How to Stay Above Deception Part 9

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

A.M. Renwick defines church history as “the spiritual side of the history of civilized people ever since our master’s coming. Renwick also suggests a fourfold of church history into missionary activity, church organization, doctrine and the effect on human life.” History is fundamental to understanding today and tomorrow’s world. A lost history is lost identity. In order for the church to find its identity, it needs to understand its history. We are faced with a church that is suffering from identity crisis. Anyone can just stand and attempt to define the church according to one’s understanding. The church has one identification, which is Christ.

In the past three devotions, I have made an effort to give a brief history of the church. If you have not read the past three devotions, please go back and read them. It may appear boring but is very essential to your understanding of what is happening in the church today and what could be the solution. We have witnessed the rise of falsehood and deception in the church, and that should provoke us to investigate the when and where the church missed it. It is not possible for falsehood to be thriving without any foundation. Falsehood has a foundation, and men and women masquerading as prophets and apostles are building on it.

We started looking at Martin Luther, the reformer. The founder and father of the Lutheran church. Martin Luther got disdained of the practices of the Roman Catholic church practices, especially regarding indulgences. In the Catholic teaching, an indulgence is what one receives upon performing an action. An individual must perform an act specified by a priest, such as a set of prayers or a performance of a specific good works in order to allow for the remission of the severe penances. Penance is any act, or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed. However, the indulgences were later used for fund raising for personal gain and financing various church projects.

Martin Luther was a Catholic priest and theologian, He later protested against the indulgences and the abuses in the church. He did not only protest but wrote Ninety-nine Theses to dispute the practice of selling indulgences. The reformation started with a strong, sound Biblical backing. He did extensive work of commentary of Galatians and the Psalms. He approached the church problem theologically. It was the theological that lead to the problems the church was facing. We need theological solutions to our church pending problems. The problems cannot be solved any other way, but theologically.