A “CELEBRATION” OF REFORMATION MONTH (Santamaria)

We "celebrate" Reformation Month with the truth about these Reformers (perhaps an inconvenient truth).  These are facts that all knowledgeable historians know, but few talk about. - ed

Elder Gilbert Beebe, an Old School Baptist pastor and editor of the Signs of the Times, wrote in 1845 the following:

“We will commence with the confession of Helvetia, which teaches ‘That the magistracy ought to have the chief place in the world. His principal duty is to procure and maintain peace and public tranquility; to extirpate falsehood and all superstition, impiety, and idolatry, and shall defend the church of God; for indeed we teach that the care of religion doth chiefly appertain to the holy magistrate.’

“The Dutch confession declares that God ‘hath armed the magistrate with a sword to punish the bad and to defend the good. Furthermore, it is their duty not only to preserve the civil policy but also to endeavor that the ministry be preserved; that all idolatry and counterfeit worship be abolished,’ &c.

“The confession of Saxony teaches that ‘the word of God doth in general declare this concerning the magistrate; first, that God wills that the magistrates, without all doubt, should sound forth the force of the moral law among men, according to the ten commandments, or law, natural by laws forbidding idolatry and blasphemies,’ &c.; for well has it been said of old, ‘that the magistrate is a keeper of the law; i. e. of the first and second table, as concerning discipline and good order. This ought to be their special care (of kingdoms and their rulers,) to hear and embrace the true doctrine of the Son of God, and to cherish the churches, according to Psalm ii. and xxiv., and Isaiah xlix., and kings and queens shall be thy nurses, i. e. let commonwealths be nurses of the church, and to godly studies.’

These quotes were taken from the book pictured below.  This book was published one year before Beebe's article (1845):

“The French confession declares ‘that God hath delivered the sword into the magistrate’s hand, that no sins committed against both tables of God’s law, not only against the second but the first also may be suppressed.’

“The celebrated professor of theology, Turretin, thus explains the Geneva Confession: ‘Magistrates have the right to restrain contumacious and obstinate heretics, who cannot be cured of their errors, and who disturb the peace of the Church, and even to inflict upon them due punishment, since magistrates are keepers of both tables, and the care of religion pertains to them,’ &c.

“The Westminister Confession, chap. xx. art. 4, teaches that ‘The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; yet he has authority, and it is his duty to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God is kept true and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline be prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the better effecting whereof, he hath the power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever be transacted in them be according to the mind of God.

Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith. Yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord, without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest, in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or danger. And, as Jesus Christ hath appointed a regular government and discipline in his church, no law of any commonwealth should interfere with, let, or hinder, the due exercise thereof, among the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians, according to their own profession and belief. It is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the person and good name of all their people, in such an effectual manner as that no person be suffered, either upon pretense of religion or of infidelity, to offer any indignity, violence, abuse, or injury to any other person whatsoever: and to take order, that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held without molestation or disturbance.

CALVIN IS regarded as the founder of Presbyterianism, although few of that order retain at this day much more than his persecuting spirit, which is shown up in history in connection with acts of the most barbarous cruelty against those who refused to embrace his theory. After plundering Servetus of his property - confining him in a damp prison till “he was almost eaten up with vermin,” denying him an advocate, loading him with every indignity that barbarity could invent, and at last burning him at the stake, he wrote a work entitled “A faithful account of the errors of Michael Servetus, in which it is proved that heretics ought to be restrained with the sword.” In a letter to Marques de Poet, dated September 30th, 1561, he says, “Honor, glory, and riches shall be the reward of your pains; but above all, do not fail to rid the country of those zealous scoundrels who stir up the country to revolt against us. Such monsters should be exterminated, as I have exterminated Michael Servetus, the Spaniard.” (See Robinson’s Researches, p. 340.)

“John Knox, the reputed founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland, and who, according to Doctor Heylin, characterized the cold-blooded assassination of Beaton as a “godly act,” laid down these principles:

“Ye are bound to remove from honor, and punish with death, (if the crime so requires) such as deceive the people, or defraud of that food of their souls; I mean the lively word.” Knox’s History of Reform, p. 10.




“None provoking the people to idolatry ought to be exempted from the punishment of death. Page 21. “It is not only lawful to punish to the death such as labor to subvert the true religion; but the magistrates and the people are bound to do so, unless they would provoke the wrath of God against themselves.” Page 25.

Reformation Month Promotes "Unity" With The Catholic Church

Wikipedia reads: 

On 31 October 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,[10] regarding a resolution on some points of doctrinal disagreement between mainline Lutheran Churches and the Catholic Church[10] (See also Criticism of Protestantism). The World Methodist Council formally recognized the Declaration in 2006.[11][12]

In 2013, the Joint International Commission between representatives of the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church published a report entitled From Conflict to Communion, anticipating the Forthcoming Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017, which noted that "in 2017, Lutheran and Catholic Christians will commemorate together the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation".[13] The "common commemoration" was a year-long remembrance concluded on Reformation Day 2017.[14]. If any wish to see this ceremony that would have made Luther cringe here it is:

Zingli                                                  

Among the many "anabaptists" (no "ana") he had killed was Felix Manz:

On 7 March 1526, the Zürich council had passed an edict that made adult re-baptism punishable by drowning. On 5 January 1527, Felix Manz became the first casualty of the edict, and the first Swiss Anabaptist to be martyred at the hands of magisterial Protestants. While Manz stated that he wished "to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, obey the Word, and follow in His footsteps, to unite with these by baptism, and to purchase the rest in their present conviction", Zwingli and the council accused him of obstinately refusing "to recede from his error and caprice". At 3:00 p.m., as he was led from the Wellenburg to a boat, he praised God and preached to the people. A Reformed minister went along, seeking to silence him, and hoping to give him an opportunity to recant. Manz's brother and mother encouraged him to stand firm and suffer for Jesus' sake. He was taken by boat onto the River Limmat. His hands were bound and pulled behind his knees and a pole was placed between them. He was executed by drowning in Lake Zürich on the Limmat. His alleged last words were, "Into thy hands, O God, I commend my spirit." His property was confiscated by government of Zürich, and he was buried in the St. Jakobs cemetery. Manz's execution predates the Münster Rebellion which officially began in 1534.

https://archive.org/details/MartyrsMirror/page/n413/mode/2up

Luther

Anabaptism was made a capital crime. Prices were set on the heads of Anabaptists. To give them food and shelter was a made a crime. The Duke of Bavaria, in 1527, gave orders that the imprisoned Anabaptists should be burned at the stake — unless they recanted, in which case they should be beheaded. In Catholic countries the Anabaptists, as a rule, were executed by burning at the stake; in Lutheran and Zwinglian states, Anabaptists were generally executed by beheading or drowning.

Thousands sealed their faith with their blood. When all efforts to halt the movement proved vain, the authorities resorted to desperate measures. Armed executioners and mounted soldiers were sent in companies through the land to hunt down the Anabaptists and kill them on the spot without trial or sentence. The old method of pronouncing sentences on each individual dissenter proved inadequate to exterminate this faith.

In the first week of Lent, 1528, King Ferdinand of Austria commissioned a company of executioners to root out the Anabaptist faith in his lands. Those who were overtaken in the highways of fields were killed with the sword, others were dragged out of their houses and hanged on the door posts. Most of them had gone into hiding in the woods and mountains. In a forest near Lengbach seventeen were put to death.

In the province of Swabia, in South Germany, four hundred mounted soldiers were, in 1528, sent out to put to death all Anabaptists on whom they could lay hands. Somewhat later the number of soldiers so commissioned was increased to eight hundred, and then to one thousand.

Calvin                                                                  

We read the following:

John Calvin followed Augustine’s biblical justification for burning heretics. Augustine excused extreme measures through his interpretation of Jesus’ Great Banquet parable in Luke 14:16-24. When the master could not fill up his banquet in the parable, he commanded his servants in Luke 14:23 “to compel people to come so that my house will be filled.” Augustine and Calvin believed burning heretics would “compel” more people to enter their house of God. Interpreting “compulsion” as a license to kill without consideration for Jesus’ other teaching to “love your enemies” is a major hermeneutical error. Any part of Jesus’ teaching should be interpreted in light of the whole.

John Calvin argued:

Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics and blasphemers to death, knowingly and willingly incur their guilt. It is not human authority that speaks, it is God who speaks and prescribes a perpetual rule for His Church.

Samuel Rutherford and the Westminster "Divines"

We read a great article by "Glenn" about the supposedly wonderful Divines of that Assembly.  It is generally supposed that the Westminster Confession of Faith was in favor of liberty of conscience.  There is nothing further from the truth.  They all agreed (especially Samuel Rutherford) in the idea that the civil magistrate should suppress heretics (that's use Baptists).

Now, what was the view held by the Presbyterian members of Assembly as to the fair, logical, even necessary application of this common principle? That question is answered in a well-known book which I hold in my hand–well-known, I mean, by name; few of us, I suspect, have read it–Samuel Rutherford’s Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience. Rutherford, I need not remind the House, was himself a member of the Westminster Assembly, one of the Scottish Commissioners, and this treatise of his was published in 1649, two years after the Confession of Faith had been finally revised at Westminster, and approved by the General Assembly. Well, in this book Rutherford expressly claims the sanction of the Confession–of that fourth section of the twentieth Chapter–for the view he has been urging through hundreds of pages regarding liberty of conscience. ‘The Reverend Assembly of Divines,’ he says (p. 279), ‘give their sense of this pretended liberty to be against the will and mind of God in His Word. Their sense of this pretended liberty,’–a phrase taken from the Confession—‘who under pretence of Christian liberty’. Now what was this liberty that Rutherford condemned, and held the Confession to have condemned, as merely ‘pretended liberty’? I am sure that no one who has read his treatise will dispute the accuracy of the statement I make, when I say, that by ‘pretended liberty,’ Rutherford meant liberty to teach any thing contrary to the Confession in any particular, great or small; and further, liberty to form or belong to any Church but the one true Church of the nation. Any man in the kingdom might hold in his own mind what view he chose, so long as he kept his mind to him self; but no man was at liberty, or ought to be left at liberty, to utter in the hearing of others, or to disseminate by means of the press, any view opposed to the Confession. And so no man was at liberty, or ought to be left at liberty, to raise, or sacrifice at, rival altars, or even to absent himself from the ordinances of God as then set up in the land. Liberty to do any of these things was but ‘pretended liberty;’ and those claiming it and attempting to exercise it, were to be summarily dealt with, proceeded against by the censures of the Church, and by the power of the civil magistrate. [Emphasis added]

We finish with a quote from this wonderful book by 

Marshall writes: "The conclusion is irresistible. The Westminster Confession does teach persecuting principles in religion. It does so interpreted grammatically, as has been abundantly proved. It does so interpreted historically, as has also been abundantly proved. It does so interpreted by the personal writings of its compilers ; prominent among whom is Gillespie, supported by the whole General Assembly of 1647 j and these are confessedly by far the best exponents of the Confession s meaning."

What do you all say?  Shall Baptists celebrate Reformation Month?