A
quick visit to history
Reformed churches began in the same time as the Lutheran
churches: in the sixteenth century in Europe. This is what
the Reformation was all about: men like John Calvin, Martin
Luther, John Knox, Martin Bucer, and many others
rediscovered the Bible as the only authority for the church
and Christian life.
During the Middle Ages the church had developed into an
institute led by the clergy, while the church members (the
laity) did not know the Bible. The church had substituted
its tradition and the authority of the Pope for the
authority of the Bible. It was the single organization that
could give you entrance to heaven. It did so by giving its
members grace through the sacraments, with the sacrament of
the Mass at the center. In the Mass, the sacrifice of Jesus
was (and still is) repeated and offered to God.
Jesus was no longer regarded as the only savior: the church
recommends its members to pray to Mary, the mother of
Jesus; it has elevated many people to sainthood and
believes that those saints have extra credit with God,
which believers can receive by praying to them. This helps
believers as a compensation for their sins. Furthermore,
good works were believed to help believers compensate for
the sins they committed. Basically, they thought they
received salvation by what they did, and Jesus was pushed
to the background.
There had been earlier reform movements in the Roman
Catholic church, led by John Wycliffe in England in the
14th century and John Hus in Bohemia (now the Czech
Republic) in the 15th century. John Hus was executed as a
heretic in 1415, but he prophesied that within 100 years
God would raise up a man whose calls for reform would not
suppressed.
When the Reformers began preaching what the Bible said they
met the same resistance and were branded heretics. The
church did not tolerate any aberration from the tradition.
Many Reformed believers were imprisoned and executed by the
Inquisition, a Roman Catholic committee for the
investigation of heretics. Because the church rejected the
'new' teaching the Reformers had to leave the Roman
Catholic church. They continued the church of Christ by
re-establishing it on the only solid foundation: the Word
of God alone.
Summarizing, we can say: the Reformed faith is not new but
means a return to the Bible as the only authority.
Continue: biblical