Just because your hair is a wreath doesn’t make you holy

Martin Luther revolted 500 years ago. In late October, 1517, the Catholic priest, having grown disillusioned with the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, posted a 95-point argument against the Mother Church and nailed it to the front door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. Among other things Luther questioned why the Pope—who by that point was one of the wealthiest men in the world—was demanding poor believers pay for the building of the Basilica of St. Peter instead of paying for it with his own abundant riches.

Luther never intended to start a revolution, or at least not one that would lead to a splintering off of like-minded people into non-compliant subsidiaries (religious denominations). At best he hoped the mother church would change her ways and get back to the Bible.

Trouble is, Luther could never envision a world where the Roman Catholic Church didn’t exist, or where the Pope was not in power.

But such a time did exist: It’s called the first century. You can read about it in the Bible; great book, you should thumb through it!

Luther’s revolt lead (again, against his wishes) to the establishment of what would become the Lutheran church. Others such as the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal (not to mention countless more) have followed over the past half-millennia. All of them were founded by men who were disillusioned by the additions and subtractions imposed on the Christian movement by self-serving men. Each were founded, ironically, by likewise self-serving men.

None are the kingdom bought with Jesus’ blood.

My Lord has one church. It is not a denomination. It predates denominations. It predates the Roman Catholic Church. It was not founded by men. It is not run by men. It is not organized by men. It is not added-to by men. It is the universal (catholic) kingdom, founded on the day of Pentecost, overseen by presbyters across her many individual congregations, following the methodology of the New Testament, teaching the lost and baptizing them into Christ, Who adds them to His church (Acts 2:47).

For 500 years men have been tinkering with the model made by men. Men have been trying to polish the turd that is man-made religion. Men have been looking at the inherently flawed Roman Catholic Church and saying “if we only move the chairs from here to there…”

You can put lipstick on a pig…it’s still a pig.