Victor R. Claveau, MJ
Luther and his contemporaries claimed they had been delegated by God to restore Primitive Christianity as Christ and the Apostles had taught it.
Let us examine the merits of this assumption.
What then did the Reformation accomplish? What primitive ideas, principles and practices did it restore to mankind in the sixteenth century?
In view of the brief citations from the writings of the Reformers in the preceding pages, the impartial reader would be compelled to admit it restored all the dominant ideas, hypotheses and effects of the pagan system of the Roman Empire. The fundamental principles of the pagan system were selfishness, love of power, riches, pomp, excitement, the pursuit of pleasure and a hatred and contempt for everything that stood in the way of one’s interests or passions. The pagan subjects of the Caesars delighted in disputes, conflicts and bloody civil wars. For the glory of their system and their national loyalty, they never hesitated to plunge the nations into fierce civil wars and kill millions of innocent people.
Contrast and compare the principles and results of both systems — of Luther’s Reformation and that of the pagan Roman Empire — and you will be compelled to admit Luther and his revolutionary imitators revived primitive paganism instead of primitive Christianity. Paganism was intolerant, arrogant, cruel, grasping, ostentatious, ambitious, warlike, greedy and worldly; the Protestant system exhibited the very same characteristics.
The religion and the priesthood of Jesus was ridiculed and attacked by the pagans of the first three hundred years of the Christian era. The Reformation revived, in all the original harshness, the same scorn, lies and persecutions against the same religion, the same Church and the same ecclesiastical body.
The cultured idolaters of the Augustan age were an enterprising, thrifty, prosperous and rich people; so, as a general rule, have been the advocates of Protestantism. In material prosperity, in the rich treasures and luxuries of earth, the pantheistic aristocrats of the first three centuries of the Christian era were far ahead of the humble followers and disciples of Christ; nor have the Protestant fatalists of the past almost five centuries lagged behind their primitive models.
The highly cultivated aristocrats of the golden age recognized no other authority in religion or morals than their own personal desires and opinions; neither did the followers of the Reformation.
Roman civilization, up until the invasion of the barbarians, was almost exclusively concerned with material prosperity, and morals were universally corrupt. Protestant civilization has developed in much the same direction.
The prominent idea of all the Reformers was the overthrow of the Catholic Church. To accomplish this, every evil passion was invoked, the truths of Christianity were set aside and warlike organizations were established. The question was not, “What is truth?” but “What does the Catholic Church teach and how can we undermine those teachings?” And all the power of the Reformers was arrayed against the Church.
This purely biased idea has dominated all the crusades of the Protestants down to the present time. Although the immediate result of the Reformation was the dividing of Christendom into innumerable sects, each hating the other, the hatred toward Catholicism was common to all. In the midst of their fiercest struggles, they could always pause for the moment and combine their forces to strike a blow against the ancient Church. On this one point — hatred of Catholicism — the sects have always been together.
Fruits of the Protestant Ideal
The Puritan immigrants laid the foundation for this nation, the United States of America, with a fierce antagonism of anything Catholic. That narrow-minded bigotry — expressed in blasphemy, ridicule, mudslinging and slander — has survived to this very day.
A few of the results of the system of religion as established by the Reformers in Germany have been presented. The same sad results invariably followed these doctrines wherever they have taken root. In Switzerland, France, Sweden, Denmark, Britain and in the United States, there has been a general decline in public morality and virtue. The scope of this work will not allow the detailed array of facts pertaining to this subject. A simple review of the histories of each nation will amply corroborate the assertion. And an examination of the daily news media will suffice to show the rampant decline of morality in the United States.
Atheistic materialism is not only condoned by the political leadership but is broadcast on network television, screened in Hollywood movies and is created on Madison Avenue.
The majority of our current political leadership, duly elected by the will of the American people, have supported and defended the wanton destruction of over forty-two million innocent victims on the altar of abortion. U.S. foreign aid to third-world countries is usually predicated on the sterilization of the populace.[1]
Deviant sexuality is flaunted in gay-pride parades and pornography is sold openly. The state and federal prison populations are overflowing and the criminal justice system is overloaded.[2]
Abortion, usury, divorce, drug abuse, child abuse, gang-warfare, drive-by shootings, murder, theft, white-collar crime, racial and religious hatred, euthanasia, etc., are all indications of the failure of the Protestant gospel — the “reformed” gospel that presupposes everyone will go to heaven, no matter what choices he or she makes, as long as a verbal declaration of allegiance to Christ has been made; the gospel that Christians can make individual evil choices yet retain a proper moral orientation.
[1] The premise is that if families are kept small they will have disposable income to spend on U.S. consumer goods. A statistical analysis will show that the worldwide population of 5.7+ billion could fit into the State of Texas allowing each individual more than 2,600-sq. ft. of living space. It has been estimated that if allowed to produce, the states of Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas could produce enough to feed the entire world. There is not a worldwide over population problem, it is a problem of proper distribution of the world’s resources.
[2] The total Federal, State and local adult correctional population – incarcerated or in the community – is nearly 6.6 million. About 3.1 % of the U.S. population, or I in every 32 adults, were incarcerated or on probation or parole at yearend 2001. There are 4.6 mi;;ion people on parole or probation, 1.9 million in jail or prison, with 3,503 of these (Jan. 1, 2004) for an approximate total of 6.5 million men and women criminally involved in the justice system in the United States, Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, U. S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 7/07. NCJ 195669.