10 – Progress of Reform in Germany
10 - Progress of Reform in Germany
Dramatized Version
Chapter Study Questions
1. Did the disappearance of Luther help or hinder the work of the Reformation (185:3)?
2. What was Melanchthon’s initial attitude toward the claims of some to the prophetic gift? Were any who were really honest deceived by the movement? What are the tests for judging such a claim (186:1–187:3; 190:3, 4)?
3. How was this fanaticism finally brought to an end (190:2)?
4. On what occasion did Luther advocate the principles of religious liberty, and how did he state them (189:3–190:1)?
5. What is said to be “one of Satan’s most successful devices to cast reproach upon purity and truth” (193:1)?
6. In some present-day “reform movements,” we see the same characteristics as marked the work of Thomas Munzer and his associates. Note these characteristics: desirous of reform; ambitious for position and influence; claiming to see in leaders a “form of popery”; claiming a “divine commission to introduce the true reform”; governed by impressions; appealing to people’s “desire for the marvelous”; denouncing order in public worship; reviling the leaders who opposed them; appealing for sympathy by claim of unjust treatment; making great claims to holiness and sanctification (191:1–193:1).
7. Though great credit is rightly given to the leaders of the Reformation, the movement reached its peak of success and spirituality when an army of lay-people took the Scriptures and message-filled literature and went everywhere preaching the Word (195:2).