Changes

During the Reformation several Latin slogans emerged illustrating the Reformers' concern that the authorities of the Church had distorted the message of justification before God and salvation in Jesus Christ. The Reformers believed itwas necessary to return to the simplicity of the Gospel in terms of the issues designated by these slogans. ====The Solas==== There were five Solas, four discussed here. The fifth, Soli deo gloria (to God alone the glory), was intended to underly the other four. These slogans essentially became rallying cries to challenge the problems the Reformers believed they had identified, they are: * Solus Christus: Christ alone.:The Protestants characterized the dogma concerning the Pope as Christ's representative head of the Church on earth, the concept of meritorious works, and the Roman idea of a treasury of the merits of saints, as a denial that Christ is the only mediator between God and man. * Sola scriptura: Scripture alone.:Protestants believed that the Roman Catholic church obscured the teaching of the Bible, and undermined its authority, by following Tradition regardless of whether it over-ruled or added to the doctrines of Scripture. * Sola fide: Faith alone.:The Protestants characterized the Roman Catholic concept of meritorious works, of penance and indulgences, masses for the dead, the treasury of the merits of saints and martyrs, a ministering priesthood who hears confessions, and purgatory, as reliance upon other means for justification, in addition to faith in Christ and his work on the cross. * Sola gratia: Grace alone.:The Roman Catholic view of the means of salvation was believed by the Protestants to be a vandalism time! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111mixture of reliance upon the grace of God, and confidence in the merits of one's own works performed in love. The Reformers posited that salvation is entirely comprehended in God's gifts, (i.e. God's act of free grace) dispensed by the Holy Spirit according to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone. Consequently, they argued that a sinner is not accepted by God on account of the change wrought in the believer by God's grace, and indeed, that the believer is accepted without any regard for the merit of his works - for no one deserves salvation. Naturally, it proved easier to advocate separation from the Catholic Church, than to form a single, positively united alternative. On the theological front, the Protestant movement soon began to coalesce into several distinct branches. One of the central points of divergence was controversy over the Lord's Supper. ====Real presence in the Lord's Supper?==== Although early Protestants were in general agreement against the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation, which teaches that the substance of the bread and wine used in the sacrificial rite of the Mass is transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ (see Eucharist), they disagreed with one another concerning the manner in which Christ is present in Holy Communion. * Lutherans hold to an understanding closest to that of Real Presence (often characterized by critics by the term, "consubstantiation"), which affirms the true presence of Christ "in, with, and under" the bread and wine. Lutherans point to Jesus' statement, "This is my body", while refusing to delve past Christ's words in order to describe just how this takes place. Lutheran teaching does, however, insist that Christ is present physically, rather than in a purely "spiritual" sense.* Reformed teaching concerning the Lord's Supper ranges along the continuum from Calvin to Zwingli. The Reformed closest to Calvin emphasize the real presence, or sacramental presence, of Christ, saying that the sacrament is a means of saving grace through which the believer actually partakes of Christ, "but not in a carnal manner". Zwinglians deny that Christ makes himself present to the believer through the elements of the sacrament, but affirm that Christ is united to the believer through the faith toward which the supper is an aid (a view referred to somewhat derisively as memorialism).* A Protestant holding a popular simplifiction of the Zwinglian view, without concern for theological intricacies as hinted at above, may see the Lord's Supper merely as a symbol of the shared faith of the participants, a commemoration of the facts of the crucifixion, and a reminder of their standing together as the Body of Christ. In Christian theology, as the bread shares identity with Christ (which he calls, "my body"), in an analogous way the Church shares identity with him (and also is called "the Body of Christ"). Thus, controversies over the Lord's Supper only initially seem to be about the nature of bread and wine, but are ultimately about the nature of salvation, and therefore secondarily about the nature of the Church.

* [http://catholiceducation.org/articlesen/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/ap0097why-only-catholicism-can-make-protestantism-work-louis-bouyer-on-the-reformation.html Why Only Catholicism Can Make Protestantism Work] by Mark Brumley

* [http://catalystresources.org/issues/303balmer.html the-future-of-american-protestantism The Future of American Protestantism] from ''Catalyst'' ([[United Methodist Church|United Methodist perspective]])