Martin Luther and Augustine: The Truth About the Protestant Reformation

[TitusTwoWife]

Was the Protestant Reformation a return to New Testament Christianity or something else?

Does God do everything in our salvation and we do nothing?

Really good video explaining the origin of a lot of false teachings like Calvinism, faith alone, eternal security etc, some of which I fell into in the past.

 

[David]

Really good video explaining the origin of a lot of false teachings like Calvinism, faith alone, eternal security etc, some of which I fell into in the past.

This video gets a number of things WRONG Biblically.

Original sin & total inability ARE taught explicitly in Scripture Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12-19; Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 3:9-18. It wasn't "invented" by Augustine in 412 AD. The early church was well aware that humanity is depraved.

Monergism (Only God can regenerate the dead sinner) is biblical. Ephesians 2: 1-9, John 6:44, 65, Philippians 2:12-13 make clear salvation is the work of God from beginning to end. To label this teaching “Gnostic” or “non-relational” is to turn a blind eye to the clear teaching of the New Testament.

Luther had a biblical breakthrough in Romans 1:17. Paul says that the righteousness of God is received by faith. It is a gift. That is the gospel. ( Romans 3:21-28; 4:5)

Lastly, the video leans very heavily on Ken Wilson's revisionist history. It doesn't change what the Bible teaches about election, depravity & grace. ( Romans 8-9; Ephesians 1)

The reformers recovered these vital NT truths that had been lost to the medieval church. This video won't return us to NT Christianity. It promotes a synergistic man-centered theology that the Bible explicitly rejects.

 

[David]

Was the Protestant Reformation a return to New Testament Christianity or something else?

The question isn’t what label to put on the Protestant Reformation. The real question is this: did what happened line up with Scripture or not?

When you open the New Testament, the standard is clear. The gospel is by grace through faith, not through works or religious systems. Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith… not of works, lest any man should boast.” The authority for truth is the Word of God. Jesus said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” And believers are warned not to add to or corrupt that message, as Galatians 1:8 says, “though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel… let him be accursed.”

By the time you get to the 1500s, much of what was being taught and practiced in parts of the visible church did not match that pattern. That is simply a fact when you compare it to Scripture. The Reformation was, at its core, an attempt to bring doctrine back under the authority of the Bible. Men like Martin Luther and William Tyndale pushed hard on two main issues: what is the gospel, and what is the final authority.

On those points, they moved closer to what the New Testament actually teaches. Salvation by grace through faith. Scripture as the final authority. The importance of people having access to the Word in their own language. In that sense, yes, it was a return toward New Testament truth.

But it was not a perfect restoration of New Testament Christianity. Scripture never tells us to build a new system or denomination. It calls people to repent, believe the gospel, and continue in the apostles’ doctrine, as Acts 2:42 says. The Reformation corrected major errors, but it still left behind divisions, state churches, and doctrines that do not always line up cleanly with the full counsel of Scripture.

So here is the straight answer. The Reformation was not the starting point of true Christianity. That began with Christ and His apostles. But it was a significant course correction, where people turned back toward the authority of Scripture after it had been buried under layers of human teaching, like men are still trying to do today.

The measuring line is not the Reformation. It is the Word of God. Anything that agrees with Scripture stands. Anything that does not needs to be rejected, no matter who taught it. As Acts 17:11 says, the Bereans were called noble because they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” That is still the standard today.

 

[David]

Does God do everything in our salvation and we do nothing?

We are not the Savior. But we are not spectators either. A lot of confusion comes in right here because people swing too far one way or the other. Some act like they helped God save them. Others talk like they just sat there and God saved them without any response at all. The Word of God doesn’t teach either one.

Salvation starts with God, period. You were not looking for Him. You were not fixing yourself. Scripture says in Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That means God moved first. Jesus did the work. The cross was not a team effort. When He said, “It is finished” in John 19:30, He meant the payment for sin was complete.

And we could not come on our own. Jesus made that plain in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” Left to yourself, you stay in your sin. The Spirit of God is the one who brings conviction, opens our eyes, and shows us our need.

But here is where people try to rewrite the Bible. God does not drag people into the kingdom while they remain unwilling. He calls them, and they must respond.

Acts 17:30 says, “God… commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” That is not a suggestion. That is a command from heaven. And Acts 16:31 says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” That is a direct call to respond.

So no, repentance and faith are not works that earn salvation. You are not paying God back. You are not adding to the cross. You are turning from sin and trusting in the One who already paid it all.

Jesus exposed the real issue in John 5:40 when He said, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” The problem is not that people lack information. The problem is the will. They do not want to come. That is why the gospel is both an invitation and a confrontation.

God does all the saving. Christ paid the full price. The Spirit draws, convicts, and opens the heart. Without God, nobody gets saved.

But we must repent. We must believe. We must come. Not halfway. Not later. Now.

Romans 10:9 puts it right in front of you, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

So no, we do not save ourselves. And no, we are not passive.

God provides salvation. We are responsible for the response.

And that response is the difference between life and death.

 

[TitusTwoWife]

Original sin & total inability ARE taught explicitly in Scripture Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12-19; Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 3:9-18. It wasn't "invented" by Augustine in 412 AD. The early church was well aware that humanity is depraved.

But do we not have free will to choose God? Are we able to respond to Him without Him doing it for us?