for satire and debate while rejecting Truth. He considered Rome a city of free speech, not free printing.

Columbus discovered the Indies and gave them to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Portugal also claimed the New World by virtue of an edict of Caliztus III (1479). Alexander issued two bulls on May 3 and 4 1493, allotting Spain all the discoveries west and Portugal all those to the east of an imaginary line. No one seemed to care about the people in those lands, except how they must be converted to Christianity, one way or the other.

In 1494 when Ferrante of Naples died, Charles VIII of France decided to invade Italy, to restore Naples to French rule. In a move to stop the invasion Alexander wrote to the Turks, saying Charles really desired to take Djem, and make him the Ottoman of Constantinople, supposing Bajazet would join with the papacy to defeat Charles. Religion to the common person is hope, to a ruler it’s power, Bajazet would rather see his brother (Djem) dead than have him used as a threat. When Charles made advances, the cardinals decided it was better to side with Charles, by coming against the Pope, then suffer at the hands of Charles. Charles didn’t want to remove the Pope, neither did he want to rouse Spain. Charles made peace with Alexander on the conditions of free passage through the land, forgiveness for the Pro-French cardinals and the surrender of Djem. What Alexander feared the most came upon him, what would he do with Djem? Charles was standing at the door, Bajazet was in Constantinople, he gave Djem to Charles.

On January 25, 1495, Charles moved to Naples with Djem, but on February 25, 1495 Djem died of bronchitis. There was some gossip of Alexander using a slow poison on Djem, since there were other rumors of Alexander using poison on others, none of which has been established.

Alexander had children, as noted, but unlike others he decided to parade them about with some sort of pride in his sinful efforts, Alexander considered it an Openness with the people. In 1493 Infessura reported La Bella was the concubine of Alexander, thus he didn’t stop when he became Pope, but continued in his sinful endeavors. This wasn’t his only problem, like most who are theological in nature, but carnal minded, his theology was worldly, because he was. He said many times, The papacy needs a statesman, not a saint. Not only did he sale offices, he sold dispensations for divorce and annulments by the thousands. King Ladislaus VII of Hungary paid 30,000 ducats for the annulment of his marriage with Beatrice of Naples. A man by the name of Pas-quino in 1503 said, “the keys, the altars, Alexander sells, and Christ; with right, since he has paid for them”.

On June 19, 1497 Alexander called his cardinals then told them, “we on our part are resolved to amend our life, and to reform the church”. A committee of six cardinals was appointed to draw up a plan of reform. With the plan came the question, How will we make money? Alexander faced with the question of revenues, thought the plan was nice, but not practical. When Alexander died it was reported a little devil had been seen at the moment of his death carrying his soul to hell.

After Alexander would come Julius II the Warrior (1503-13). Julius kept Italy at war and in turmoil for more than a decade. He had a violent temper, yet he didn’t know one thing about “Be angry and sin not”; rather he was angry all the time and sinned. He wanted Michelangelo to make a colossal statue of him for all to see, an indication of his pride and ego. He dreamed not only of preserving the possessions of the papacy, but wanted to be Master of all Europe. He would try to reconcile Christianity with paganism in the arts, he loved Hebrew theology, but he also loved to see pagan gods intermingled with Christian and Jewish Truth. He mixed mythology and philosophy with Christian sentiment and faith ending with many of the misconceptions some of us face today.

Julius connected himself to people like Raphael, Michelangelo, and others in order to have paintings and items projecting his concept of Christianity and paganism mixed. It’s always better to stick to the Bible and worship God, rather than stand before an image we know nothing about. Some of the figures seen as Mary were merely models, some of which were mistresses of the artists. When asked why Mary was so much younger than Jesus, Michelangelo said, Virgins always look younger. The truth was, Michelangelo used models for much of his work, he looked for display, not holiness.

Once the carnal leadership formed the Yoke of canal thinking, they also removed the Holy Ghost from their decision making; therefore, making the New Birth a vague concept without meaning. They didn’t expel the Holy Ghost, rather they refused to follow the Order God had established, thus turning from the Holy Ghost. God never intended for Bishops, whether archbishop, or cardinal to elect people to the five fold offices.

The next Pope would lay the ground work to bring us to the Luther experience. Pope Leo X took office in 1513 until 1521; before him was Pope Leo X, he was the son of Lorenzo de’ Medici the humanist. Although Lorenzo was a humanist, he was a humanist of the time as he told his son, “be grateful to God”, and “this is not through your merits, your prudence or solicitude, it’s by God”. It sounds good, except Lorenzo also told his son to continue in the humanist concepts. During those days if a cardinal died, his land was taken for the papacy, Leo promised to no longer take the estates left by the cardinals. He seemed to be a happy Pope, one with a kind word for every one, except the Protestants, whom he admitted, he didn’t understand. Leo’s interest in the arts and education moved him to unite the College of the Holy Palace (Vatican) with the University of Rome on November 5, 1513. The Vatican Library was added to the University, so much so it needed a score of people to care for it. Girolamo Aleandro became the librarian in 1519, he spoke Latin, Greek and Hebrew with such perfection, Luther assumed he was a Jew. At the Diet of Augsburg it was Aleandro who spoke the loudest against the Protestant movement. He saw the Protestant movement reaching for something no longer available.

From 450 AD until Luther the ministry visitation by the Holy Ghost was rare indeed,  but not lost. The leaders and carnal minded held the false concept of the ministry of the Holy Ghost having passed, or being established just for the early church, but it left the awful truth, did the Holy Ghost leave the church to fend for itself? If so did Jesus lied when He promised the Holy Ghost would remain with us? Or could it be Holy Ghost aged so much He was no longer able? When Luther, and others spoke of Faith in Jesus or spoke of the Holy Ghost, they were outcasts, rejects, fools, not to be considered.

Leo sided with Raphael, whom the world calls a great artist, but who painted the home of Cardinal Bibbiena with frescoes glorifying Venus the goddess of love. Who used Psyche, Mercury, Jupiter, Cupid, and other pagan gods and goddesses as models for his Christian paintings. He used Cupid as an angel of God, the same Cupid noted above. Raphael’s La Donna Velata was on most churches in the Papal reign, but it was reported La Fornarina posed for the paintings. He always returned to the Madonna as his main theme, yet he advocated total worship to her painting. Vasari saw the face of the Madonna and knew it was the mistress of Raphael (La Fornarina), thus Raphael had the Christian world giving worship to his mistress. It was reported how Raphael said he was in the only profession where a man could look on a naked woman and be paid for it. When Raphael started to work on the Transfiguration, he moved too far, dying in 1517 never finishing the work, in  more ways than one.

When the church has authority and no Power, the occult will run through the streets without fear, such was the case in Rome. The people of Italy looked upon many relics of Jesus and the Apostles assuming the relics would bring miracles, rather than having the Power of His Christ do the miracles. When they began looking for signs, they also admitted they were a sinful generation. Rather than signs following, they started looking for paintings and statues to produce signs.

Venetian churches displayed the body of St. Mark, an ear of St. Paul, some of the roasted flesh of St. Lawrence, even some of the stones which killed Stephen, yet they failed to hold a like faith of these men. Some of the Carmelite monks taught how it wasn’t a sin to seek knowledge from devils; then claimed sorcerers, and demons helped them in their theology. Witches, sorcerers and the such were believed to have special power, thus access to devils was not only allowed, it was encouraged. The supernatural was so far above what the papacy held, even the wicked supernatural seemed holy. Innocent VIII did burn many witches by holding to the Old Testament commandment, “thou shall not suffer a witch to live”, too bad he didn’t see the New Testament method, “come out of them in the Name of Jesus”.

Innocent failed to see witchcraft went further than dolls and spells, even with the burning of witches, it was reported over 15,000 people attended a witches sabbath on a plain near Brescia. So general was the belief of the stars governing human affairs, many university professors of Italy annually issued predictions based on the stars, thus they used astrology as if it was prophecy from God. From the acceptance of witchcraft we find many suffered from the French Disease, known to us as Syphilis. The treatment of Syphilis was akin to the modern day treatment of AIDS, they attacked the result, not the cause of the problem. The name Syphilis was first applied to the disease by Girolamo Frcastoro; how syphilis started is debatable, but it was traced to the French navy. Apparently the French navy docked in Italy, then returned to France with the disease. The outbreak in France of the disease was then blamed on Rome, as strange as it may seem, Syphilis was a god noted in ancient mythology. The evidence of the sins of Rome manifesting in a sexually transmitted disease should have been a sign to their condition and position. Adding, we find Syphilis was a god portrayed as a shepherd who decided to worship the flock rather than the gods. The sign was so very clear, God was exposing the sinful nature of devil worship: reform was needed, it was time to get things right, if not? God had a plan, a removal from under the hand of corruption by a Godly separation. There are various types of division, the phrase “Come out of her My children” is a Godly separation in order to save God’s people. The ungodly division is separation from the Ways of God into the ways of carnal theology or leadership.

THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT

The Protestant Reformation movement in the 16^th century came about because the church refused to reform itself, but the Prostestant movement almost made the same mistake, some would argue it did make the same mistake. A product of the Protestant Reformation was a revival of theology by returning to the language of the Bible, coupled with the letters of the early saints. The scholastics of the 13th century, which was termed the Second Scholasticism, was aided by the founding of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), by Ignatius Loyola. The seeds to revival are planted by people seeking Truth, revival does not begin by someone attempting to bring revival, rather the Holy Ghost begins revival, the people of God merely join to what the Holy Ghost is doing.

This movement came about because someone saw what was wrong, grabbed a Bible, went into prayer and study until the Light shinned in a dark place by the words, “The Just Shall Live By Faith”. The someone was Martin Luther, just a man who wondered if the methods he had been taught were really Bible based. Martin Luther was a man used of God, not a god used of man. Until the Luther experience all reform was conducted within the church, or not at all. The word Catholic means Universal, the word Protestant means Protester, the term Roman Catholic refers to the Catholic church in Rome. In truth the Church was known as Catholic, or Universal, but it nothing to do with denominational influence, rather it points to the Body accepting Jew and Gentile, yet is based on a Kingdom not of this earth. Denominationalism is within the Body, it not found in the Church; the Church is always in Unity, no voting, no carnal activity, just Spirit filled people who are being formed by Jesus into the potential Bride of Christ.

The Protestant movement started with Luther, but he wasn’t the only person  contributing to the movement. Luther was looking for Truth, not to start another movement, neither did he figure his discovery would result in a movement. All he was doing was seeking Truth, applied proper study discipline and Truth found him. Revelation is not the discovery of some new truth, it’s the words of Truth being opened to the willing saint. Although Luther had no idea God would use him, God did, it was in the Plan.

God was removing His people from the Yoked leadership, yet keeping them in the Body. God did not began a New Body, rather He used Godly division, thus the reformers came from the same Rock. Paul said the foot cannot say if it’s not the eye, it must not be of Body, rather God has set in the Body as He sees fit (I Cor 12:14-18). God knew what was going on, yet He allowed, giving us a teaching in Godly leadership as opposed to ungodly leadership. In this case it was not Luther saying he wasn’t of the Body, rather the division was of God within the Body. Revival must begin with Recovery, meaning Getting back to the Basics, renewing the mind comes from Godly Order.

Luther the man was no different from any man, yet he was. He remembered two incidents in his childhood, both referred to excessive beatings, one at the hands of his mother for stealing, the other at the hands of his father. The latter produced a Tare which would take years to heal, but it was healed. Luther himself disciplined his children, but noted there was a difference between discipline and punishment. The marked difference came as a result of his introduction to the Lord’s Mercy. Luther found Mercy  corrects, but it will not abuse. The revelation by Luther was Mercy based, not Grace based.

Luther was an intellectual, but his intellectual ability was a hindrance in his early years, not a benefit. Although he laid the Bible to memory, he didn’t have it in his heart. Like Paul he found intellect isn’t the answer, faith is. Luther’s youth and religious foundation held to the justice of man, rather than the justice of God. At the age of four his father sent him to school, not as punishment, but as a result of his father seeing the ability of Luther. As a youth, Luther saw a painting of Jesus with a great Sword, the painting gave Luther a twisted view of God’s justice. Luther viewed God’s justice, not as Mercy but as strict punishment, with his experiences he had in being disciplined by his parents, the picture only added to his misconception of the Ways of God. God with a Sword may not seem like a big thing, but the most unseemly of icons can lead to the most dangerous of conclusions, the most seemly innocent of statements can be perceived as the most devastating. It’s not so much what we say, or how we say it, it’s how it’s perceived making the difference. Luther had a Wheat field created by God, but filled with tares. However, the truth remains, what our Father hasn’t planted will be uprooted.

Martin was born in 1483 on the Eve of St. Martin’s day, thereby giving him his name. St. Martin’s day is not named after him, rather he was named after the day. By the time Martin came on the scene the church was already engaged in political endeavors; therefore, whomever ran the church, ran the country. Luther became a priest in 1507; however, not at the wishes of his father, who looked for Martin to become a vehicle to remove them from their lower class to a higher one. Luther’s father deplored the concept of his son being a celibate friar, he wanted him to be a doctor, someone of “importance”.

The Luder (Luther) family were church going, paid tithes, prayed, acted like the Rome dictated Christian, why would they have to give up a son to the church? When Martin made his decision the public view of the church was anything but good. When the religious leadership walked down the street the people would give respect to their faces, but spit behind their backs. The friars and other religious figures were the subjects of common jokes, the concepts of the church were based in pay for repentance, become Christian or die, the church is God, the Pope is Christ: to go against any of these premises was certain excommunication or death. Also the church was the only place in town, no one could go down the street to some other gathering.

Martin was plagued with the concept of God’s forgiveness, the forgiveness wasn’t his problem, his concept of forgiveness was. He felt no man, good, bad, or indifferent could reach God, he was taught God was so high and lifted up, no man could reach Him. Martin spent hours in confession, yet he felt none the better, often he would leave confession with more guilt than he entered with. He would even fall to beating himself to “fell better” about himself, but even it didn’t work. In his heart he knew there was a God, in his mind he felt no one could find God.

Education in the Scriptures was entirely in the hands of Rome, no common person was allowed to view the Bible; after all if they found the Truth, God only knows what they would do. Luther would become a Good Fish in the net of wanton theology, or as he called it Pig Theology. The most advanced in intellect during the time were the Humanists, although they viewed the Bible and God from man’s natural perspective. Acts involving the Holy Ghost were out of the question, really Granted Mercy was nearly out of reach, but this wasn’t God’s fault. Rather the church claimed a change in times, those days passed with the church fathers, now the Pope and the church were the center posts of religion for the Christian.

The Humanists mixed philosophy with religion, but limited it to the wisdom of man, never moving to the Wisdom of God. The Humanists were divided into the North and South sections, each still humanist in nature. The South held the artistic, technical, and classical thoughts of Greek philosophy. The North attempted to make man’s knowledge and philosophy spiritual in nature, but ended with more self-based carnal thinking. The systems of education and the thoughts of Rome were one, if one went to school they were taught of God from the view point of Rome. Since poverty was a way of life, it was looked upon as holiness, but most of the poverty came as a result of the Indulgences placed on the people by Rome. The constant taxing by Rome for acts of religion, such as praying for the dead, taxing to gain forgiveness, or other such acts were common. The people felt forgiveness of sin was a matter of money, not Mercy. No one experienced the Father granting Mercy based on acceptance of Jesus.

Although the warning in the Book of Acts regarding Simony were written long before, the practice was nonetheless common. These people weren’t selling the Dove, they didn’t have the Dove to sell, but they were selling Mercy, but whether the Dove, Grace or Mercy it was still wrong to fleece God’s lambs.

The new use of the Indulgences was confusing, even to Luther. There were certain days set aside for Indulgence usage, one such day was called All Saints Day, or a day when the people would pay money to the church and become saints. Today we know this day as Halloween, but its roots are based in the Indulgence system. As hard as we try to blame the heathen for this demonic day, it nonetheless began by the efforts of the church seeking money. The masks were symbols of those who paid before the fact, but didn’t want to be seen going about at night. Other heathen practices were joined to it, but the source was still from within.

The Humanist in the midst of this would promote Free Lectures, with special permission to attend. Although free, they were done to show they were more holy than the church, making both unholy. To do something to make one feel superior over others is still motivated by a lust. The Humanist view point hasn’t changed, it still revolves around the past achievements of man: it still uses either man or God to promote man for man’s sake, not God’s sake.

Luther was in the midst of darkness, in the very belly of religious hypocrisy, a man condemned by his religion and past, a man so far from God’s Mercy, he could only wish such a concept could be true. This one Good fish in the Net of the kingdom of heaven was surrounded by antichrists, taught by antichrists, engrossed into antichrist theology, yet God would break through it by planting one seed of Mercy. The spark, although small was more than enough to develop into a fire of hope, later used to remove God’s people from the Yoke of religious hypocrisy.

Luther is not an example of the Power of the Spirit, nor is he an example of the Holy Ghost at work, rather he will be an example of one reaching for the Mercy of God by faith. The first step for any of us is Mercy, we come boldly to the throne of Grace to obtain Mercy, in order to find Grace. Unless we obtain the Mercy, we will never find Grace, therein lays the problem, they vacated Mercy for the humanist nature, meaning they were unable to fine Grace. The condition and position of the Body in the days of Luther was full of religious conceit, void of faith, mercy, or hope, much less the Holy Ghost. Luther becomes an example of one who applied faith to the Scriptures to find Truth, when found he held to the one fragment of Truth which changed the course of events. He is truly an example of one person seeking after God who found the reward.

Luther didn’t run to the calling, God produced signs to bring the decision. Luther was too honest to lie to himself, but as a child he would take what he wanted when he wanted. Luther was self-based, just like we were, he heard the words Deny the Self, but assumed they meant to join the clergy. He had a close encounter with a knife (a real one) as a youth, nearly killing himself, but it didn’t produce change. The next encounter was with a bolt of lighting, it produced the choice to make the change. Were either of God? God uses, He doesn’t always produce the event, but He does use it. Later Luther would center his quest on four words, Faith, Love (Agape), Justice and the word “Is”. In this, how did the word Is become an issue? Rome taught everything Was, thus the word Is was merely for the times past, it had no influence on time present; however, Luther saw the word “Is” as a present tense promise not limited to the time of man.

Faith in the mind of the religious was based on three pillars, vows of obedience to the church, poverty for the lesser class, and chastity. Any other use of faith was forbidden, or called heresy. Luther’s experience with his guilt drove him to find the evidence, thus what appeared to the leadership to be evil, was in fact Good and God ordained, what appeared to them to be good, was heresy. Luther was accused of coming against the church for his sake, rather than for the sake of God, yet he did nothing more than find a Truth in the Bible. Some who accused him were so self-deceived they couldn’t see the Truth; self-deception will twist Scripture to become a lie in order to attack the Truth. One such accusation claimed Luther would only recognize the authority of Scripture, and not the church: although presented in the negative, it proved he was Scripture based.

The concept of forgiveness of sins was based in the absolution from guilt when one paid, or confessed to a the leadership of the church; however, Luther found it didn’t remove guilt, it produced more guilt. During this time the thought of asking God directly for the forgiveness of sin was out of the question. Luther spent most of his time in the letters of Paul, searching for the Truth of forgiveness. The concept of forgiveness by God’s direct Mercy never occurred to him. Luther admitted during his early days he hated God, he hated a God who would place Himself so high, no man could reach Him. A God who told us forgiveness was at hand, but refused to grant it. It wasn’t God’s fault, it wasn’t Luther’s fault, thus Luther was a victim of those who misrepresented God to the masses, those who continued to beat the Rock with a stick of theological abuse. Luther was a child of religious whoredoms, an aborted fetus on the alter of reason, but he was not forgotten by God.

In May of 1501 at the age of 17 Luther was inscribed on the rolls of the faculty of Erfurt University. He knew the words of the Bible, but he didn’t know the Logos or Rhema, rather like his counterparts, he had an intellectual encounter with the Bible. There were two schools of thought, both contributed to the Yoke; there was the Queen Of Arts based in mathematics, and the Queen Of Sciences based in theology. The concepts were seen in St. Augustine’s writings eleven centuries prior, but were much different from the concepts in Luther’s time. Theology, canon law, civil law and philosophy were all tossed into one pot then called holy. The church moved into a political field becoming as corrupt as the world. Julius II conducted a survey of the Holy See, finding a cesspool of graft, power hungry clergy selling their offices, selling their religion, homosexuality was common in the clergy, the indulgences were also common place. The local parish priests were illiterate, Bible stupid, superstitious, greedy, ruled with force by using fear as a weapon. Change the date to the 20^th Century where we find some go into a panic when the government claims it may raise the taxes, or some cult buys a building on the same block where our church is located. Luther had no knowledge of the New Birth, after all it was only mentioned three times in the Bible, but neither did he understand God’s Mercy, yet it’s mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible. Knowledge did increase with Luther, but we have the advantage to walk with the Lord by the Spirit, something unheard of in the 14^th Century.

Luther received his Master’s Degree on January 7, 1505, but in 1510 the Mad Year Of Erfurt began. Civil disorder, rebellion against the municipal government broke out; riots and lynch mob justice was common place, Luther saw man’s justice first hand, knowing there had to be something more to God, than his view of religion.

Later Luther became a Doctor of Theology, receiving a Closed Bible, which God would later Open. The science of theology in which he held the highest of all degrees was not taught from the Bible at all, it was taught from exegetical writings of the church, and only as far as the church approved them. Luther was a Doctor of Theology, yet he never heard the voice of God, never felt the revelation of Truth, never had an experience of the Interpretation by the Holy Ghost opening the Life in the Scriptures to him.

The self-imposed glory of the local churches were in grossed in their material possessions, not in Truth, Faith or Love. Wittenberg had a collection of 17,433 exhibits to prove its holiness. They claimed such beauties as nine thorns from the crown of Christ, one reported to have drawn Blood, 35 splinters of the Cross, and other such artifacts proved their holiness, but they didn’t have the New Man, who is after God’s True Holiness. They assumed Communion produced the actual Body and Blood of Christ being created in them by proxy, they claimed Communion could only be administered by the hands of leadership, which of course put it under the control of leadership. However, the evidence of the day showed it was manipulation in order to control the populace. Communion is for us to Remember Christ, as we examine ourselves in reference to our position in the Body (Mercy), and our condition by the Blood (Grace). Paul told the carnal Corinthians to examine their selves, thus if the carnal could take Communion, surely the saint could (I Cor 11:28-34).

The manipulation of Communion caused the Protestant to take the complete opposite viewpoint, they claimed it was not a Commandment, but an Ordinance, yet Jesus said, “here take”, He did not say, “if you want to”. An Ordinance is something we should do, but not something we have to do. However, the other end of the spectrum says if you don’t take Communion from the proper hand, you are no longer of the Body. To Luther Communion was not the question, the forgiveness issue plagued him. He did everything the church told him to do, yet he still felt as if he was not forgiven. After his encounter with God’s Mercy he knew he was forgiven, Mercy gave him the ability and confidence not only to know he was forgiven, but to forgive. He possessed the ability to break free of the Yoke of religious carnal leadership. Luther proved faith is not a now, but reaching toward the hope of total forgiveness. He found the first step was accepting God’s forgiveness, then by faith walking in the forgiveness until it manifested in his life.

God warned them over many years of their folly, even the Early Reformers from St. Benedict to St. Francis of Assisi all had healings in their ministries. They also called for the return of the holiness to the early days of the Body before 300 AD, but they also called for reform in the church based on the Word of God. The early lessons provoked Rome to remove the Bible from the masses. Until Luther the only church in the neighborhood was Rome, thus it wasn’t Rome but the church itself needing Reforming, but is it possible to reform a vessel of dishonor? Or does God have to move us around the corrupt system in order to form us into a vessel of honor? It is possible, but the vessel has to make the decision to be changed, here they refused change.

There were many various divisions in the church when Luther surfaced; the divisions were not on church dogma, but on methods of reaching dogma. Thomas Aquinas advocated religion with reason as the guiding factor in order to reach faith. Duns Scotus advocated how philosophy and religion had to remain elements apart from one another, but he also advocated the knowledge of man is the guiding factor. No one had really viewed God’s Mercy, Justice and Faith in the same context. Some of these factions had names, Thomism was based on the virtue of understanding, however, it depended on man’s understanding and wisdom. Occamism made man’s will the decisive factor, but didn’t view the Will of God is the guiding factor.

The three views of God’s Predestination caused conflict, one holding God made the decision who would be happy and who would be sad, yet man could do nothing to change it. The second was Election, or how some received everlasting life, others everlasting damnation, yet man could nothing to stop it. The third was God’s eternal knowledge of all things, but like the other two it failed to include man’s faith, or man’s decision to reach God. The Realists placed reason above revelation, but in all fairness, revelation was not a considered element. The Realists believed the General Council of the church was the supreme authority in spiritual matters, the Bible was not, to them neither was God. In their view God left them to fend for themselves. The Modernists placed the supernatural above everything, but recognized the Pope as the absolute head of Christendom. Supernatural and Spiritual are much different, although they sought the supernatural, they were far from obtaining it, much less obtaining the spiritual. On the other side there was Humanism and Mysticism, each battling the other. They all debated the precise composition of the Trinity, the precise method of the virgin birth, what Grace entailed, or how one could become spiritual in nature, none of which included the words Faith, Mercy, the Holy Ghost, or the Seed of God. The Mystic road to salvation was meditation; however, their view of Rapture was a suspension of temporary separation between man and God to reach God on the earth, rather than a catching away from the earth.

All these views within the same church, lacking Spiritual Wisdom and Faith in order to reach the goal. Although Luther was taught from writings outside of the Bible, he nonetheless read the Bible almost every day of his life, but he admitted he couldn’t understand it, or break it down in order to gain from it. Being a monk he had access to a Bible, yet he didn’t possess one. Luther assumed Faith came from reading, but would soon learn Faith comes from Hearing, the hearing by the Word (Rhema) of God, not through reading alone. It in no way takes away from the Bible, but we must see simply having an intellectual view of the Bible isn’t going to grant us Life, or Wisdom. The same Bible says we must ask God by faith to obtain Wisdom (James 1:1-5). Above all, we must have the Spirit of Christ (Word) in us dividing, separating, which is able to save our souls (James 1:21).

Among his reading, Luther read the Epistle to the Romans where he saw, “The just shall live by faith”; yet it meant nothing, in fact he assumed it was in error. The quote is from Habakkuk which reads, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by His faith” (Hab 2:4 & Rom 1:17). Intellectualism or natural theology and reasoning based on the knowledge of man all lift (fill with pride) man’s soul, but only the just can live by His faith. Luther saw the word “His” in Habakkuk, then saw how it was missing in Romans, thus his intellectual view saw “error”, rather than a mystery. We know the “His Faith” is the faith of Jesus; nonetheless we find two elements worth noting. There are those who refuse to believe, to them it’s error without recourse. Then there are those who lack knowledge, they think they see error, but know they have not. For the Believer it’s opportunity to find a mystery, to the unbeliever it’s error.

Although Luther would be the one in his day to find the meaning of “faith”, he wasn’t the first faith teacher, Jesus was. Abraham found faith, but he didn’t teach it. Luther not only rocked the boat, he turned it upside down. Luther read on and found, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed, as it is written, The just shall live by faith”. The Righteousness of God? Faith? His Faith? Life? Justice? Mercy? It hit home, God’s justice wasn’t punishment, it entailed Mercy to be free of the judgment. God’s Mercy wasn’t out of reach, it was within the grasp of Luther’s faith, it was based in Luther first believing God had forgiven his sins, then living a life by faith knowing the Mercy of God was a constant  working function in him making him the Just. Luther wanted a physical sign of forgiveness, he never considered faith as a means to obtain. All he had to do was ask God, then forgive others, all based in faith, rather than feelings. What a relief, no more crying for hours and hours, then walking away with more guilt than you came with. Surely the leaders of the church would rejoice over this news, surely they would, wouldn’t they?

Luther tells us of his joy, as he wrote, “Now at this I experienced such relief and easement, as if I were reborn and had entered through open gates into paradise itself. The whole Bible all at once looked different”. Luther found Mercy as the light of his eye opened the Bible as the cloud of guilt vanished. From this premise he would gain more insight, yet the words Faith, Love (Agape), Justice (Mercy), and “Is” would still be the foundation of his preaching.

From these pillars would come many sermons, many thoughts and from time to time a soulish outburst would get him into trouble, yet he still knew God was able to forgive all his sins, past, present and future. Luther changed from hating God, to loving Him, from seeking his self-righteousness to looking toward the Righteousness of God. He concluded “Man was saved, man is being saved”, he knew salvation was a process of man’s heart, not man’s wallet. Righteousness was not found in many religious acts, beating one’s self have to death, paying someone to say “you are forgiven”, it was found in God’s Mercy and Righteousness. Luther overflowed with happiness for the first time in his life, but he also viewed Rome and the church from God’s perspective. Clarity can be sad at times, looking at things as God sees them can weigh heavy on ones heart.

God’s purpose was to cause reform from within, but as we know, God’s purpose and God’s reality can be different. God would not believe for the church, He would not make their decision, but He would present the evidence regarding the necessity for change, if only they would “hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.

Luther looked at the theology of the church, then termed it Pig Theology, then he found a new theology which he termed Tower Theology or Anti-Merit Theology to dispel the churches false theology. He assumed, as many of us, this word of Faith would change them, they would run to hear this Truth. Luther was under the impression the leaders of the time wanted Truth, or wanted to be Free, but he soon found they loved the things of darkness, yet hated the Light. They claimed to be Christian, claimed to seek the Truth, since Luther had what he knew to be Truth, surely they will receive it, they must desire to hear. Not so, there were the wicked in the grouping claiming Christian ties, but  they were religious Pharisees who held dogma, yet hated the word Faith.

Luther was looking for the answer to forgiveness of sins, not remission, thus when he found “the just shall live by faith” he knew his problem. It wasn’t forgiveness it was the acceptance of forgiveness by faith. They first had to believe Jesus on the Cross voiced the request, “Father forgive them”, they had to believe it was for them, then by faith receive the Mercy of God to become among the Just. This was his news, a process, a path, a Way, a manner of walking to obtain the Promise.

Luther admitted he had read all the church fathers notes and letters, but now he saw something different, he saw what they were talking about. He no longer had to say, “What Augustine really meant to say was”; he knew what was said. Luther became a Seed of Faith by Mercy looking for Grace, thus his movement began on Mercy; Luther suffered from many illnesses, yet he knew the source of all of them. He didn’t blame God, he knew his battle was with the old nature of the flesh. Luther wrote many books, some on theology, some rebuking the church, some showing correction needed to take place; however, Luther wrote a few from Luther, it was the Luther based documents producing his personal problems, the God inspired documents produced problems for the church.

During October of 1518 Luther was summoned to Rome to discuss his new found theology. Luther assumed he would be allowed to discuss the issues, knowing Truth would be received with welcome arms. His conclusion was based on the compromise with Cardinal Cajetan, but the Cardinal lied to Luther in order to trick him into facing the Council. Luther started his famous statement, “If I’m wrong show me in the Bible and I will recant”. Pharisees are loaded with opinions, but few if any Scriptures to back up their claims. The Council hardly knew the Bible, much less finding any verse telling Luther to accept church dogma over faith. As in most heresy trials, the ones putting on the trial are those in heresy, not the accused, thus the words “show me Scripture” were rejected. They would have to write their own Bible to support their traditions, no where could they find anything to counter Luther, expect their heretical church dogma.

Martin was looking for a Bible discussion, but found himself in a face to face fight. The Council made it appear as if Luther was following John Hus, when the truth was, God appointed John Hus and others to expose the carnal leadership. Luther knew the wicked first burn your books, then they burn you. Of course they were never able to burn Luther, since the Truth of Luther was becoming accepted by the people. Freedom does have a feeling, but it took faith to reach it. To harm Luther would bring hordes of people down on the papacy, like their Pharisees forefathers, they feared the voices of men.

Luther being an avid fan of Bible prophecy used prophecy to attack the Pope. Luther said the “whore” in the Book of Revelation was the Pope, the Beast was the result of the Pope’s influence on the church. The Pope and some of his followers attacked Luther  by using the same premise against Luther. Many scholars at the time felt the “false prophet” would be born in Europe in the 1400’s, some even picked the year as 1483, the very year Luther was born. From the false premise the Pope said Martin Luther was the false prophet come to turn the people from God. Luther was now faced with the false assumption, he admitted it came because of his own misuse of prophecy, thus gaining from his own lesson, a sign of one who is humble and teachable.

The year of testing was between May 1521 to March 1522, a ten month period. Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) was an ally of Luther’s, who rejected the authority of the Roman church, the cannon Law, and the Scholastics, by placing the Bible above these elements as the authority for all Christians. His book on the subject was to “incite people to the Scriptures”; in 1530 the Diet of Augsburg was held, Melanchthon with Luther’s approval drew up the Augsburg Confession then presented it to the Diet. It became the official creed of the Lutheran church; out of the twenty-nine points, seven were negative centering on religious abuses.

Lutheranism was also marred by internal doctrinal controversy, most of the issues were similar to the issues Luther and Melanchthon had differences on. One dispute was over how much of the Law of Moses should be preached. When people follow people to obtain experiences, differences will surface, but when they center on the Unity of the Faith of Jesus, there is no division. The same elements of division caused the denominations, all of which say they run their organizations “according to the Bible”.

Luther’s concept of the Jews was based on his teaching from Rome, his early views and latter views changed, although he still couldn’t understand why the Jews would reject so great a gift. Luther’s call was Mercy, not the End Times, or the Jew, he was sent to the church, not Israel. His views in areas not given to his calling were his, not God’s. It’s better to stick to our calling and message to stop the wicked from coming in after the fact, and using our opinions to discolor the Truth. Luther had a Truth, he had his opinions, however, there were times when he mixed the two, opening the door for the wicked to attack him. Patience and time taught him when to speak, and when not to, as well as what to say, and what not to.

In 1516 the first complete New Testament was printed in Greek, the purpose was to “enlighten the peoples of the world and so usher in a millennium of universal virtue”. The  concept was not to usher in the Kingdom, but Virtue, or having an honest leadership. Nonetheless the New Testament was now in the hands of the people; it wouldn’t be until the early 1600’s for the Bible to be available in English, but Luther was in Germany, not England. The German language was not something in a book, but a spoken language passed from father to son. It was a chore producing a written German Bible, not so with Greek or Latin. The printing in German proved God is always able to move past the hand of man to keep His Word pure. Luther saw the Greek word Metanoia rendered in the Latin of St. Jerome as Poenitentia, meaning a Change Of Heart, not a change of occupation, whereas dogma termed it a change from the world to the church. Luther’s discovery of faith was only confirmed by finding this latest truth; a man can leave the world, enter the church, yet retain the same heart. There needed to be “circumcision of heart”, before Metanoia could take place.

The church condoned images of Saints by saying, Worshipping saints who lived and died in Christ is not the same as worshipping heathen idols, even if they were both presented in graven images. This false thinking caused the common man to look upon the image assuming no man could reach the same position as these saints, so why try? Did Solomon make an image of David? Even the Jew knew better, they knew placing a man, even a man of God above God was a sin, placement of an image a greater sin. The children in the wilderness found out what happens when one makes a “symbol” of their leader (the golden calf).

Rome held more holy places than any other religion on the earth, but they failed to hold God. The assumption was if one had holy images, the were holy. They had the tombs of St Peter and St Paul, but Luther noted, if they would have placed their ears to the ground, they would have heard Paul and Peter twisting and turning in their graves. Rome had eighty thousand remains of the martyrs in the catacombs, but they forgot why these saints became martyrs. They had the Sacred Stair of twenty-eight steps from the palace of Pilate. They said if anyone walked up those steps on their knees, kissing each step they could release a loved one from purgatory. This associated with All Saints Day, where they could purchase absolution for someone to free them from purgatory, or punishment of sin. This enforced the theology of Indulgence, some would carry coffins from town to town having the people fill the coffin with money, before they would pray for their dead. Luther traced Indulgence back to Pope Boniface VIII (1300), finding the traditions of man still make the Word to no effect.

Pope Boniface VIII declared the Jubilee Indulgence, where anyone could obtain Total Remission of sin when they visited the graves of the Apostles in Rome. Luther found the concept of purgatory was merely a means to obtain more Indulgence money. Following Boniface came Popes Clement VI (1343), Urban VI (1389) and Paul II (1470) who all continued with the acts of Indulgence. Sacrifice turned to sacrilege, repentance turned to bank accounts, faith to fear, Mercy to oppression, Grace became twisted in the minds of the humanist.

Before Luther would bring his 95 Theses, he would visit Rome. Julius II was the Pope, the same Julius who found homosexuality running amuck, money-hungry priests, self-based, self-centered theologians in his midst, surely he would listen to the Hope presented by Luther. However, Julius was in love with his worldly pursuits, the arts and all the things of man. After Julius would come Pope Leo X in 1513, surely the system would change, Faith would again enter the confines of the church. Regardless of the Pope there were the wicked who hedged themselves around the Pope, they viewed, or interpreted all letters to the Pope while influencing the Pope in all matters.

Luther gave a sermon regarding Simony, instead of receiving the rebuke, the wicked claimed Luther was talking about the Holy Father (God the Father), when the interpretation of holy father really pointed to the Pope. They used the title Holy Father to convince the people Luther was talking against God, but in truth they knew he was pointing the prophet’s finger at the Pope, and the supporters of the Pope.

Luther published his 95 Theses on Indulgences, the 95 points were not like the 97, rather the 95 were a probing invitation to question the Indulgences. Luther didn’t know the outcome, but God did. Much to the surprise of Luther, the “whole world was complaining about indulgences”; he hit a nerve while striking a cord with the people. Theses 1 through 4 were concerned with defining the precise of penance and penitence. Theses 5 through 7 viewed the papal indulgences. Theses 8 through 29 looked at the indulgences for the dead and the assumption of papal power over purgatory. Luther wanted to know if the Pope had so much power, why not pray once and empty purgatory? Theses 30 through 40 pointed to the indulgences of living. Theses 41 through 52 compared the contributions of the building fund for St. Peter’s: Why did the Pope who had more money than Abraham go after the poor to furnish money for the building fund? Theses 53 through 80 looked at the preaching indulgences; How can one freely give what they freely have received if they keep charging for it? Theses 80 through 89 looked at the days set aside for indulgences again asking, if the Pope has all this power, why not empty purgatory, rather than robbing the poor. The thoughts of Rome included “the end justifies the means”; whatever it took to get money to continue the efforts of the church was godly, it didn’t matter what they used, as long as it worked. Theses 90 and 91 said to muzzle the objections without answering them was a grave mistake. Theses 92 through 95 summed up the prior Theses points.

In 1517 Luther’s 97 Theses would be placed on Wittenberg castle door, they were concerned with Scholastic Theology taught in Rome which was void of Truth or the Spirit. The Theses on Indulgence ruffled more feathers than the Theses on Theology; Luther hit the papal in the pocket book, exposed their bank accounts, turned their income sources upside down, ran the Dove selling turncoats out of the temple into the street where all could see them. Whenever one exposes the wicked showing their intent is based in the spirit of man turned to the spirit of the world, the wicked will come out swinging; they may not hit us, but they will take a swing.

Luther’s friends all came to his aid, but they also reminded Martin, If you write against the Pope, do you think he will sit still? Elector Frederick didn’t like Luther to begin with, now it was all out war. Tetzel was a cut throat debater, who used his tongue as a weapon, one could call him a watchdog for church dogma. Frederick sent word to Tetzel, Open doors, come at once, safe-conduct, debate Luther. Recalling how Luther lived in an age where debate was used as a means of teaching, it stands he assumed this was an opportunity to convict the loss souls of the papacy.

Frederick and Tetzel wanted a debate, Luther wanted to know where the Bible said he was wrong. Whatever Frederick and Tetzel desired didn’t stop the people from looking at Luther as an Apostle, a Holy Man of God, a Defender of God. Frederick had the power of excommunication, but Luther had John 16:2 “they shall put you out of the synagogues”. Luther didn’t understand the Yoke, he didn’t know if the church would reject the correction, thus God removed Luther from the Yoke in order to bring the Truth of Faith to those who desired it. We can’t forget many years prior Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this very issue, if the husband (leaders) yoke themselves from Christ, the congregation (wives) are left without authority, or the anointing (I Cor 11:1-16). In order to bring authority and honor back to the leadership roles, one of two things had to a happen, the leadership (whether appointed by God or man) had to repent, then get right with God. Or, God would remove His people from the hand of corruptness, making new leaders. This didn’t remove either Luther or the leadership from the Body, but it shows us something interesting. If man appoints leaders, yet we accept them as our leaders, we are nonetheless under them, such was the case with these people and the Corinthians (II Cor 11:13-15). Moving out from under their leadership was not rebellion, since God had not appointed them to begin with. Rebellion would be the case if Luther felt for a second God had appointed and anointed the leadership. However, he knew Faith was a powerful issue, If the leadership was anointed they would know the Truth. Obviously if the leadership not only lacked authority but the anointing, indicating they were not of God, and not to be recognized.

What about the God appointed leadership? If God appoints a leader, they are a leader, even if they place an Yoke between them and Christ, they may end voiding their self of authority (I Cor 11:1-6). Evan if the congregation wants to move out from under carnal leadership, they can’t, since the leaders are God appointed. The Congregation is left in a silent position, they cannot pray or prophesy in the gathering, but they can still learn at home (I Cor 11:5-16, 14:34 & II Cor 13:1-5).

During Luther’s time the first order of excommunication was the failure to pay tithe or any other church tax, not only would they excommunicate the person, as well as their entire family. Rather than receive tithes, they were taking them. One way or the other, the church was going to get their money. All they wanted from Luther was an apology for his writings against the indulgences. To the leadership they were doing the honorable thing, it was a means to get the funds to continue the “work of God”. In truth the words of holiness, faith or mercy didn’t upset them as much as interfering with their Indulgences. All Luther wanted was some Bible evidence saying what they were doing was the Will of God, rather than Simony, or Indulgence. Luther knew the tithe had nothing to do with salvation, thus how could the church say a man was damned, when he was not (Heb 7:5-8).

The most they could do was exclude someone from fellowship with the church, in which case, it was more of a blessing than a curse. If they cast Luther out, it’s obvious he didn’t rebel or leave them, which made him free to seek God on his own void of the yoke. Time would go on, Frederick would tell Luther, “Recant”; Luther would say, “Show me in the Bible and I will”; he didn’t recant, they never were able to show him one verse where he was in error.

In 1520 a bull was issued by the Pope, instigated by Frederick to excommunicate Luther, band him from Rome, and cause a warrant of death to be placed against him, but the warrant lacked force or power. According to the Pope the excommunication removed Luther from the Mercy of Christ, when Luther knew it was by faith which he obtained Mercy. The Pope used the threat of taking something away from Luther, the Pope never gave him; big deal, let the Pope write his bull, Luther had Jesus.

Rome was more afraid of the people, than they were of Luther. They knew killing Luther would be a great mistake, thus the warrant stayed, but no one carried it out. However, the wicked weren’t the only problem, the devil sent false prophets known as the Zwickau Prophets to disrupt the Faith stand of Luther. The Zwickau Prophets sided with Luther on his views of Rome, but they also wanted to abolish the Bible and hold to their prophecy alone. Luther judged the prophets wanton and false, but by the time he saw them, they had already established themselves with the people in Wittenberg. Luther saw how the prophets lacked character, merely wanting to use the coat tails of the Luther Movement to promote their own movement. The prophets soon went to the way side from whence they came, yet Luther’s Movement went forward.

Luther finally made the entire matter simple, “Let him who believes, believe and follow me; let him who believes not, believe not and go his way”. He added “Christianity consists neither in desisting from nor engaging in outward ceremonies, only in faith”.

Luther made mistakes, some were very costly, not to him, but to others. In 1522 Luther wrote, “We have triumphed over the papal tyranny which weighed down kings and princes; it will be still easier to demolish the kings and princes themselves”. This came from Luther, not God, the result was a bloody civil war. People of God carry weight, their words carry weight, whether the words are from God or their own minds. Paul was careful in saying, “This I say, not the Lord”; whereas Luther was not. So, why didn’t the Lord stop him? The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

Luther hated people putting his name on the movement, he often said, It’s not New, it’s fifteen hundred years old. When they termed it Lutheran, he had a fit. Protester was more in tune, he merely made a stand for God, no more than anyone who says they love  the Lord their God.

The measure of faith holds mankind’s “creative” ability, which we know is really an inventive ability. Along those lines we know the Chinese invented gun powder, but it was Roger Bacon (1214-94) who communicated the formula of gunpowder into terms where the formula could be reproduced. Berthold Schwarz (1300) invented a portoypal gun, both men were Franciscan friars. The best guns were made in Nuremberg, a place noted for its peaceful craftsmen. Nuremberg manufactured a gun and named it The Nightingale, in remembrance for a man by the name of Sickingen. When Sickingen was in the thick of battle he noted the adversary was unfair, in fact he said, “Never have I known such unchristian shooting”. One has to ask what is “Christian shooting like?”.

Many years prior the church assumed by killing all Muslims, they could abolish Islam, but they found their hostile action did just the opposite, they actually were able to increase the members of Islam, rather than eradicate it. Why didn’t God warn them? He did, the Bible warned them of all these things, the use of force, Simony, ruling by force, failure to provide mercy, unbelief, absence of faith, separating ourselves from the Spirit, all products of “choice”. Yet on the same note the Power, Authority and Kingdom were also at hand for any who would reach out by faith. Wasn’t it Luther’s point? Yes, he couldn’t understand why they were so opposed to the Way of God.

Luther had an impact on the common man as well, somewhere an average person took Luther’s Theses, then came up with the Twelve Articles of the common man, which in turn became the basis for the civil war. The “common man” took the Theses too far, they wanted control of the local perish, the right to hire, or fire the pastor. They also wanted a pastor who would preach the Gospel, not dogma. They wanted freedom from serfdom, a right to own their land, ability to hunt animals on their own land, the ability to farm their own land. They also added, If any of these conditions are opposed to the Holy Scriptures, we will recant them, which they picked up from Luther. They said the congregation is of the leader, but all leaders come from the congregation. Also what a leader is suppose to be like; however, the “common man” retorted by showing what a leader should be, not what the leaders were.

The “Twelve Articles of the common man” also produced something not in the Bible, the “deacon board”. The leaders in the past took the position of Bishop from the helps, making it a government by calling it Cardinal, now the “common man” was taking the Deacon from helps placing it over the Offices, leaving no one in helps. All government and no helps is as bad as all helps and no government.

Luther saw the similarity in words, but he also saw the intent was much different. The common man was using presumed Godly methods to alter the government, a position Luther disagreed with. Luther wrote Exhortation To Peace, in which he told the nobles they had no one to blame, but themselves. He also told the peasants, “True Christians” never take the law into their own hands. Neither group wanted to hear the words of Luther, the uprising spread like wild fire. Luther wrote another tract entitled Against The Murderous And Thieving Hordes Of Peasants. In this tract he incited the nobles to “stab, smite, throttle, slay these rabid mad dogs”, this time Luther wrote from his frustration. The nobles took Luther as a man of God, assuming God granted them permission to kill, rob and destroy, they did so for many days. Luther knew what he did, but he also knew God was able to forgive him, and them. Luther became another to prove, people of God are people nonetheless, they should never be placed above God, or the principles of the Bible.

Luther found another experience, a helpmeet by the name of Katharina. Luther wanted to be married about as much as he wanted to be Pope, but God knew this man needed a helpmeet. Luther himself knew God put the plan together, thus he submitted to the will of God, but was still full of apprehension regarding the prospect of marriage.

The story regarding Katharina and Martin Luther seemed to come out of a story book. The cast off friar, the rejected nun, the two most unlikely people in the world, with the most horrid start of all, yet with an ending showing how God unites people. Katharina was able to bring the humor of Luther to the surface, to finish the joy of Luther’s faith bringing him into a place to enjoy his life of Mercy.

Katharina was a nun, yet for a nun to leave the confines of the church was a death sentence. A priest pledged loyalty to the church, but a nun was married to Christ and bound to the marriage until death, one way or the other. When Katharina and Martin were married, she was twenty-six, he forty-two, but in those days forty-two was near death, the average life of a man was forty-five, not sixty.

As a young lady, Katharina von Bora joined the nuns at Numbschen in 1522, but soon heard of the Faith Movement. She along with some other nuns sent word to Luther, “Our consciences, enlightened by the Gospel, do not permit us to live as nuns any longer”. They needed help to escape, what could Luther do? Martin had a friend by the name of Leonard Koppe of Torgau, a man who sold herring in barrels, a perfect mode for escape, but not for a love story. Luther would later comment, Only God would send me a bride in a herring barrel.

On Resurrection Day Eve in 1523 Koppe made good the escape, at the time Katharina had no idea of marrying Luther. When the nuns arrived at Luther’s monastery, known prior as the Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg (a gift to Luther) there was room but no food. Letters went out to find husbands, if no husbands, then send food and clothing. Katharina fell in love with a young man by the name of Hieronymus Baumgartner, but the Baumgartner household didn’t like, or condone the relationship. Katharina spent two years in the Baumgartner household to learn how to be a good wife, but the Baumgartner’s sent their son away to a school during the time, thus the intent wasn’t to make Katharina a good wife, but to discourage her from being one. Their plan didn’t work, Katharina loved the toil of being a housekeeper, nonetheless the Baumgartner’s sent her back to Luther’s monastery.

Luther became a matchmaker, sending a letter to Hieronymus saying, “If you don’t want to lose your Kathe von Bora, beset yourself before she is given to another who wants her”. Katharina had her own plans, she would take Luther or anyone of his two friends if asked. When Luther heard the news he said, “Good God! Not Me!”; later he changed his mind about Katharina’s proposal.

Luther had written for years against the celibacy of priests, he applauded those who left the system to take wives. Now he was faced with his own words; would he follow his own words, or turn into a hypocrite? Luther married Katharina, but his reasoning was not love. Luther listed four reasons for the marriage, 1) to fulfill the dearest wish of his father, 2) to bear witness to his own confessions, 3) to infuriate the papists and spite the devil, and 4) taking pity on a deserted woman. This was the beginning but not the end, Luther would later write, “My Katharina, my Kathy, My Katie, my rib, Doctor Kate, my lady of the orchards”.

Luther would also say, “In truth there is a lot to get used to in marriage. One wakes up in the morning finding a pair of pigtails on the pillow which were not there before”. When Katharina was with their first child Luther wrote, “My Katie is fulfilling Genesis! There is to be born a child of a monk and nun”. Katharina bore six living children in eight years, later two of the girls would die.

Luther’s love for Katharina grew; he often wrote about her. In one letter he said, “My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me, I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus”; “I would not exchange Katie for all France or Venice, because God has given her to me”. In Luther’s eyes the beginning of this venture looked anything but good, but the result proved it was very good, thus God knew the heart of Luther, better than Luther did.

The marriage completed Luther, brought him into the Paradise he was seeking, plus adding to his character. Luther told all married men, When Satan rages, wake up your wife and talk to her. Luther repented for giving more credit to Katharina than Christ, but admitted he couldn’t help it. His children were miracles to him, faces of joy, the “loveliest of miracles”.

Luther’s sense of humor often came to the surface, as evidenced by his statement: “Christ said we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Dear God, this is too much! Do we have to become such idiots?”. His joy and humor surfaced after God gave him the gift of Katharina, his beloved helpmeet. Katharina would out live Martin, but during their years she could be counted on to bring in enough food to care for all the students, visitors, or others Luther would invite in. Luther never turned anyone from his door, whether friend or foe.

Before Luther found the Mercy of God his view of the Jews was like Rome’s, not good at all. Later Luther changed his views, seeking to convert many Jews by faith and love, rather than force and violence. Hitler attempted to use Luther’s prior view of the Jews to support his actions, but even Hitler knew Luther wrote many later papers regarding the conversion of the Jews to The Faith. In 1523 he wrote the tract, “Jesus Christ Was Born A Jew”; hardly the words of a Jew hater. Within the tract Luther said the papists have so discredited themselves, a Good Christian would rather be a Jew than one of them, a Jew would rather be a pig than a Christian. Luther added, “I therefore beg by dear papists, when they get tired of abusing me as a heretic, to abuse me rather as a Jew”. In reference to converting the Jews Luther said, “We should lean towards the Jews not the Pope’s law of hate, but Christ’s Law of Love”.

Luther preached until February 15, 1546, when he fell ill, three days later he went home to be with the Lord, but his words still call out for us to enter by Faith. Luther proves, By your words you are justified, or by your words you are condemned.

The Luther had an experience with God, but Luther related the generalities of the experience, not the specifics. At one point in time during the early months of his revelation he disappeared, his enemies assumed he was dead. Because the people loved Luther so much, they had to make a search, at least to appease the people. Luther surfaced, but locked himself up for another seven months, during these ten months he came face to face with the Faith and Love of God. The Luther experience was Luther’s, any attempt to copy his experience without holding the same faith, or walking the path in the wilderness will breed failure.

Some who followed Luther attempted to re-live his teachings, without living his manner of life; some wanted the Faith experience without living the faith to bring it: yet there were others who found their experience with Jesus and maintained the Faith. Far too often we hear the details of someone’s experience, then we Try It Out to see if it will work or not, it’s not of faith, but an experiment. We try on clothes, we believe in Jesus.

The Protestant Reformation fell into two groups, Lutheranism and Calvinism. Today we see a type of Hyper-Calvinism which bears little resemblance to Calvin’s teachings, but in the early days Calvin looked at the Cross and Salvation, the Luther movement looked at Faith in order reach the Mercy of the Father. It was akin to Paul looking at Abraham’s faith in the beginning stages toward the promise, and James looking at the fruit of Abraham’s faith after the man held the promise. Paul saw the beginning of faith, James saw faith being tested, but both Paul and James used the same Abraham, just different stages of the man’s belief and faith. The mistake is attempting to fit the Calvin thoughts after the Luther experience, it has to be the other way around.

From both the Luther and Calvin camps came the Mennonites who rejected infant baptism, as well as the thought of Christ Himself entered the person at communion, rather they saw the person entering Christ (Body), and the Spirit of Christ entering the person. They also believed both men and women could preach, from this group came the Anabaptist and Amish. From the Anabaptist came the Baptist, and from the Baptist came over 300 denominations. The name Anabaptist didn’t mean they were Anti Baptism, rather it means they were Anti Infant Baptism, or against the teaching of Rome regarding infant baptism. The Anabaptist re-baptized many, they said one must make a decision to repent, and be able to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. They also believed in the baptism with the Holy Ghost as well as the Doctrine of Baptisms.

Around the 1600’s another move came about, this movement mixed philosophical and theological teachings, mainly the teachings of Protestantism and Calvinism with some old philosophical heresies which in the past corrupted the Roman church. This movement was termed Deism, instead of bringing all the foolishness of the past, it brought it’s own. Deism believed God created the world and those in it as a law-biding society, then God allowed man to continue without any interference. This was based on God resting on the Seventh Day, but it failed to include, “His Word watches over to see His Work complete”; nor did it include He is Alpha and Omega. They didn’t say, “it has passed away” they said, “it never was”. They held, “God gave us a brain to make choice”, or “God gave us common sense” or the famed, “pull yourself up by our own boat straps”. The Deist holds “God is out there and we’re down here”. Ben Franklin was a Deist, as were others in the early American Experience. They believed there was a God, they simply failed to believe He involved Himself in our lives. Deism is like Martha, it concerns itself with many things, little of which have to do with Faith.

From this point in history it would be a stones throw to the Enlightenment Period the second step of the Renaissance, leading to the Third. The Enlightenment would better be termed as the Second Step Of Endarkenment. Splits and divisions would develop like wild fire, some elements had a name so long they would take a fifty foot sign on the front of their building. The Northern, the Southern, the Holy, the Second Most Holy, the Holier Than The Holiest, The Holier Than The Other Holiness, Who Are As Holy As We Are, and so on, all of which started when God revealed the word Faith to Luther. The differences were carnal based, yet each of them said they fashioned their order after the Bible, but mainly by their interpretation of the Bible.

Seeds from Luther, Calvin and a man by the name of Huldrech Zwingli (1484-1531), all gave rise to the Anabaptist. Zwingli’s insistence on the Bible being the basis for the teaching of the preachers encouraged the rise of Anabaptism. He also raised the issue of mandatory tithing, according to Zwingli tithing was voluntary in order for it to remain Cheerful. He argued the concept of the Tithe being used by Rome had nothing to do with Abraham, but much to do with the Law. Zwingli also confronted the Roman rules on Lent, in 1522 several citizens broke the fast by eating sausages in public, while saying their authority came from the teaching of Zwingli. In response Zwingli held an open debate on the subject in Zurich, with Zwingli being the victor.

Shortly thereafter fees for baptism and burials were eliminated; monks and nuns were allowed to marry, images and relics were removed, with the abolition of many of the Mass rules. Zwingli could not come into agreement with Luther over the presence of Christ in the Communion, thus he started a separate group known as Zwinglianism. Zwinglian later joined to the Calvinistic thinking; however, Zwingli went one step further, or backward, and held the Bible was the only source for teaching. It sounds great, but where is the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost is the Teacher, He uses the Bible, but remove the Holy Ghost, and the Bible becomes just another intellectual religious book. There are many people who use the Bible as a tool to attack others, or use the Bible to promote their own agenda. The Bible is Holy, but it has to be interpreted by the Holy Ghost to produce Life.

However, Zwingli’s strong stand on Bible teaching encouraged the rise of the Anabaptist concepts on the Bible; however, Zwingli’s intellectual view left little if any room for the Holy Ghost. Some of the ideas were good, some areas are so plain in the Bible it takes a work not to believe them, for the most part these were the areas the Anabaptist held to. The process of the Evangelical came to the raise, meaning they believed in Salvation through Grace by faith. Charismatic means Grace motivated, put the two together and you have the Gospel.

Conrad Grebel (1498-1526) could be considered as the founder of the Swiss Anabaptist movement. After his conversion in 1522 he worked side by side with Zwingli. George Blaurock in 1525 was baptized by Grebel, who in turn baptized Blaurock, then the both of them baptized several others, all giving rise to the movement. They were members of the Body prior, but felt there had to be a re-baptized based on belief. This would be much like Paul re-baptizing the disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-6).

Balthasar Hunmaier (1481-1528) was one of the early German Anabaptists, who studied under John Eck. His travels brought him into contact with the Swiss radicals, when he and several hundred others were baptized by affusion (pouring upon).

The Protestant movement also suffered persecution; Hubmaier was banished to Moravia, but had escaped the Austrian authorities, ending in Zurich. He was responsible for several Moravian converts, this will become an important issue when we move to the life of John Wesley.

The Anabaptists had some problems from fringe radicals, but Menno Simmons (1496-1561) assumed leadership, removing the stigma. The Anabaptists later became known as the Swiss Brethren, or Mennonites, then under Jacob Amman they became the Amish. Some Anabaptists moved to England, there under Thomas Helwys they became known as the Baptists.

There were also the “Spiritual Radicals” who followed Kaspar Schwenkfeld (1489-1561). They believed in the Bible and the Holy Ghost, a small group of them ended in the United States in the area of Pennsylvania several years later. Another Spiritual Radical (if there is such a thing) was Sabastian Franck (1499-1542). Although some tend to give credit to Luther and Calvin alone for the Reformation, their efforts would never have amounted to a thing without the Holy Ghost, coupled with the Spiritual Radicals praying for them.

Luther’s stand was simple, By Faith, but John Calvin’s was more complex, and vague. Calvin’s five points which could be taken in any number of ways, but remained five points. Bible students for years have used the word “Tulip” as a clue to the five points of Calvinism: the T stood for the Total depravity of all men, the same thought as all have fallen short of the glory of God. Calvin saw this depravity as the result of every man inheriting the fallen nature from Adam through the flesh. Next was the U standing for the Unconditional Salvation being obtained by the Unconditional  election apart from human merit, based on the sovereign will of God, wherein God has selected some unto Salvation, and some unto Damnation. This is the catch, the presumption was for God to maintain an A list and a B list. This was based on Paul’s comments about the Potter forming the vessel, the part Calvin left out was the vessel became one of honor or dishonor based on the Mercy the person rendered, or refused to render. This view removes the “whosoever” who calls on the Lord, it also takes the Keys from man. The “L” stood for Limited atonement, or the concept of the Cross paying for the Adam sin nature, it required the Blood of Jesus to reach remission, very true, but he failed to mention being Born Again to enter the Blood. The “I” stood for Irresistible Grace, which means one is saved apart from their own initial desire as the Holy Ghost draws them to the Cross. This was in direct conflict with Peter’s teaching regarding those who enter, yet return to the world as a pig to mire (II Pet 2:13-22). The “P” stood for Perseverance, or Preservation, which became the problem producing Hyper-Calvinism. Originally Preservation stood for the protective power of the Spirit to keep and preserve us until the day of redemption, but it later turned into “once saved always saved”, the foundation of Hyper-Calvinist thinking. Today Hyper-Calvinism depends on one premise which is absent in the original Calvin theology, the thought of Salvation being the Gift: without this one premise all the points of Hyper-Calvinism fall apart. Although Hyper-Calvinism is common today, we find more and more questioning the “once saved always saved” doctrine. The obvious pitfall is when someone makes a mistake, they are told they were never saved. They prayed, were baptized in the Name of Jesus, studied, asked for and received the Spirit, yet now they are not saved, go figure? Being saved from the world to enter the course of Grace unto Salvation has places where we learn by our mistakes, Peter did, Paul did, and so do we.

Hyper-Calvinism leaves no room for mistakes, as it also leaves no room for those who leave the faith to become the Wicked. It sits in the middle, never allowing room for two very important areas, we are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul. The Bible shows we can fall from Grace, there will be a falling away from The Faith, there are bad and good fish in the same net, tares and wheat in the same field, a man’s enemies are of his own house. Hyper-Calvinism also contents we must be saved every day, this is different than dying daily, rather it tends to suggest God’s mercy was not sufficient to save us from the world, nor the Cross sufficient, meaning we are a people without hope, not so, we are a people with a Great Hope.

Judas cast out devils, preached, baptized others in water, held a position in the ministry of Jesus, sat at the same table, yet began a position known as the son of perdition. Jesus said He lost none Except for the son of perdition, meaning Judas made the decision to leave Jesus. Peter was among the three of the inner-circle, he too was ordained an apostle, preached, went out and healed the sick, yet he failed because of a weakness, not a wickedness. Judas had the opportunity to deny his own agenda, but he didn’t. John was also among the inner-circle, yet he stood at the Cross and heard, “Behold thy mother”. Three men, all ordained, all baptized in water, all members of the ministry of Jesus, yet all different. Judas became the Wicked, John the beloved, and Peter restored.

Calvin based a great deal of this thinking on Romans Chapter 8 (although at the time chapter and verse were not in the Bible), where Paul talked about predestination. Accordingly Paul did say those whom God foreknew, He predestinated to be conformed into the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom 8:29). The one area forgotten is the wording, “might be”, rather than “will be”. Those God did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified (Rom 8:30). The tenses in these verses, and the wording need to be examined, we find “might”, and “called”, the tenses are all past tense, giving us a clue to Predestinated. Simply God has a plan set for us, He knows all there is to know, and more; however we don’t. Our faith trusts in God’s ability to save our souls, yet He has also given us the keys, we are the ones who have the power to bind or loose. The Report is in heaven, but in order for the Plan to be effective in our lives we need the Witness of the Water, Blood and Spirit. Since we have the keys, we also have the initiation of the process. The plan may be in heaven, but it’s we who either loose God’s mercy on us by forgiving, or bind God’s mercy in heaven by refusing to forgive. If predestination means God has His A list and B list, then we never had the keys, and Jesus lied, but we know better.

The confusion over Calvin’s theology stems from two areas, first it cannot be placed after Luther’s concept of “the just shall live by faith”, it must come before. The five points lead one to the Cross, no further, once at the Cross then comes the “just shall live by faith”. If God desires all to come to the saving knowledge of the Gospel, then He has provided for all to be in the Body, so why aren’t they? Free moral choice. The other aspect is the false assumption of Salvation as the Gift, or even A gift. Paul said, Grace is the Gift, Salvation the goal (Eph 2:8 & 3:7). Paul told the Ephesians they were Sealed by the Holy Spirit AFTER they believed, not before, thus they had to believe in order to be sealed, they weren’t tricked into the Kingdom (Eph 1:13). On the same note, Paul said we could grieve the Holy Spirit AFTER we are sealed (Eph 4:30). Isaiah said, when the children vexed (grieved) the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit turned and became their enemy (Isa 63:10). Hyper-Calvinism tends to pick Scripture suggesting something, not said in the verse, it also ignores all the verses regarding opposite viewpoint. They say no man can pluck us out of the hand of Jesus, true, but the Scriptures also show we can remove ourselves from the hand. Simply, no person has the authority to remove us from the Body, no Counsel, or Board has the power or authority to remove us from the Body. They may toss us out of their church,  but it’s all they can do. On the same note, we have the keys, thus we can fail at Grace (Heb 12:15). Peter says, “while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption…for if AFTER they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (II Pet 2:19-22). John says those who are antichrist came from us, but were not of us (I Jn 2:19). Jude says they crept in unawares, but he also tells us to pluck them out of the fire: on some having compassion, knowing we made a difference, but on others save with fear, hating event the garment spotted by the flesh (Jude 19-23). Jude also tells us, although we should know, how the Lord having SAVED the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who believed not (Jude 5). The destruction was not the choice of God, it was predicated by the unbelief of the children. God didn’t make them enter unbelief, He provided evidence for them to believe, they made the decision to reject the evidence. Keep things in prospective, no person has the authority to tell us we are not of the Body, but it doesn’t mean we can tip toe through the kingdom thinking we don’t have to continue to believe (Mark 16:16-18).

Calvin stressed the Sovereignty of God, yet God’s sovereignty is found in His Wisdom and Knowledge. God knew the children in the wilderness would rebel, but the children didn’t. God called them holy, so were they? Would we call someone holy who made a golden calf? Or who challenged their anointed leader? What made them holy? God was dealing with them as children, it always makes one holy. God knew Saul would rebel against David, but neither Saul or David knew. God knew the Lamb would be slain before the foundation of the world, but Adam didn’t. Simply because God knows, doesn’t mean we do, neither does it mean God manipulates man.

Calvin knew a man by the name of Guillaume Farel (1489-1565), in 1536 Calvin was in Geneva, where Farel urged him to join his ministry. Calvin declined and wanted to continue his studies; however, Farel told him the Curse of God would fall on him if he refused. Later Calvin confessed, he was so stricken by fear he stayed; so much for election, if it was election it was in the hand of God, there would be no place for fear. This isn’t against Calvin, but shows his teachings were not what they are purported to be today. Calvin instituted the openness of the Lord’s Supper for all Believers to enjoy, singing in the congregation with a short confession of faith. Like any doctrine, it can be twisted to mean something it did not in the beginning. Calvin’s words were twisted to mean man does not have the Keys, which we know is not true.

Luther, Calvin and others wrote their Theological foundations to show others how they thought, not as a means to reach God through them. Instead of taking those discourses as intended, others used them as a means to form their lives after the thinking of Luther, or Calvin, yet void of the faith of the men. Scholars are helpful, but the words of a scholar never replace the Bible, they are suppose to support it. When we make the Bible prove itself to our scholars, we are misusing knowledge.

The Protestant movement began many revivals, even the Roman church started a missionary movement. The French Jesuits carried their faith to Latin America, Quebec and Southeastern Asia. The most effective weapon of the positive propaganda of the Roman church was provided by the Jesuits. The founder of the order, Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) related while he was reading one day, he had a “spiritual experience” in 1522, leading him to dedicate his life to the service of God and the church. His wording is a clue, it was not “church” alone, or “church and God”, he placed his first love first. In 1534 he and six friends became the nucleus of the order, which was approved by Paul III in 1540. Loyola’s book entitled, Spiritual Exercises became a guide to new recruits. Several weeks were spent in meditation on sin, life, death, and the resurrection of Christ.

With the Jesuits busy on the road of revival, the church made a decision to back up their work with two weapons of coercion. The Inquisition and the Index became the weapons of “believe like us or die”. The Index was a list of prohibited books, some needed to be prohibited, but they also prohibited every book which didn’t agree with Roman church dogma. The Inquisition handled the problem of heresy, or at least what they termed as heresy. The accused were presumed guilty until they proved their innocence; they were never confronted with their accusers; they could be forced to testify against themselves; they could be tortured to extract a confession, if sentenced, they were punished with loss of property, imprisonment, or burning at the stake. The only freedom was to recant their views. Under Thomas Torquemada ten thousand were executed and under Ximenes nearly two thousand were.

In order to enter the reform movement, without having to enter it, Paul III called the Council of Trent in 1545. In 1547 the Council declared the Bible alone is not the source for man but Canonical Scriptures and the Apocrypha in the Vulgate, with the tradition of the church constituted the final authority. Although they knew the Scripture, “Your traditions have made the Word to no effect” they still introduced tradition as a foundation. Few on either side of the fence sought to introduce the Holy Ghost as the Interpreter of the Bible. The Council made it impossible for any reconciliation with Protestantism because the Protestants would not accept the concept of equal authority between tradition and Scripture.

REVIVAL COMETH

There are different types of revival, some are based in emotionalism, someone knows how to get the people stirred up for the moment, but it lasts until the parking lot. There are other revivals happening when the Holy Ghost moves, as history shows there came a time when the Tree was ripe for revival, the Holy Root was awaking.

The Puritans and Separatists also became activity reformers. After the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588 Queen Elizabeth felt she was through with religious turmoil. The Roman church was cast out of England, it appeared England would be the champion of Protestantism. In 1560 AD the Puritans contended far too many “rags of popery” were still in the Anglican church, they demanded Purity in the church, thus bringing about the name Puritans. They opposed the use of saints’ days, clerical absolution, the sign of the Cross, the custom of having godparents in baptism, kneeling for Communion and the use of the surplice by the minister. They also followed William Perkins’ interpretations of Calvin; unlike Luther’s one line statement, “the just shall live by faith” Calvin’s statements were left open to interpretation, thus producing many variables.

In 1593 Elizabeth passed an act against the Puritans, the act gave the authorities permission to jail the Puritans for failure to attend the Anglican church. The Puritans were also known as Independents, thus the Independents must not be confused with the Separatists, who wanted separation of the church from the state with congregational government of the church. In essence the Puritans wanted a state church, but wanted it run by the church; whereas the Separatists wanted the state to keep completely out of the church. Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603) changed the course of the Puritan efforts from reform of liturgy to reform of theology. Cartwright laid the foundations for the English Presbyterianism movement by using Calvin teachings in a more strict form, he believed the church government must be in control of bishops and elders, this is against the procedure God formulated (I Cor 12:28).

In 1658 at Savoy in London the Congregationalist followers of Henry Jacob (1563-1624) formulated a Calvinistic creed known as the Savoy Declaration. The main differences between the Independent Puritans and the Episcopal Presbyterian produced the Separatist Puritans. The Separatists bound themselves to Christ and each other in a type of state church. The State church consisted of Anglican (low church Puritans), Presbyterian Puritans (Cartwright followers), the Congregational (Independent Puritans as Jacob’s followers); but the Separatists wanted a No state church, some like Browne, Greenwood, Barrow, Smyth, Robinson, and others who formed six groups, three groups for and three against. Robert Browne (1550-1633) argued believers were to be united to Christ by a voluntary covenant, the officers were to be chosen by the members and no congregation had authority over another.

Browne’s views of Advanced Congregationalism were modified to a degree by John Greenwood who started a group around 1586. The authorities hanged both Browne and Greenwood for their views. A third Separatist group of Congregationalists was led by John Robinson (1575-1625), who settled in Holland in 1608. William Bradford (1590-1657) a member of the Plymouth landing party was a member of the group, he migrated to American on the Mayflower in 1620.

John Smyth (1565-1612) came under the influence of the Mennonites, along with Thomas Helwys (1550-1616). Both Smyth and Helwys organized the first English Baptist church; they followed Arminian Doctrines, and practiced baptism by affusion. They were known as General Baptists based on their general view of atonement, rather than a particular view. A spin off from Jacob’s followers became the Particular Baptists, they conducted baptism by immersion, held Calvinistic theology as they emphasized limited atonement.

When Charles I was ruling from 1625 to 1649 the state church took on a pro-Catholic policy, causing many to venture to America in search of denominational freedom. It is mistakenly assumed by some the early settlers were seeking religious freedom, but they were seeking large plots of land where they could practice their denominational religion without interference from government or other denominations, thus making it more of denominational freedom. Many of the locals would allow one type of denominational thinking, but not another, which would lead to Patrick Henry rebuking many for holding religious trials over doctrines.

Nonetheless, preachers would surface who preached as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, including men like Jonathan Edwards (1703-58), the fiery New England congregational minister who could shake the house to it’s knees, or George Whitefield the English preacher who started more revivals then most of us have seen.

Jonathan Edwards was a noted theologian and Congregational clergyman, who was deeply involved in the beginning of a religious revival called the Great Awakening. Edwards was born October 5, 1703, in East Windsor in the Connecticut Colony. At the age of ten he wrote an essay on the nature of the soul, at 13 he entered the Collegiate School of Connecticut (now Yale University), graduating in 1720 as valedictorian of his class. After two additional years of study in theology at Yale, he preached for eight months in a New York church, then returned to Yale as a college tutor. While acting as a tutor, he was also working on his master’s degree. Edwards was ordained in 1727, he began to assist his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who was the pastor of the church at Northampton, Massachusetts Bay Colony. When Edwards was 26 his grandfather died, Edwards became pastor at Northampton. He was a firm believer in Calvinism and the doctrine of predestination, as it was known to him, but not as it’s known to the Hyper-Calvinist of today. In Boston in 1731 Edwards preached his first public attack on Arminianism in a sermon entitled “God Glorified in Man’s Dependence,”. Three years later he delivered a series of sermons on the same subject in his own church; the series included, “Reality of Spiritual Light,” in which he combined Calvinism with the Charismatic experience. In his day the Calvinist was a Charismatic, which is one of the main differences between Edwards and the Hyper-Calvinist of today. During the time when he was preaching his 1734 to 1735 sermons a revival broke out, Edwards received nearly 300 new converted members in his church alone. Edwards preached on the “fiery hell” to a point some of his new converts contemplated suicide. Edwards saw the need to add Salvation by Grace as hope from a fiery hell.

In 1740 the British evangelist George Whitefield visited Edwards, at the time revival happened, called the Great Awakening, engulfing all of New England. The conversions were characterized by convulsions, falling down, and a type of mumbling on the part of the converts. It was during Edwards sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” his congregation began to weep and moan from their seats. By 1742 the revival movement had grown, for the next 60 to 70 years it had the effect on American religion of preventing any attempt at liberal interpretation of doctrine. Many of the converts took the missionary path going to other countries.

In Northampton Edwards’ sermons created a demand for a more sterner religious discipline. Eventually, however, his congregation turned against him because of what they though was his high-handedness. He instituted disciplinary proceedings in church against young people who had been reading what he considered improper books; later, he objected strongly to the Halfway Covenant, a New England church custom permitting baptized persons to have all the privileges of church membership except communion although they had not openly professed conversion. Although Edwards began with Grace, he moved to a “law” or regulatory control, moving from discipling the people to controlling them. A council representing ten congregations in the region dismissed Edwards in 1750.

The following year he received a call to Stockbridge, in Massachusetts, then on to the frontier, where he became pastor of the village church, and a missionary to the Housatonic people. During the next seven years in Stockbridge he wrote many theological works, among them was “A Careful and Strict Inquiry” (1754), in which he denied human beings have a self-determined will to initiate acts not known or decreed beforehand by God. In no way did he mean God directs the acts, only God knows the acts will happen, which would show his view of Predestination. The concept of man not being able to surprise God was the issue, liberal theological thinking at the time considered God a sort of “catch up God”, rather than an all knowing God. In 1757 Edwards accepted the presidency to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). He was inaugurated in 1758, but five weeks later, on March 22, 1758, he died as the result of an inoculation against smallpox.

George Whitefield started the Holy Club along with the Wesley brothers, later to be known as the Methodists. The movements at the time had what was referred as New Lights and Old Lights, the New Lights wanted to mix the life of the Born Again Experience  indicating God was good, or it was all right to get excited. The Old Lights wanted logical to be their guide, safe theology based on the past. Instead of getting out of the boat to find Jesus, they didn’t want the boat to leave the dock.

The Holy Ghost started to move as never before, the thirty-fold of Pentecost was no longer the goal, the Sixty-fold return was being granted. Why did the Holy Ghost pick this time? Who knows, but there were many ready for a fresh breath of God, there was a “need”. The Holiness Movement, the Pentecostal Movement, the Foursquare Movement, the Walsh Revival, the New England Revival, the Azusa Street Revival, and many more began as the Holy Ghost moved across the land. Saints were involved, but the saints didn’t begin the revivals, they were used by the Holy Ghost in revival.

Terms like Evangelical and Charismatic replaced Orthodoxy, and Roman church Dogma, men like Charles and John Wesley, or as they were known “the Wesley Brothers” would hear the difference between knowing Jesus, and knowing about Jesus. They didn’t live in the experiences of Whitefield, they sought their own. They did ask Whitefield to come to America and preach, but not before they came face to face with a Charismatic Moravian who asked simple questions rocking the Wesley’s theology to the core.

On a ship headed to America John Wesley was faced with an experience changing the course of his life. During the trip a great storm arose, John thought they were all going to die, not only he but all those who came with him from England. On the same boat were some German’s, Wesley noticed not only were the Germans were not moved by the storm, they were singing. How could this be? Don’t they care? The leader of the German Moravians was a man by the name of Spangernerg, the date was February 8, 1936 in the most uncommon of common places, in the face of a storm. Wesley saw the German’s and thought it was courage, he preached this courage to his own people, but Spangernerg took Wesley to one side and asked, “Have you the witness within yourself?”, adding, “Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your Spirit, that you are a child of God?”. Wesley was dumbfounded, what was he talking about? Simply he was asked, Do you know Jesus? Wesley responded by saying he knew of Jesus. Wesley landed in Georgia where he preached and assisted other Christian groups, but was plagued by the questioning of Spangernerg. Later we will see if Wesley was able to discover the answer to his bewilderment.

There were many who came to America, not simply from England, but all over the world looking for a place where they could worship as they desired. The British Isles were represented by England and Scotland; from England came the Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Puritan Separatists, Quakers, and Methodists; from the Puritan Separatists came the Baptists; from Scotland would come John Witherspoon and Francis Makemie who would bring the Presbyterians; from the European Continent would come the Huguenots from France, the Lutherans from Germany and Sweden, the Dutch Reformed and Mennonites from Holland; from the Dutch Reformed would come the Christian Reformed. The transplanting of all these cannot be separated from the religious influences they also brought. The United States has more denominations then most countries have religious followers. However, God had a plan in the plan, all these came to the United States in search of a place to freely worship, but the Holy Ghost moved through the land regardless of denominational influence, ministers were anointed on a daily basis. Some of the same ministers traveled back to their countries to preach by the Holy Ghost.

The Virginia Company had a charter in 1606 to settle the New Land, they sent  settlers to Jamestown in 1607. Among the settlers was Robert Hunt, who was the first to give the Lord’s Supper to the colonists. John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas laid the foundation for the early wealth of the colony by successfully growing tobacco in 1612. Alexander Whitaker with his Puritan background became the leading minister of the Anglican church in Virginia (1611-1617). Slavery was established with the purchase of slaves from Dutch traders in 1619. Freedom to preach for some, slavery for others. This unequal status would soon boil over, bringing about what is known as the Civil War.

James Blair (1655-1743) became the pastor of the Bruton parish from 1710 to 1743, he founded the College of William and Mary in 1693. Congregationalism was established in New England in the early part of the 17th century. In August of 1620 the Mayflower set sail for America; Elder Brewster was their first religious leader and William Bradford was their first governor. The greater number of non-Separatist Puritans settled in Salem and Boston after 1628. In 1626 John White, a Puritan minister of Dorchester, England organized a company to settle in Salem. In 1631 the Massachusetts General Court limited the right to vote to church members, thus Congregationalism became the state religion. Again history shows it was not freedom to preach wherever you desired, rather it was freedom to live in a denomination area where you settled.

Thomas Hooker (1586-1647) was appointed as minister of Newton in 1633, yet becoming frustrated with limitations placed on church members; he gained permission, and moved his congregation to Connecticut. John Davenport (1597-1670) was a pastor in London, one of his members Theophilus Eaton sailed to America in 1636 with several members of the church. They settled in New Heaven in southern Connecticut.

Although Roger Williams (1603-1683) was not a Baptist, he nonetheless held some Baptists thinking when he came to America. Williams was educated by the Anglican church, but held Baptist and Separatist views. His views caused him to leave England in 1631 as he sought freedom in America. He upheld the Indian ownership of the land, which caused John Cotton to order him to leave the Plymouth area. It wasn’t the only reason, Williams also said the civil magistrates held no power at all over a man’s religion, nor could they stop, help, interfere with or become involved in religion. This wasn’t a matter of church and state as we know it today, rather it meant the State had to ignore church activities in all regards.

Williams proclaimed the preachers and the church belonged to God, the land to the government, the two should not interfere with one another. He also said the Body was protected by a Hedge placed around it by God; however, if there was ever a hole punched in the Hedge and the government entered thereby, it was the fault of the Body, not the government. It was this premise Thomas Jefferson brought to the Danbury Baptists, which later became known as “separation of church and state”. Although Jefferson was making a promise not to interfere, it turns out his words were twisted to mean just the opposite.

In 1636 Williams purchased some land which was known as Providence; in 1637 Mrs. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) fell under the ban of authorities for holding meetings in her home. She saw something beyond Luther’s Mercy, it was the “Covenant of Grace”. She was forced to walk in the dead of winter to Rhode Island, where she and her followers settled at Newport and Portsmouth where some believe she started the First Baptist church in America. Some of us assume we have less religious freedom now than the first settlers had, but the evidence shows it’s not the case.

In 1639 Williams was “rebaptized” along with twelve members of his church, they organized a church along Baptist lines, thus some assume Williams started the First Baptist church; however, the records show his endeavors came one year after those of Anne Hutchinson.

In 1565 the Spanish introduced a short lived Roman Catholicism in Florida, later moved it to New Mexico, Arizona, and California. For the most part Catholicism remained on the West Coast of the United States, with some small inroads in the East. The famed “Bible Belt” of the East Coast was generated by Revivals, not the settling of the Pilgrims.

The Lords Baltimore headed by George Calvert (1580-1632), and his son Cecil (1605-1675) started in the area known as Maryland. Unlike Williams, the Calverts were interested in profits. At first both the Protestants and Roman Catholics had establishments in Maryland until 1692, when it became a royal colony, then Anglicanism became the state religion in 1702.

The Quakers were founded as the Society of Friends by George Fox, who was born in July of 1624, he died in January of 1691. Fox was an English preacher who was the son of a Puritan; although he was able to read and write, there is no record of him having had a formal education. It was felt he either taught himself, or God taught him, the latter is the one we always pick. He wasn’t always a preacher, he began as an apprenticed to a shoemaker. In 1643 he underwent a religious crisis and left home; his religious experience led him to conclude Christianity should stress the inner life of the soul illumined by Christ, rather than the externals of religion dogma. He began to preach in 1647, making converts mostly in the north part of England. The Friends spread rapidly, with major concentrations in London and Bristol by 1654. By 1660 there were Quakers in America, Ireland, and the West Indies. The organizational center became Swarthmoor Hall, with George Fox and Margaret Fell, whom he married in 1669, coordinated the missionary activity. Persecution of the Friends was sporadic during the Puritan Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649-60), but after the restoration of the monarchy a determined effort was made to suppress all nonconformists; Fox was imprisoned many times. Reacting to internal divisions and the arrest of the movement’s leaders, Fox established procedural guidelines as a structural framework of meetings. He proclaimed the right of women to full spiritual equality, in 1660, he insisted the Friends should not participate in war.

In the early days the Quakers were known as Charismatics, they set aside the doctrines of the church seeking the revelation of God’s will by having the Holy Spirit. They believed the Inner Light was the Holy Spirit, they sought direct Wisdom from God apart from the Bible alone. George Fox started his search for the spiritual truth in 1643, he related how he was challenged by two Puritans to a drinking bout, the one who stopped first would pay the bill. In total disgust he left the church and around 1647 he had a Religious Experience ending his search. He said, Christianity became a way of Life, a spiritual experience where one could come directly to God and be changed, rather than spend their life in some futile attempt to make a self-change.

His followers called themselves Friends, but like most movements, many of them wanted the experience without having to walk the path of faith the originator did. The result brought rules, regulations, or carnal thinking to counterfeit the walk of the originator. However, there were those who did make the decision to walk the path of faith. Out of the Friends movement came Margaret Fell (1614-1702), who as we said married George in 1669. Margaret did walk the walk, she won Swarthmore Hall to Quakerism, her home became the unofficial center for Quakerism.

Robert Barclay (1648-1690) became the theologian of the movement. To Barclay the Spirit of God is the only Revelator of God, the Source of Inner Light within man to bring spiritual illumination. Barclay saw the Bible as secondary to faith, the inspiration of the writers was placed on the same level as the inspiration of Fox; however, he also said the Revelation should never contradict the Scriptures, rather the Revelation should be in conjunction with the Scriptures. Barclay’s works have been questioned by some, accepted by others.

In 1671-72, Fox journeyed to North America, visiting Quaker meetings. By the time of Fox’s death in 1691, the Quakers in England had shed much of their missionary zeal becoming a “settled” denomination. Later the Quaker movement picked up rites regarding holiness which were not the concepts of Fox, some Quakers also appeared in Boston in 1656, others found their way to New England. After 1674 New Jersey (New Jehovah Says) was divided into East and West Jersey until 1702. William Penn was the founder of the Great Quaker Refuge, but it began with a debt paid. King Charles II owed sixteen thousand pounds to Penn’s father, thus the king gave William Penn control over the land in 1681, the land is known today as Pennsylvania. Penn made the colony an asylum where the oppressed could find religious freedom; of course this shows there were some persecuted for their religious views, thus one could not preach one denominational view in an area holding a different view. In 1683 the German Mennonites settled in Germantown near Philadelphia. In 1740 a number of Moravians settled in Pennsylvania; Zinsendorf, the leader of the Moravians visited Pennsylvania from Germany attempting to unite the two German sects. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania became the leading center for the Moravians.

George Fox is not to be confused with John Fox (Foxe), who wrote the Book of Martyrs. John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, or better “Foxe’s Book Of Martyrs” was a work showing how a true martyr acted in the face of opposition. John Foxe was born in 1516, he died on April 18, 1587; he was an English clergyman, educated at Oxford, becoming a fellow of Magdalen College. When Mary the First became the Queen in 1553, John fled to Strasbourg, Frankfurt, then to Basel, where he stayed until 1559. There he began to write a history of the persecutions of Christians, which was later expanded and published (1563) under the title, The Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes. The work itself became known almost immediately as the “Book of Martyrs”, it speaks of the heroism of the Protestant martyrs of the Reformation. Foxe described their sufferings in vivid terms, so much so, it was looked upon as “obscene” by some. The value of his work was questioned by the “doubters and pouters”, since Foxe was Protestant. Some questioned his sources, but later history proved his work not only a most valuable source of information regarding 16th Century England, but correct in its descriptive content. The work has undergone several editions, for the most part the facts remain the same. Foxe’s work was historical in nature, it was not theological, thus it remains a historical witness defining a true Martyr.

Francis Makemie (1658-1718) an Irishman was termed the father of American Presbyterianism: by 1706 he organized a presbytery in Philadelphia, in 1716 the first synod adopted the Westminster Confession. All these various sects are the result of different divisions based on disagreements or debates over matters in the long run prove not to be important, or simply misunderstandings of what someone said the Bible said. The natural nature of man tends to follow men, thus we are told to follow Jesus by faith.

This brings us to Methodism which was introduced to all thirteen colonies by Robert Strawbridge in Maryland, and by Philip Embury and Captain Webb in New York after 1760. John Wesley sent Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor as official missionaries in 1768; the great circuit rider Francis Asbury (1745-1816) came in 1771; then again in 1784. The Charismatics from each group were united in the Spirit and were instrumental in the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening wasn’t one big revival, there were many spontaneous revivals until 1865. Neither was the Great Awakening something which just happened, rather it began in the Body in the form of restoration. When the Holy Ghost began to move in the Body the spill over started effecting people all over. The Light caused the darkness to run for cover, but the people ran to Jesus. There is some argument whether the Great Awakening was Calvin inspired or Luther inspired, yet neither is the case it was Holy Ghost inspired.

The same Spirit of God who brought Wesley to the Lord, would bring others. After Wesley found the answer to Spangenberg’s questions was having the Spirit of Truth within, things changed in his life, he ran across another Monrovian by the name of Peter Bohler. Both Peter Bohler and Wesley went to Oxford, it would be Bohler who would add to the teaching of Spangenberg. Wesley would go to England to preach, while there the Bohler influence of “the just shall live by faith” moved Wesley to preach on “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”. It may sound ordinary today, but back then it began a massive uproar. The concept taught in England through the church of England was “justification by works”, but Wesley was saying, “justification comes by faith”. The uproar was so great Wesley was asked not to preach anymore. Wesley was frustrated and disappointed, but Bohler told him, “preach faith until you have it, and because you have it, you will preach it”. Wesley knew he was preaching what he felt was right, but not what he believed deep in his heart. He surrendered to the Holy Ghost, became Spirit filled, then he preached because he had it. The experience with Jesus produced the seeds, revival couldn’t help but take place. Wesley preached Jesus as Savior and Lord, he knew what he was saying was Truth. This type of preaching became known as Evangelistic, with the Evangelical touch of preaching salvation by Faith through Grace alone; however, don’t confuse Evangelical with Evangelist. They sound close, the Evangelist is an Office, Evangelical is type of theology. Charismatic meaning Motivated by Grace (Spirit), thus it was the Motivation by the Spirit producing the Experience, cementing Grace by faith.

Man no longer had to work his way up the theological ladder to gain God’s approval or knowledge, now they touched both God’s Knowledge and Wisdom by the Spirit. All this started when a few narrowed the measure of faith to “have faith in God”.

John Newton was a converted slave trader, who couldn’t get within fifty miles of  some local churches today, but he was a pillar in the Kingdom of God. He wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, at the same time the Methodists started Sunday Schools, the knowledge of God was no longer hidden in locked rooms, it was coming forth.

There were still wars, rumors of wars, famine and pestilence, but there were also healings, miracles, plus an inner peace passing understanding. The Revivals spoke for themselves, bars and brothels closed, not because someone forced them to close, simply because no one used them. The change was in the people, not in society, thus society changed because the people changed, no one had to legislate morality, morality became a life style without legislation. The laws remained the same, the people changed to make the laws regarding sinful activity moot. Changing the laws only produces more laws, changing people removes the necessity to debate the laws. If no one commits abortion, what good is a law condoning it? If no one over or under the age of eighteen drinks alcohol, what good is a law allowing it?

The Red River Revival displayed how the Holy Ghost can still add to the church; a little known man went to the woods and started to preach to a few folks. The largest and nearest town held no more than 1,800 people, yet the Revival had crowds of 10,000 or more. Men like Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) with sermons like Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God moved hundreds to the Lord. Samuel Davies (1723-1761) was another who was used of God to begin revival in Virginia. Out of revival came Samuel Morris who started his Reading House, where people would sit and read the Bible and pray. Shubal Stearns (1706-1771) was used of the Holy Ghost to begin the Baptist revival in the South. Daniel Marshall we used by the Holy Ghost in the New England revival. Devereux Jarratt an Episcopalian minister (1733-1801) held revival in the south. All these reported “unusual phenomena” following the preaching. The Second Awakening had all sorts of signs and wonders, the truth was still the truth, the signs follow those who believe.

Did the Revivals flow without opposition? Hardly, Pharisees follow along, they always seem to bring their unbelief and murmuring. In England the Old Lights led by Charles Chaunch opposed the revivals; in his opinion there was too much emotionalism. Chaunch didn’t view the evidence, he allowed his stiff neck to get in the way of his eyes. The New Lights led by Edwards supported Revival, the Old Lights and New Lights brought the terms Rationalism and Revivalism to the surface. At the same time Deism began to spread with the writings of John Locke and Voltaire. Voltaire’s deism permeated all his writings against the church and in favor of tolerance. Deism is a religion without written revelation, becomes a starry heaven above with an earthly moral law regulating man’s activity. Deism trusts in the Pride Of Life to accomplish religious matters, the Deists believe God left His creation to operate under natural laws; hence, there was no place for miracles or spiritual matters, including the manifestation of the Spirit. Deists teaching says, Jesus was only a moral teacher, insisting worship belongs to God. Another dogma was the belief of Virtue and Piety were the most important aspects of worship toward God; however, the Virtue and Piety were self-efforts, not products of the Righteousness of God within. Jesus said the Father seeks those who can worship in Spirit and Truth, we receive the Spirit of Truth by being Born Again.

Ben Franklin was a Deist who produced sayings like, “pull yourself up with your own boot straps” or “God helps them who help themselves”. The latter saying is believed by many to be in the Bible, yet it isn’t, rather it was Deism at work. Deism was unduly optimistic because it tended to ignore human sin; after all, if man was sinful, then the thoughts of Deism were in error.

On the other hand before the Deists came with their Rational  Thinking based in the Critical Thinking School of Theology; the Charismatics were laying the foundation for revival, as the humanist and Deists were laying the ground work to destroy the works of Revival. The problem to the humanist or Deist is the question, If Revival is real, then God is still involved in the affairs of man. Along the same humanist route would come Critical thinking as a method to make the document prove itself, but the Bible defines itself, it doesn’t prove itself, signs and wonders do.

Quietism was a Charismatic movement within the Roman Catholic church, it’s still active today. Regardless of the sect or non-sect if someone is seeking God, the Holy Ghost will find them, and plant the Seed. Revival isn’t forcing change, it provides a means for change. The opposite of Revival is forcing moral change on people who want nothing to do with it.

Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), Ignatius Loyola, Theresa of Spain and Francis of Sales all were Charismatics. Francis of Sales wrote Devout Life, it’s read today by Protestants who seek the spiritual nature. Michael Molinos (1640-1697) wrote his Spiritual Guide emphasizing passivity (submission, or being humble). His ideas were adopted by Madame Guyon (1648-1717) who emphasized passive contemplation of the Divine as a method of union with Christ. Francis Fenelon (1651-1715) defended Madame Guyon in his work Christian Perfection. Pietism emphasized an internal, subjective, and individual return to the Bible study and prayer. Some think Pietism was in opposition to Charismatic thinking, but Pietism was a step to the Charismatic experience, not the other way around.

Without the Bible there can be no Revelation, without prayer there is no submission to the Spirit, thus Pietism places us in a position to receive, whereas Charismatic is the product after receiving. This is evident when we find the Pietism movement resulted in the Moravian church, rather than Moravian resulting in Pietism. The connection between the Moravian Charismatic, and the Wesley experience proved there was a step from the Study Hall of God to the Clarity of God, only known by a spiritual experience through the Spirit of Christ.

Other movements were also started, the Salvation Army was founded by William Booth (1829-1912) a Methodist minister, with a goal to reach the down-and-outs by open air evangelism centered with assistance to the needy. Booth brought the First Love and Second Love to practical application. John N. Darby (1800-1882)  who became a curate in the church of Ireland, organized groups known as the Brethren in Dublin around 1831. The Brethren emphasized the priesthood of believers by the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. Edward Irving (1792-1834) a Scottish Presbyterian minister, believed the church should enjoy, and exercise the gifts of the Spirit. His followers emphasized “speaking in tongues” they had prophecies of the “imminent return of Christ”. This latter was mistaken by some to mean their prophecies meant the return of Jesus to the earth, rather than the imminent return of the Christ nature to the Body. The truth of the prophecies became evident when thousands became Born Again, with evidences to prove it, thus Christ did return.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) preached in England during the late 1800’s. His preaching drew many, so many he had to keep moving to larger churches, until 1891 when nearly 15,000 people were attending his church. In his book, he recalled how he was asked how the Power of God was so manifested in his church. He showed a trap door behind the pulpit, under the trap door was a small room, where his elders would pray continually while Spurgeon was preaching. He felt as he preached, he was between the prayers of the holy men of God and God.

The correlation in the movements of God hold certain ties which always seem to be found in the beginning of the movements. Spurgeon was convinced of God’s love for him, but he was nonetheless an insignificant man in a insignificant time and place. Spurgeon, and others like him, were men and women without recognition until God anointed them for service. Spurgeon was once described as: “wrapped in a rough blue overcoat, with a species of soft deerstalking hat on his head, a loose black necktie round his massive throat, and a cigar burning merrily in his mouth, he is surely the most unclerical of all the preachers of the Gospel” (Society Journal). Spurgeon was classed as a Calvinist, but he often said it was the later works of Calvin, thus his stand on Calvinism was not maintained by the Baptist pulpits of the time. In his later years Spurgeon assumed he was the only one standing for the Truth. He saw the moral condition of the times, how the standard of living was failing, skepticism running rampant. Many failed to believed in the miraculous, thus  miracles were ceasing. Spurgeon fell victim to the Elijah Cave Syndrome, he entered frustration, thinking he was the only left doing the work of the Lord, his frustration fell into bitterness, then sickness, then his death.

In 1875 under the leadership of Canon, T.D. Hartford-Battersby the Keswick Life Meetings took place. The Keswick meetings emphasized the Experience with the Spirit to bring about instantaneous and progressive sanctification. Keswick meetings sought to bring Life in with justification in the progressive to defeat sin.

By 1859 another Revival Movement began, the Welsh Revival of 1904 and 1905 was started when the Holy Ghost using Evan Roberts in the mining town of Loughor; the Welsh Revival became a Spear Head to worldwide Revival. Many major Revivals have been attributed to the Welsh Revival, including the great Revival in Korea in 1907. The Welsh Revival is a prime example of change coming to the people, rather than forcing change on the people. Bars closed, houses of ill repute closed, gaming centers closed, churches were filled beyond the doors, even into the streets, all of which was a matter of choice, not a matter of making laws, rules or regulations to force people to make change. When the Holy Ghost produces the Revival the people walk from sin on their own will, when man produces a self-based revival, he must enforce it with pickets, anger, laws, and social change forced on people.

Men like William Carey (1761-1834) said, “Expect Great things from God; attempt Great things for God”. Yet, with when the Light gets Lighter, the darkness is sure to become darker, then came Frederick Nietzsche (1844-1900). Nietzsche was known as the Archenemy of all Christianity, unlike those in the past who questioned the church, Nietzsche had nothing to base his hate on; he proclaimed, “Death to God” by saying, “The one great curse, the immortal blemish of all mankind is Christianity”. Nietzsche assumed Christians were weak, unable to cope with life, they had to use some crutch for help. He failed to see his concept of life, was death, his concept of power was what he controlled. Nietzsche maintained his thinking until he fell completely insane, then died with his mind in shambles.

Nietzsche laid the ground for the “God is dead” rebellion in the 1960’s, he nourished the seeds of humanism to its latest form, human secularism. The so-called New Age is about as new as Simon Magus, but it regained status in the 1900’s. Since the movements of the devil are based on lies, the mere use of the term New Age should tell us something; it’s neither New nor does it have Age, it’s old and pertains to death.

The radical critic surfaced, considering the Bible a work of man’s hand to be judged by the mind of man. They ignored the function of the Holy Ghost as the Interpreter of the Bible, thus rejecting the inspiration of the Holy Ghost moving the scribes of the Bible. The idealistic philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) brought about a philosophic critic attitude planting the corrupt seeds, to him the Bible was merely a book of history. He became the seeds of modern Phariseeism, those who become offended when the word Faith is used or if the God moves with the Power of Christ.

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) brought about the coldness of the human soul, the removal of emotions in respect to God. In his book The Christian Faith (1821) he presented religion not as a set of beliefs, but obligations of man to find the absolute dependence in the majestic. Religion in his view became a subjective apprehension of Christ, who serves as a Mediator to reconcile man to the Absolute. In his opinion man is freed from dependence on the historical revelation of the will of God, man needs only to cultivate the feeling of dependence. His view became known as the foundation to Modern Theology, or Thought void of the Spirit. The Bible or Scriptures are nonetheless Holy, but without our faith in Jesus by the Spirit we will never gain Life.

Albert Ritschl (1822-1889) was influenced by Schleiermacher’s thoughts on religion, but insisted religion was a social consciousness as well. Accordingly if it felt good, it must be God, if it felt bad, it must be the devil. Ritschl’s approach opened the door to extreme critical study of the Bible, according to him, the Bible was error unless it could prove itself true. This approach placed the scholars over the Bible, forcing the Bible to bow to the carnal mind of some scholars, rather than the scholars supporting the Bible.

Johann G. Eichhorn (1752-1827) planted seeds of corruption as well, he presented the dictum of the Bible being read as a human document, then tested by human means. His thoughts lead to the various books and translations with numerous changes, but for the most part the changes were in the little words. If revelation is found in the little words, changing them produces error. Man began to change the words to fit theology, rather than change their theology to fit the Bible. The removal of the Bible from the hands of the Holy Ghost produced all sorts of things, books found under trees as another gospel, changing words to remove possession, making translations to fit poor doctrinal thinking, removing verses such as James 2:1 as a means to remove any concept of Jesus having Faith, and so on. To a few their theology was considered superior to the Bible, so they changed the Bible to fit their theology. As soon as man determined his mind could control the Bible, he also assumed Grace was based in the faith of man. Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781) argued the Scriptures served man as a guide primitive phrases of his religious endeavors, but now reason and duty were sufficient guides in the more advanced state of religion. His views lead to the “it has passed away” heresy, or “we have better manuscripts now, because we’re smarter” which means God had nothing to do with the prior manuscripts. The self turned loose shows why we bind the strongman, yet Jesus said the true Guide is still the Greater He (Spirit of Truth – Jn 16:13 & I Jn 4:1-4).

Materialism moved the Things from God’s side of the Covenant  to man’s side, thus it also moved Seek Ye The Kingdom Of God And His Righteousness to the other side of the Covenant as well. Parts of the Law of Moses were introduced to obtain by, rather than allowing God to operate on His side of the Covenant. Man feared God’s ability to provide. These elements brought on Evolution with the thought of man being supreme, or as man being the product of a “just so happened” element. These elements also became involved in deism, thus by 1789 the influence of the Great Awakening was largely dissipated by deism. It didn’t stop God, while deism was removing some seeds, the Holy Ghost was going about planting more. In 1787 a Revival started at Hampden-Sidney in a little college in Virginia. This revival wasn’t started by great theologians, or critical Bible scholars, it began when three students who were concerned about their spiritual condition, as they were touched by the Holy Ghost. From there the New England Congregational Revival started with the leadership of Timothy Dwight (1752-1817). Nearly one-third of the students in various colleges reported conversions as a result of these revivals. Revival moved to the frontier with camp meetings, such as the Red River Revival.

James McGready (1758-1817) had a dynamic camp meeting at Cane Ridge in 1801. This meeting was “marked by strange physical phenomena”; some fell backward under the Power, some laughed uncontrollably, some jerked, some rolled on the ground, some danced, some barked like dogs, some received Joy, some had devils cast out, some danced in the Spirit, but nonetheless they received. The Frontier Revivalism was marked with many signs; however, along with Signs and Wonders from heaven, would come the signs of the carnal on earth. Division took place, the carnal wanted to remain carnal, the spiritual wanted to move on with God. The Cloud moved and the carnal didn’t have their bags packed.

Revivalism didn’t end with the Second Awakening; Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) became a revivalist in his campaigns of 1830-1831 at Rochester, New York. A lay interdenominational prayer based revival in 1857 and 1858 grew out of a noonday prayer meeting on Fulton Street in New York city when the Holy Ghost touched Jeremiah Lanphier resulting in meetings of 10,000 within six months (1857). The meetings didn’t stop at 10,000 but grew to crowds estimated between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people. Dwight L. Moody was another evangelist: although he was never ordained, it didn’t stop him from being used of God to bring converts into established bodies. He didn’t use churches, but public halls; he helped organize the Chicago Evangelization Society in 1886,  those converted joined local bodies. From Moody’s form of evangelism came Reuben A. Torrey, Gypsy Smith, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. The mixture of church buildings and public halls was also used by other evangelists who taught Faith. From the early movements of Grace, came the Agape Movement, the Faith Movement, and others.

Billy Sunday, whose real name was William Ashley Sunday (1863-1935), known as an American Fundamentalist Preacher”, which is a misnomer as it relates to him. Accordingly today we call a Fundamentalist someone who stays with the roots, to them a Rock is a Rock; Billy Sunday preached what the Bible said, if it made him a Fundamentalist, so be it. By definition a Fundamentalist, would be one who is associated with the organized, militant Evangelical movement beginning in 1920, which is directly opposed to Liberalism and Secularism. Except for the militant part it fits a majority of the Body of Christ. However, a carnal Fundamentalist refuses the concept of metaphors in the Bible, denies Parables based on truths, or the Holy Ghost manifests, or there are mysteries in the Bible. A Liberal is a new term, like Conservative which are really political terms. Nonetheless Liberalism means Not Limited, which sounds good, except it can broaden itself to include the ungodly as Godly. The Godly form of Liberalism would be free of dogma, while being in favor of Holy Ghost reform, yet limited to the confines of the Godly. Back to Billy Sunday, who played professional baseball from 1883 until 1891, when he began working for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Chicago. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1903, seven years after he had been called and operated as an evangelist. He was used in nearly 300 revivals all over the United States, it’s said some attracted nearly 100 million people, most of which came into the Kingdom; all done before broadcasting. Billy Sunday was one of the many who took Faith to the people; however, when the truth of Faith surfaced, the opposite would also come;

Neoorthodoxy is the theology of crisis, or existential theology. Before the Cross Peter could fit in this group with “Somebody do something, we’re all going to die”. There was a near truth in Neoorthodoxy, the idea of God confronting man in crisis. God doesn’t confront us in crisis to hurt us, destroy us, or punish us, He uses events to bring exposure and correction unto perfection. God is fully able to take any event and bring good for those who love Him, and those called according to His purpose. Neoorthodoxy takes a different view, they think God is out to get us, rather than God desires to bless us. A close second  almost seems the opposite to Neoorthodoxy is the thought “If I don’t like it, it isn’t God” theology. Faith moves us through or around the event, it doesn’t make the event go away. Simply because the event doesn’t please us, doesn’t mean God isn’t involved. Some will even say, “Well I will bless God through it, but not for it”. If we don’t thank Him for “All things” we’re out of the will of the Lord (Eph 5:17-20).

Of course the obvious would take place, the truth of not dealing with the old man before entering the Office was evident in some, even in the 1800’s. A man by the name of John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907), a British religious leader who was born and educated in Edinburgh, was ordained to the Congregationalist ministry, then became pastor of a church in Alma, South Australia. There were some signs, but they were due to the office, not the man. As it goes, at one of his meetings during a prayer many were healed, thus Dowie felt it was his prayers, later he moved to Melbourne and founded the Divine Healing Association of Australia and New Zealand. Then in 1888 he went to the United States, where he attracted many followers, then in 1896 organized the Christian Catholic church in Zion. We know about the Mormons as they claim Zion on the earth, Dowie felt the same, like the Mormons he was mislead. Dowie also proclaimed himself “Elijah the Restorer”, meaning he felt he was Elijah who would return before the day of the Lord (1901). The lust to be more than the rest of the Body, the special of the special is the downfall of the novice left to their own (I Tim 3:6). Dowie used money donated by his followers to buy land in Illinois north of Chicago. Here he founded Zion City, later renamed Zion, where he ruled his flock like a dictator. In 1903 Dowie was ridiculed in New York City when he led his hosts there to reform the city, later in London he attempted the same, and was attacked by a mob. In 1906 the people of Zion City deposed him, charging him with fraud, tyranny, and polygamy. The polygamy is another sign of the flesh overrunning the persons religious morality.

Liberation theology is a spin off from crisis theology, it uses religion to promote social change, but without the Spirit to bring change to the person. Other groups such as Premillennialists, and Dispensational Premillennialists surfaced, who were often called Fundamentalists. Instead of Christ on the earth by the Power of His Christ, they decided Jesus had to come down to fix all things. Instead of being ready to be Partakers in the First Resurrection, they reached back to the same false concepts which disrupted the early church, they took the words of the prophets of Old, the words of Jesus regarding the Second Advent saying they were all wrong. They formed an end times thinking to appease the masses, but false in concept.

Nonetheless the Good Fish were many, so many it’s hard to list them. Some who had experiences displaying God is real, included John G. Lake. Lake’s ministry had many recorded healings, then he received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, dispelling any thought of the baptism with the Holy Ghost had to come before the acts of Mercy. The miracles weren’t restricted to male preaches alone. Kathryn Kuhlman (1907-1976) was ordained a Baptist minister, she had many healings in her ministry. She often said, she would rather be a doctor or lawyer, but God called her,  she answered. Kathryn also said, I have neither hope nor expectation of convincing a skeptic of miracles. She noted how our heart was the center of her belief, thus if one wanted to believe, there was more than enough evidence to believe, but if one didn’t want to believe, there would never be enough evidence. Kathryn had a contrasting view to Spurgeon’s; as Spurgeon was convinced of God’s love for him, Kathryn was more convinced of her love for God. Her stand on Balance was, “Any Truth, no matter how valid, if emphasized to the exclusion of other truths of equal importance, is practical error”. Several ministries came from the shadow of Kathryn Kuhlman, yet in some regards we also find the example of ignorant mentor worship. When Kathryn died, there was an empty void for those who looked at God through her. Although she pointed to God, there were those who pointed to her, to get to God. Nonetheless, restoration is a beneficial product of the Holy Ghost, those who entered mentor worship were soon restored based on their love for God. The Holy Ghost moved them into a position to be used of God, but the time between her death and their discovery of God was very lonely. Respect for the men and women of God is gain, worship of those same people places us in a valley of despair.

There were others like Maria Woodworth/Etter, Watchman Nee, Aimee Semple McPherson, Smith Wigglesworth, A.A. Allen, and many others, all “no bodies” until God touched them. Watchman Nee had an insight to the soul of man, as well as the danger of man receiving the Cross, but failing to enter the saving of the soul.

A.A. Allen was perhaps one of the most controversial, he like Kathryn Kuhlman was criticized for what some considered sensationalism. Allen was denounced for his personal habits, the media attacked him on a constant basis, denominational leaders banished him, while ordering their congregations to stay away from him. Nonetheless, like God using Luther, and others we can see the test at work during this time. Do we judge God by the people He uses? Or the signs proving God is using people? Some consider Allen to one of the most active revivalists to emerge, the healings and signs produced from his preaching became the most conclusive evidence, the people were always seen giving God the glory, rather than giving Allen the glory.

Aimee McPherson was converted through the ministry of Robert J. Semple, a Pentecostal evangelist whom she later married, and had a daughter by, but Robert died in 1908 during a missionary trip to China. Her second marriage to Harold McPherson brought her a son, but it also brought a divorce. American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was born near Ingersoll Ontario in Canada on October 9, 1890, she died on September 27, 1944; however, before her death she founded the International church of the Foursquare Gospel.

After Robert’s death she returned to the United States with her infant daughter, where she married Harold McPherson, a grocery salesman from Rhode Island, she again began to hold revivals. She retained the name of her first husband (Semple), then added the McPherson, giving us Aimee Semple McPherson. She also became known as “Sister Aimee”, yet as her following grew, her marriage began to fail, in order to safe the marriage she settled in Los Angeles in 1918, but soon her marriage to Harold ended in divorce. In 1918 Aimee established a headquarters in Los Angeles, she spent the next 5 years on the revival road. Her dream of having a more permanent Foursquare movement based on her understanding of the four roles of Jesus Christ, 1) as Savior, 2) the Baptizer, 3) the Healer, and 4) the soon coming King. The dream became a reality in 1923 when she opened the famed Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, California. The Temple is a 5,300 seat auditorium, with a raised stage area, as of the year 2000 it was still standing in Los Angeles. She subsequently founded a radio station, a Bible college, an evangelistic association, an International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (1927). Although she continued to focus on God, it seemed scandal repeatedly touched her personal life. The most notably was in 1926 when she disappeared for a month, reappeared, where she said she had been kidnapped, but there was never any evidence to support her assertion. When she died in 1944 from an accidental overdose of barbiturates, leadership of her church passed to her son, Rolf McPherson.

The Foursquare Movement was not the first Pentecostal Movement in the 1900’s. The Holiness Movement started in 1901, from the movement came Bethel College. Charles F. Parham was a product of the Holiness Movement as well. One convert, William J. Seymore came to Los Angeles in 1906 where he started the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission on Azusa Street, which became the starting place for the famed Azusa Street Revival.

Thomas Ball Barratt came to the United States from Oslo, Norway to gain funds for a larger church, but he found the baptism with the Holy Ghost, as he gained the Spirit at a Pentecostal meeting in New York in 1905. He started a local church based on the Holy Ghost, not bricks or stone. In 1907 an Anglican clergyman named Alexander A. Boddy visited Barratt, then returned to England with the baptism. Boddy printed a pamphlet entitled Pentecost For England, then invited Barratt for a meeting, revival hit England as the Lord continued to baptize people with the Holy Ghost. Although the primary goal was not to have more denominations or enter any form of denominationalism, denominational influence nonetheless happened. From the  Pentecostal Movement came the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God, the International Foursquare Gospel, the United Pentecostal Church International. Other Pentecostal groups also appeared, such as the New Order Of The Latter Rain, Wings Of Healing, the World Church, the Gospel Assemblies, the Full Gospel Fellowship Of Ministers And Churches International, along with the Pentecostal influence entering many denominations. Instead of a movement coming out of the Body, the movement moved into the Body; God was doing a New Thing, only this time He wasn’t opening up the earth to swallow people, He was opening the doors of the Kingdom to welcome them in. Revival is when God brings an awakening to the Body, so the Body can again do what its suppose to, cast the Net.

Smith Wigglesworth of England had a strange ministry, he would often strike people with his fist. At one meeting he hit a woman in the stomach, she fell and he told her to get back up. He then struck her again, a man came flying out of the audience to complain. When the woman stood, there was a big cancer on the floor next to her. When asked about striking people, Smith said, “I don’t hit people, I hit the devil, if they get in the way, I can’t help it”. This was the manner in which the Lord had Smith operate, but if we attempt to copy him without hearing from the Lord we act presumptuously and are in for a big fall. Wigglesworth was taught to read by his wife, who used only the Bible as her source. Wigglesworth would not allow newspapers, or other types of written material in his house, saying the only Truth was contained in the Bible. The truth of Peter’s comments about a wife winning her husband is found in the relationship of Wigglesworth and his wife. Once he was won to the Lord he centered his life on two things, Jesus and his wife, in that order. For a husband to love his wife as Christ loves the Church, it stands the husband must have the same love and character as Christ. For the wife to submit to the husband as her husband submits to Christ also takes the Spirit of Christ. This mystery is akin to Christ and the Church, Wigglesworth enjoyed a Christ filled ministry and marriage.

If History proves nothing else, it proves God takes people, cleans them, breaks them, then puts them into service. On the other side of the coin we find the self takes people, builds their pride and ego then sends them to stop the work of God. Yet, history shows the Body is still around, the Holy Ghost is still planting the Seed, Jesus is still Baptizing with the Holy Ghost, it’s real. We’ve seen how the bad fish operate, we know better than to follow in their destruction, we desire to be good and faithful servants, Spirit filled, Holy Ghost motivated, Mercy centered and Word based. It’s not impossible, it’s merely submitting to be used. Amen?

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By Rev. G. E. Newmyer – s.b.i. les18rev11/© 2003