Sunday, October 30, 2016

The Protestant Reformers Preached a False Gospel

Tomorrow is the 499th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation with the nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg. While Luther et al. were correct in rejecting much of Rome's later doctrines (e.g., Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice), they themselves perverted much of the Gospel.

To see some of the many problems with such theologies see, for example:


See also my various blog posts refuting, from both the Bible and early Christian literature, that sola scriptura, the formal doctrine of the Reformation, is a man-made tradition.

Terryl Givens hits the nail on the head with the following comment:

Contrary to popular Mormon narrative that sees the Reformation as paving the way for the LDS Restoration, Luther, Calvin, and others in fact shaped Reformation theology in a direction much further removed from the teachings of Smith would propound than Catholicism ever was. They did this by emphasising a God “without body, parts, or passions,” human depravity, the Bible as the only source of authority, and salvation by faith alone. (Terryl L. Givens, Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014], 326 n. 90)


The Protestant Reformers were promulgator of false gospels (Gal 1:6-9). I do hope Latter-day Saints will be more careful about their assessment of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others.