Sunday, June 18, 2017

The Reformation Simplified SERIES: 2 Types of Schism

There are two kinds of schism,
which must be sharply distinguished from one another:
schism IN the Church,
and schism FROM the Church.
 
Schism IN the Church is a breach of communion between local churches or groups of local churches though neither side has changed the fundamental faith and order of the Church. 
The most famous and most disastrous example was the schism between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople in 1054
After the schism both sides kept the same faith and order, the same creeds, sacraments, and ministry as before. 
The dispute was about the relations of Rome with Constantinople, "which was to be accounted the greater"; and about various minor questions such as whether Bulgaria should be under Rome or Constantinople, and whether the bread for the Eucharist should be leavened or unleavened.

The schism between the Anglican and Roman Communions was a schism within the Church.
The English Church did not reject any part of the faith
but only additions that had been made to it,...But the Roman Communion added the dogmas of Trent and later those of the Vatican Council which the Anglican Communion rejects as being no part of the traditional faith.

Such schisms do not completely destroy unity;

Schism FROM the Church is the revolt of a group of persons, large or small, who separate themselves from the Church by rejecting her faith and order, for instance the Reformation at Geneva.
Calvin rejected not only the developments added to the faith by the medieval Church but the Church herself which he declared to be the synagogue of Antichrist.
In the place of the Church of Geneva he set up a new organization on the model of what he supposed to have been the state of the Church in the apostolic age.
It had no succession from the apostolic Church and claimed none. 
And wherever their system was set up, the Church was destroyed.
This is the difference between the English Reformation and the Scottish Reformation, between Matthew Parker and John Knox.
["God forbid", said Parker, "that we should have such a reformation here as Knox hath made in Scotland."] 
CLAUDE BEAUFORT MOSS
And they that understand among the people shall instruct many:
                                  yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame,
by captivity, and by spoil, many days.
Daniel 11:33