Today marks the 505th anniversary of The Protestant Reformation.
Most evangelicals today don’t know what “Protestant” means… with some even being led to view the label as sectarian.
It is not.
The term “Protestant” itself was a Roman Catholic slur that was eventually embraced by the group of church leaders/monks in their own ranks that incl. Luther, Calvin, Knox.
It was the hope of these reformers that they could rehabilitate the Roman Catholic church, however, as the political-cultural climate wouldn’t allow it… these men were forced out of the church and brutally persecuted by the Pope.
The histories following Martin Luther is one of bloodshed, war, printing presses, Bibles, and most importantly an explosion of a plurality of Lutheran, Swiss Reformed, Dutch Reformed, Scots-Presbyterian, and other evangelical churches.
Through one of Luther’s friends, Phillip Melanchthon, it is generally held that October 31st, 1517 was the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of his local church.
Today is the 505th year of this anniversary.
Let us sing the same refrain as these men… that the LORD is the true head of the Church, her bride, and that salvation is “by grace alone through faith alone.”
Let no man stand in that place of authority.
“He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” (Mark 12:27 ESV)
