These and other reformers were heroic in their courage, but also human. They bravely protested against wrongs they found in Roman Catholicism, earning them collectively the broad term “Protestants.” They resisted some pressures and gave in to others. They grew up in a world where the church and state were intertwined, each using the other to stay in power. When Catholics were in control, they persecuted Protestants. When Protestants gained control, they did the same, persecuting Catholics and rival Protestants. In 1552, the Geneva city council declared Calvin’s book Institutes on the Christian Religion to be “holy doctrine which no man might speak against.” Servetus disagreed. In response, the Geneva city council had Servetus burned to death, using green wood to prolong his agony. They based the death sentence on the law of Moses, which said, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16). They ignored the biblical fact that Christians now serve under the New Covenant, the law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21; Romans 7:6).
“HE MAKES THE FIRST ONE OBSOLETE.”
Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better…. In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:6, 13)
Kings and lords often abused their subjects, especially peasants, the lower class of common laborers. During Europe’s upheavals, the Peasants’ War broke out (1524-1526). Luther, whose father was a miner, could understand the peasants’ plight. But when unrest threatened his protectors, Luther wrote to the ruling class, “[The peasants] must be sliced, choked, stabbed, secretly and publicly, by those who can, like one must kill a rabid dog.” Concerning Jews, Luther also became hardened. In his work On the Jews and Their Lies Luther wrote, “Set fire to their synagogues and schools…. Their rabbis [should] be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.” Most reformers carried their culture with them, including teachings from their Roman Catholic heritage rather than the Bible. Carry-overs included infant baptism, which had diluted discipleship for many centuries.