How to Stay Above Deception Part 11

THE CHURCH REFORMATION

By Apostle Felix

I give you the name Peter, a stone. And this truth of who I am will be the bedrock foundation on which I will build my church—my legislative assembly, and the power of death will not be able to overpower it! Matthew 16: 18

You may wonder why talk about church history today. History helps us to appreciate who we are and be able to navigate the future intelligently. The Bible is historical and yet very relevant to today’s life. History teaches us the dos and don’ts. We can learn a lot from history and educate ourselves on things we should do and not do. Only a fool refuses to learn from history.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15: 4

In today’s devotion, we are going to continue looking at Pentecostalism, how it evolved and took world stage. After the reformation of 16th century led by Martin Luther, The Protestant Reformation movement taught justification by grace through faith only, scripture to be the sole authority for faith and life and the priesthood of all believers. However, Protestantism had its challenges of schisms as the movement grew and expanded. From the Protestant Reformation, there came four main denominations, namely:

1. The Lutheran church which was founded by Martin Luther in 1315. He maintained some Catholic practices such as infant baptism and liturgical worship.
2. The Anglican church was founded by Henry VIII in 1534, and combined Protestant and Catholic ideas. They emphasized worship over creeds and maintained the baptism of infants.
3. The Reformed church was founded John Calvin in 1536. Their theology mainly based on Zwingli and Calvin. The modern-day Baptists are largely influenced by the Calvinistic Theology.
4. The Anabaptist was founded by Conrad Grebel in 1525. The Anabaptist’s goal was to restore the New Testament Christianity. They believed only adults should be baptized and the Bible is only manual for church government. The movement was mission minded and emphasized simple worship, not liturgy kind of worship.

A liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. A liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembrance, supplication, or repentance. It forms a basis for establishing a relationship with God.