The Protestant Reformation is traced to October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door of Wittenberg, Germany. He intended to enter into a scholarly debate with his fellow monks about church practice as compared to the teaching of Scripture. Unbeknownst to Luther, the 95 Theses were taken down, reprinted in German, and distributed widely. This began a widespread re-examination of church teaching in light of Scripture.
As part of the counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic church deployed teachers (Dominican friars) and others to push back against Protestant teaching. One prominent figure was Cardinal Robert Bellarmine. In his opinion one Protestand doctrine was more dangerous that anything else. Can you guess what it was?
As Protestants mark the Reformation this coming Sunday, i encourage you to read this short article by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson. In it he addresses Cardinal Bellarmine’s allegation about the greatest Protestant heresy. At the same time offers great comfort to the believer by summarizing Scripture on this disputed doctrine.
