500 years ago a Roman Catholic Monk nailed a document to the church in a small town in Germany. It contained 95 propositions for debate about what the Roman Catholic church taught and did. It caused a revolution in thinking. Instead of the Pope deciding what should or should not be believed, it led to people reading the Bible in their own language rather than their worship being in the unknown language of Latin. People turned back to the simplicity of worshipping God through Christ alone. Priests, penances, purgatory, and popes could not be found in the New Testament which describes the church. The result was tremendous persecution by the papacy, but the spiritual and social fruits of that moment in history cannot be overstated.
Five great teachings became the hallmark of this event. They were the teachings of the Bible itself from which Roman Catholicism had almost completely departed. The 500th anniversary of the event is October 31st 2017. The complete sentence is that salvation is by scripture alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone, to God’s glory alone. It is these five teachings that create the unbridgeable gap between saving faith and the religion that dominated the Dark Age.
- Scripture alone – Psalm 19, 2 Timothy 3:15-17 ¦ David Harding
- Faith Alone – John 3:1-21, Ephesians 2:1-10 ¦ David Harding
- Grace alone
- Christ alone
- God’s glory alone