Is the protest over? Does protestantism still have a reason to exist?

<p>Is the protest over? Does protestantism still have a reason to exist?</p>

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Heritage Academy

Dee Casper

Why Protestantism Matters

God in heaven, I thank you for this privilege to have access to your word, to have religious liberty of some degree still in this country, and even to a large degree compared to many other places in the world.

I just pray that you would bless us with clarity this evening as we look at the history of Martin Luther and what that has to do with us and the current climate that we're living within.

So I just pray that your spirit would be among us and that you would do for these people what I cannot do and even more so than usual feeling my inadequacy.

What I'm going to be sharing with you regarding the history of Martin Luther is due largely to 2 projects that I think are phenomenal, and I'm so proud of my friends for being involved in this, because friends of mine are actually running this.

It's a documentary that just released yesterday.

From the evidence review, they have a new platform called ARTV.

They have an app, they have a website, they're overhauling the look of all of those things to have like an official release next month I believe.

But the first thing they've released is a documentary entitled 95 and it's hosted by Adam Randon from the North England Conference or South England Conference, I forget.

I recommend unreservedly to all of you to watch this.

I think your history class should be watching it, your Bible class should watch it, and you parents should watch it.

However it gets done, it's like 40 minutes, 46 minutes, I think.

95 is basically the history of Martin Luther and some relevancy to our current climate.

Super well done, filmed in a very high quality way edited in a high quality way Beautiful footage and great content.

Another project is called lineage journey lineage journey calm.

They have stuff on Facebook they're getting an average of about 14 to 15 thousand views for every video they post on Facebook.

And they've been releasing 1 video every week since the beginning of the year on church history.

So they started with Tyndale and other things.

They started at the beginning of the Reformation, then into Luther, and onward they just did the pilgrims like with Plymouth Rock and something else after that, and I forget what it was, but whatever it was, they did it, and it looked cool.

They're filming season 2 right now, and season two's going to be Adventist church history.

So they've been filming in the Northeast, they're in Michigan right now, they're gonna go to California, Australia, New Zealand, and just awesome, just a phenomenal project.

It's informative, it's beautiful to look at, and the videos are like 5 to 8 minutes.

Right, they're short and to the point, but really, really top quality.

So the history I'm giving you today is based largely upon these 2 projects because this is not an area of specialty for me, but I've studied church history, so I'm gonna borrow from this largely.

So don't think I'm super smart, I'm borrowing a lot of this.

Martin Luther, when he was attending college, found access to a Latin Bible in the library.

And when he began to read this, he could not believe the things that he was reading about the character of God, about the plan of salvation and so forth, and it was just blowing his mind.

Because the context of this is the Dark Ages, right?

Once the Apostle John dies in AD 90 to 100-ish, closer to 100, there's no more people who knew Jesus directly leading the church.

Soon after, there's no Jews leading the church.

And then there's just kind of this dissolving of integrity in the corporate church body.

New beliefs are adopted, other things take place that are not what John, Peter, James, and any of these guys believed.

There's councils making decisions, the day of worship is changed to Sunday instead of Saturday, and a whole lot of other things transpire, and now you go through just years of persecution by the church, killing people who don't agree with them.

Completely, not just, hey we don't like you, but imprisoning and killing people who don't view the Bible and religion as they do.

And this climate of hostility has not done good for the general public's view of God.

God seems like a monster, because even some of the theology that's being taught is like indulgences, where you can pay a priest money and get yourself out of in trouble for sin.

You commit sin, all you have to do is pay a priest money, and then you're not in trouble anymore.

It sounds stupid, and it really downplays the genuine cost of sin, and if this is the way God operates, this is just ridiculous.

Martin Luther's view of God is very gross.

You got to do a whole lot of works to get God to like you.

Just a dark area in earth's history, the Dark Ages.

But Luther was probably 1 of the strongest voices, if not the strongest voice, to really push this thing back.

And he wasn't the first messenger, but he was the strongest messenger we had to really get things going.

So through his own personal study of the Word and a personal decision, he saw that you can actually, through your own study of the Word, make a personal decision to be saved.

You don't have to pay anybody to do that.

And the picture of God's love for man and its beauty really opened his eyes.

He couldn't believe the things that he was learning and seeing.

Like, I can read the Bible for myself, it's okay, and I can find God for myself, I can be saved without needing to go through a priest.

Now you and I think, well that's obvious.

So his fervent desire to be free from sin led him to this monastic life, basically inflicting a lot of harm upon his own body, separating himself from society, doing whatever he can to kind of work off his deeds to make sure that he's right with God.

And he got to the point that if there was anybody who could be saved based upon what they did, it would be him.

Much like what Paul said in Philippians 2, right?

If there's anybody that could have been saved, it was me, right?

Of this stock of Israel, of this background, of this pedigree, I studied under these people, and of keeping the law blameless, right?

But 1 of the people who was teaching him, Johann von Stoppitz, the Vicar General of Luther's monastic order, helped to open his eyes.

He saw how miserable Luther was and how tenacious he was, and he realized that this kid needs the gospel and started to open his eyes to some different pictures of the gospel that really helped him.

He needed to see the power of God to transform the life, to be able to offer pardon freely, and to set him on the right road, and to recognize that this is found by faith in Christ, not in works.

So 1 of these people is actually mentoring him.

And based upon the recommendation of this same person, he began to teach in his old local university and was encouraged to preach.

He doesn't think that's 1 of his gifts, but he does and he has a tremendous gift at it.

He's persuasive, he's a great communicator, and this begins to get traction, really.

And once he starts preaching the things he's starting to learn, some church members of his begin to argue with some of the church leadership within the Catholic hierarchy.

And it starts to cause some problems, and so Luther is summoned, and he's going to Rome because he's been summoned to go there.

Now, in Luther's mind, Rome is like the gate of heaven, right?

As soon as I get to this place, this is gonna be paradise.

This is going to be the most amazing thing ever.

He even bows down to the ground and thanks God and kisses the ground the moment he gets there.

The problem is once he gets into Rome, what he sees is horrifying and heartbreaking.

People are swearing, they're making dirty jokes, they're laughing about things, they're blaspheming, and he can't believe what he's seeing.

Like, I just knew that this is the perfect place to go for my and all these people are losers.

Like, they're not living up to God's light.

And he doesn't know what to do with this.

And not only are they just living sinful lifestyles, but they're spending absurd amounts of money on themselves.

Right, On these buildings, how they eat, how they live.

Why Protestantism Matters

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