It Is Written

500

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Series Code: IIW

01:29 ♪[Theme music]
01:40 ♪[Theme music]
01:49 >>John: This is It Is Written. I'm John Bradshaw.
01:52 Welcome to "500."
01:54 ♪[Music]
02:04 ♪[Music]
02:11 Five hundred years ago the world was a very different place.
02:16 There weren't any cars, or airplanes.
02:19 No trains.
02:19 No buses.
02:20 No computers.
02:22 There was no radio,
02:22 no television,
02:23 no internet.
02:25 There was no plastic,
02:26 no cardboard,
02:28 no United States.
02:29 There was no Taj Mahal.
02:31 There was no junk food,
02:32 no x-rays,
02:33 no antibiotics,
02:34 no vaccines.
02:35 There was no anesthetic.
02:37 Smoking was virtually unknown.
02:39 No GMOs,
02:40 no cameras, no newspapers...
02:42 It was a different world.
02:45 Now think about this.
02:47 There was no Baptist Church 500 years ago.
02:49 No Pentecostal Church.
02:52 There were no Presbyterians, no Methodists,
02:54 no Seventh-day Adventists,
02:55 no Church of England (or Episcopal Church).
02:57 In fact, there was only one church.
03:02 Then, as now, it was led by a pope.
03:06 The popes 500 years ago were men like Leo X,
03:10 Adrian VI, Clement VII,
03:13 Paul III, Julius III, and Marcellus II.
03:17 And they weren't only leaders of the church,
03:21 but they were also immensely powerful political figures.
03:25 Or to put it another way,
03:27 500 years ago there was no religious freedom.
03:31 You could attend church, listen to the priest,
03:33 maybe hear the organ music,
03:35 but you couldn't believe what you wanted to believe.
03:38 And you definitely couldn't read a Bible.
03:41 You believed what the church told you to believe.
03:44 And if you dared to do otherwise, well,
03:47 life was difficult at best.
03:50 Now, down through the ages there were those who dissented,
03:53 but they existed in the shadows.
03:55 It was only a tiny minority that dared to stand up against
03:59 the might of the church.
04:00 ♪[Music]
04:06 Five hundred years ago it was tough
04:08 if you didn't agree with the church.
04:10 If you wanted to believe what you believed,
04:13 you either had to be very secretive about it,
04:16 or run the risk of being uncovered,
04:18 persecuted,
04:20 and more than likely killed.
04:22 If you value religious freedom today,
04:24 the freedom to belong to the church you want
04:28 and to believe what you believe,
04:29 or even the freedom to belong to no church
04:32 and believe there is no God,
04:34 then consider that a few centuries ago
04:37 that freedom didn't exist.
04:43 But all that would change.
04:45 In 1517, on October the 31st,
04:48 a priest in a small town in Germany
04:52 changed western civilization,
04:55 and risked his life by defying the power of the ruling church.
05:00 His contribution to history was so immense that
05:03 Time Magazine ranked him fourth on the list of the Greatest Men
05:07 of the Millennium.
05:09 Looking at those ranked above him,
05:11 it's easy to think he should have been ranked number one.
05:16 Five hundred years ago,
05:18 the Protestant Reformation began when a young priest
05:22 turned academic by the name of Dr. Martin Luther
05:26 nailed a list of protests to the door of this church
05:29 in Wittenberg, Germany.
05:31 When he did so, he didn't realize
05:32 he was about to set history on fire.
05:35 He had no intention of starting a new church.
05:38 All Martin Luther wanted to see was his church
05:41 come closer to the Bible.
05:43 He was calling for reform.
05:48 Bound up in the genesis of the Protestant Reformation,
05:51 several very important questions.
05:53 To begin with,
05:54 how important is it that a person have that right
05:59 to determine for himself or herself what to believe?
06:04 Five hundred years ago,
06:05 you believed what the church told you to believe.
06:08 Beyond that, you didn't have much of anything.
06:10 How important is it that you choose for yourself
06:13 what you think and what you believe?
06:16 Second, when it comes to what you believe,
06:19 think about that question that Pilate asked Jesus
06:22 the night before Jesus was crucified.
06:24 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
06:29 Today you'll hear that people have their truth.
06:31 I have my truth.
06:33 You have your truth.
06:34 What is truth?
06:36 And how do you decide?
06:38 Is truth subject to a vote?
06:41 Should there be a, a court of ideas?
06:44 How do you decide?
06:46 Is there a standard by which ideas or truths
06:51 can be objectively judged?
06:55 And what's truth worth?
06:57 What is the freedom to believe actually worth?
07:02 How far do you press this?
07:04 When is it worth being a troubler of the people?
07:08 And is there ever a time that the freedom to believe your own
07:13 ideas is something that's actually worth dying for?
07:18 ♪[Music]
07:22 Now, when you think of a person's
07:24 deeply held personal beliefs,
07:27 you could dismiss that as just ideas, theories.
07:31 But what we know is that a person's
07:33 deeply held personal beliefs provide the framework
07:37 for that person's entire life,
07:39 and they certainly form that person's faith.
07:44 In looking at the Protestant Reformation,
07:45 it's important that you go back and consider
07:47 the foundation of Christianity altogether.
07:52 Reform today typically means new ideas,
07:55 whether you're dealing with political, cultural,
07:57 social, or religious reform.
07:59 It's about finding something new, whatever's next.
08:03 But not the way God sees it.
08:05 As God looks at reform, typically He calls us back.
08:09 He calls us back to old ideas,
08:12 to things that he has established already.
08:17 Speaking for God, the prophet Jeremiah said this:
08:19 “Thus says the Lord, Stand in the ways and see,
08:23 and ask for the old paths,
08:25 where the good way is, and walk in it;
08:29 then you shall find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16).
08:34 The Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments,
08:37 form the basis of the early Christian church.
08:41 The Apostle Paul, writing to young Timothy said that
08:44 “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
08:47 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
08:51 and for instruction in righteousness.”
08:53 That's Second Timothy 3 and verse 16.
08:55 The consuming passion of the early Christians,
08:59 the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
09:02 for the salvation of humanity,
09:04 was said by Paul to rest upon the Scriptures:
09:07 “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:
09:12 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
09:16 And that He was buried,
09:17 and that He rose again the third day
09:20 according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3 and 4).
09:25 The New Testament teaching of justification by faith,
09:28 a central focus of the Protestant Reformation,
09:31 is also said by Paul to rest upon Scripture.
09:35 Listen to what he said in Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17:
09:39 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
09:43 for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone
09:47 who believes,
09:49 for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
09:53 For in it the righteousness of God
09:55 is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,
09:59 ‘The just shall live by faith'” (Romans 1:16 and 17).
10:05 What was clear to the founders of the Christian religion
10:09 is that the message they shared was the Word of the eternal God.
10:14 “When you received the word of God which you heard from us,
10:16 you welcomed it not as the word of men,
10:19 but as it is in truth, the word of God,
10:24 which also effectively works in you who believe”
10:27 (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
10:30 When certain individuals got it in their heads
10:32 that the church had to be reformed,
10:34 and when they chose to put their lives on the line
10:37 to see that it happened,
10:39 things were going to get exciting.
10:43 I'll be back with more in just a moment.
10:45 ♪[Music]
10:53 [Sound of wolves]
10:57 ♪[Music]
11:05 [Camera equipment rattling]
11:07 [Rustling in grass]
11:11 [People talking]
11:12 [Wind Gusts]
11:18 ♪[Music]
11:28 ♪[Music]
11:36 [Cheering]
11:47 ♪[Music]
12:01 >>John: This is It Is Written, I'm John Bradshaw.
12:04 Thanks for joining me for "500."
12:08 Now, think of some of the great reform movements of history.
12:11 The Civil Rights movement in the United States.
12:14 Lunch counter sit-ins.
12:15 Bus boycotts.
12:17 Protest marches.
12:19 Where would the United States be today
12:21 without those heroes who stood up boldly and demanded reform?
12:26 Many lost their lives.
12:29 Was it worth it?
12:31 The fall of European communism in the early 1990s.
12:35 Starting with Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement,
12:38 and desperate East Germans
12:40 who wanted to see the Berlin Wall come down,
12:43 and Czechs who protested in Wenceslas Square.
12:48 Was that worth it?
12:50 The Boston Tea Party in 1773.
12:53 Of course the list goes on.
12:55 Sometimes protest is absolutely essential.
13:00 A protest about taxation without representation?
13:03 Yeah, that's important.
13:04 Your country is occupied?
13:06 Well, that's important too.
13:07 You don't like your system of government;
13:10 you feel like you're being oppressed.
13:12 Well, most of us can only imagine.
13:15 But the Protestant Reformation was
13:17 on an altogether different level.
13:19 ♪[Music]
13:25 Christianity began with people such as Peter and James
13:28 and John and Paul and Silas and Timothy,
13:31 carrying forward the message of the gospel.
13:34 But after a few centuries,
13:35 that message began to get clouded.
13:39 When the Roman Empire officially accepted Christianity
13:41 and called off its persecution of the church,
13:44 faith in Jesus became popular.
13:47 Unfortunately, it also became corrupt.
13:51 Jesus had warned His disciples,
13:53 saying to them in Luke 6 and verse 26,
13:55 “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.”
14:00 Instead of the Bible deciding what Christians should believe,
14:03 church councils and bishops,
14:05 even Roman emperors like Constantine,
14:07 began making these decisions.
14:09 Now, of course, not all of those decisions were bad.
14:12 But more and more these human judgments
14:15 began subverting the authority of the Bible.
14:18 Church tradition began to hold veto power over Scripture.
14:23 Jesus's words regarding the Pharisees of His day
14:26 began to hold more and more relevance.
14:28 “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines
14:33 the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).
14:36 In the centuries that followed the so-called
14:38 conversion of Constantine,
14:41 this reliance on human ideas and human traditions
14:43 became more and more pronounced.
14:46 Those who wanted to follow the Bible
14:47 were forced to go underground.
14:50 ♪[Music]
14:54 The Vatican became more and more powerful,
14:56 effectively governing the lives and the souls
14:59 and the political institutions of Europe.
15:03 No pope was more powerful than Pope Innocent III,
15:06 who reigned from 1198 to 1216,
15:10 a period that's been referred to as the
15:11 “high noon” of the papacy.
15:14 A leading Protestant historian, J.A. Wylie, wrote that
15:17 “the noon of the papacy was the midnight of the world.”
15:22 Innocent III was able to compel the monarchs of Europe
15:25 to do his will.
15:27 At times he deposed those who would not.
15:30 ♪[Music]
15:34 One weapon that the church had in its arsenal
15:37 was something known as interdict.
15:39 A territory that was censured with an interdict
15:42 was made to believe that the priests
15:44 would not hear confession,
15:46 prayers would not be offered for the dead,
15:48 and the sacraments of the church would not be dispensed.
15:51 Now, for anybody who actually believed that the pope
15:54 held the keys to God's kingdom, this was absolutely terrifying.
15:59 They were effectively shut out from the grace of God.
16:03 Now this mindset that had existed for hundreds of years
16:06 and which greeted the Protestant reformers
16:09 at the beginning of the sixteenth century
16:11 ♪[Music]
16:12 John Wycliffe, the English scholar
16:14 who translated the Latin Bible into English in the 1300s,
16:18 is often called the “morning star of the Reformation.”
16:22 Wycliffe spoke against what he saw as the inaccuracies
16:26 of the state church.
16:27 Church leaders in Rome summoned him to stand trial,
16:31 intending to end his life.
16:33 He got sick and died before he could be tried,
16:35 but Wycliffe's work was done.
16:39 But such was the animosity of the church towards him
16:41 that his body was exhumed, and it was burned,
16:46 and his ashes were dumped in a river.
16:51 Wycliffe's teachings were carried forward
16:53 by a Bohemian priest named John Huss.
16:57 The church summoned Huss to a council in Constance, Germany,
17:01 and promised him protection.
17:03 Huss arrived in Constance and was arrested,
17:06 thrown into a horrible prison, sentenced to death,
17:10 and was then burned at the stake.
17:13 But as one historian wrote,
17:15 “The blood of the martyrs was seed.”
17:17 The persecution the Reformers suffered
17:20 only seemed to further their cause.
17:24 And the need for reform seemed obvious.
17:27 The luxury and the depravity indulged in by church leaders
17:30 was breathtaking.
17:32 It's no secret that there were popes
17:33 who fathered illegitimate children.
17:35 Church offices were bought and sold,
17:39 and the luxurious lifestyle of church leaders
17:41 was out of sync with the self-denial of Jesus.
17:44 Speaking of the corruption of that time,
17:46 one historian wrote that
17:48 “the advance of the Turks
17:49 since the fall of Constantinople in 1453
17:53 was generally considered to have been allowed by God
17:56 in punishment for the sins of the Church.”
18:00 The Christian church was certainly ready for a change.
18:04 But how would that change come about?
18:07 We'll find out in just a moment.
18:08 ♪[Music]
18:17 >>Announcer: In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says,
18:19 "It is written,
18:20 'Man shall not live by bead alone,
18:23 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
18:26 "Every Word" is a one-minute Bible-based daily devotional
18:30 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw,
18:32 and designed especially for busy people like you.
18:35 Look for "Every Word" on selected networks,
18:38 or watch it online every day on our website,
18:40 ItIsWritten.com.
18:42 Receive a daily spiritual boost.
18:44 Watch “Every Word.”
18:45 You'll be glad you did.
18:47 Here's a sample.
18:50 ♪[Music]
18:54 >>John: After he was arrested,
18:55 a New York man confessed to six burglaries,
18:59 in the borough of Queens.
19:00 He broke into churches and stole from them.
19:02 He said he did it because “I'm mad at God.
19:04 I don't like church anymore. I break in to get back at God.”
19:09 Get back at God?
19:10 After all God has done for you;
19:12 brought you into existence,
19:13 sustained you,
19:13 gave you opportunity,
19:14 and promised you everlasting life,
19:17 in a world where there's no sin,
19:18 disappointment, or broken dreams.
19:21 You can't get back at God.
19:23 If you want to get back at anyone that'll be the devil who
19:25 is responsible for every ounce of misery that has ever existed.
19:30 Jesus said in John 5 verse 40:
19:32 “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
19:35 If you want to right wrongs, come to faith in Christ.
19:39 Staying away from God only plays into the devil's hands.
19:43 I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written.
19:45 Let's live today by every word.
19:47 ♪[Music]
19:50 ♪[Music]
19:53 One hundred years after the death of Huss,
19:56 a young German priest by the name of Martin Luther
19:59 found himself in the city of Rome,
20:02 seeking to earn God's favor
20:04 by climbing on his knees up Pilate's Staircase.
20:09 The church claimed that Jesus Himself
20:11 had walked on that staircase,
20:13 and that it had been miraculously
20:15 transported from Jerusalem to Rome.
20:18 While performing this act, Luther seemed to hear a voice
20:22 as loud as thunder,
20:24 declaring in his ear the gospel truth articulated by
20:27 both testaments of the sacred Word:
20:30 “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17;
20:33 Habakkuk 2, verse 4).
20:37 So why was Luther walking up a staircase on his knees?
20:40 Because Luther believed that climbing those steps
20:45 would earn favor with God.
20:48 And why did Luther believe that?
20:50 Because that's what the church taught.
20:53 ♪[Music]
20:54 [Birds chirping]
20:57 The church taught that you could reduce your punishment for sin,
21:00 that you could lessen the “temporal effects of sin”
21:04 by doing things such as attending a certain church
21:07 on a certain day,
21:09 honoring the “blessed sacrament,”
21:10 praying the rosary,
21:12 or climbing the Scala Sancta,
21:15 Pilate's Staircase, on your knees.
21:18 In fact, the church still believes this.
21:21 Here's what the church says about indulgences.
21:25 "An indulgence is a remission before God
21:28 of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt
21:33 has already been forgiven,
21:35 which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains
21:39 under certain prescribed conditions
21:42 through the action of the Church which,
21:44 as the minister of redemption,
21:46 dispenses and applies with authority
21:49 the treasury of the satisfactions
21:51 of Christ and the saints.”
21:54 So you can understand why Luther felt he had to do something.
21:58 The church was teaching salvation by works.
22:02 In fact, indulgences were sold for money.
22:05 Money was raised for the building of St Peter's Basilica
22:09 through the selling of indulgences.
22:11 This was Luther's reality.
22:14 Of course he had to protest.
22:16 ♪[Music]
22:19 That moment at Pilate's Staircase proved to be
22:21 the turning point in Martin Luther's experience.
22:24 With that voice still ringing in his heart,
22:26 he sprang to his feet and fled from the place
22:30 in shame and horror.
22:31 ♪[Music]
22:32 Luther's zeal would spark a fire
22:35 that spread throughout Europe and beyond.
22:38 From John Calvin's Geneva to William Tyndale's England,
22:41 from France to Scandinavia and the Netherlands,
22:44 and then to Plymouth Rock on an unknown
22:47 and distant shore,
22:49 the message of supreme biblical authority,
22:51 justification through faith in Christ,
22:54 and a conscience set free from civil
22:56 and ecclesiastical control,
22:58 would inspire millions of hearts and alter the course
23:02 of human events.
23:03 [Birds singing]
23:09 Luther and others would also teach
23:10 the principle of "Sola Scriptura," the Bible alone.
23:15 The Reformers believed that any teaching should be subjected
23:18 to the ultimate authority: God's Word.
23:22 Now, 500 years later,
23:23 in much of Christianity,
23:25 we simply take that for granted.
23:27 But five hundred years ago?
23:29 No way.
23:30 That's not the way the church was run.
23:34 Now, of course, the Reformers were human,
23:37 and human beings are faulty.
23:39 Martin Luther certainly had his faults.
23:42 But we must keep in mind that the Reformers
23:44 came to the Bible a lot like an archaeologist
23:47 comes to an artifact.
23:49 It was new to them.
23:51 They had to wrestle with the Bible
23:52 and work some things out.
23:54 They didn't have the benefit of hundreds of years
23:56 of scholarship having gone before them.
23:58 Now the truth is,
23:59 we inherit a lot of what we believe by the people
24:03 who've gone before us and done the heavy lifting.
24:06 Which is fine, as long as what we receive from
24:10 those who have gone before us is true.
24:12 In all cases,
24:14 it's important that we go to the Bible and find out.
24:16 ♪[Music]
24:19 With the translation of the Bible by Luther
24:22 and Tyndale and others,
24:23 into German and English
24:25 and French and Polish and Czech,
24:28 and with the advent of the printing press,
24:30 the common people soon had access to God's Word.
24:34 And when the Bible was put in the hands of Bible students
24:37 hungry for Scripture,
24:39 the church and the world could never be the same again.
24:43 ♪[Music]
24:47 The church of Rome wasn't about to quietly tolerate an attack
24:50 on what they genuinely believed was their God-given right
24:54 to direct the minds and hearts of men and women,
24:57 to compel them in faith in God,
24:59 and to correct them when they fell into error.
25:03 The Counter-Reformation would see Rome fight back, forcefully,
25:08 creatively, and not always obviously.
25:11 ♪[Music]
25:12 So what does a church do when its authority is threatened,
25:16 along with its hold on the minds of the people
25:18 of the western world?
25:20 In Europe, there was a lot of bloodshed.
25:24 Protestants were burned at the stake.
25:26 Thousands died in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
25:29 in France in 1572.
25:31 And anything resembling toleration disappeared.
25:35 More than 200,000 fled France.
25:40 The first foreigners to reach what would become
25:42 the United States of America
25:44 were Protestants of English descent.
25:47 But even then there would be growing pains.
25:50 The Puritans of New England believed that religious freedom
25:53 applied to you only if you lived and believed
25:57 and worshipped as they did.
25:59 But then along came Roger Williams,
26:02 who introduced the concept of religious liberty for all.
26:06 And then the truth would go marching on.
26:10 Through men like Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich
26:13 and John Wesley and his brother Charles in England.
26:15 Through Philip Melanchthon and Thomas Cranmer
26:18 and Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley
26:20 and Theodore Beza and John Knox in Scotland
26:23 and Huss and Jerome
26:24 and William Farel and Roger Williams
26:27 and many others.
26:28 So when did the Reformation end?
26:31 Or has it ended?
26:33 Perhaps there's still a work to be done,
26:35 a work of reform,
26:37 a work of calling people to faithfulness to God
26:40 and to faith in the Word of God.
26:43 Throughout the rest of this series, 500,
26:46 you'll meet some of the great characters of the Reformation.
26:49 Your faith in God will grow,
26:52 and your personal experience with God
26:54 will be richly blessed.
26:56 ♪[Music]
27:03 >>John: The book of Revelation makes clear that Babylon
27:06 will be a major player on the prophetic scene
27:09 down in the close of time.
27:11 How do we understand that?
27:12 Well, that's why I'd like you to have this book.
27:14 I wrote it.
27:15 “Babylon Rising.”
27:17 To receive it, call us at 800-253-3000.
27:22 Or visit us online at www.itiswritten.com.
27:27 Or you can write to the address on your screen.
27:29 I'd like you to receive our free offer,
27:32 “Babylon Rising.”
27:33 And thanks for remembering that It Is Written
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28:00 and our web address is itiswritten.com.
28:05 >>John: Let's pray together now.
28:06 Our Father in heaven,
28:08 we thank You that You have preserved Your Word,
28:11 that we can possess the Bible not only in our hands,
28:15 but in our hearts.
28:17 And we thank You for Jesus,
28:19 the One the Bible calls the "Word made flesh."
28:23 As down through the ages You have guided Your truth,
28:27 guided Your Word and led Your people,
28:30 I pray that You would guide us now.
28:33 Friend, do you need to experience a reformation
28:36 in your heart?
28:38 Father, as we talk about the Reformation
28:40 from an historical perspective,
28:42 we recognize we must experience reformation in our lives.
28:45 So now we pray that You would take our hearts,
28:49 make them Yours.
28:50 Friend, now is an opportunity for you to yield to God.
28:52 Would you do that?
28:54 Our Father, we thank You,
28:56 as we continue to study in "500,"
28:59 we pray for Your blessing,
29:02 and we pray in Jesus's name,
29:05 Amen.
29:07 Thanks so much for joining me.
29:09 I'm looking forward to seeing you again next time.
29:11 Until then, remember:
29:12 "It is written,
29:14 'Man shall not live by bread alone,
29:16 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
29:21 ♪[Theme music]

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Revised 2018-10-16