The Reformation and the Nature of the Church
Rev. Angus Stewart examines the Reformation's fundamental battle over ecclesiology, contrasting the Reformers' biblical understanding of the church against Rome's corrupted institutional definition centered on papal hierarchy. The article explains how Rome's false ecclesiology functioned as a mechanism of control and why internal reformation proved impossible, necessitating the break that produced the Protestant churches. This resource provides historical and theological context for understanding Reformed convictions about the nature of the church.
Rev. Angus Stewart It is not claiming too much to say that the great Reformation of the church included a battle over the very nature of the church of Christ itself!1 1) The Battle Against Rome The Reformers fought against the false definition of the church that was deeply entrenched in the corrupt medieval church in Western Europe. According to Rome, the church is (well-nigh exclusively) an institutional church, that hierarchical organization with the Pope as its visible head. Moreover, the...