The Signs of the Times, vol. 21

May 2, 1895

“What Is Protestantism?” The Signs of the Times, 21, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The name “Protestant” is derived from the protest of the German princes, which was read at the Diet of Spires, in 1529. The word therefore originated with the Reformation, and the principles of Protestantism are the principles of the Reformation. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.1

It is a mistake to suppose that Protestant is simply a negation, or that it means any particular set of dogmas. Protestantism is not a statement of what Luther believed, nor of the doctrines that were held by Wycliffe, or Zwingle, or Melancthon, or any other reformer. But it does consist of the principles which prompted all the real reformers that have ever lived. Let us note that principle, as exhibited by a few of the reformers, beginning with Wycliffe, who was in many respects the greatest of them all. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.2

Of the principles that were common in the days of Wycliffe, and in which all the clergy had to be experts, Wylie (History of Protestantism,” book 2, chapter 1) says:— SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.3

Philosophy then lay in guesses rather than facts. Whatever could be known form having been put before man in the facts of nature, or the doctrines of revelation, was deemed not worth further investigation. It was too humble an occupation, to observe and deduce. In the pride of his genius, man turned away from a field lying at his feet, and plunged boldly into a region where, having no data to guide him, and no ground for solid footing, he could learn really nothing. From this region of vague speculation, the explorer brought back only the images of his own creating, and, drawing up these fancies as facts, he passed them off as knowledge. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.4

Wycliffe turned from this mass of rubbish to find in the Bible the only true wisdom, so that among the “heresies” which the Catholic Church found in his writings is this, that “wise men leave that as impertinent which is not plainly expressed in Scripture.” He held that “if there be any truth, it is in the Scripture, and there is no truth to be found in the schools that may not be found in more excellence in the Bible.” And he also taught that “Christ wished his law to be observed willingly, freely, that in such obedience men might find happiness. Hence he appointed no civil punishment to be inflicted on transgressors of his commandments, but left them to a punishment more severe, that would come after the day of judgment.” SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.5

To those who fear that in some of his teaching he was going too far, Wycliffe said:— SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.6

We do not sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, or we should abide by the authority of his word, especially of the evangelists, as of greater weight than every other. It is the will of the Holy Spirit that the books of the Old and New Law should be read and studied, as the one sufficient source of instruction; and that men should not be taken up with other books, which, true as they may be, and even containing Scripture truth, are not to be confided in without caution and limitation. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.7

The fact that he translated the whole Bible into the language of the common people, shows that in the Bible and the Bible alone was Wycliffe’s hope of any real reformation. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.8

Coming down to the days of Tyndale, we find him speaking thus in regard to false clergy of his day:— SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.9

A thousand books had they lever to be put forth against their abominable doings and doctrines, than that the Scriptures should come to light. For as long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with their mist of sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly similitudes, and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wrestling the Scriptures unto their own purpose, clean country unto the process, order, and meaning of the text; and substitute them in descanting upon it with allegories and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the unlearned lay people (when it hath but one literal sense, whose light the owls cannot abide) that though thou feel in thine heart, and art sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve their subtle riddles. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.10

Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I perceived by experience how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.11

Luther’s whole work was based upon the Bible. It was the Bible that he found chained in the monastery at Erfurt, that turned him from darkness to light, and was the beginning of the Reformation to Germany. The Bible was at that time chained in every sense of the word, for the common people could not get at it, and even if they could, they could not read it, because it existed only in an unknown tongue. But Luther unchained it, for he translated it into the simple language of everyday life, so that every peasant could read it. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.12

In the controversy over the mass, Luther, although opposed to that ceremony, deprecated force, and said: “It is by the word that we must fight, by the word must we overthrow and destroy what has been set up by violence. It will not make use of force against the superstitious and unbelieving.” “The mass is a bad thing; God is oppose to it; it ought to be abolished; and I would that throughout the whole world it were replaced by the supper of the Gospel. But let no one be torn from it by force. We must leave the matter in God’s hands. His word must act and not we. And why so? You will ask. Because I do not hold men’s hearts in my hand, as the potter holds the clay. We have a right to speak; we have not the right to act. Let us preach; the rest belongs to God.” “Our first object must be to win men’s hearts; and for that purpose we must preach the Gospel. To-day the word will fall in one heart, to-morrow into another, and it will operate in such a manner that each one will withdraw from the mass and abandon it. God does more by his word alone than you and I and all the world by our united strength.”—D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation, book 9, chapter 3. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.13

It matters not that Luther was not always consistent with these principles. There has been scarcely a single reformer in the world, who continued a reformer as long as he had. But these are the principles which made all the Reformation that there ever was. They were summed up in the following manner in the protest at Spires:— SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.14

Seeing ... that there is no sure doctrines but such as is conformable to the word of God, that the Lord forbids the teaching of any other doctrine, that each text of the Holy Scripture ought to be explained by other and clearer texts, that the Holy Book is in all things necessary for the Christian, easy of understanding, and calculated to scatter the darkness, we are resolved, with the grace of God, to maintain the pure and exclusive preaching of his holy word, such as is contained in the Biblical books of the Old and New Testaments, whither abiding anything therein that may be contrary to it. This word is the only truth; it is the sure rule of all doctrines and of all life, and can never fail or deceive us. He who builds on this foundation shall stand against all the powers of hell, whilst all the human vanities that are set up against it shall fall before the face of God. SITI May 2, 1895, page 276.15

Thus it is that we cannot go to the writings of any man or any company of men to find out what Protestantism is. The reformers were but fallible mortals, and did not know all of the Scriptures. Custom had a strong hold on the best of them, so that they were persuaded by long habit that many things which they allowed were really according to the Scripture. True Protestantism is simply the truth of the Bible, without the addition of any man’s opinion. Therefore to be a Protestant is not to believe just what Luther or any other reformer believed, but to hold to the Bible; and the Bible is explained by the Holy Spirit, as the sole guide in life. He who does contrary to this, is not a Protestant, no matter by what name he is called. SITI May 2, 1895, page 277.1