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First Rule of Reform Club.. you don’t talk about.. Transubstantiation (The Bread and Wine in Communion). Just ask Luther and Zwingli.. Here is a place to discuss and debate Reformed Theology in a game of sorts. Pick a Team: TEAM Luther -Lutheranism TEAM Calvin -Presbyterianism TEAM Tudor -Anglicanism TEAM Zwingli -Reformed TEAM Chelčický-Anabaptist TEAM Zinzendorf -Moravian TEAM Rome -Catholicism The aim is to pick a team and make a case with the particular theology and doctrine of the Reformed Person and or Institution. Its not meant to be a heated debate, but to assume a side and theraby learn via posing a question like Predestination, Eucharist (Communion), Sola Scriptura, and etc and answering as one of the Teams; then from there answer one another. Team Rome is the standard challenger. You may argue the Romanite view on a topic like Transubstantiation even if you are not RCC. The Goal is to learn more about The Reformation, and the different branches. Rules You may switch teams after each round. A round consists of a topic, examples: “Sola Scriptura” “Eucharist/Communion” “Justification” “Predestination vs Arminianism.” “Images, Idolatry or Spiritual Aids” “Church Militant, Crusaders and Puritans” Points are earned by forming an argument that is most accurate to the TEAM you represent, an example: 2+ Pts for stating Luther was in favor of Consubstantiation. 1pt if you argue Luther was in favor of Transubstantiation, which is true in several interpretations and periods of His life. But not the most accurate. 5-10 pts if your case is stronger and beats the other team in the criteria of Scriptural Soundness (supported by Scripture), Logic, Accuracy to your Team’s views, and is Well Reasoned argument. Minus pts are for getting something totally wrong about about your Team’s point of view. You may take your time to form your argument, look up sources online and prepare a rebuttle. There is no time limit. GM/ Game Master: The Person in charge of judging and distruputing points. For now I, @Fidei Defensor will be GM until another is appointed. The goal of this game is not to cause offense, people on these forums hold these particular beliefs. So no baiting, flaming, and insulting another’s point of view. Be respectful, you’re aim is to argue the point of view of the reformed person and denomination, not to create a personal apologeia and treatsie in defense of your own Lutheranism, Calvinism, Zwinglism, Moravianism, and Romanism. The ultimate goal is to learn more about these persons, beliefs, and churches.

Well, it is just about the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. For those not familiar with that, it is a time in church history, where people were waking up to how far the church had degraded since it's inception. A reformation was needed, because church leadership, to a great degree, had become corrupted. Church positions were basically for sale to the highest bidder. The church was allowing people to buy indulgences, basically a license to sin, and shorten one's time in Purgatory. These could be used for yourself, or to shorten the time of a deceased loved one. Purgatory was basically seen as a place where a person paid for their sins by suffering until their sins were paid for and they could attain to heaven. In other words, the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross was deemed inadequate - definitely not the gospel, nor in the Bible. Church leadership (and by that I mean the Pope, Bishops, Cardinals, all the way down to priests) was falling prey to pride, sexual sin, hunger for power, greed and the like. The Bible was not yet in the hands of common people, nor was it necessarily in a language that ordinary people could understand, Christians were totally dependent, on what their leaders told them the Bible said, and what the Bible meant. That was a very quick summary of the conditions that had developed in the first 1500 years of the church. It is not my purpose to lecture anyone on church history, nor am I qualified to do so. I just wanted to give a quick background of what lead to the Reformation. Generally it is held, that the Reformation began when a German monk (Martin Luther) nailed his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg Castle. That can be debated, but it was certainly a pivotal event. Now, the main thing I came to do, was to open a discussion about the five "solas" of the reformation. These are 5 ideas, that sort of embody the spirit of the Reformation, the main things that were seen as needing to be addressed and focused upon in the church as it existed at the time. Luther's hope, was not to attack the church, or start a new denomination, nor anything of the sort. His hope was to start a bit of a dialogue or debate, an opportunity for the church to do a little self examination. Sola, comes from a Latin word meaning alone or sole. The solas are these: SOLA SCRIPTURA SOLA FIDE SOLA GRATIA SOLO CHRISTO SOLI DEO GLORIA Sola scriptura, is the idea, that only the scripture, is ultimately a trustworthy source of information about spiritual matters. The traditions of the church, lack any real authority. Likewise, the leadership of the church, was also not authoritative, and must be subservient to the word of God. Sola fide, is the idea that salvation comes by faith alone, not by works, God grants salvation, and believers do not earn it by doing good deeds. Sola gratia, is closely related to sola fide. It is the idea, that mankind does not earn, cannot earn, and can never deserve salvation. Salvation is a free gift that God bestows to believers, totally apart from any merit of their own. Solo Christo, addresses the subject of and object of the faith of believers who will inherit salvation. Our faith is in Christ alone. There is nothing or no one in which we place our faith apart from Christ. No faith in works, nor the church, nor Mary the mother of Jesus, not the saints, not our prayers or rituals - our faith is in Jesus alone, regarding salvation. Sola deo gloria, informs us that all glory, is due to God alone, no one else gets credit or glory for what God has done for us. Of course, this implies the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as the one true God. They could be stated, that the scriptures alone, authoritatively teach us that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. That is what I have to say, to start this topic. If anyone chooses to, they may add to the discussion, elaborate, offer scripture, etc. I just thought it fitting, at this time of the impending 500 years anniversary of the Reformation, to offer some thought and reflection on what it was/is about.

As we enter the 500th year of the Protestant Reformation - is it time to declare its "demise" as Pope Francis announced a few years ago? "We are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist" (Martin Luther). D'Aubigné, b.6, ch. 9. By contrast 500 years after the reformation started -- who do Lutherans agree with? Luther? or Pope Francis? What about other Protesant groups - can any of them really get behind Luther's statement? In all fairness to Luther - the Popes had already been saying that same thing about each other - before Luther ever did. Maybe they were all wrong. OR where they? What makes anyone think that they might have all been right? What are your thoughts on this 500th anniversary year? ========================================== from: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/july-24th-2015/the-popes-great-evangelical-gamble/ "Somewhere in Pope Francis’s office is a document that could alter the course of Christian history. It declares an end to hostilities between Catholics and Evangelicals and says the two traditions are now “united in mission because we are declaring the same Gospel”. The Holy Father is thinking of signing the text in 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, alongside Evangelical leaders representing roughly one in four Christians in the world today. Francis is convinced that the Reformation is already over. He believes it ended in 1999, the year the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation issued a joint declaration on justification, the doctrine at the heart of Luther’s protest."

The rebirth of Israel as a Sovereign/Jewish nation was the paradigm shift.