I pondered to myself what the best place to begin was. I'm not sure I know, so I'll just start. My first thought on this was the question: Why the need for a restoration of the gospel? Perhaps prior to that is what is the gospel and what does it entail? The word gospel means good news. What is the good news? Primarily, that God the Father sent his son Jesus Christ to set us free from the bondage of sin and the condemnation accompanying it. It is also that we can now have the ability to return to live with Heavenly Father. Along with these, there is also the priesthood which is the power of God on earth. The priesthood carrying with it revelations, signs, wonders, healing, tongues, etc.
What happened to the gospel? After Jesus accomplished his earthly ministry and the work breaking the bonds of sin and death, he sent out his disciples (who became apostles) with the priesthood power given by the Holy Spirit to spread the good news throughout the world. It wasn't long after the death of the apostles that the church started to fall away from the truth and with it came the loss of the priesthood and of revelation. The teachings of men came into the church and eventually truth was decided by vote rather than by revelation through the Holy Spirit. I won't get into great detail of the history of the church, but it's decline can well be seen by the actions brought forth. Persecution of those who disagree, even to extremes of torture and extermination; popes, supposedly the voice of God on earth, steeped in corruption and sin, giving decrees based on expediency rather than revelation from God; the crusades; the inquisitions; and Martin Luther's favorite the selling of indulgences, which were basically permission to go out and sin as long as you contribute the right amount to the church; and much more. (Note: For those not familiar with Martin Luther, the selling of indulgences was one of his issues against the Catholic church and the one most cited.)
What about the reformation? It was led by men like Martin Luther, John Calvin and so forth who were perceptive enough to see lies in the doctrine of the church at that time and courageous enough to stand up for what they saw as truth. My question is, by whose authority did they make these stands? From God? or from man? You may decide for yourself. I personally believe from man. My reasons for that belief are as follows: 1. They came to different and sometimes completely contrary beliefs. God is a God of order and not confusion. If God had inspired all these men, they would have all known the same truth. 2. Also, they practiced the persecution of those who disagreed with their doctrine; taking from the sludge they were attempting to move away from, they persecuted through torture and sometimes extermination. This is the way of man and not of God. God is Love and the God of mercy and longsuffering. The result of the Reformation: Not only was the church fallen away from the truth, but it was splintered in many fragments, following the teachings of men. Well-meaning men perhaps, but men nevertheless.
How could the church return to the truth? Through God's intervention only.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I got your email and came to check this out. I like the idea of a blog where you can share your testimony. Who exactly is your audience? What are your plans for the future of this blog? Regarding your comment that the reformationists were not inspired of God, I'm not fully in agreement. I agree that they lacked the complete truth, but I think that God did inspire them to a certain extent and used them as tools to pave the way for Joseph Smith and the environment in which he lived which allowed the full restoration to come forth. Had God brought about the restoration without first preparing the way with the reformation, I believe it would not have suceeded. I look forward to reading your future entries.
I'm wanting to share my testimony with anyone willing to read it, but focusing on those who have a desire to know more truth of the gospel and find connection to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and those who would like to know and understand more about "Mormonism".
You might be right about the reformation being a step in the path toward the restoration. I've just personally wondered whether the reformation did more harm then good. That is definately an area where it is my opinion and not truth breaking through. :)
Answer for your second question: One of my failings is that I don't think very far into the future, so I'm not sure what my future plans will be for the blog. :)
I agree that harm did come from the reformation as well, but I have heard many general authorities comment on the reformation in conference and state how crucial it was that the reformation occur, specifically because it brought the Bible into the hands of the people, as opposed to the latin-speaking priests. I believe that despite the reformers' faults, this is a tremendous accomplishment. Here's an article I found on LDS.org about it.
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=024644f8f206c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=123485f10e6fb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=024644f8f206c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=123485f10e6fb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
The link got cut off - this is the full version.
Augghhhh - it got cut again! Search for reformation on LDS.org - you'll find a bunch of stuff if you're interested. :)
Thanks k and m. I'll take a look into it.
This seems an interesting debate: Were the Reformers inspired by God or not? Did good come out of the Reformation or not? I think in actuality those are two completely seperate issues.
The inspiration of the Reformers: I think the point that Kathy makes is very valid that the claim of the Reformers is questionable that they were led of God and that their doctrines are inspired by God when their behavior exhibited such horrible acts of violence and resulted in such discord.
Now to the fact that good things came out of those events is also true, but I'm not sure I would attribute that to a Divine inspiration of the Reformers. Rather that would be an act of Grace on God's part, as he always comes through on His promise that all things will work together for good for those who love the Lord. As He has done in the darkest times of human history, and He continues to do in each of our own individual walks with Him, God is always gracious enough to have good things sprout out of bad. In fact some of the best things of this world have come as a result of the worst of evils. Even Christ's death and His subsequent Resurection.
Good things coming from bad events is God's doing, the bad events are man's doing. Looking at my own life, I would even venture to say that the Reformers were probably moved by Godly and Righteous reasons to do what they did, but at some point along the way, God was left out of the picture, and the picture became man's doing. I've done the same thing on many occasions.
AJ - that was very well worded. I can agree with that.
There have been movements for restoration and movements for reformation. I don't think either have been completed.
I'm glad to see some discussion going on. :) Mona I agree that many men have started restorations,the one that God started is not even finished yet, but continueing in the direction He leads. The restoration of all things is yet to come.
What is the model that the church is being restored to? Luther and Calvin were reformers.
I think I would have to say that God restored the church back to what he intended and is leading and growing it as he intends.
For the purpose of spurring on discussion, and hopefully gaining greater insight, let me raise a question or two.
Based on your resent posting, Kathy, I would think the clearer answer to Mona’s question is that the church is being restored to the model that Joseph Smith put forward. I think the real question here is what makes Smith’s restoration different from Luther’s or Calvin’s reformation? How would we know that this model is the one that God intended verses models given by Luther, Calvin, the Wesley brothers, and many others? All these individuals claimed to serve God, claimed to be inspired by God, and believed themselves to be doing God’s work. How do we as observers decide which claim to be true? And let me push that further and ask, not as detached observers but as attendees or members of the organizations left behind by these men, what framework do we use to judge the other organizations by and how does that differ from the framework they use to judge us by? Remember that in all of this, none of us can truly make a 100% objective and detached analysis as we see through different lenses colored by the experiences we’ve had. Anyone have any thoughts?
It is a rather big question and an important one to find the answer to in my opinion, how do you know when something is really true?
To me, its clear that the Reformers were inspired by God but that doesn't mean they didn't mess things up along the way, as humans tend to do. Just look at the people of the Old Testament. How many times were they led by God to do something only to fumble and need God's help to get them out of the mess they drove themselves in? I think that's where the grace of God comes in. He inspires, we follow and fail, his grace saves the day.
Post a Comment