Expert: J.M.J. West - 4/24/2008

Question
what are the basic issues for the start of reformation?

Answer
This is a very big question!  I will do my best to answer.  Please note that I am Catholic and I firmly believe what I am saying is true, but I know that my Protestant brothers and sisters on here may beg to differ with me on some of these points.

The chief issues the spurred the Reformation were the abuses happening in the Church at the time (note: the word is ABUSES, not officially commissioned happenings), including the infamous selling of indulgences (though modern historical scholarship is beginning to exonerate Johannes Tetzel a bit, which is interesting).  The causes of these were viewed to be the general trusting in traditions as opposed to scripture.

The remedy was, they thought, to re-form the New Testament church the way they thought it was meant to be (though this, of course, depended upon the reformer).  They took as their rallying cry two main points:

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone as the authority for the believer)

Sola Fides (Faith Alone as the means to salvation)

A third point, "the Universal Priesthood of All Believers" (and the un-necessity of actual ministerial priests) is often added; but some of the Reformation Churches (Anglican, Lutheran) continued to have a position which at least functioned very similarly, so I often will include it as a sub-point.

So what of these two points above?  Do they stand or do they fall?

I'd say that they fail, and they shattered Christianity for the next 500 years, up through today, and paved the way for the confusion in the world.

Sola Scriptura cannot work for the following reasons:
-If all doctrines must be stated in scripture this one should be in there but it isn't.
-If all matters of authority for the believer are to be in scripture, the Canon of the Scriptures (i.e. what books belong) should be in there, but it's not (and interestingly the reformers, especially Luther, threw out books of the bible and to this day a "Protestant" bible has fewer books than a "Catholic" bible).
-Jesus very clearly established a church with a hierarchy, and called it "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim 3:15), built upon the foundation of the Apostles (Rev 21:14; Matt 10:1-3, Matt 18:18) with Peter as their head (Matt 16:16-18).

Sola Fide does not work either:
-"Faith Alone" is found only one time in the bible, in James 2, and it is CONDEMNED (cf James 2, especially v. 17).
-Martin Luther actually added the word "alone" to the bible in the book of Romans to make it say that we are saved by "Faith ALONE" whereas the text itself makes no such claim.
-Jesus clearly says that by our works we shall be judged.

As to the sub-point about the universal priesthood of all believers, the Catholic Church does not deny that all believers share in a form of universal priesthood, but that does not deny the fact that the New Testament clearly establishes a hierarchy: (Bishops [Gk; Episcopoi - cf. 1 Tim. 5:19–22; 2 Tim. 4:5; Titus 1:5], Priests [Gk. Presbuteroi - 1 Tim. 5:17; Jas. 5:14–15] and Deacons [Gk. Diakonoi - Acts 6:1–6] are all mentioned in scripture.

I deal with this and similar topics at my blog: http://gotjustice.wordpress.com/?s=scripture

Hopefully you found this helpful!

Pax Christi,

-J.M.J. West