What did the reformers get from the Catholic Church?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic answerEach "reformer" took something different from the Church, it depended on what they first denied. The problem with this stance is the deposit of faith, received from Jesus Christ is a seamless whole, guarded and kept intact by the Holy Father (the Pope) and the Bishops in communion with him. When you deny one doctrine, no matter what it is, you end up with nothing in the long run. For instance, Martin Luther started with his 95 objections, most of which showed an extreme lack of knowledge of his faith - and he had been ordained a priest! (One of the good things that came out of the "reformation" was the seminary system - where anyone who wanted to be a priest was required to have certain knowledge before ordination) But the church which Martin Luther founded looked not unlike the Catholic church. He defined his "Communion service" as consecrated consubstantial instead of transubstantial. In the first when the ministers pronounced the canon, Christ's substance exists along with the bread, where as Catholicism teaches that Christ Body alone exists entirely replacing the bread which is no longer there. Anyway, as time went by the followers of Luther denied more and more; and a lot of them broke away from the Lutheran church entirely. Without the Mystical Body of Christ - which is the Church - under its head, Christ, represented by the Pope, then you no longer have any guarantee; Christ's original promise holds true, that the Church will be one. The scandal of "different" denominations all claiming to be Christian is an insult to Our Blessed Lord. Sorry, off topic. Most of the original "reformers" took with them Baptism, and some version of the Lord's Supper. As you get further and further away from the church you find these dropping away. Many Christians where I live do not have their children baptised, they have them "dedicated". One could say that they kept the Bible, but even this is suspect, as they threw out seven books of the Bible which not even Martin Luther or John Calvin had the moxy to do. Luther went even further and put some words in the Bible "to make it clearer". And, of course, they are all operating from a particularly bad translation - the King James Version, which has some wonderful problems.