October 31 marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which was the greatest Christian movement since apostolic times.

The Reformation, a tremendous revival of biblical and New Testament theology, officially began in 1517 when Martin Luther challenged the Roman Church on the matter of indulgences. While Luther had no idea of the impact this would have on the German society and the world, the event changed the course of history.

Next to the introduction of Christianity, it definitely was the greatest event in history. It marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times. Starting from religion, it gave, directly or indirectly, a mighty impulse to every forward movement, and made Protestantism the chief propelling force in the history of modern civilisation.

The papacy was corrupt; monasticism and scholastic theology had declined; mysticism was on the upswing; there was a revival of the Greek and Roman classics; men with a spirit of inquiry and independence were discovering the New World; the printing press had been invented, and the Greek New Testament republished. The Renaissance was also a factor in that it challenged men to use their minds – but the Renaissance was purely secular, not religious. The Renaissance brought humanism but the Reformation brought true biblical Christianity to the foreground once again.

Some men have wrongly called the Protestant Reformation a revolution because much of the Reformation was political and economic. The main impulse and inspiration for it, though, was spiritual. It was negative and destructive towards error, positive and constructive towards truth; it was conservative as well as progressive; it built up new institutions in the place of those it pulled down; and for this reason and to this extent it has succeeded.

An engraving of Martin Luther by C.E. Wagstaff. When Luther challenged the Roman Church on the matter of indulgences in 1517 he had no idea of the impact this would have on the German society and the world. In fact, the event changed the course of history.

Roman Catholicism looks at the Reformation as the cause of an unnecessary schism. However, since the papacy was corrupt and unscriptural, and the doctrine of Rome so far removed from biblical moorings, the Reformation had to raise its voice against the See of Rome. It had to rise against the authority of the Church and of churchmen in religious matters, and their assertion of the exclusive authority of the Bible, and fight for the right of all men to examine and interpret it for themselves. First and foremost, as the theology of the Reformation crystallised, its main tenet was the supreme authority of the Holy Bible in all matters of faith and conduct, a principle known as sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone), with its corollary tota Scriptura (all of Scripture). The Reformers believed that God had made a revelation in written form to men in the Bible. They taught that the Bible was inspired by God, infallible and therefore the highest authority, by which all other authorities are to be examined and judged. It took precedence over the declarations of popes, Church tradition and Church councils, which had often contradicted each other.

They asserted that men, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, are to study the Bible to learn about God, human sin and deliverance from it by the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ. They believed, and rightly so, that the Bible is basically understandable in its main message of salvation.

They encouraged Christians to read and study their Bibles in a scholarly way so as to form a theology based on the authority of the Scriptures alone. The Bible, hitherto written in Latin and read only by the clergy, was translated anew into the vernacular tongues of Europe and made a book of the people. This, by itself, was a monumental achievement.

Many who talk lightly and glibly about ‘liberty’ neither know nor realise that they owe their liberty to this momentous event

Salvation is located not in the Church, an organisation, but in the person of Jesus Christ. He actually secured and procured the salvation of all his people, without the mediation of priests. The principle became known as solo Christo, by Christ alone.

The Reformers believed that salvation was caused totally by God’s grace, from beginning to end. Man is not saved by works but by God’s grace in Christ. No man deserves salvation, and if he is saved it is because of God’s unconditional grace. To that end they spoke much of sola gratia, by grace alone.

Faith alone is consistent with God’s grace in calling to salvation. Thus the Reformers taught that salvation was appropriated sola fide, by faith alone, not by faith and good works and sacraments. As expressed later in the Westminster Larger Catechism, “Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which He forgives all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons as righteous in His sight, not because of anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only because of the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, imputed by God to them, and received by faith alone.” For Martin Luther and the other Reformers, this was the doctrine by which a church stands or falls.

Even a person’s faith is a gift from God. Good works could not save, but only Christ can save those who believe in him. Every and any person who trusts the Saviour will be saved, and may be sure of his eternal salvation. The Reformers also emphasised that though we are saved by faith alone, that faith is never alone in the believer’s life, but works through love, with grateful and humble obedience to God’s commandments.

The underlying, foundational doctrine of the Reformers was that God’s glory was the ultimate purpose of all things. Soli Deo gloria was their cry – unto God’s glory alone. They held tenaciously to the doctrines of God’s sovereignty in predestination and the efficacious call of God in salvation, and saw how these contributed ultimately to God’s glory rather than to man’s or to the Church’s. The Reformers taught the utter necessity of a new birth, wrought in man by the Holy Spirit.

The Reformers also believed and taught that Roman Catholicism was heretical and apostate. Roman Catholicism was a religion of works but Protestantism was the true Christian religion based on God’s grace appropriated by faith. The Reformers were not tolerant of Rome, for they sincerely believed that Rome was holding souls in bondage with no hope of salvation. The Reformers would not go so far as to say that there were no Christians in the Roman Church, but they distinguished between saved people in the Roman Church, and the Roman Church as an unbiblical and corrupt system.

The Reformation laid down once and for all the right and obligation of the individual conscience, and the right to follow the dictates of that individual conscience. Many who talk lightly and glibly about ‘liberty’ neither know nor realise that they owe their liberty to this momentous event.

Sadly, the Reformation did not reach our country. But the Holy Bible is easily available nowadays. That was the starting point of the Reformation and it could also lead to a new beginning to many Maltese people even to­day, as they come to know the un­searchable riches that are in Christ Jesus.

Paul Mizzi is pastor of Trinity Evangelical Church, Msida.