Session 5
The Great Schism, the Protestant Reformation and the Church Today
In this brief lesson, we will cover a span of nearly a thousand years. Obviously much more study would be required to have a comprehensive understanding of church history but our purpose here is to highlight the main events which have led to the current state of Christianity in the world today.
First of all, though, we need to summarize the era of undivided Christendom and the Seven Ecumenical Councils. This period of church history produced among other things the following great treasures:
- The canonical Holy Scriptures or what is commonly called the Bible
- The holy canons including those which established the five patriarchal centers of the world, Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch
- The Creeds and the clear defining of such key doctrines as the Trinity and the Incarnation
- The Divine Liturgy (the established pattern of worship in the church)
- A rich treasure of patristic writings
- Monasticism
- Countless martyrs, confessors, and ascetics
In short, the period of the ecumenical councils fulfilled to a great degree the prayer which all Christians pray as taught by the Lord, “Thy kingdom come,. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
It is important to understand that the church of the ecumenical councils is the church of the New Testament, the church of the apostles, and the church which Jesus Christ established of which he said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
As the Nicene Creed states, this church is “ one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.”
What does this mean?
One
The Church cannot be divided since it is not a human institution but is, rather, the Body of Christ. Can Christ be divided? Of course not. The church is one in its theology, in its government and in its worship. The diversity we see in these areas in contemporary Christendom are definitely not different expressions of this one church. Rather they represent a failure to follow the ancient and accepted testimony of the historic church.
The church is totally united and one in what it believes, how it is governed and how it worships God.
Holy
The church is holy because of its union with Jesus Christ. The body is holy because the head is holy. Recent innovations in morality found in some present day “Christian” churches do not reflect the holiness which is the true quality of the Church. Acceptance of abortion, homosexuality, the rejection of the spiritual discipline of fasting, and a general disregard of the ancient canons of the church do not reflect diversity within the church. Rather they show a clear falling away and separation from the Church.
The church is holy in a mystical sense in that it is united to Christ who alone is without sin. The church is holy in a human and existential sense to the degree to which its members participate in the divine life of the Holy Trinity.
This holiness has been expressed continuously even to this day through the lives of the saints, those people who throughout history became in this life what we all shall be in the age to come. Their lives are characterized by miracles, heroic martyrdom, writings which reflect divine wisdom, and exemplary holy living. Volumes of books have been written detailing the miraculous lives of these holy people.
Catholic
The word catholic for many has a negative connotation because of its association with the Roman Catholic church. Most protestants never wonder about the meaning of the word itself, they simply see it as part of the name of a church which over the years has strayed from the ideals of New Testament Christianity.
Catholic means universal and complete, lacking in nothing. The church is catholic in that it is the same everywhere. The church everywhere holds to those truths which have been believed and agreed upon in council by all Christians, in every age, and in every place.
Catholic means also that each local expression of the church is complete and lacking in nothing. Through the designated priest or pastor who has been ordained by a bishop with apostolic succession, every grace necessary for the Chrisian life is available to all believers.
Apostolic
The church is apostolic in two ways: through apostolic succession, and through apostolic faith. Apostolic succession is a physical and historical connection to the apostles through the laying on of hands and ordination of bishops and priests. Apostolic faith is the true Christian faith as it was defined and upheld through the ecumenical councils and Holy Scripture.
It is like two sides of a coin. One would not attempt to redeem a silver dollar that was blank on one side, it would be obvious that it was not legitimate currency.
Likewise an authentic church must be apostolic in both ways. For example, the Roman Catholic Church has apostolic succession by tracing its series of Popes all the way back to the apostle Peter. But in many ways it has added to the faith doctrines which are foreign to the apostolic witness. This it no longer properly possesses the apostolic faith.
The Episcopal church in a round about way claims to have apostolic succession through its connection with the church of England but clearly it has departed from many aspects of the apostolic faith.
Many Pentecostal and full gospel types of church describe themselves as apostolic but in reality possess neither the apostolic faith nor apostolic succession. Most protestant churches do not have apostolic succession but adhere to the apostolic faith in varying degrees.
The Orthodox Church alone has preserved both sides of the coin unblemished down through the ages.
THE GREAT SCHISM
The Great Schism as it is commonly called took place in the year 1054AD when Cardinal Humbert placed a bull of excommunication on the altar of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Over the years the bishop of Rome had held a place of first among equals in the council of the bishops of the one holy catholic and apostolic church. In later centuries Rome began to assume more and more power until it eventually held the position that the bishop of Rome alone possessed apostolic succession and that he, the Pope, had supreme authority over the whole church. The other patriarchates rejected this innovation and considered the Roman church as having left the true church of Christ.
Therefore, the Great Schism is not a dividing of the church because as we have already stated, Christ cannot be divided nor can His church, which is His body be divided.
At the same time that Rome was pushing Papal authority they were also making another serious error by altering the wording of the ancient and universally accepted Nicene Creed.
To the phrase “We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father” they added the clause, “and the Son.” This addition commonly known as the filioque clause was also rejected by the eastern churches as an innovation and a misuse of papal authority.
Theologically the filioque clause upsets the balance and harmony of the Trinity by subjugating the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son. Furthermore, the unilateral adoption of the phrase violated the conciliar nature of the historic church.
These innovations and resulting separation from the true church led Roman Catholicism to many other heretical teachings down through the centuries. The abuse of authority, selling the forgiveness of sins through indulgences and pardons, and many other distortions of the faith eventually evoked protest and rebellion from within the Roman Catholic church.
The Protestant Reformation
In the year 1517 Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses and this event is marked as the birth of the Protestant Reformation. (A light reading of this document I assure you will send your head spinning).
Luther wrote his opinions in response to the Papal practice of selling the forgiveness of sins. In the middle ages the Roman church had gotten quite preoccupied with who is and who isn’t saved and how the authority of the pope and the priests could be used to effect this outcome. Indulgences were ways that people could make financial contributions to the church and thereby gain so many years off from time in purgatory.
Luther wanted to get back to the need for real repentance and back to an emphasis on the sufficiency of Christ to accomplish our salvation. Luther’s protest opened the flood gates to all varieties of protestant rebellion against the abuses of Rome. A hallmark of this upheaval in western Christendom is the phrase “sola scripture” which means “scripture alone”. The Holy Tradition possesses by the Orthodox Church of which we have been speaking for the last few weeks was rejected to varying degrees by the protestants and was replaced by full reliance on individual interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
This radical individualism is at the root of the thousand and thousands of divisions within western Christianity. In the protestant movement one pope was replaced by many popes. Every Christian became an authority unto himself. The failure of the protestant reformation occurred because, though they rightly rejected the innovations of Rome they could not escape the Roman Catholic framework and therefore were not exposed to Holy Orthodoxy.
If the protestant reformers would have been able to return to Holy Orthodoxy they would have discovered that pure and true apostolic faith which they so fervently desired but was hidden from them through years of alienation from the historic Orthodox patriarchates.
CONCLUSION
Time does not allow me to go into the history of all the branches of the protestant church.
I will conclude simply by stating that during the Great Schism, the falling away of the western church, the middle ages, the supposed enlightenment and the protestant reformation, the Holy Orthodox Church has continued and continues to this day to be the one holy catholic apostolic church which we profess in the Creeds, of which Christ said, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
For a much more comprehensive understanding of church history I highly recommend the book THE ORTHODOX CHURCH by Tomothy Ware.
Freely Ye Have Received Freely GiveTags: educational, history