Commemorating the Reformation after 500 Years: Just a Misunderstanding?

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Adventist Theological Society

Michael Hasel

Recent Developments in the Papal Counter-Reformation

Last year some of you will remember some of you were here.

We had a special symposium Around the same time in this hall on Revelation and we had several speakers Including dr.

Kenneth Matthews, myself, and a few others.

And I gave what I would consider the first part of this presentation last year.

It was an overview of what has been happening in the papacy in relation to the ecumenical movement in the last couple of years.

And I'm just going to briefly summarize, very briefly, I'd invite you to go to audio verse org if you want to see that presentation Because I'm not going to go over everything again But I thought what I would do here today as a continuation of that We've looked at history We've looked at Martin Luther.

We've also looked in this last presentation at the continuation of that Protestant reformatory movement within Protestantism in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And what I wanted to do is ask the question, so what?

Is the Catholic Church really the same today as it used to be?

And if it is different, why is all of this still matter?

And so that's kind of the topic of our whole conference has been the Protestant Reformation after 500 years, does it still matter?

Or actually, was it just a misunderstanding?

Many of you will remember this scene at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005 when 2000000000 people on this planet tuned in live to watch the ceremony.

It was the largest event in terms of people watching in the history of the planet.

We all looked perhaps a little bit in shock as we viewed scenes like this 1, especially as Seventh-day Adventists, wondering whether, in fact, what we read about was taking place, what we had learned about in prophecy and in the Bible was taking place.

And of course, as we look at the smiling face of the pontiff today, we see that there is a lot of at least perceived changes in the papacy as it relates today to what happened many, many years ago.

We kind of wonder whether Luther's designation as the Antichrist still fits today.

Somebody asked that question this morning already.

And so the question that we have before us today is, has the Catholic Church changed?

And I believe it has in the sense of its approach, but at its very core, at its very core with the very things that the Protestant Reformers were protesting against, has it really changed?

And that's what we're going to talk about today.

Revelation 13 was seen universally almost by the Reformers, and I invite you, if you would like to study this matter even further, to go through the 4 volumes of Leroy Froom's prophetic faith of our fathers and just to trace how far back these things go.

Sometimes we as Seventh-day Adventists have this misconception that we invented these ideas or that we somehow derived them out of the Scriptures, but the fact is that these ideas have been around for a very, very long time.

And in Revelation 13 we read, and I saw 1 of his heads, this is of the sea beast, and I saw 1 of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast.

And we see it happening with a new intensity and fervor.

But I would submit, as we've already learned this particular weekend, that there were 2 very key elements that made the Reformers stand out, and that were the basis for the Reformation, and the basis for our mission still today, and our message as a Seventh-day Adventist church.

The first of those was the principle of sola scriptura, the principle of the Bible and the Bible only.

We're gonna compare this with what the Catholic Church still teaches today, and we're going to compare this and its ramifications with the developments that have been taking place in recent times.

Sometimes when we go over history, we don't go through the Bible.

So what I've done here is kind of put this presentation together as a kind of dialectic, if you will, kind of a back and forth with what the Reformers said, with what the Catholic Church is saying today, and with what the Bible says, because ultimately that is our authority, right?

It's not just because the Reformers said it that we believe it, it's because the Bible said it, that we believe it.

And the Reformers based their Reformation on Scripture.

So this is the crucial element that we want to follow as we go on today.

Jesus, of course, in John chapter 1 verses 1 through 3, what does it say?

"'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'" So Jesus is the Word, but what does He say about the Word?

How does He relate to the Word in his own life, how does he demonstrate that scriptural authority even had authority over the Son of God?

Luke chapter 4 in his famous, and you can read about this also in Matthew and some of the other Gospels, right after his baptism, as Jesus is about to begin his public ministry on this earth.

He went out into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, and then the devil came and tempted him.

He tempted him in 3 ways, and how did Jesus respond?

Every single time he responded, it is written, man shall not live.

It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." It's a little plug in there for it is written as well.

But Matthew 5 verse 18, Jesus also says, "'Not 1 jot or tittle will pass of the law.' Every single, " and Dr.

Domstik just has mentioned this, why is it that we think there are so many errors in the Bible today?

Why do we have this concept when the early Reformers based their lives not only on the authority but the infallibility of Scripture.

John 5 verse 39, you search the Scriptures for in them you think You have eternal life, Jesus says, and these are they which testify to who?

John chapter 10, verse 35, Jesus says, Scripture cannot be broken.

In a world that is dominated, especially in scholarship, with historical criticism that divides up the Bible, deconstructs the Bible, we have Jesus saying, Scripture as a whole is the living Word of God.

John 17, 17, Jesus in this very famous prayer says to God the Father and prays to God the Father for His disciples, and if we are still His disciples today, Jesus is saying this prayer for us.

And finally, Jesus demonstrated even in his last moments on earth before the crucifixion as he hung dying on the cross, his last words were a verse quoted from scripture, from Psalm 22.

Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus throughout his life submitted himself not only to his Father and to his will, but he submitted himself to the word of God.

And this is what the reformers saw as so crucial to their message and to their mission.

They were liberated from the tyranny of Rome by discovering for the first time in their lives that the Word of God contained the way to salvation through Jesus Christ, not the church that tried to impose its power over these things.

Now how does that relate to what has happened today?

Vatican II was a seminal council that met, of course, in the 1960s.

This is taken from the documents of Vatican II, published in 1967, and notice what Vatican II states.

Even though Vatican II has changed, in some sense, the relationship between the church and Protestantism.

Pettibone says, was no longer viewed as heretical, but now as wayward brothers that have left the Mother Church.

And that is the way, by the way, that Pope Francis is still referring to this movement, this ecumenism today.

He is using the same language, but this is what Vatican II says, therefore both sacred tradition and sacred scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of devotion and reverence.

Now, that's fascinating because sacred Scripture, notice the word sacred, sacred is placed with Scripture as well as with tradition, number 1, but look at the order of these 2.

Tradition comes first, Scripture comes second, in this sentence.

And whenever we add an and to Scripture, Scripture and reason, Scripture and experience, Scripture and culture, Scripture and tradition.

What often happens with time is that what comes after the end takes precedence over Scripture.

And that is what has happened in the history of the Catholic Church as well, and they say it outright.

Pope Francis, in 2013, when speaking to the Pontifical Biblical commission, which is made up of scholars in the Catholic Church, said this, The interpretation of the Holy Scriptures cannot be only in an individual scientific effort, but must always confront itself with, be inserted within, and authenticated by the living tradition of the church." Notice, it must always confront itself with, be inserted within, and authenticated by the living tradition of the church.

This norm is essential to specify the correct relationship between exegesis and the magisterium of the church.

You see, Protestants believe that everything rests on Scripture alone, that everything derives from Scripture alone.

But in Catholic thinking, that is not the case.

In Catholic thinking, there are 3 legs upon which the church stands.

1 is sacred scripture, 1 is sacred tradition, and the other is the magisterium that decides how scripture and tradition should be understood by the church and by the believers who adhere to the church.

They claim that without this, without the magisterium, that chaos would exist and there has to be a magisterium to decide what the Bible teaches.

But that is not the way Protestants operated.

How does Jesus respond to this particular idea?

We're starting with the foundation of Scripture because if you have ever read through our fundamental beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist church, what is fundamental belief number 1?

The Bible, the authority of Scripture, that's number 1.

Because everything else that we believe derives from that.

Everything we know about Jesus Christ derives from Scripture.

Everything we know about the Godhead derives from Scripture.

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Recent Developments in the Papal Counter-Reformation

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