The Counter-Reformation, follow-up to the Sardis period of church history

“The accusations and criticisms that the Reformers of the Protestant Reformation raised against the Roman Catholic Church, while initially ignored by that church’s hierarchy,” explained the Reverend J.A. Layman, evangelist with Sterling Ministries, before The Lay School faculty here in Clinton, Tennessee, “were proven to be legitimate by the Roman Church which underwent its own reformation or revival beginning approximately the time of the Council of Trent convened from 1545-1563, and lasting until approximately 1648 at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. At the heart of this reformation were issues of corruption amongst the bishops and priests, the practice of the sale of indulgences so vehemently opposed by Martin Luther, and other abuses of a financial nature. The fact that many of the issues raised by the Protestant Reformers required the Roman Church to convene a council to deal with the allegations provides some verification of the problems, however, the end result was that the Roman church reaffirmed a great deal of the beliefs, doctrines, and practices that elicited the ire of the Protestant Reformers in the first place. Notwithstanding, certain noticeable changes within Roman Catholicism emerged from the Counter-Reformation which tacitly admitted that, at least, some of the criticisms of the Protestant Reformers were legitimate."

It cannot be overemphasized that any focus on the allegations of the Protestant Reformers against the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was or is an attempt to single out the Roman Catholic Church for promulgating faith and practices that were contrary to the Word of God. Roman Catholicism was not the first or only group of believers whose faith and practice deviated from that which is delineated in God’s Word. The messages of the Old Testament prophets clearly and unmistakably catalogue many of the failures of the Israelites to remain faithful to God, His Word, and the covenant they had accepted and agreed to at the foot of Mount Sinai. Further, a good case can be constructed against the forms of eccesliastical-ism that the Protestant Reformers created when they left the Roman Catholic Church. Truly, regardless of what branch or denomination of Christianity, or for that matter, sect of Judaism, one comes from, all have a great deal to answer for before Almighty God concerning the way that we do church and synagogue.